I had an English teacher who once told me that to really read a book, you have to write in the margins. To him, reading was interactive, and the books he left in his wake were dense with scribbles and dog-eared pages.

Aside from always keeping a pen on my nightstand, the deeper lesson it taught me is that two people can pick up the same book, watch the same movie, or listen to the same song, but the richness they extract depends on how prepared they are to engage with the work.

Week after week, Gareth and I comb through the internet. My job is to extract DIY projects; his is to gather the best tips, techniques, and clever hacks (like the collection you’re holding here). In a sense, we’re both writing in the margins of the same book, but from very different perspectives.

Without a doubt, his job is harder because, in their original contexts, these useful little nuggets are often hidden within the project. Within an eight-minute video, Gareth’s keen eye can find the 10 seconds featuring some novel technique or tool that the rest of us would miss.

By compiling what he has seen and heard, Gareth has essentially created a magic book for makers. This isn’t a book of formal instruction. It’s a book of secrets that Gareth found in plain sight. It’s a book where you can learn how to blow someone’s mind with a zip-tie weave, measure with your fingers, or learn a dozen different techniques for keeping a project notebook. For makers, it’s a book full of “Eureka!” moments.

So, read on, write in the margins, dog-ear the good stuff, and pass on what you’ve learned.

—Donald Bell
Maker Project Lab