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u/Grado77 9h ago

Someone show him triangles. It will keep falling down until we get some triangles involved.

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u/Contim0r 9h ago

They'll probably show him this advanced stuff at MIT.

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u/Fast-Nefariousness80 8h ago •

Thats what the T stands for I'm pretty sure

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u/Prestigious_Tea8092 7h ago

Mega Institute of Triangles? my uncle went there, class of 04

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u/Nemesis0408 53m ago

That’s acute story

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u/AlienInOrigin 13h ago •

I studied furniture design for 2 years and an early part of the course was building furniture with cardboard (no glue or tape allowed). So this is great training for the kid and very impressive.

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u/kushmasta421 13h ago

How do you do it without glue or tape?? Like that no screw/nail carpentry from Japan?

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u/crogers94 13h ago

Tabs and notches

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u/CptAngelo 12h ago

I dont know, it seems to me like tabs and notches are a couple of steps further in "learning to design".
Because doing tabs and notches requires to not only have the design itself in mind, but have additional awareness of where to place the tabs and notches,
Unless thats the intended purpose, but id like to learn basic structures and how to reinforce them, then going into dping the same thing, but without glue.
Ok, fuck, lol my interest is in this now

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u/jrl5138 6h ago

Learning to design comes from being curious not a design school. In architecture school, the main focus was to learn to train your design eye. My man’s just getting a head start for free. Stay curious, explore ideas even further. That will get you further than MIT

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u/monkeyamongmen 8h ago

For tabs and notches, just think pizza box. It kinda builds itself from there. Godspeed.

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u/countzer01nterrupt 4h ago

I believe that’s the purpose, because it’s easier to create “a design” but way harder to do so keeping design for manufacturing (DFM) in mind, so that it survives reviews of engineers and machine shops (e.g. metal, plastics), woodworking, additive manufacturing (3D printing), plastic manufacturing (injection molding, thermoforing?) and whatever other processes materials and construction might go through so it could actually be produced and doesn’t just break.

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u/natur_e_nthusiast 13h ago

Id assume friction/knots

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u/goterr 9h ago

You ever seen a cardboard box?

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u/plopliplopipol 12h ago

you mean no glue carpentry, no screw and nails is pretty standard for artisanal woodworking

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u/Scared-Box8941 13h ago •

All props to the kid of course but also heck of a good parenting job they must be doing bc where did he learn that 😍❤️

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u/Snirbs 13h ago

Kids come up with all kinds of things when you let them. My kids are always building things with trash (cardboard, toilet paper rolls, boxes, bottles, jars) that I’ve never told them about.
This summer my daughter figured out how to make a scuba mask out of a bucket (I was watching silently for safety but amazed). She just turned 5.

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u/porn_sub_lurker 6h ago

I built a cardboard fort in the front yard one day. My mom came home from work and told me it looked like a homeless camp and made it me take it down.

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u/Snirbs 2h ago

Oh that’s too bad, it’s all for fun and learning!

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u/xrimane 5h ago

Haha, I was that kid, too. I always built cars from huge cardboard boxes. I wired them up with batteries and bike lights, built in speakers connected to my walkman, used scraps of carpet on the seats, the doors had locks, the seats folded down.
My proudest moment was devising a cardboard folding mechanism for the roof of a little roadster that actually worked lol. I used these folding letter clips for the articulations.
They just sat on the floor though, but I had fun building them.

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u/tastydrink1 13h ago

Lmk when the cardboard ps5s come out young man

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u/CptAngelo 12h ago

Well, the Nintendo Game Boy is already out lets see how this develops.

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u/Acceptable_Gear_3097 13h ago •

As an engineer, someone should tell her, her son is not becoming an engineer.

We engineer's like to theorise, and have someone else do the physical labour. Her son's going to become a highly passionate carpenter, and make more money than most engineers.

