In a special episode of Looking Sideways, I talk with inventor, hackspace evangelist and all-round legend, Mitch Altman, about how he became a maker, the origins of the pioneering Noisebridge hackerspace in San Francisco, the enduring appeal of the soldering iron, how to start your own hackerspace … and of course, the importance of doing what you love.

If you get the opportunity to hear Mitch talk, or take part in one of his soldering is easy workshops (or anyone else’s ‘soldering is easy’ workshop, for that matter) I’d thoroughly recommend it.

Links for this episode

• Mitch’s hackerspaces talk at TEDx Brussels
• Soldering is Easy comic
• Mitch’s photos of (amongst other things) people soldering on Flickr
• Mitch’s company: Cornfield Electronics
• TV-B-Gone
• Chaos Computer Club
• Hackerspace Design Patterns

Photo credit: Alexander Klink

And don’t forget to watch out for the accompanying article in the next issue of Hot Glue zine.