When I was younger I didn't like the idea of doing a craft or project by carefully following directions. Part of this was a normal kind of youthful impatience. But, there was another aspect. I just couldn't imagine anyone being impressed or blown away by something that "anyone" could do by just following a series of steps.

I was *very* wrong about this. I used to get annoyed "well all you have to do is read the directions and follow them it's not like you need to invent anything"

Oh the things I have seen when watching someone trying to assemble something, or do some craft task since then.

No, being able to breathe life into a set of directions, knowing what to stress about and what to ignore is a skill. One of a few I hope I can teach my students.

@futurebird i nearly spent a month or more putting up with some awfully poor performance on my video card because i'd missed one word while adding things to a linux repository