Tinkering

I was looking lately for a definition of what it was I thought I was doing with my thesis and my spare time in the evening. I call it my tinker time, I know this sounds completely cheese, and tinker is one of those words that bring to mind, well, wasting time or playing around. So I looked it up:

tinker
verb 
a mechanic was tinkering with the engine fiddle with, adjust, fix, try to mend, playabout with, fool with, futz with; tamper with, interfere with, mess about with,meddle with.


This is close to what I was thinking however I still felt that it didn't get to the soul of what I was doing, yes it seems like I am tampering with things, my computer programs, or my stereo, or old headphones, or even the kite rig. when I tinker I also learn through a kind of haphazard scientific method of testing not fulling knowing or being able to predict if it will work or not. I came across a better definition in the book Getting Started with Adruino Here the author defines tinker in a way much closer to the way I see it.


Tinkering is what happens when you try something you don't quite know how to do, guided by whim, imagination, and curiosity. When tinkering there are no instructions - but there are also no failures, no right or wrong ways of doing things. Its about figuring out how things work and re-working them.