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Ask HN: What cool skill or project interests you, but feels out of reach?

125 points akktor | 1 comments | 09 Jun 25 12:41 UTC | HN request time: 0.492s | source

This question's for all those cool projects or skills you're secretly fascinated by, but haven't quite jumped into. Maybe you feel like you just don't have the right "brain" for it, or you're not smart enough to figure it out, or even worse, you simply have no clue how or where to even start.

The idea here is to shine a light on these hidden interests and the little (or big!) mental blocks that come with them. If you're already rocking in those specific areas – or you've been there and figured out how to get past similar hurdles – please chime in! Share some helpful resources, dish out general advice, or just give a nudge of encouragement on how to take that intimidating first step.

Let's help each other get unstuck!

1. SAI_Peregrinus ◴[11 Jun 25 02:56 UTC] No.44243758[source]▶
Nothing intellectually, but some things are financially, spatially, and/or temporally out of reach. A long term goal of mine has been to make machines which are decently precise with wide dynamic range measurement capabilities for all of the SI base units & some commonly-used derived units. Somewhere in the 6-8 digits of dynamic range for each.

E.g. be able to measure distances over a 50cm range to a resolution of ±500nm. Easy for a coordinate measuring machine, very challenging and expensive to DIY.

Validating anything I build means finding a calibration lab willing to check it, which is also rather pricey. I don't have the space, the time, or the money to do this.