imo cardboard might be the best invention ever made. not the wheel.
i actually owe cardboard the start of my building career.
i don’t think I’ve ever really said this during my college years, but in middle school and early high school I used to spend a lot of time making toys and random home improvement tools out of cardboard. little mechanisms, holders, ramps, contraptions around the house. at the time I was convinced I was going to grow up to be a physical toy inventor.
and honestly, cardboard is still one of the best prototyping materials ever. you can cut it, tape it, bend it, rebuild it in minutes. no pressure to make it perfect. just iterate until the idea works. (the only problem is that you might get glue on your couch, and your dad might side eye you to clean it up😭🤣)
the early prototypes for The Brik were literally cardboard.
just cutting shapes, folding pieces, figuring out how things could fit together. then eventually it became better materials, better designs, real manufacturing.
but it started with cardboard.
that mindset has honestly carried over into how I build tech products now too.
you don’t start with the polished version. you start with the rough thing. the ugly version. the duct-taped prototype that just proves the idea works.
whether it’s a physical product or a piece of software, the principle is the same.
build the cardboard version first.
you’ve got to start somewhere.