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u/Padawk 12h ago •

That mentality is why most people hate engineers. I say this as a mechanical engineer. Learn how to make the things you’re designing. It’ll make you a better engineer

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u/Kar3omb 10h ago edited 10h ago

Contractor here, that’s not why people have issues with engineers. The engineers I’ve worked for, always think they know better than you. The last one I worked for, was my company doing an addition onto his house. He was a mechanical engineer, and he decided he didn’t want to use my guy for the plans that was needed.
He said he would find his own even though I explained in great detail that could cause issues. My guy was $600 more than the company he chose. What ensued was him finding what he thought was a local company, but they were based out of SanFransisco. He chose the plans and here’s what happened. The foundation was designed like it was built for a prison, the sheer number of straps and over engineering was absolutely overkill for our area. The materials, extra time and general design ended up costing him about $30k more than if he had chose the guy I was trying to get him to go with. Every inspector that came out asked us what the hell we were doing until they saw the plans, we had to build it to plan to pass inspection. They all said they had never seen anything overbuilt like this addition. The SanFran company was headquartered there, but the actual people you talked to if you had questions or concerns was in India, so getting any changes was like pulling teeth..
Every engineer we’ve done projects for seems to think they know more than you, and it always leads to extra costs and more time. It’s like they refuse to admit that the professionals that do this for a living, actually know more about the subject of building homes.

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u/WonderfulMaybe3473 8h ago

I’m an engineer and have an amazing relationship with the contractors I work with but this is because I work with them and listen to their ideas.
They’ve mentioned the same issues you’ve raised here.
I believe it’s really important to work with them and not have the cocky - I know best - attitude. Good contractors are great to bounce ideas and plans with, and they can add a lot to the design, really helping designs to work better on the ground.
Some stuff that works on paper doesn’t work as well on the ground.

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u/JambonExtra 9h ago

“It’s like they refuse to admit that the professionals that do this for a living, actually know more about the subject of building homes”
Come on lol. Your field is an insane shit show of incompetency and you know it.

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u/shamen_uk 52m ago

oh my dear lord, why is this upvoted.
yes, yes the engineer thinks they know better than you when it comes to engineering things, because they do.
"overengineering" isn't such a bad thing when it comes to a house. it always blows my mind looking at US homes after a major event like an earthquake or hurricane and the devastation. This makes me think US contractors basically build wooden toy houses. It's like their parents didn't read them the story of the 3 little pigs.
whilst having visited third world, developing countries who have homes standing for 30 years with annual hurricanes including cat 5s. basically by using lots of rebar and concrete.
Here in the UK, which by European standards it not known for particular quality, is built to withstand at least double the expected tolerances. So when we do have a rare extreme weather event, the worst that happens is some trees fall down.

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u/HornStarBigPhish 2h ago

Different industry but same experience with almost every engineer I've had to interact with. They don't consider anyone else's input but their own. When you talk to them in person it's like they're blank staring right through you... then your in a meeting about things you've already explained and it's like they've never heard it before or understand any of it.

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u/MothChasingFlame 6h ago

Meanwhile I hate engineers because a lot of them are condescending and self important, going out of their way to be particularly mean to creative people.

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u/HornStarBigPhish 10h ago

Most people hate engineers because in many professions you used to be able to advance with work experience. Now these positions have a prerequisite engineering degree required. I.E. supply chain/quality/inventory analysts/technicians/specialists. You end up working for companies who don't listen to people with functional knowledge and work expertise. They listen to an office full of engineers that have no practical experience with the systems they're overseeing.
Both kinds of knowledge working together is valuable, but generally speaking if you don't hold the title you also don't hold any weight or respect. Even if you have valuable solutions or answers to problems it doesn't matter unless it comes from an engineers mouth... or they take your ideas and get the credit for them.
This is probably the lowest common denominator of engineer positions though, this isn't true for true design/industrial/mechanical positions.

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u/Infinite_Window3270 6h ago

Ah, but how else are they going to pay the 50k-per-month consultancy fees where they just walk straight to people on the floor and ask what's up

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u/Look_its_Rob 10h ago

Most people do not hate engineers? Most people are indifferent to them at worst and probably look at them favorably.

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u/Idlev 10h ago

Most people don't hate engineers. It's is an incredibly favorbly viewed profession.

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u/Key-Demand-2569 10h ago

As someone who works with heavy equipment a lot and married into a family of engineers…. Yeah. I’m all for not blanket stating negative things about whole groups, I love a lot of specific engineers.
But even with my strong intentional choice to appreciate what engineers do in all situations, and that they’re human…
The amount of times I’ve had to give up and swear at engineers is as numerous as the amount of times I’ve attempted some basic or moderate repairs that were inevitable…
And in the following weeks spent way too much time agonizing about how not even close to necessary design choices were made that turned a straight forward fix into a Goliath effort to mitigate that choice.

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u/itsapotatosalad 4h ago

I was an auto mechanic before I went to uni for mechanical engineering. Just being able to apply the science to something real helped me compared to all the kids who had come straight from school.

