Education is our passport to the future, for tomorrow belongs to the people who prepare for it today.
–Malcolm X
I’m retired, so there’s no absolute imperative to learn new skills. And yet learning new things can never stop, for as Einstein is quoted as remarking, “Once you stop learning, you start dying.”
I’ve found that, contrary to what many have warned me about, retiring early has not, in the least, proved to be wasteful or tedious. I’ve found plenty to keep me occupied, including reading, music, writing, occasional travel, and exploring local places of interest.
I’ve now found something new, and it has made me extremely excited about my personal future.
I have embarked on learning a new skill. It’s a skill that may well be totally useless… to anyone but myself. It’s not for monetary gain. It’s just an avenue to while away some time, learn new things, and create something that only I may actually appreciate or find useful.
I have discovered the world of Arduino. It’s a pastime that was developed in 2005 in Italy for hobbyists, as well as for students and professionals, to design low-cost devices that interact with their environment. I’m essentially twenty years late to the party.
Arduino is that blue, credit-card-sized controller board sitting on my workbench in the photograph above, with numerous wires connected to it from the white prototyping board (known as a breadboard) featuring electronic components. I am learning how to write computer code based on the C and C++ programming languages to control electronic components.
Although I’ve worked in the telecommunications industry for decades, it’s unlike anything I’ve done before. It’s new and it’s exciting.
Some day in the future, I may actually design a device for my personal use that I won’t have to buy. It’s something to look forward to.
lenny unencumbered 