The act of creation with your bare hands

I may go for days writing or writing code, and it's interesting that when I take a break, I need to create something physical.

I discovered this last night. I fired up RollerCoaster Tycoon 2 because, being a coaster geek, it's the best game ever made. I played for about 30 minutes before I felt that it wasn't really doing anything for me. I got up and went to the next room to start experimenting with a “real life” coaster using my CoasterDynamix set.

I got the hook up for this kit because I built their Web site. It's really awesome stuff. There's something about watching a physical object move around that path. It's far more satisfying to create something with your hands and watch it do its thing, compared to the virtual world of RCT.

I don't think I'm alone in this either. It seems that most of the code monkeys I know like to build stuff in the physical world. With me it's a roller coaster, with other people it's home improvements, car modding, etc.

Maybe we could get along without computers after all! (For a short time, at least...)