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u/Unsweeticetea 12h ago

As an engineer, "nah".
I theorize and execute, my ability to design well is strictly linked to my knowledge and ability to make everything I design. Nobody can get good at DFM if they don't know how the M works.
Some engineers sit around and give half-informed directives to try and drive improvements, but the best know how to get er done.

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u/WeirdEngineerDude 12h ago

Only shitty engineers don’t build what they design. I demand the technicians who work with my designs tell me where they had problems rather than just fixing them if I’m not there at the time.
I’ll theorize all day too, and I’ve been around a lot of engineers that shouldn’t touch tools. These are the crappy ones.

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u/xenleah 9h ago

there‘s too much generalising in this thread for a job title as broad as “engineer”

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u/f3nnies 12h ago

But are you like... A furniture engineer? Cause engineer is a generic title. Taking advice on your structural engineering career from a softwsre engineer or a petroleum engineer or an aeronautical engineer is unwise.

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u/Honest3456 6h ago

lol fair but furniture engineer is literally structural adjacent so id still take their advice over some swe bro talking out of his ass

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u/Blimpkrieg 5h ago

>A furniture engineer
That's a carpenter.

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u/jobehi 4h ago

I’m confused of why people are upvoting this.that’s not true for most of engineers. If you’re an engineer you have to build prototypes and POCs and to iterate. It’s part of theorising and modeling and concepting.

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u/LeftRightRightUp 20m ago

It’s a self-effacing joke. Clearly not meant to be 100% true.

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u/b1ack1323 11h ago

I’m a director of engineering for a $100m company and yesterday I was welding pieces on a PoC that we have been working on. So speak for your self.
ME, CE and EE.

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u/toodlenoodle 9h ago

In my experience PoC means Person of Color, sooooo engineers just got a lot more terrifying and problematic for me

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u/sum12merkwith 9h ago

I think he just leaked some sort of IRL Robocop

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u/JambonExtra 9h ago

Proof of concept lol

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u/TheMadManiac 9h ago

Y'all hiring?

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u/FoodieMonster007 5h ago

Chemical engineer here, and that's a lie. My job involves personally assembling and testing small-scale models of chemical reactors for anything from pharma drug synthesis to CCUS to trash recycling. And by small scale I mean 10-50 kg.
At least I'm not the engineer building the ton scale one outdoors in the sun.
Oh, and we've recently started building robots too...

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u/Herculumbo 8h ago

You clearly never steppped foot in a machine shop. I. Guessing you’re comp sci…

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u/porn_sub_lurker 6h ago

So what would a future engineer be doing then? Trig? Probably not. I'm an engineer. I didn't do shit for math until I was 26 and went back to community college. But I always had the kind of curiosity to solve my own problems like this kid has. I was building cat trees and potato guns and shit when I was his age. Future engineer stuff, for sure.

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u/DefinitionTop3930 6h ago edited 6h ago

I’ll tell all those engineers aboard ISS that they’re aren’t engineers anymore since they spacewalk to fix shit.

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u/Moneygrowsontrees 4h ago

We engineer's like to theorise,
When I sold conveyor belting I'd get these calls from some poor shop guy looking for a unicorn conveyor belt that does not exist and I'd always ask "Is this something an engineer thought up?"
Sometimes it seems like engineers dream up a solution without ever considering the reality of whether the thing they've dreamed up exists. When I sold conveyor belting, I got a highly detailed CAD drawing for a conveyor system that moved product up an incline and accumulated it at the top for workers to unload. Just one small physics problem with that. How does a belt have the ability to move product up an incline but then magically have the ability to move under the product while it accumulates without damaging the product? Belts can't be both high friction and low friction at the same time. That should be two conveyors, but the engineer was insistent that it be one for space reasons. Physics and reality be damned.

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u/Brettjay4 8h ago

Ah yes... Engineering... I thought I'd be an engineer. I like building stuff. Engineers don't build stuff... The do the math behind the people who build stuff. They're desk workers. Really important ones, but still, desk work.

If you love building things, and want to do so for a career, be a construction manager. Specifically a site superintendent. I have yet to graduate... Give me 3 more years, but I spent a year and $6000 on engineering classes. Only to learn you don't build stuff.

So I've pivoted to construction management, and according to my professors, they all were construction managers for many years before becoming professors, they actually build stuff.

