What Building a Racing

Go Kart Taught Me About Software Development

Tyler Graf

Tree Team

Hobbies

  • My Kids
  • Golf
  • Sim Racing
  • Photography
  • F1
  • RC Cars
  • Chess

 

No!

Danger!

Plus Kids!

Backstory

Sim Racing

Force Feedback

Pedals

Realistic Precision

Princess and Puppy

  • Realistic Physics
    • Grip
    • Brake Balance
    • Traction Control 
  • Race Craft
    • Braking
    • Cornering
    • Focus
  • Real-time Online Competitions 

Max Verstappen

Formula One

Ambition vs Constraints

Why Build a Go Kart?

Building a Mental Model

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Discovery

Welding

Go Kart Parts

Fabrication

Electronics

CAD

Failure

HUMILITY

TEACHABILITY

Welding

Feeder Wire

Welding Gas

Dials

Electronics

Voltage

Amperage

Amp Hours

Wattage

Other Learnings

Metal Tubing not a Pipe

Notching?

Practice

AI

New Library

New Project

What is your new mountain?

Prebuild vs Roll your own

Rule of Thumb

  • complex
  • error-prone
  • non-core to your product (e.g., date/time, i18n, crypto)
  • there’s a well-maintained, lightweight, secure library.

 

  • when the need is small

  • performance/bundle size matters

  • you want long-term control and stability without external dependency risk.

 

 

 

Roll your own

Prebuilt

Prebuilt

  • Wheels
  • Tires
  • Tie Rods
  • Axle
  • Hubs
  • Spindles
  • Axle Hangers
  • Seat
  • Steering Wheel
  • Battery
  • Motor
  • Controller
  • Chain
  • Sprockets
  • Brake System
  • Pedals

Tie Rods

Pedals

Spindle

Hydraulic Brake

Axle

Axle Hanger

Tyre

Brake Disc

Collars

Own-rolled

  • Frame
  • Floor
  • Motor Mount
  • Steering Column
  • Steering Column Coupler (3d printed)
  • Battery Box
  • Seat Mounts
  • Steering Mounts

Why roll my own?

Coupler

Steering Column

Frame

Steering Mount

Floor

Pedal Mounts

Pitman Arms

Chunking and MVPs

Frame

Not Welded

Welded

Magnets, how do they work?!

Wife first sees it at this point

Board Seat

No Brakes

Old Motor and Battery

Show shakedown video

Twist throttle

LEAN

MVP

Expose to users

Collect Feedback

Scope Creep & Configuration Costs

6' 5"

4' 3"

Person Component

Person Component Props

😳

Thinking Time and AI

Mess

Family Photo here

You don't know what will prepare you

 

Be methodical, though

Electric Motors

Batteries

Gears

3D Printing

Voltage/Amperage

Working with Metal

Chain Sizes

Chain Trains

Strength of PLA

Welds > Bolts

~600

Recipes

PHP (2008)

MySql

Rails (2009)

MySql, svn

Angular (2012)

node, mongodb, git

Polymer 1 (2015)

Firebase

Polymer 2 (2017)

PWA, node, mongodb

Lit (2019)

node, mongodb

React (2021)

Node, mongodb, CRA

Next.js (2023)

Next, RSC, AWS, mongodb, tailwind

What could prepare you?

  • Agentic Coding/Tasks

Key Takeaways

  1. Start before you’re ready.
  2. Break problems into chunks.
  3. Choose tools deliberately — embrace
    workarounds.
  4. YAGNI: scope creep kills velocity.
  5. Test early in prod conditions.
  6. Leverage thinking time & AI.
  7. Buy vs Build: Prebuilt is leverage, roll-your-own is control.
  8. Build skills now — you never know which ones you’ll need.

Building is learning — whether
it’s code or steel.

Building is learning — whether
it’s code or steel.

Thank you!