Digressions And Rabbit Holes

This week I was left alone with a mic, a baby monitor, and a brain that refuses to stay on one track, so we're going to lean into it. Join me for a tour through hyperfixation, the messy reality of being a tinkerer, and the fine line where curiosity turns into clutter.

Jo will be back next week so if this wasn't your thing we'll see you then!

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Transcript

Solo Setup And A New Format

SPEAKER_00 0:04

Welcome. This is not Overthinking with the Overbees. This is Overthinking with One Overbee. The suggestion was made uh digressions was going to be the name of the episode that I recorded. That was just whatever I've been focusing or hyper focusing on. And due to a really exciting opportunity that Joe has had, it is going to be that episode or one of those episodes. We'll see how it goes. In my mind, my vision was that Joe would be here to bounce ideas off of me and kind of get the ball rolling. But we're going to just raw dog this and see how it goes. So, like I said, Joe had a really exciting opportunity for work that royally messed up our recording schedule. So she's gone, and it is now after bedtime, and I have the kids on the monitor, and I'm recording this quick hit overthinking digressions solo episode so that we make sure that we've got you an episode. Now, if you are not interested in just hearing me talk for however long this episode goes, uh, thanks for checking in, and we'll see you next week. If you're interested in whatever I'm interested in, we're gonna rock

eBay Enterprise Gear Temptation

SPEAKER_00 1:12

and roll it. When I was trying to think of what I was gonna talk about this week, my recent hyperfixations really have not been that interesting for someone to listen to. It's been a lot of like tech stuff and not like fun tech stuff, like network infrastructure tech stuff. I've got an issue where I really like buying enterprise grade networking and IT and AV gear off of eBay that is kind of insane to have in someone's home. I bought an air fiber halfway to internet service provider grade radio. It's about the size of a volleyball and I don't know, eight pounds. And you mount it and it's basically a Wi-Fi bridge, for lack of a better description, because otherwise it just gets more and more complicated. But it has super low latency, is super fast. It's so that I could get internet to the building that we're recording in without having to dig a big trench. I found that on eBay for 200 bucks. And if you were to buy it new from a manufacturer, it would be four grand. And so there's things like that where I'm just like, uh why not? I have to know more. But that's a slippery slope. You don't really want to keep going down that rabbit hole, otherwise, you end up with a garage full of stuff that you haven't installed and really isn't doing you any good, and you just bought it because you had to know what it was like, or you bought it because you totally had a use for it, or you could find a use for it. And that is how you become a hoarder. And I'm trying not to become a hoarder.

Sewing Begins And The Serger Urge

SPEAKER_00 2:46

But I think the real thing that I want to talk about is something that's come up with sewing. Some of you may know I've started my sewing journey, which is to say I've run the sewing machine like three times, but I'm loving it so far. Now, there's a couple different ways that I've fallen down the rabbit hole. A, basically, the moment I started using a sewing machine, I was like, what's the next step? Turns out it's a serger. Do I really know that much about what a serger is? No. Do I know that it makes fabric more like real t-shirt level stuff? That it like closes in your seams, and I don't know. I haven't actually done that much research into it. I'm just like, that's the next step. That's where I'm headed. One of my passions in life right now is over-designing things and not really even building them. Custom electronics projects that if I did build would be really cool, but will also involve a ton of time. And I have three kids and a wife, and I have to not let my life fall into total disrepair and sink eight hours a day for six days in a row into tinkering with a small electronic box when I'm not really even that knowledgeable about that stuff.

AI Search Lies And Rabbit Holes

SPEAKER_00 3:56

It's just me and Google going back and forth trying to figure stuff out, even though Google lies to you constantly. I will say, I like using the Google search AI thing, but never ever ask it anything that you don't already know something about. Because it is more than happy to just give you one person on Reddit's opinion and then be like, look at this, that's a fact. Doesn't really matter what they say, it doesn't matter if it's backed up by anything. Or like, we found one source, check it out. And so you do a lot of, hey, that's not right, is it? And it goes, oh, great catch. And that's where you go, hmm, not really sure AI is what people think it is, because it's just really good at complimenting you and you come up with ideas together, and eventually you find out that it's been leading you down a rabbit hole that wasn't a good idea to begin with. Is it fun to bounce ideas off of? Yes. Do you have to constantly tell it to be realistic and not just listen to you and figure out what you want it to hear? Yeah. And so buyer beware. But the one that I'm really interested in right now, in terms of physically building something, not some weird electronics project that lets me use my mouse and keyboard on any TV in my house from wherever, which is also something that I've been designing, but I'm not going to talk about because it's just weird. And uh to be honest, it involves some awesome eBay stuff that I found for like $75. That's like $1,500 worth of AV gear. But you can send an HDMI signal out over your network and then, you know, view it on anything that's connected to your internet. It's a whole deal. Haven't built it, probably not going to be built for some time. If I build it right now, my wife will kill me because we have so much more important stuff to do in our real life that isn't making my computer show up on a TV somewhere else in my house.