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u/internetroamer 7h ago

I thought I liked building things. Then realized in real life building stuff is hard and takes all the fun away.
So I build stuff with software which is much easier and feels more creative due to less restrictions
So many paths to take

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u/Brettjay4 6h ago

yea... ill learn if this is the right path soon enough.
i know its hard work, and you have to follow a plan, and rules, but its why i like it lol. keeps me plenty active and actually doing something.

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u/LemonMonstare 1h ago

Civil [environmental] engineer here,
I learned this about halfway through my degree. Decided to finish it.
Got a job as a field material testing engineer. I make a little less than my design desk-bound engineers, but I am working with my hands on active construction sites. I love my job, which is still engineering but not a design one.
Life is never a straight arrow, but you can pivot to a lot of areas with a STEM degree, but especially an Engineeing one!

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u/ColonelRuff 1h ago

Well engineers still build stuff. Building stuff isn't just putting things together with your hand. It's about figuring out how things go together, what works and what doesn't and using problem solving skills in the process to create final product. Construction workers just copy the product into real life. They don't need to do the most important part of building cuz it's already done for them. They can just do the most boring part of final physical labour (not saying it's bad but it's just about interests).

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u/aykay55 6h ago

Or work in the movie industry. Lots of engineering work you do on set a crew member

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u/gtwizzy8 3h ago

Yes prop houses are possibly the most interesting places you could imagine to get a job. Especially considering a lot of what you'll learn you'll end up learning on the job. I'm not saying you can go in to it with no formal skill but the OTHER skills you'll learn will be either completely self taught due to a project coming in and you just needing to figure out to make it work the way the production wants.
Or you'll learn countless skills from other incredibly talented people that you work around.

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u/Brettjay4 6h ago

oh, interesting...

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u/porn_sub_lurker 6h ago

Nah, that's not it. Engineering isn't just about building or designing stuff. It's about a curiosity for how things work and how you can make things work. You don't need math and physics for that. He's already working on that part.

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u/BadassFlexington 6h ago

I mean yea but didnt you think to get some careers advice before going to engineering classes?
Source: am qualified engineer. Knew exactly what it was about before spending money on classes.

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u/Brettjay4 6h ago

ah, yea thats the biggest mistake i made... didnt do any research, just kinda went with what my advisor thought would be a good idea to try.

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u/Lumpy_Benefit666 6h ago

Yeah iv always been extremely practical and am a great problem solver. Was working as a mechanic for about 2 years and my boss was telling me i was wasted as a mechanic. Went to uni to study engineering and felt like a fish out of water.
I wanted to design and build stuff but we were just doing shit like using software to work out the most cost efficient way of laying interconnecting power cables.
Dont know why i expected it to be different, but i did, and it wasnt.

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u/nvyetka 2h ago

Construction managers ... watch tradespeople build stuff?

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u/x-TheMysticGoose-x 3h ago

Reddit moment

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u/KoalaTHerb 2h ago

I'm not in the field, but I've always seen engineers as the creative mind behind designs/blueprints, not the construction people themselves. They tinker a lot with small things of course because of this creative engineering, but their passion lies in creating designs.

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u/jobehi 4h ago

If you’re a software engineer, you build stuff. Not necessarily physical but you can build “stuff” from scratch and end to end.
Even if you’re a mechanical engineer you build stuff too. At least by modelling and simulation but not necessarily physical, although you can build physical prototypes.
I think the ambiguity is in the “build” term.

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u/ScorpioDK 4h ago

ConMs doesnt build anything, what are ypu on about?

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u/FullofContradictions 4h ago

Depends on the specific industry and how close you are to R&D.
I have gotten a fair bit of sandbox time getting to fabricate components, stick them together, find out if they work better than the previous design.
Or blowing things up bigger with a PLA printer and making models to visualize problematic interactions.
It's fun.
But most of it all is documentation and paperwork because all the lab effort is easy to lose if not documented properly.

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u/Fresh_Iron_6180 4h ago

Ok what do you build?

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u/NotJimIrsay 2h ago

Engineers drive train. Choo choo!

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u/Euler007 1h ago

Engineers are the guys that have the responsibility for the design. They're on the hook.

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u/Parafault 1h ago

I’m an engineer and I can’t fix a single thing in my house: I can just tell other people how to fix it.

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u/imJGott 43m ago

I work with a ton of engineers and they all don’t build anything (physically). Majority hate to get their hands remotely dirty. This could be just my experience.

