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Comment by blhack | Hacker News Reader

Those bolts strapped to the grating as they were putting the top piece on... I love that stuff!

What I mean is: pre-optimizations like that. My current cofounder and I build and run fire effects [flamethrowers] at music festivals, and every load-in/setup is a fun game of seeing what ways we can optimize our setup process. Stuff like figuring out the wrenches and tools we need to assemble a specific component, and then storing those tools with the component.

Seeing those bolts sitting on the grate like that (I think it was 4 on each side) means that somebody had the foresight to realize that it was easier to strap the bolts to the piece like that, than to have the guys assembling it carry them with them up the ladders (imagine if they forgot one, what a pain that would be).

So freaking cool.

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Be careful about that. In a past life I installed and ran lighting rigs at concerts. One tower contractor thought it wise to ducktape bolts to parts so, rather than pass equipment up and down, the bolts would be exactly where the climbers would need them. But they didn't use/find all the bolts. A week later the tape dried out and a 6" bolt and nut fell onto a mixing board ... which was far easier to replace than the audio tech it missed by inches. He refused to work until I, with climbing helmet, was sent into the rigging to inspect every bit of metal. The stage was closed for nearly a day.

Ah, thanks for the heads up. Luckily due to the nature of what we're doing, everything gets inspected and re-inspected a few times when we build it.

Definitely something to keep in mind though.

I took a very strict approach when it came to things over people's heads. I never allowed anything "extra" up there. There were no spare bulbs tucked away somewhere, no pile of twofers left on a gangway. I even pealed every tiny bit of tape off each truss. If it wasn't needed and secured it stayed on the ground. My worry was always what might happen in an earthquake.

As a lighting guy I saw to much stuff fall from the sky. One concert hall I worked at used a rice-paper snow effect for a Japanese show. Four years later we still had the occasional bit of rice paper glide slowly down from 100' up. It could never hurt anyone, but film/TV clients who used the hall would be screaming mad when they saw it.

"means that somebody had the foresight to realize that it was easier to strap the bolts to the piece like that"

Not to curb your enthusiasm or downplay the ingenuity of those builders, but the assembly process seems fairly repetitive and easier to optimize over time. I doubt they had this foresight before doing the first (ever) pole.

That's exactly the type of iterative improvement I'm talking about.

It's like building a really good workshop. Ideally everything is exactly where it needs to be, and in the exact order you might need it.

Another example is: my electronics assembly dreamcart (that I haven't gotten to build yet):

-18-24ga stranded wire in at least 3 different colors on spools above the worktable

-Soldering iron

-Oscilloscope

-Power supply

-Multimeter

-Strippers/side cutters [1]

-Crimpers

-Crimps/ferrules

-Network switch/ethernet cables

All of this stuff on a cart that is on casters, with a UPS that can power it so if I need to move away from an outlet I can.

I didn't figure out exactly the tools I wanted and how I wanted them arranged on my first project, but over time I figured out the exact tools I want, and where in my workspace I want them, so that I have to spend as little time as possible looking for things, or thinking about where they might be.

I think seeing the little improvements people have made is really cool. Like the bolts. It's cool because maybe the didn't figure it out on the first time.

[1]: I particularly like this one because it puts the strippers and the side cutters in the same hand, which is just closer to my optimal dream-shop/workflow: https://www.amazon.com/DA76070-KLENK-Wire-Cutter-Stripper-Sm...

Easier to optimize than what? I used to work on manufacturing nuclear submarines. We built exactly 1 of many things. You'd think that would mean there was no repetition, but that's not the case. The processes are repetitive, even if the product is not. Everything can and should be optimized, that's the only pathway to higher productivity.

Easier than doing it the first couple times: whoever came up with the improvement first, before this knowledge was institutionalized within the organization/field.

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