The First Build

Overview

The First Build is, in this wiki's usage, the first project a builder completes that belongs to them — not as an assignment, not as an exercise, but as something they decided to make and then made. It is a moment in a builder's life. Most builders remember theirs.

Common Features

• It is ugly. Your first build will look nothing like your later builds. This is normal.
• It works, barely. Edge cases were not considered. The demo path is narrow.
• It was harder than expected. You underestimated the scope. Everyone does.
• You are proud of it anyway. You should be.
• You can see, now, how you would build it again. This is the point.

Burbridge's First Builds

Burbridge's earliest documented first build is, per oral tradition, a small wooden project completed at an age young enough that the safety goggles didn't fit properly. The object itself is not preserved. Witness accounts describe it as "functional." The Council has declined to add it to any wing of the archives.

Burbridge's first software project is similarly undocumented. It was, per the same oral tradition, "a website, and it did not work right, and I still remember what was wrong with it."

Advice

"Finish the first one. Learn everything. Then build the second one better. Then build the third." — Burbridge