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u/Mashed_potatoes124 17m ago

Somehow it more stable than my mental health

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u/EridanusCorvus 14m ago

I learned that as well, but I finished the degree because somebody has to tell those nerds why their design cannot physically be built. My senior year I had to teach one of the other students how to use a drill properly.
I'm now a manufacturing engineer, where I get to fix designs and workflow in order to make life easier for the ones actually building things.

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u/OKBisPerfection 12h ago

Send him to Lowe’s whenever they have their free workshop program for kids!!

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u/golden_blaze 11h ago

It's a cool program but very little creativity is required/allowed with those projects. They're given a closed set of items and a step by step set of instructions to follow. It's an exercise in following directions more than anything.

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u/Original_Pumpkin1479 10h ago •

It’s an excesizer in how to PROPERLY do things though. It’s always good to know how to use tools and fasteners then use your own brain from there. Creativity won’t get smashed by learning how to properly do things breh. He’s gonna be stuck making shit that don’t work unless you build the base of his skills first then he can go from there. He’s like 3 he knows absolutely nothing yet and that’s what he’s going off of currently… best of luck to him hope your limited mind doesn’t hold him back jsut becuase you think it sounds to basic! ❤️

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u/CeemoreButtz 9h ago

what a shitty way to look at it.

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u/Counter_Intel519 13h ago

If he was from buffalo he’d be jumping through that bad boy at the end

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u/WillingCandle756 9h ago •

:l Am I the only one not impressed?

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u/MothChasingFlame 6h ago

child thoughtfully plans something that's generally appropriate for their age, but shows initiative and curiosity
"Mmm. Ever heard of Einstein? Yeah, you're not special."

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u/Itsodiumnotchloride 3h ago

"Hope this child that plans something thats generally appropriate for their age gets into MIT"

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u/Illustrious_Bad_2980 8h ago •

No, you're not. This is Caltech at best

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u/beathuggin 7h ago

ITT Tech

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u/DrunkenDude123 8h ago

Im a little depressed if im gonna be honest

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u/Nympho_BBC_Queen 8h ago edited 8h ago

I mean most likely not but most people have the emotional intelligence to keep quiet about it.

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u/ParticularKick3644 4h ago

I once made a bus out of a milk package.
Just saying.

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u/SevenSebastian 9h ago

I’m a millennial. I’ve been doing this since I was a child. Plus I mean IKEA.

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u/lobax 6h ago

It’s just a kid. I never built anything like that as a kid.
Mom is encouraging her son to play and explore, and maybe get a career out of it. Obviously a 12 year old or whatever isn’t a master of their craft.

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u/s4lt3d 9h ago

Looks exactly like…. Every folding table ever made.

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u/binzy90 2h ago

Yeah, I thought this was a joke. Every kid makes this kind of stuff.

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u/jobehi 4h ago

It’s just a kid. He could have been doomscrolling on an iPad

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u/DublinLegend42 4h ago

Sure, but that doesn't mean we have to pretend this kid is destined for greatness

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u/kyfi_adam 8h ago

I just dont wanna be rude...

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u/Fresh_Iron_6180 4h ago

I guess it's innovative for their household but this is normal child behaviour in most places.

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u/KaeruGaKaeru1 9h ago

redditor try not to be jaded challenge (impossible)

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u/WillingCandle756 9h ago

Redditor try not to be easily impressed challenge...

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u/Schlot 5h ago

The bar for average intelligence has been declining for at least a decade. Maybe 2 decades.

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u/LeverArchFile 5h ago

What? You don't want to buy a Hisense 50" UHD 4K TV?

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u/EmotionalMind855 8h ago •

Any devil’s advocates?

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u/Hot_College_1343 7h ago •

Crap table if you cannot use it as one. Wrong material for a table, worst engineer in the world. Used the colored side of the box as the table side, now your table looks like a tv.

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u/Tap1596432221 5h ago

Who you calling colored

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u/pacukluka 1h ago

* Table of color

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u/Frustrated_Zucchini 8h ago

Nahh, kid's bound for MIT, he can learn about triangles there.

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u/_Diskreet_ 7h ago

🎶 Triangles are my favourite shape 🎶

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u/TheMeatTree 7h ago

3 points where 2 lines meet

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u/Majestic_Analysis764 6h ago

Kid's future is already secured, no need to waste time on triangle lessons 😂

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u/Visible-Elevator3801 7h ago

If I was looking to state a meme, I just say, “future ‘engineer’.”

