I saw Adam speak in 2008 at the HOPE conference (Hackers on Planet Earth) in NYC. He told a story of wanting to build a perfect replica of the Maltese Falcon from the movie out of lead to perfect scale. Lead is toxic and the dimensions of the model were difficult to come by and he had to teach himself the entire process because there were no instructions. He succeeded and had his model and used the story to illustrate the value of channeling obsession into a positive direction. In his case he had the money for the passion project, however others must have a patron.