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Mon Dec 27 10:46:50 PM EST 2021
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To listen to some bloggers and youtubers, it was practically
a joke: The objective of the exercise is to make an LED
blink. "Seriously?!?" "Just wait: In the next exercise,
we'll make the LED dim!"

For some of us, this was a serious, "mind blown!" moment.
"Holy fuck! Don't you get it?!? It's not the LED; it's
ANYTHING!"

The Arduino was Pure Fucking Magic: an inexpensive device
bridging the "imaginary" world inside a computer into
reality. Upload a simple bit of C-like code to the device
through a USB connection, and "Let there be light!" You are
a god! If it wasn't clear, they gave you a second chance:
Use similar code to spin a motor! Holy shit -- you're using
software to control something that does physical work! Turn
the page and you see that you can read sensors as well! You
can detect when someone presses a button? Seriously?!? How
about how bright it is in the room? Temperature and
humidity? Measure distance with a sonar-like capability?
Incorporate sensor inputs into your logic and decide what
the actuators should do? Suddenly, there are limitless
possibilities.

LIMITLESS!

Everything that follows is an integration problem, working
out how connect different sensors and actuators connected to
the physical world into the 5V header pins and on to the
software choices beneath.

Now consider: What if no one ever saw beyond the blinking
light? "Is that all it does?" The product dies, yes? No one
shares the creator's vision. No one buys it. It dies. It
happens. Now consider this: What if a crazed cult formed
around just the blinking light? Singular, obsessive focus.
Indistractable. The physical aspect succeeds while the
creator's vision dies.

I feel like there's a lot like that these days, fingers
pointing at the moon...

More on this later.