Designing A Lift Sewing Desk

SPEAKER_00 5:48

But the one that I do want to build, and it's in the real world, and it's fun and interesting, and will require some skill and woodworking and combining my new sewing hobby is building a sewing desk. First things first, I want my sewing machine table to look like a piece of furniture most of the time. Then I it's it's probably gonna be on wheels, ideally. Seen a couple designs on Instagram, but how do I make this thing so complicated and unique and cool and functional? And when I've looked at different sewing desks, some of the cool ones that I've seen, you got to start with a lift. Has to have a way to lift the sewing machine out of the desk. And then when I want to use the sewing machine, boom, sewing machine pops out. I want it to have a lot of workspace. I'm looking at different materials to build the tabletop out of. When I'm talking about furniture, I'm like, ooh, do I make it wood and steer into wood green? Do I put a high gloss smooth finish on it? And that's kind of where I'm leaning, actually, is to do like a high gloss, bright color pop for the actual color of the desk. It's gonna have doors on the front, swings open. So then there's gonna be a space where like you sit. But I think the big thing that I really want to do is make it adjustable in height. So I want the table height to be able to come up so I can stand and work at it. And then on top of that, I want to be able to raise the sewing machine up and down so that the table of the sewing machine is at the level of the desk. And so you're not working up above it, you can work right there on top. That's kind of the creme de la creme of designs that I've seen. Now I haven't seen anyone do it where they basically make it a standing desk, also. And so that's where I'm really falling down a rabbit hole of like how do I build this? And then also, how do I build this without spending five thousand dollars? Because that's the sweet spot of design, and something that I learned in engineering is with enough time and money, you can build anything pretty much as long as physics allows it and materials are available that can do the stuff you want to do, but you have to be able to do it within a budget in a time frame that makes sense, and so I'm looking into TV lifts. TV lifts are an option. Uh, I think the thing I'm really looking into is like a linear actuator, which is just like a kind of like a piston that extends and shortens on it's just a motor. Anyway, linear actuator, it kind of makes sense that it is what it says it is, and it moves in a line and is an actuator. And you can get them that can push a few hundred pounds without spending a ton of money, like under a hundred bucks, and then you'd put the rest of the tabletop on rails, like heavy-duty metal rails, so that it wouldn't move because the linear actuator is not actually like stable to push against. So the top would have to be on rails. You'd push a button, it'd motorize up to whatever height you wanted, and then you'd have to have basically a smaller version of the whole thing with the sewing machine on it that moves independently of the desktop. And so you'd raise the desktop up to a standing height, raise the sewing machine up, and that's the whole vision for how the tabletop would move. I also want the tabletop to probably be, if not metal on the surface, put a sheet of metal underneath like a big 12 by 24 tile, or maybe some really thin stone, or like a really smooth, hard surface that still looks visually interesting. Maybe it would just be underneath a like wood. But I'm really interested in doing something hard and unique and kind of inlaid into the top of this wood desk because the whole build will be more or less plywood that I do a ton of surface prep to and then paint it to like a really heavy-duty gloss finish. I'm thinking like a bright color could be really cool. Also, I can work with paint grade plywood for the build and still have something that comes out looking really good. The reason I want to do a metal plate is because when you put fabric down, you could then put magnets on top of it to hold it, as opposed to having to like clip stuff in place to cut it. So you'd put a cutting mat down, magnets on top of it, all of a sudden you've got it held out. And the more I talk about this, the more you can probably understand how far down the rabbit hole I've fallen. And it's just me and Google bouncing ideas off of each other and me going, like, I don't think that makes any sense. And it's going, Oh, you're a genius. Good job. You caught that. And, you know, we we have a working relationship like that. But and so the more and more I talk, I gotta say, this feels really weird to record this by myself because I know I have to do all of the talking, but it feels really strange to monopolize a conversation, even if it's only just me. Because I do feel like when we record the podcast, there's somebody listening to us, and so there has to be like a back and forth, and when it's just one way, it feels crazy. But I hope this episode turns into something worth listening to. And if not, we're gonna try again next week. So fingers crossed that you enjoyed it at least this far. As I was saying, I think I've probably illustrated well enough how in-depth and out there the ideas get when I'm just sitting here cooking up my dream project that I want

