Learn Electronics

Hardware is to electronics, as software is to computer science. There are some of us who have been trained as electrical engineers, others as computer scientists, and although they have a fundamental advantage in their fields, their training is not a requirement. Said another way, you don’t need an EE degree to build the next great hardware company, only a basic understanding of electronics and a problem that needs to be solved.

This resource exists to help you go from zero to product as quickly as possible. It was written to accelerate the rate at which new hardware companies are being started, to explain what goes into building a consumer electronics device, and to remove as much fear as possible from people interested in designing and building real things.

Being a proficient hardware engineer requires confidence not only in the field of electronics, but also in the fields of software and industrial design. But don’t be scared away. None of it is required to get started and you will quickly master those fields and more as you work through designing and manufacturing your first product.

First, we start with a bit of background on electronics itself. There is a huge amount you could learn about the way electrons and protons interact, the way transistors are analyzed mathematically, and the physics that goes into simulation. And while we recommend you become passionate about why the devices you design work the way they do, you need to know relatively nothing to get started designing hardware.

Think of the fundamentals as a bit like writing a “hello world” script. If you have an electronics background we encourage you to skip forward to Ideation.