Cuban homemade tools and technological disobedience

[Frank S]

An impressive collection of use reuse of available materials on hand. pretty much an ultimate survival summery and guide

[Jon]

I found the cognitive bias that corresponds to Oroza's concept of technological disobedience, and it led me down quite a rabbit hole. I put some notes together for a longer future post, but I did want to mention it here too. It's called: Functional fixedness. There's a decent footprint of this bias in mainstream psychology journals.

What's most fascinating are some of the exercises and practices developed to build anti-fixedness behaviors: to train yourself to look at common objects without becoming fixated on their current forms. A common example given is finding a bur stuck on your clothes. Most people say: "oh, I got a bur on me, I'll pull it off". But someone who is less influenced by functional fixedness would say: "Oh, interesting object, I wonder how it's sticking to my clothes. This would make a great fastening system. I'll call it Velcro."

Note common homemade tools pastimes that we see casually mentioned on the forum, like thehomeengineer's skip diving ("dumpster diving" to Americans), or mklotz's practice of looking around your shop, and imagining what else could be made from the objects you see.

In the research surrounding functional fixedness, these activities are characterized as deliberate practices used to free ourselves of functional fixedness, such that we can view objects beyond perceiving them simply along the lines of their current intended use. This is obviously a core homemade tool skill. Not machining, or woodworking, or welding, or electronics - just thinking about things a certain way, and repeatedly practicing this thinking, so that we can free ourselves of a bias that inhibits invention.

[mklotz]

Integral to avoiding functional fixedness is nurturing the ability to identify the most elemental nature of the problem you are trying to solve. The shape of a steam engine link is irrelevant; a link is just something to hold two holes a fixed distance apart. If you don't have enough material to make a solid link, make a skeletonized one from rod holding two small endplates with the holes at the proper distance. (Some old full-size engines have such links.)

Another habit to develop is trying to puzzle out the use of, or reason for anything unusual that you might encounter. Why are wheels mounted to car using studs; why not use bolts? Why do some castles have cross-shaped arrow slits where the two arms of the cross shape do not align? What's the best color to paint a fire truck? Why put gear teeth on a twelve foot diameter steam engine flywheel?

Once you cultivate your curiosity and set aside the time to answer the questions it raises, you'll become a much more accomplished inventor.

When inventing, practice the policy of "fail first". When experimenting with an idea, test first the feature whose failure would condemn the project. Don't waste time investigating details that will probably work or which will not doom the initial idea if they fail.

Finally, don't be afraid to publish an idea that doesn't catch on. If your idea sparks someone else to make something innovative, you've contributed in the greater sense.

[Jon]

Couldn't agree more on "fail fast", and of course your last sentence. There seems to be a tendency to wait until a tool is perfect to post it, but there is often an advantage in simply posting your first prototype, or even your first napkin drawing. Note this recent exchange; the "fail fast" reference comes from a PDF published by rgsparber about a homemade power rock rake:







What's interesting here is that rgsparber is no slouch! High level of formal education, plus hundreds of homemade tools built, plus numerous lengthy articles written on tool building, as well as months of discussion on this specific tool. But even in his case, it was advantageous to publicly post his prototype; a relatively unknown user with only 2 posts (now 3) advanced the power rake concept considerably.

[ncollar]

Rick's favorite saying is "none of us are smarter than all of us collectively" not his exact words but you get the message
Nelson

[Frank S]

Rick's favorite saying is "none of us are smarter than all of us collectively" not his exact words but you get the message
Nelson

I couldn't agree more

[Clockguy]

An amazing look into what people will do when they have no other option. I would be interested to see more of the things they have made, or especially a look into the books that were published.

I have followed Ernesto Oroza's rise from the time he graduated from school and found no work anywhere so he began collecting trash and scrap and old machines and salvaging motors and switches ans such and repurposing them into useful fans and mixers and other needed tools and equipment. I will post below some links for those who took the initiative, when Castro bankrupted the country, and the economy fell by almost 40%. Stores were empty, markets had nothing to sell for food, shelves were bare. This was THEIR SHTF Stage one when you could be shot in the streets for breaking curfew or walking against a red light, or most anything that the broken government thought was "illegal". And it was up to the citizens to fend for themselves if they wanted to survive. And, survive they did! Read and watch as "clandestine public disobedience" slowly became a way of life for many Cubans as they foraged and collected things that would help them or one of their friends to survive for one more day or week .....

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-c...73R70U20110428

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/science...inventors-cuba

This next link will lead the reader to one of the most interesting and thought provoking series of events which hardly anyone (at least anyone I know) would have a wisp of a notion about, that I have read to date.

https://cubaholidays.co.uk/blogs/pos...then-the-world

Good links if you simply want to look at "Objects of Necessity" and "Architecture of Necessity".

JPG from Havana (II) by Grégory Marion – 2015 – Technological Disobedience Archive – by Ernesto Oroza

Ernesto Oroza – Architecture of Necessity – by Ernesto Oroza

It is amazing how the Cubans have cobbled things that simply do not fit in the row of sensible addition but they have done well with the little that they had to work with. If you want a helpful hint, I installed a Translator app on my PC and whenever you go to a page that the Translator is equipped to convert, it will quickly translate and over-print the Spanish or Portuguese with an English translation. It makes it much easier to read and understand.

[Clockguy]

An amazing look into what people will do when they have no other option. I would be interested to see more of the things they have made, or especially a look into the books that were published.

I have followed Ernesto Oroza's rise from the time he graduated from school and found no work anywhere so he began collecting trash and scrap and old machines and salvaging motors and switches ans such and repurposing them into useful fans and mixers and other needed tools and equipment. I will post below some links for those who took the initiative, when Castro bankrupted the country, and the economy fell by almost 40%. Stores were empty, markets had nothing to sell for food, shelves were bare. This was THEIR SHTF Stage one when you could be shot in the streets for breaking curfew or walking against a red light, or most anything that the broken government thought was "illegal". And it was up to the citizens to fend for themselves if they wanted to survive. And, survive they did! Read and watch as "clandestine public disobedience" slowly became a way of life for many Cubans as they foraged and collected things that would help them or one of their friends to survive for one more day or week .....

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-c...73R70U20110428

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/science...inventors-cuba

This next link will lead the reader to one of the most interesting and thought provoking series of events which hardly anyone (at least anyone I know) would have a wisp of a notion about, that I have read to date.

https://cubaholidays.co.uk/blogs/pos...then-the-world

Good links if you simply want to look at "Objects of Necessity" and "Architecture of Necessity".

JPG from Havana (II) by Grégory Marion – 2015 – Technological Disobedience Archive – by Ernesto Oroza

Ernesto Oroza – Architecture of Necessity – by Ernesto Oroza

It is amazing how the Cubans have cobbled things that simply do not fit in the row of sensible addition but they have done well with the little that they had to work with. If you want a helpful hint, I installed a Translator app on my PC and whenever you go to a page that the Translator is equipped to convert, it will quickly translate and over-print the Spanish or Portuguese with an English translation. It makes it much easier to read and understand.

Edit: I somehow got this to post twice and, when I clicked on "Edit/Delete", it would only allow me to edit. Sorry for the double post, if any of the Administrators can pull one of the posts, I would be appreciative.