Planning Dopamine And ADHD Workarounds

SPEAKER_00 11:15

to build. You may notice I haven't built a ton of this stuff. It's because I think I get like 70% of the dopamine of doing a thing just by planning it out and coming up with like a really concrete plan, even if I don't actually go execute it. It also saves you from having to buy a bunch of materials and then just look at the materials. I like to stop in the phase right before that where I decide everything that I'd like to do, and then just like kind of put it on a shelf for later. And then if the inspiration strikes another time, then I know what I need to go do. And there's a shot that I actually get it done because I did all of the decision making and planning earlier. I will say, I don't think it's the worst ADHD tip or trick I have. I don't think it's the best, but I do think it's kind of a workaround because if I'm good at anything, it's finding workarounds to my dysfunction. The other funny thing is I haven't really done enough sewing to know what all I would need in a sewing desk. So I'm just kind of pulling bits and pieces from stuff I see and go, oh, that might be useful. Oh, I could totally see how that works, without really having any personal firsthand knowledge of what I want. It's probably good, it's still in the planning phase. I always like to, when I design something, give myself the ability to add on to it later. I think that's always something to think about. Joe and I both talk about that sometimes when it comes to houses, is understanding what is easier to do on the front end and what isn't that hard to add to later. It it applies to any project you do in life. A lot of times you can add something on, but if you're gonna try and restructure some big component of it, yeah, you probably want to do that right on the front end and you know, maybe bite the bullet and do more than you wanted to to start with to set yourself up for success