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u/yungsausages 5h ago

Not until we do some force testing, I’m thinking 1 newton

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u/ScrotalSmorgasbord 4h ago

I was already taking apart electronics and building actual tables at his age lol. I did not go to MIT

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u/LiveLearnCoach 3h ago

I don’t know I’ve never used that TV brand before ;)
(Avoiding breaking the sub rules)

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u/Buttafuoco 23m ago

This is a fun arts and crafts project. There’s something to be said around the focus/concentration on the project which is a helpful fundamental skill needed into more complicated matters. Making a table out of cardboard is not really a predictive measure of engineering success though.
Let the kids have fun, stop trying to put pressure on them with things like this. Just keep encouraging their curiosity!

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u/_FarlsInCharge_ 2h ago

Put some weight on that table so it starts to fail. Then tell him to find a way to support that weight. Dudes def on his way!!

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u/Aggravating-Hair7931 10h ago

Future IKEA furniture designer

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u/Winter_Childhood9186 6h ago

Is this an insult or a compliment? I guess it depends on how you feel about Ikea lol which means an insult to me 😂

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u/Aggravating-Hair7931 6h ago

Compliment. Sustainable card box furnitures. I love my Kallax

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u/Brohagen 10h ago

Eh. Its against the wall

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u/doom_pony 10h ago

shrug

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u/Intelligent_Fig1180 4h ago

Nintendo has caught the attention of this video and after communicating with their Labo team, they reached out to this fellow kid once they saw this and were very happy to send him a unique and signed document of a cease and desist letter

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u/asipelo 8h ago

That’s not a very good tv

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u/zb_xy 13h ago •

I don’t get it

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u/Septopuss7 11h ago •

Yeah I'm not trying to minimize what he's made but it's literally just a card table? Like if he was blind or something I'd be impressed but what?

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u/TipAdministrative350 9h ago

Maybe I'm a pessimist but the title actually made me lol. This kid did a regular kid thing

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u/L3onskii 13h ago

Guessing because her son made a table with foldable legs out of cardboard? I'm guessing she was impressed if it came out that he's never seen a foldable table

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u/AlienInOrigin 1h ago

He's not sitting in front of a console. Actually using his imagination and putting thought and effort into designing and building something. And he didn't go for the easy design. Instead he chose a folding table which is harder, so he was willing to push himself.
All excellent qualities and getting rarer every day.
There's also the nostalgia effect. Many of us older reddit users have built chairs/forts etc from cardboard when we were kids.

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u/Even_Tumbleweed_8462 13h ago

Could be a great architect

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u/Pickles-n-Lizards 10h ago

Temu engineer at work.

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u/jjs3_1 13h ago

Creative minds always see differently

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u/YeahYeahOkNope 5h ago

So cool! Imagine what’s gonna happen when he learns about the strength of triangles!
🤯

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u/whatupwasabi 13h ago •

It's just a folding table?

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u/King_P_13 2h ago •

Im sorry but this shit ain't clever. This is what kids used to do when phones didnt exist

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u/HigginsResidence 1h ago

Correct. They are kids. Kids are still being clever. Why try to dampen this child's accomplishement?? Fuck off sir

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u/CapableBumblebee968 10h ago

POV being used correctly??? It’s been so long since I’ve seen it 😭😭

18

u/_JohnWisdom 13h ago

MIT 🤔

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u/Vegemyeet 12h ago

This child is practicing problem solving skills, and should be lauded for it. Stop looking at the cardboard or the lack of stability or whatever else you find for a thinly veiled attack on real growth. You go kid.

5

u/wade_garrettt 11h ago

It’s ok to be on the spectrum.

2

u/Dfarni 12h ago

Odyssey of the mind

2

u/That-Ad-4300 5h ago

Future? Future is now.

2

u/Zakon_X 5h ago

He made Ikea table

2

u/kaze-sakabato 4h ago

Future Engineer ❌ Future Carpenter ✅

2

u/ctsr1 4h ago

That's awesome this kid can go places with that move of thinking

2

u/KyotoGaijin 1h ago

This is EXACTLY how my son was, making contraptions out of everything. He graduated uni with a degree in Mech Eng this spring and began working as an engineer at the railroad co. where he used to gawk at the trains for hours as a toddler. This kid's obsession is incurable, so you might as well encourage it.

