Did you hear that?

I am into a serious crunch right now.  I have a little less than half a month to get this boat in the water if I want to practice, train, or otherwise learn how to use this boat.  One of the great parts to building  a boat is that you are the creator.  The bad thing is that nobody knows how to use it.  There has to be a space for learning, and I would rather not do that on race day.

Good news: the prop is done.  
I collaborated with Scott Padiak and he ran with some ideas which made an unbelievably beautiful product.  I am going to have to make sure the hull is worth of such work.

I won't get into the details due to pending patent issues and so on, but this thing is great.  Scott is the best builder in Chicago and I would say probably ranks in the top five in the country.  It isn't just his skill with tools and material, but his ability to think through a mechanism.  I am fortunate that he agreed to help on this.

It brings up an important point: ego and the farm.

This is a situation where I could have let my ego take control.  I had designed the mechanism and had the materials to build a working prop.  It wouldn't have looked like this, but it would have worked.  But, when the collaboration got going, I could see that there were other interpretations and ideas which were better than mine.  I let Scott run with it and the result is great.  Collaboration requires that we let other people have space too.

Also, there can be no purist notion of who did what.  Face it: sometimes we need help.  Getting stuck on some idea and trying to work through a problem are a part of design, but we also need to know that a deadline can be lost while we try to do what someone else is already capable- and typically better- of doing.  Think of the guy in a mechanic shop.  The guy who builds the engine is not going to feel bad about having the painter take care of the paint.  If you are working toward a result, don't be afraid to hire an expert to handle some of the work.  It's what they do, and it will give you the time to focus on what you do.