Bad instructions, mental blocks? paper airplanes!

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Okay, so maybe I haven't had enough sleep in the past few days, but I think I can make a paper airplane, right?
http://www.guardian.co.uk/flash/0,5860,1648976,00.html
(from here: http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,3604,1649274,00.html)

I like making/building things, but got to step 9 and got frustrated. I think the instructions are terrible! Technical writing is a skill! I know it's just a paper airplane, but I thought it would be a neat thing to make, engage my mind in that way for a couple of minutes and move on. But no. This is both to complain about bad instructions and to see if maybe it's just some kind of mental block with me today - maybe someone else can do it w/o a problem?

― rrrobyn (rrrobyn), Thursday, 24 November 2005 17:43 (twenty years ago)

Don't worry, steps 10-16 are bullshit anyway.

― Yawn (Wintermute), Thursday, 24 November 2005 17:51 (twenty years ago)

I made it - it works okay but you have to get your throwing just right, then it glides well.

― Markelby (Mark C), Thursday, 24 November 2005 18:16 (twenty years ago)

You are skilled, Mark!
So I tried again after I watched an old episode of Dr. Who instead (for brain calming) and and the airplane worked! Maybe I have been thinking too abstractly lately? Interesting. I still think the instructions could be better.

― rrrobyn (rrrobyn), Thursday, 24 November 2005 19:07 (twenty years ago)

three years pass...

Bad instructions:

DRAWING THE STRUCTURE OF ISOMERS

Strategy: We know that carbon forms four bonds, nitrogen forms three, and hydrogen forms one. Write down the carbon atoms first, and then use a combination of trial and error plus imagination and intuition to put the pieces together.

― i'm shy (Abbott), Wednesday, 11 February 2009 19:36 (seventeen years ago)

1. Write down carbons
2. Good fucking luck?

― i'm shy (Abbott), Wednesday, 11 February 2009 19:37 (seventeen years ago)

lol

― congratulations (n/a), Wednesday, 11 February 2009 19:37 (seventeen years ago)

Good luck, Abbott!

― nabisco, Wednesday, 11 February 2009 19:38 (seventeen years ago)

Have fun out there!

― nabisco, Wednesday, 11 February 2009 19:38 (seventeen years ago)

I prefer a more systematic approach that the one devised by professional Imagineers.

― i'm shy (Abbott), Wednesday, 11 February 2009 19:39 (seventeen years ago)

> DRAWING THE STRUCTURE OF ISOMERS

Man, we usually got a model, or at least a still-life setup.

― Magdalen Goobers (Oilyrags), Wednesday, 11 February 2009 19:39 (seventeen years ago)

seriously still cracking up at "a combination of trial and error plus imagination and intuition"

― congratulations (n/a), Wednesday, 11 February 2009 20:00 (seventeen years ago)

good luck usa

― ice cr?m, Wednesday, 11 February 2009 20:01 (seventeen years ago)

try, fail, guess

― max, Wednesday, 11 February 2009 20:01 (seventeen years ago)

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