Satisfactory Design

I realized when putting together my laser enclosure that the game Satisfactory has changed how I look at projects. In the game, everything can be recycled; when you tear down part of a factory in order to build something better or different, you get all the original parts back. Eventually it changes how you think of construction and design; everything is temporary, with the only reason to keep a design (besides liking it) is because of the time and effort of dismantling, or the break in production that will ensue (can be a particular problem if you start rebuilding your power infrastructure).

And I found I was building not the best laser enclosure, but the one that would work for now; willing to tear it down and rebuild it later if necessary. Of course out here in the real world, wood that is cut to size and fastened with wood glue doesn't recycle quite so easily.

It isn't totally different from how I thought before. But before, I was doing iterative work; previous versions were previous versions; proof-of-concept builds, prototypes. What has changed is slightly more willingness to take this approach to the production model.

And it seems it has also gotten into the writing. I have been getting more and more able (and hence willing) to cut deeply into an already-written scene and splice and stitch something different out the pieces. Well, this just makes that more so. Possibly, enough more so that I'm making even less forward progress...