Mini Splits Versus Central Air

SPEAKER_00 13:06

later. Sorry, I had to take a brief break to set the camera up cooling. It's still hot in here because I haven't finished the air conditioning. I can get to the air conditioning digression too, as well. Somebody asked about my opinion on central air conditioning systems versus mini splits. And I still don't know that I'm an expert. Well, that sounds insane to say. I'm definitely not an expert. I don't know if I have a super informed opinion, but I do think being able to size several mini splits for different areas makes a lot of sense. And their efficiency is really high. And if one of them breaks, the replacement cost is not the same. When you're talking a central HVAC system, you're gonna start at like six to eight thousand dollars. If you can find somebody independent that will do it for a good price, and it goes way up from there. 10, 50, like if you're using one of the big companies that advertises a ton, it's gonna be 10,000, 15,000, $20,000. If you're doing a whole new HVAC layout, if you're going completely redone, sky's the limit, really. The cost of a big central air conditioner is really expensive. And then you have to do ductwork that goes out everywhere. You have to make sure that that ductwork is installed well, sealed well, insulated well. Depends on what kind of space it's in. So if it's in an unconditioned attic space, you've got a ton of heat that migrates in there. It's a lot of uh a lot of variables. Whereas with a mini split, you've got just the condensing unit outside. I guess I should start from the top. So when somebody asked a mini split, so they make basically if you've seen a window air conditioning unit, they're kind of like that. An air conditioning unit in your window has the condenser and the compressor and all that stuff basically in one box. And so it's using outside air to cool stuff in the con anyway. If you've seen a central air conditioning system where they have the big condensing coil fan thing that goes outside your house, you have that, and then you have an air handler either on your roof or in your attic or wherever, and those two systems tie together and they form a refrigeration loop, and then that cools down a coil that it runs a fan through and blows out through the vents in your house. There's a lot of different nuances, but that's a central HVAC system. And then a mini split is basically kind of like a window unit, but it has a little mini version of that big compressor, condenser coil that's like, I don't know, the size of a suitcase. And a bigger one would be a really big suitcase, and a smaller one would be more like a not quite a carry-on, but regardless, you'd have like a suitcase-sized condensing unit that goes close to the cassette, like the the box that goes in and blows the air out. And so it's mini one, which is I think why they're called mini splits. I don't know why things are named what they're named, but you put them kind of as a point of use. And so you can have one that does just a room or just a couple rooms nearby, or they can have a little mini duct system where they do two or three rooms and just like a zone, but you can kind of size them for the area. So if you have a big living room with a ton of square footage and tall ceilings, you could put in a bigger mini split that serves that in your kitchen that's nearby, and it would be sized really big and it would control just that and it could run off the temperature right there, and then you could have a smaller one in a bedroom, and you can you can place the air conditioning where you need it without running ducts everywhere because you end up with static pressure losses in your ducts, all that kind of stuff. The pros and cons of central air are a little bit interesting. There's usually a big upfront cost, especially you have to do ductwork. If you have ductwork already in place, then the cost is gonna be lower to buy a big unit. You can kind of get more even conditioning, but it's debatable whether you even want even or if you want more cooling in the places you're at more and turn off cooling to the areas that you're not, and your mini-split systems are gonna have a lot more turn down and can ramp up more, and it can be again point of use. It's point of use versus everywhere all at once, and so you're not gonna have a uniform the same way unless you program it to do that. And if your house is set up with ductwork and you want to pivot to mini splits, you're gonna have to buy several different heads depending on how big your house is. If you have to put in more than a couple mini-split units, then the cost gets comparative to that. Long-term reliability, you can do better with central air, but if it goes out, your cost is astronomical. Sometimes just replacing the units, the heads, if you can do just part of it, your replacement cost is, you know, instead of eight thousand dollars, it's two thousand dollars. It's kind of all over the place. You'd have to kind of figure out what it's it's on a case-by-case basis. But what I would definitely do now for myself is smaller confined areas like this studio. What I want to do with this studio is basically really air seal it and insulate it fairly well, but the biggest part being air sealing, and so it's such a small space. A mini split can turn the air over, the the actual air volume in here and cool this space down quickly, even if it's not that well insulated, because it doesn't have to do that much work. And then I can expand further on as like we do more areas, I can add more point of use deals. We have two big central air units at our house. I hadn't done all the research I'd done. I don't know that I'd make the same choice. Probably, but maybe not. There is higher efficiency with those. You do get better filtration, kind of. It's all very vague and up in the air. I don't know. I'm I don't feel like I'm making any sense. This is where digressions really get into digression. This is about where Joe would cut me off and go, nobody wants to hear about this any more than that. All in all, I think mini splits are really cool, really efficient. I think if you have a smaller home, there's a lot of cool things we can do with them. Or if you have a bigger home, you can build an expensive system. There's probably gonna be more maintenance because you have so many different units, but if you can handle that, you end up with something a lot more efficient. And so I'm a tinkerer, obviously. If I had a system that had five mini-split units that I could program to do different things when places are occupied and all that stuff, that's really in my wheelhouse. If you just want to set the temperature for one or two places in your house and let it go, central air is going to be way more convenient to do that. Maybe less efficient, but convenient, yes. Not to mention you have one place for filters, one place for maintenance, all that jazz. I don't really know what the point of digressions is. Now that I've started doing this, I feel like usually when you do this kind of thing, there's like a moral to the story, or you come up with something concrete. That's not really in the spirit of what I'm doing here today.

Word Of The Week And Goodbye

SPEAKER_00 20:15

So maybe I'll leave you with a word of the week. We can do a word of the week, and everyone can leave feeling a little bit more informed if the rambling up to this hasn't driven you away. So today's word of the week. This is one I think Joe would really enjoy. Goo gaw. G-E-W, G-A-W. A worthless, showy bobble. Don't waste your money on such gaudy goo-gaws, is the example that this gives here. Quite frankly, most of what my kids like, I would call a goo-gaw. Nobody likes to pick up shiny trash or rocks or kind of pointless stuff. And the gaudier the better, really. But kids love goo-gaws. So go ahead, use that out and about this week. Hopefully, this was entertaining to someone somehow. If I do this again, I would love to put a little bit more polish on it. Would love to have Joe here to bounce ideas, questions off of so that it kept me kind of confined into a path. Me rambling for 20-30 minutes, I don't I don't know if that's a podcast. I think that might just be delusions or talking to myself and not really going anywhere. I also think I probably need to stop apologizing because if you've made it this far, surely it wasn't the worst thing you've done. So I really appreciate if you did. If you didn't, I'm not upset. Totally get it. Love you guys. It's been a lot of fun. I'm excited to do next week's episode where we can probably hopefully talk about what Joe's got going on and where she's at and what's happening. And if not, it'll be on a future episode. And uh stay tuned for that. Until next time, love you guys. Hang in there. We'll see you next week.