The Go-Kart Scar (Age 7, Brownsville TN)
1980  Brownsville, Tennessee
Master Registry #3 | Planning, Iteration, Learning from Others
Setting: Family home in Brownsville, Tennessee, age 7
“When I was 7 in Brownsville, TN, my father  I told him I want to make a go-kart and he was like ‘well you should plan it out and show me that and I’ll help you do it’ and I said I don’t want to plan it out and he said ‘alright Jonathan, you go ahead and make it, let me know how that turns out.’
My amazing plan  because I didn’t have any tires oddly enough  I started with the wheels because I was going to make them out of the top of the tin cans that the beans came in or coffee or something.
I got the empty can and then I took the knife and then I was stamping stamp stamp stamp all the way around. I’m holding the can and you guessed it  I stabbed my hand while I was taking the tin can lid off.
I have that scar still. After I had stabbed it I took the knife out and I was actually quite interested because there was no blood. I thought ’that’s so weird, am I OK?’ And then I opened it up a little bit because I could see it  just the skin right there and then you can literally see the sinew and the muscle and the bone.
Experience is an excellent and wonderful teacher, but he is a fool who will learn from no other teacher than experience.”
Key Lesson: Learn from others’ experience, not just your own mistakes.
Best Used For: Planning philosophy, iteration, 1,200 prototypes context