PREMIUM – Ask Adam Anything: Not Giving Up on Projects

Every week, Adam takes a question from the Tested Premium Member community in the comments section below or on social media (tagged #AskAdamSavage) and answers here. This week, Adam talks about his own unfinished projects, how he finds the motivation to continue working on them, and what he turns to when he hits a wall in progressing on a build.

Comments (17)

17 thoughts on “PREMIUM – Ask Adam Anything: Not Giving Up on Projects

  1. #AskAdamSavage

    Hi Adam! My names Mike Rosa from The Workshop. This kind of matches the topic of the video for me haha. I sent you a Empire Strikes Back Boba Fett helmet back in 2013 that you display lovely! We just finished Mark Anthony Austin’s Return of the Jedi Helmet. He was the Boba Fett in A New hope Special Edition at Docking Bay 94. I’m was wondering if you’d be interested in allowing me to revisit a passion project of mine of completing a Boba Fett costume of your own for you, to your own dimensions as a huge thank you for everything you’ve done for me and inspiring me.. that got me to where i’m at and i am eternally grateful!!! Please let me know how you feel about it! Through messaging me on here, or, at http://www.facebook.com/theworkshopmike or my email at theworkshopmikeThanks Adam! Love the Premier content and extras! I hope to see more to come!

  2. I have two questions for you Adam. I am an principal at a high school in South Louisiana. I want my art department to expand into a maker space. I would also like to introduce a maker class for the students. What resources are out there to provide guidance on how we can reach this goal? Just so you know, your one day builds and Still Untitled show are the reason I want to implement this. This would also be for anyone who wants to start their own maker space.

    The second may be not an open forum question, but for me is the more important one. In the last podcast with your mom, you made the statement that you were lonely as a child. That statement has resonated with me to the point that I do not want any child to feel lonely. Were there outward signs of this that a teacher could see? What would have eased that loneliness when you were younger? Would a maker class have helped connect you or ease that problem?

  3. Wouldn’t it be easier to find a glassblower for small quantity replication of the vial? I’m sure you contacted glassblowers, but it seemed otherwise from the way you mentiond “glass bottle manufacturing companies”.

  4. Thanks for the info Norm! I will have to find a printer to get my own!

    I have really enjoyed the direction that the site has taken the past ~2 years. The additions of new series and Kayte in particular have been fantastic – exactly the type of content that I didn’t realize I wanted from Tested way back when I found it when Still Untitled was on Episode 3. Keep up the great work!!

  5. I have had a job for 22 years where I work 4 12 hour days and then have 4 days off. When I think of all of the years I have spent with an Xbox or Playstation controller in my hands not accomplishing anything meaningful in the real world it makes me kinda sick.

  6. #AskAdamSavage
    Could I send you my Nerf Recon CS-6 for you to mod for me, because I am just a beginner and I like the mods you do. Could you mod my gun please.

  7. Hi Adam,
    Quick question (well 2)…
    1) metric or imperial?
    I know you use both, and assume you were raised on imperial (as was I many, many years ago in the UK), but metric makes so much more sense (who the hell cares how many pecks in a furlong?).
    Do you have a preference? Is it just a matter of ‘Well, X told me that the Maltese Falcon is 11 1/2 inches tall, so that’s the project locked into imperial.’ or ‘This doohickey for the flash hider on this pistol is a European plumbing fitting, so that makes the project metric.’

    2) Also on a related note, over the years and years you have spent trying to tease dimensions from screen shots & photos do you use deep wizardry to extract dims from a shot with the thing at a weird angle, (sort of; I know Harrison Ford is 6’1″ (or 1.85m) and this thing is the same length as his forearm, which would be,…. {consults le Corbusiers Modulator} 1’5 3/4″ – (or 0.45m)) or try to get loads of images and look for the one where the thing is presented square to the camera and moderately lines up horizontally?

    Take care and always be testing!
    (I was just kidding about the small traffic cone on the table being a butt plug 😀 )

  8. Momentum is a great concept to take away here. Motivation is unreliable, it’s terrible. You can’t rely on yourself to feel motivated. But having momentum is great. Having multiple projects on the go is perfect for this, because if you don’t have the time to commit on a big project, you can putter around on something smaller.

    Or just clean your space. If I’m low on motivation or momentum, starting to tidy can be a good way to put myself into gear.

  9. they are still for sale on the website. This is not an ad or a promotion. But they do have some other cool shirts as well.

  10. One advantage of going to a makerspace is that even if you are unable/unwilling to work on your own project for whatever reason, you can help other people, and be *their* momentum! Be enthusiastic, “What needs doing next?” and be willing to not only help out with rote tasks (“many hands makes light work”) but also be grunt labor – “How about you let me do that rote thing that’s part of the next step while you work on the parts that only you know how to do?” This kind of thing can give people a momentum boost, helping them get ‘over the hump’ of some daunting step. It also means they’re likely to be willing to lend you a similar hand later 🙂

  11. #AskAdamSavage I would like to ask the opposite corollary question, when and how do you know to just drop a project you’ve been working on? You’ve hit the wall, you’re going no where with it there isn’t a way forward from where you are, when do you say it is better to chuck it all and start from scratch?

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