The Van Build is Complete

Howdy,

Last week, I debriefed you on resources that can change our thinking about the world.

This week, we're diving into a project I recently completed which will help me better explore the world - my van.

The finished product!

The van is on the road.

About 6 months ago, I bought a van. I made the decision based on my desire to spend more time in the outdoors, build a tiny space of my own, and advance my knowledge of product design/product management (which I wrote about in a previous piece here).

Now that the van is finished, I'd like to take time to reflect on 3 lessons I learned from the van building process.

You can check out the full build journey from start to finish in the thread above.

Lesson #1 - You can't expect to be good at something the first time you do it.

Almost everything that I did in the van was for the first time.

3D modeling, framing the van, insulating the van, putting up tongue and groove walls/ceilings, building a bed frame, cutting down/installing cabinets, installing cabinets, cutting down/installing a countertop, and more.

I made a lot of mistakes along the way. It was constantly 2 steps forward, 1 step backward. This began to frustrate me. Why?

My ability to estimate the level of effort and timeline for completion was severely compromised because I hadn't done any of this before.

I thought I'd finish by end of January when I first started. Then, I thought I'd finish by end of February. Then, I thought I'd finish by end of March. Ultimately, I finished on April 2nd.

These were self-imposed timelines, so it wasn't the end of the world that I didn't meet them (plus I kept adding on additional work that I hadn't originally planned...in part because I was having so much fun and wanted to do it right). Nonetheless, it bothered me. I don't like setting an internal expectation and not meeting it. That leads me to the heart of my failure.

I didn't fail because I embarked upon something for the first time and made mistakes - far from it. The courage to jump into something completely new and make mistakes is one of the best parts of this experience. I failed because my expectation that I'd be good at something the first time I did it was too high.

Takeaway: if you're doing something for the first time, you need to double the estimated time that you expect to complete it and be patient with yourself.

Photo from December 2021 when I began framing the walls.

Lesson #2 - We severely undervalue the practicality of the trades.

I work in product management for a technology consulting firm. This consists of 8-10 hours of screen time per day. Most days, it's hard to gauge whether or not we've moved the needle as a team because our work isn't always tangible.

My experience with the van was wildly different. It was incredible to work on something tangible where you could see and touch the progress that had been made that day.

Each time I reached a milestone in the van build, I kept asking myself "why do we send so many students to a traditional 4-year institution instead of trade school?"

I didn't ask myself this question because of the financial incentives of trade school over a 4-year degree (although that has been discussed quite a bit recently). I asked myself this question based on these 2 points - transferability and fulfillment.

These skills are ridiculously transferable. At some point, we all lean on carpenters, electricians, and plumbers. Look around you right now. What do you see in your immediate surroundings that would not have been made possible without the work of a tradesman? Their work is everywhere, yet far too often craftmanship goes unacknowledged. Plus, having your own base understanding of these skills can help make you a huge asset to your own properties and to your friends.

These skills are incredibly fulfilling. When you work with your hands, you are using portions of your brain that you're not always activating when you're performing knowledge work. You're thinking creatively, and you can see/feel the end result of your hard work.

Takeaway: we need to have serious conversations with high school students about how transferable and fulfilling the trades are.

Photo from January 2022 with a completed bed frame, insulation, and the beginnings of a ceiling.

Lesson #3 - You're doing a great job if you're constantly laughing at your previous work.

Starting with the end in mind and working backward is a great practice to deconstruct the order of operations for a complex project. As we established in lesson #1, I didn't know what I was doing a great deal of the time. This made working backward difficult.

Instead, I would take a stab at something and iterate until I had a decent product. I'm proud of this because you need to jump in somewhere to get going, but there was also something quite funny that came about from this.

Every 2 weeks I would look back at something I previously built - perhaps it was the way I built it or the order of steps in which I built it - and I'd ask myself "what that heck was I thinking?"

I was adding skills at such a high rate that I couldn't help but smile at the whacky, inefficient decisions I had made beforehand.

Now, with a bit more experience, I could clearly identify ways in which I would've done things differently. It's important not to get frustrated by this. This knowledge wouldn't have been gained without the willingness to jump in and start somewhere.

Takeaway: looking back in disbelief at how you went about things previously is a sign of your growth.

Photo from April 2022 when the van was completed.

Thanks for reading

I hope you enjoyed those 3 lessons.

See you down the road in my new abode,

Josh