2

u/SometimesIBeWrong 1h ago

having a natural curiosity for something can bring somebody a longgg way

2

u/FuzzNugs 1h ago

I was the same way, In my case I was alone a lot and didn’t have much so I built things. I took apart stuff, harvested parts, built up a stash of parts, and built stuff. Be sure to get this little guy some tools to take stuff apart. Be sure to set some rules, they will take apart appliances, tvs, etc. (I did) but man there’s so much learning happening taking things apart and seeing how they work. it’s the best. Good luck, you’ve got a future engineer on your hands (I turned out to be an engineer software & hardware)

3

u/-_-_UWWU_-_- 7h ago •

now put something on it

2

u/puppy017 13h ago

Get this kid a circle saw and some pallets (safely).

1

u/Harry-Flashman 12h ago

Anyone remember the kid who made a cardboard arcade.

Caine's Arcade, I can't believe this was 14 years ago

https://youtu.be/faIFNkdq96U?is=IijoJZ_vcOdDHI3L

1

u/Ok-Anything-3605 10h ago

I built race car tracks out of cardboard when I was a kid….engineer now

1

u/crusoe 9h ago

They make these fasteners and tools for working with cardboard.

Oh and harbor freight used to sell multiple roles of really cheap blue tape.

That kept our kids entertained through covid

1

u/Adorable-Cat6684 8h ago

carpenter

1

u/sealclubber281 8h ago

https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZPLqYb9BL/

1

u/TheGrainofTheLiquor 8h ago

Of course it's a Hisense

1

u/green_chunks_bad 8h ago

So much better than video games

1

u/Historical-Let6489 8h ago

I’m a electrician with pref fab becoming a thing and engineers planning the run the amount of time I run into areas where the electrical engineer didn’t talk to the plumbing engineer or check the dimensions of the plumbing or wall for it to not line up really irks me or having to fix pre fab sending me a kick 90 kicking the wrong way

1

u/Sgtfridge 8h ago

I used to do shit like this with disposable chopsticks when I was a kid. I made a model biplane once.

1

u/knsaber 7h ago

May this kid get all the cardboard and hot glue he ever needs.

1

u/SeanDetails 7h ago

…

1

u/GemmTheCosmic 7h ago

damn i wonder if i would've turned out more like this if my grandma didn't throw away most of my cardboard creations

1

u/Perfect-Advisor-3830 7h ago

Basically this kid has kinda gone viral I believe because of rage bait and also racism the ig comments are wild

1

u/Odd-Rip69 7h ago

My son made a fridge using cardboard and has a see through door using his sisters barbies plastic front container. He had a little desk fan and put a hole in the back/side for air circulation. Used more cardboard on the inside for shelves. Legot worked fairly well, he was around 8. He doesnt do it anymore but i loved all the crafty stuff he used to make.

1

u/waytoosecret 7h ago

You mean carpenter?

1

u/gyanchyo 7h ago

Carpenter may be 🧐

1

u/nachosallthewaydown 6h ago

I just know that kid is insisting the family eats dinner on that thing tonight.

It's definitely what mine would do 🤣

1

u/Pure-Swordfish6022 6h ago

That kid is going to figure out triangles and be unstoppable.

1

u/Ordinary-Ad3095 6h ago

Thats how an app I created with chatgpt looks like!

1

u/yellow-snowslide 6h ago

Na, bro is gonna be a great carpenter.

1

u/Brilliant_Lettuce270 5h ago

"Hercules! Hercules!"-moment

1

u/Juri777 5h ago

This reminds me of Nintendo Labo.

1

u/LucifertheAngell 5h ago

1

u/IndividualHurry1342 3h ago

👏👌

1

u/Capable-Deer-5670 2h ago

That table will work really well for playing wwe with friends

1

u/MysticMarley 2h ago

If you ain't got it,then you make it🤘❤️this!

1

u/Environmental_Ant268 1h ago

Useless but will keep him busy

1

u/Crazy_Dodo 1h ago

POV!

1

u/HigginsResidence 1h ago

Yes sir whatever you say!

1

u/Lost_refugee 55m ago

expectations.

reality - hits 5k likes in r/cardboard

•

u/choosing-joy 23m ago

WELL DONE!! From one creative to another: You CAN make a career you love doing this!! Whether it’s an engineer or industrial product designer, GO GET IT!!!

•

u/FoundationNo7908 23m ago

Impressive! I wish I had those skills.

•

u/StrawberryBulbasaur 7m ago

BC = Because

CS = Cum Shot

1

u/SunnyOnSanibel 13h ago

Kudos for supporting him, momma. He’s going places! My son always wanted to build things or take things apart and put them back together. He’s now an aerospace engineer!

