My own shed project last summer looked like a drunk toddler drew the plans... still surprised it hasn't fallen over. Their crew sounds way more together than my "weekend warrior" act with a leaning wall and a lot of muttered bad words.

Gotta disagree with the whole social debt worry. Fixed a buddy's laptop once and it just meant he covered my lunch the next week, no weirdness. That kind of small trade builds real trust way faster than just clocking in together. @burns.nina I see your point, but most people just feel helped and return the favor naturally without keeping score.

That point about messy projects teaching you stuff is true, but it misses the core issue. Getting stuck debugging a broken game for two days can teach you problem solving, sure. But if you don't know what a loop is, you'll just copy fixes without learning. The sweet spot is tiny projects that actually work, like a number guessing game, where you can see each piece doing its job.