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+++
title = "The secret to doing crazy things is delusion."
date = 2026-09-20
extra.image = "/assets/images/post-image/delusion.png"
extra.header_title = "delusion"
+++
Throw everything you know about reasonable expectations out of the window.
When you think of an insane idea, something almost impossible, something delusional, what's the first thing you do?
Do you brush it off as insane, infeasible, or just plain impossible?
If so, throw that habit out of the window.
When you think of an insane idea, something almost impossible, something delusional, write it down.
Expand on it.
No matter what you think, no matter how insane it sounds, no matter how impossible it looks, try it.
Make the thing you thought to be impossible.
Write down that idea that's been in the back of your head for years.
Build the thing you thought to be delusional.
You never know what you're capable of.
The secret to doing crazy things is **delusion.**
## Be unreasonable.
That idea in the back of your mind.
The concept you thought was impossible.
The innovation that's "infeasible."
Is it really infeasible?
Is it really impossible?
Sure, it might be delusional, but who knows — you might do something crazy.
## Delusional ambition.
Ambition is usually constrained by what we think our limits are.
We set goals based on our current abilities.
What if you just... stopped doing that?
What if you set a goal so delusional that your current skillset wasn't enough for it?
You'd have to grow into it. You'd have to expand your skillset to reach your goal.
It might take you a month, a year, two years, five years, maybe even a decade, but who knows — you might do something crazy.
## Romanticize the process.
Motivation is commonly fueled by results.
The recognition.
The money.
The finished product.
The applause.
The light at the end of the tunnel.
Shift your focus.
Don't let the results hook you in.
Romanticize the process.
Get addicted to building for learning. Building for fun. Building for joy.
Sometimes, projects never happen.
Life gets in the way.
You run out of money.
Someone else comes up with your idea and does it before you.
The plan you spent months working on fades away into the abyss.
But you know what doesn't fade away?
The knowledge you gained from that experience.
Your first project might not have taken off, but your skills definitely improved.
Keep trying, because who knows — you might do something crazy.
## Ambition does not equal correctness.
Last year, I designed an incredibly ridiculous embedded systems project.
I called it quadrant-robot. It was going to be a home robot running embedded Linux on a Raspberry Pi, with voice recognition, an LLM, SLAM capabilities, a custom Linux-based operating system (Yocto/OE), OTA updates, secure boot, verified boot chains, custom partition structures, a recovery environment, and much more.
Just to clarify, I didn't even know how to design a PCB. To be honest, I still don't know how to design PCBs. I do low-level development and embedded systems, but I've never really been a hardware guy. I've always worked on the software side of things. That's my specialty.
You might ask what my solution to not knowing PCB design was. It was to just use a Raspberry Pi. For a commercial product.
Oh, did I mention I tried to use Python for the A/B updates because I wasn't as comfortable with C back then?
Yeah, good luck putting an entire Python interpreter in an initramfs.
I did not have a single thought about licensing Pis for commercial use, about the Raspberry Pi CM5 being too bulky for my project, about the limitations of verified boot on Raspberry Pis.
But I had a vision and ambition.
Somewhere in my plan document, I wrote this:
*“Maybe we could partner with the Raspberry Pi Foundation to make it like an endorsed platform to easily build robotics on top of.”*
I said what?
Who in their right mind looks at their ambitious project and thinks *"Maybe the Raspberry Pi Foundation would want to partner with us for this great idea!"*
Apparently, me from last year.
In hindsight, there were a _lot_ of flaws, but the idea itself wasn't completely ridiculous. Many of the specifications for verified boot chains were correctly done, the partition structure was clean, and A/B updates seemed okay-ish. (A/B was good, but why Python? I could've just used RAUC smh)
Was it delusional? Yes.
Did it ever happen? Definitely not.
Was the experience valuable? 100%. I'd do it all over again.
The value of this project wasn't the end result. It was the crazy amount of embedded systems I learnt along the way.
Do you know how much I learnt about Yocto, Buildroot, and Linux in general?
I tried multiple build systems, including a script to modify Alpine, Buildroot, Yocto/OE, and I even considered LFS.
I learnt all about verified boot chains, dm-verity/fs-verity, hardware root of trusts, partition structure, A/B updates, and more.
quadrant-robot never happened, but now I'm using the knowledge I gained to build _real_ things with Yocto.
The project died, but the skillset stayed.
quadrant-robot never happened, but I think it was the turning point that transitioned me into a true systems programmer.
It was the point where I went from "teen who makes cool stuff in Python, JavaScript, and maybe a bit of Go" to "teen who spends his spare time writing UI frameworks in C and making Linux distributions with Yocto."
Being ambitious and delusional isn't about making everything work on the first try. It's about the cycle of being willing to learn by building, being willing to take roadblocks as a learning opportunity, and being willing to look back at yourself in a year and just laugh at how naive and delusional you were, then using those skills to make something even better.
---
The secret to doing crazy things is **delusion.**
Keep building, keep planning, and stay delusional, because who knows — you might do something crazy.
|
