Every Tool's a Hammer Life Is What You Make It

So, Every Tool's a Hammer. Great title. And this, you know, my favorite picture in here is, there's a lot of interesting pictures like you and your workshop and your, my favorite is the stuff that you dumped out of your backpack. Oh. But then neatly organized it. That was just cool. Like seeing what's it, and I like John Hodgman's comment. He said, this is a map of his brain.

If you feel like venturing into that unknown territory. Yeah. For some people, you don't want to go there. Right. But for Adam Savage, yeah. You want to see what's been driving him his whole life.

Every Tool's a Hammer, great title and this, you know My favorite picture in here is, there's a lot of interesting pictures like you and your workshop

And my favorite is the stuff that you dumped out of your backpack But then neatly organized it That was just cool Like seeing what's it, and I like John Hodgman's comment He said, this is a map of his brain Nice I thought that was a very good comment

Every tool's a hammer Life is what you make it I see what he did there Yeah, it's very cool

It's a window into your brain Oh yeah, there's some organized shelves I like the fact that you have photos in it Thank your publisher They don't always agree to put pictures in their books

Otherwise buy the book and we don't have to ever watch you again That's true

And there are many people in the world who have a clear idea I have a niece who knows she wants to be an orthopedic surgeon that must be so nice for a long time yeah that must be nice.

So again I am resistant to describing my path as as instructive even though it is instructive to me. And it was very specifically within special effects so I had bounced around I had that sort of a bunch of different careers from assistant animator to graphic designer, freelance graphic design and moved to San Francisco in 1990 and just started working in theater I worked in about 15 different theaters over two or three years.

And it's important I think because a lot of us do overlook those things deliberately or we we dismiss them your idea that obsession is a necessary and healthy ingredient I think is music to a lot of people's ears because a lot of us will get obsessed with something and we just think oh I shouldn't even like this or I shouldn't focus so much on this because this is irrational or there's never nothing's ever going to come out of this I'm just wasting my time even though I can't stop thinking about it exactly.

And the answer is yeah you really should because and this is a specific because of this which is that when your obsessed was something and let's say it's cosplay and you see other people do it you're like I would like to try that not sure that I should because it seems kind of weird and kind of freaky sure it might be in my experience when I went towards that and started to like assemble a costume I realized oh I have this very specific point of view about the kind of costume I want to wear about the character but also about the fidelity to the original and I want to make this really accurate.

But it does segue nicely into this focused passion or this obsession well we dismiss it I think we just I dismissed it and certainly because my my schoolmates were cruel about my passions right so like I was a nerdy kid and the things I liked were nerdy and I didn't share them with my peers because kids can be cruel and I think middle school and high schools where a lot of people learn to subsume those things but our obsessions and the things we can't stop paying attention to whether it's aliens or fan fiction about twilight or dungeons and dragons or whatever it is those obsessions make us vulnerable because they reveal us they're showing people our bellies.

And there are many people in the world who have a clear idea I have a niece who knows she wants to be an orthopedic surgeon that must be so nice for a long time yeah that must be nice.

So it sounds like once you find this thing that you're really into that's where you know okay I can bust my ass doing making this gun over and over.

I think you mentioned in the book that this is where your ideas come from where you start getting engaged with something in passionate about something we often dismiss that because we think we can't do anything about it but it does segue nicely into this focused passion or this obsession

but our obsessions and the things we can't stop paying attention to whether it's aliens or fan fiction about twilight or dungeons and dragons or whatever it is those obsessions make us vulnerable because they reveal us they're showing people our bellies and so to me yeah a lot of people don't pay heed to those things and this book is my permission slip that when you do pay heed to those things that tickle at your head that you can't stop paying attention to that I call secret thrills

I don't finish stuff and as I say in the book I use deadlines all the time to get stuff to a place where it's wearable or usable or demonstrable and that's vital because if I'm left to my own devices I'll just peter away at the tiniest details forever

So again I am resistant to describing my path as as instructive even though it is instructive to me.

And there are many people in the world who have a clear idea I have a niece who knows she wants to be an orthopedic surgeon that must be so nice for a long time yeah that must be nice.

I agree but for me it took me a lot of bouncing around in different industries and different things before I realized and it was very specifically within special effects so I had bounced around I had that sort of a bunch of different careers from assistant animator to graphic designer, freelance graphic design and moved to San Francisco in 1990 and just started working in theater I worked in about 15 different theaters over two or three years.

and this book is my permission slip that when you do pay heed to those things that tickle at your head that you can't stop paying attention to that I call secret thrills in my experience I found myself in those things yeah I found I found it's it was like a secret formula for self actualization self realization it's important I think because a lot of us do overlook those things deliberately or we we dismiss them your idea that obsession is a necessary and healthy ingredient I think is music to a lot of people's ears because a lot of us will get obsessed with something and we just think oh I shouldn't even like this or I shouldn't focus so much on this because this is irrational or there's never nothing's ever going to come out of this I'm just wasting my time even though I can't stop thinking about it exactly

and as I say in the book I use deadlines all the time to get stuff to a place where it's wearable or usable or demonstrable and that's vital because if I'm left to my own devices I'll just peter away at the tiniest details forever