Spent 4 hours building a cardboard treadmill UI before realizing the user panel was upside down

I was trying to copy the layout from the real treadmill I had sitting next to me. Took photos, measured distances, cut everything out just right. Showed it to my wife and she goes "why are the buttons on the bottom?". Looked at the real treadmill again. The control panel is literally mounted on top of the handles. I had been staring at it from underneath the whole time. Anyone else ever get so tunnel visioned you miss the obvious?

2 comments

2 Comments

michaelcoleman5d ago

Kind of a weird flex to admit you spent 4 hours on something without once looking at it from the right angle. That's less tunnel vision and more just not paying attention.

sullivan.john5d ago

Not quite right there @michaelcoleman. Four hours is a lot, but sometimes tunnel vision hits hard when you're deep in a problem and every small fix seems promising. You can be paying attention and still miss the big picture when you're staring at the same detail the whole time. Happens to me with woodworking all the time. Ever had a project where you finally step back and realize you've been sanding the wrong spot for way too long?