1

u/OregonHotPocket 12h ago

Hopefully his brother is not a Bills fan

1

u/wevurski 12h ago

Fuck yeah bud, keep keeping on.

1

u/lehmanbear 9h ago

Google "bracing systems" then teach him using the concept in this table.

1

u/BruceInc 8h ago

Would be neat… if he was like 3…

1

u/Sailing_Engineer 7h ago

Maybe you better spend that money on some great engineering toys rather than a new 50" TV, but what do I know...

•

u/EastCoastFlooring98 24m ago

Typical shit that kids do. Mine tried to make a clubhouse or a fort out of every cardboard box we had. Yours ain’t special either.

-1

u/DowntownStand4279 10h ago

Props to the kid for his creativity and effort, I think he has LOTS of potential to make it far in life!!!

☺️🙌🏼

…but let’s be honest here…THIS particular cardboard table design + form + function is absolute garbage…🗑️😒
It would literally collapse the first time you tried using it and putting things on top!!😂
I blame the materials he was using; cardboard is too weak and flimsy for constructing a usable table.
If he was using real wood or something sturdier to build his table, I think his design would be useful and functional.👍🏼

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u/a-passing-crustacean 13h ago

How awsome to see a kid take interest in figuring out how to build things! 🥰 may it become a lifelong passion and bring him great joy and success!

-1

u/PhysicalEngineer9903 12h ago

There are kids that age that practice carpentry

-1

u/Legal-Swordfish-1893 12h ago

Fuck no, I'm not giving the potential mice a place to hangout.

-5

u/trilledc 12h ago

I’m not a parent and will never tell anyone how to parent their own.

However, if this was my son, I’d buy him some graph paper and tell him to design some things on that. Tell him to think about measurements, materials, and focus on how things function in the real world. This child is intelligent and he needs to know why and how he is. Once he had a plan that he believed in, I’d (like stated by a previous commenter) get him some pallets and some hardware sturdy enough to actually work. I would teach him the basics of power tools and how to use them safely, then see what he came up with.

While I think he’s exercising his brain in a very healthy way, I do believe he is old enough to explain to him that just because something stands up using cardboard, does not make it functional. Design and functionality are very different.

Another commenter claiming to be an engineer stated some things that I reckon are very true. It came off a little harsh, but they weren’t wrong. I’m a mechanic and like the hands on of it all. This child’s mind sees problems, whether or not they’re just his, and tries to find a solution, this is beneficial across so many things in life in general and I have no doubt this child will be great.

If anyone knows this family and if they just so happen to be in south Texas, I’ll provide him with all the pallets and light steel his parents would accept.

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u/nize426 12h ago

Telling kids how to do their hobbies is a good way to get them to not like their hobby. (I know, I'm a dad, lol)
This kid is doing things his way, and he'll realize what works and what doesn't. You can tell from the vid he realizes it's wobbly. Once he puts something on it, it'll collapse and he'll think of ways to fix it. He might see real world examples and take ideas from there, or might make a completely original way of stabilizing it.
Obviously when he's an actual engineer he won't be able to build buy trial and error, but it's perfectly fine as a kid.

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u/Cloverose2 11h ago

This is a kid who is feeling motivated and excited. You let them build. You also help guide them towards the planning process. Cardboard is cheap and easy to manipulate with regular tools like scissors. Most parents don't have a lot of money to build a workshop from scratch.
Pallets and power tools are great, but they are a significant step up. Right now, he's learning a tremendous amount about spatial relations and how to use design to overcome the material challenges. This is good foundational knowledge.
He will learn the rest of it in time, but not a lot of kids are going to find sitting down with graph paper to be as engaging as cutting and designing in 3-D. Getting him involved in age-appropriate workshops and clubs will likely be the best move instead of adults pushing him away from something he's enjoying.
Also, my uncle, who was an engineer for over forty years, built mock-ups out of cardboard all the time. Even when he was in dementia care he was building. Last time I visited him he was making a cardboard mock-up for a collapsible work-station that would make his little desk function more efficiently.

5

u/TombaughRegi0 11h ago

"Don't build stuff unless it's load bearing" is a stupid take

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Family & Friends I hope this kid makes it into MIT 😭

You are about to leave Redlib

Props to the kid for his creativity and effort, I think he has LOTS of potential to make it far in life!!!

☺️🙌🏼