←back to thread

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

124 points akktor | 2 comments | 09 Jun 25 12:41 UTC | HN request time: 0.414s | 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. Carbonhell ◴[11 Jun 25 07:37 UTC] No.44245135[source]▶
Messing with EEG headsets, like the ones by OpenBCI. Being able to perform some operations by just thinking about them sounds so incredibly cool - I've been thinking about this for several years, but it looks like quite an expensive hobby.
replies(1): >>44245337 #
2. plastic-enjoyer ◴[11 Jun 25 08:15 UTC] No.44245337[source]▶
As an ex-EEG researcher I can say that acquiring an EEG device is probably the least difficult thing. EEG signals are messy, not reliable and hard to interpret. Without a solid foundation in cognitive psychophysiology you won't have a lot of fun with an EEG device. So, before investing a lot of money into an EEG device you should watch a beginner course on cognitive psychophysiology or get some literature to get the basics down.

On the other hand, you could probably hack a cheap ECG device to measure EEG signals.