Hidayah: Living the Spirit of Learning and Making

“You might think that electronics are expensive, you need to buy a lot in bulk before you can try to do something small, all [such thinking] is rubbish, throw it away [the mindset]. Oh the CAC router, oh the laser, it’s so difficult. I am not even a design student. I can’t even design — throw it away.”

Abandoning these negative thoughts and moving forward was the message she wanted to put across.

We bring you Hidayah, who is the business development manager of OneMaker Group (OMG). As one of the leading makerspace communities in Singapore, OMG actively promotes innovation and entrepreneurship. A maker herself, Hidayah was keen in ensuring that this term was well-understood before taking the conversation further. “A maker is not just someone who makes, but uses all his opportunity to make that happen, a maker is part of a community that help and share with each other about making!” Hidayah said with zest.

The Maker Mindset since Young

“Makers are just normal people. We are normal people with the drive to actually create something, to have our ideas come into action.”

In saying so, the maker mindset has long been ingrained in Hidayah. She has already developed a strong interest in design at a young age. Hidayah recalled back to the time when she was in university, “there will be some time where I had exams, essays due late but I just felt like I needed to soak [into making], and I just did it.” Studying history was enjoyable for her too but deep inside her, she knew that learning and making was what she loved.

“When you start making something with your hands, then you feel it happening and progressing, it’s literally from something zero to creating something. That’s why people feel so much for making. It’s because they have experienced it.” Hidayah described to us. She felt that understanding the maker’s movement is only possible when “you actually pull yourself to it and challenge yourself to learn something new.”

On a side note, Hidayah commented that “in this part of the world, the word ‘maker’ is not so strong yet.” She explains that this term seems new to people because maker culture is vastly different from just being DIY.

Currently, there has been much emphasis in the open community where one can learn through online tutorials. Although people can choose to hold back the knowledge, where others need to pay in order to learn, Hidayah tells us that such mentality is gradually breaking down. The maker’s community is pretty liberal such that anyone can have access to knowledge.

Hidayah’s Maker Experience

Despite thinking that she does not exactly have a ‘maker’s story’, Hidayah sees herself as a maker, one that would make whenever ideas come to her mind. “When you come to space, like a makerspace, you will find that there is just so much opportunity for you to learn and that there is really no limit to the possibilities of what you can learn.”

Hidayah then shared with us her first attempt at programming, where she had a fun time learning. “There were parts like ‘I GET IT!’ at that instant when you can do it and that is very satisfying. You feel the sense of achievement. It’s always about understanding that you are able to do all of these, and there isn’t a need to have any fear,” she spoke affirmatively.

She has thus shown that girls can program too! After all, who said that programming was ‘a guy’s thing’?

Her exposure in OMG also included designing a wooden power bank where participants of the workshop could carve and laser engrave it, so that there was something for everyone to bring home. Adding on to her experience, “there was once where I taught 3D printing even though I have only learnt a little. I started from zero in fact.” Hidayah said with an enthusiastic look on her face. As long as she has the capability and ample knowledge, she wants to teach others. This is the mentality of a maker — to benefit everyone. “You just want to learn it and share it so that we can grow with the amount of knowledge,” Hidayah added.

When asked about her biggest accomplishment, we could feel a sense of pride from Hidayah even as she responded humbly, “I fixed my earpiece by soldering. I took a few hours because it was only my second time playing with it.” This can definitely be classified as a milestone in her journey as a maker, right?

Imagine one day when everyone in Singapore begin learning and fixing their own earphones! There would be so much maker spirit in the air!