My Mini-Me Camper Van – Manifesto

Why this matters. What will be done. How it will be done.

Outlining the scope and approach for my Mini-Me camper van project – the first step toward something bigger, starting with personal transformation.

This manifesto dives deeper into the project I introduced in the previous article “The Journey Home: From World Wanderer to Van Builder”.

Why This Matters

This is the first domino in a chain reaction toward something… wait for it… leg… revolutionary! Building my Mini-Me van is Phase Zero of the larger Build My Van event, which in turn seeds the Unity GZ movement. But at its core, it’s about my personal transformation from a web developer to a hands-on maker – and let’s face it, from a wannabe to a doer.

My Master Plan 2025 was about launching 7 projects, from scratch, in parallel, starting all by myself. The Build My Van event reduced that to starting only 2 projects, while softly progressing on 3 more. This project is focused on a single thing… well, 2 as I’ll create educational content… well, 3 as I’ll also need to learn how to document the journey 😂 …well 4, no just kidding… or am I? 😉

Personal Growth

I’ve spent way too many years sitting at a desk at home, typing on my computer, alone in my head (well not really alone but that’s another story). Don’t get me wrong, I love coding. But I’ve also always loved DIY, building stuff with my hands, working with physical matter.

• Breaking out of my mental and digital cocoon
• Getting my hands dirty working with physical matter
• Improving my manual skills across multiple domains
• Building a foundation in craftsmanship and digital fabrication

Community Integration

As a freelance developer, I’ve spent way too many years isolated. It’s time to get out there and meet real people, discovering not only their skills and crafstmanship but also who they are and the passion that fuels them. It’s time to join the makers, van builders, and vanlifers:

• Engaging authentically with the people
• Contributing meaningfully to the communities
• Learning from experienced craftspeople who’ve mastered their domains
• Sharing ideas, discoveries, and also failures
• Building genuine relationships with experts and manufacturers

Larger Vision Advancement

Every step of this project lays groundwork for what’s coming next:

• Building credibility through demonstrated capabilities, not just ideas
• Testing and validating key technical and logistical assumptions
• Developing effective approaches to collaboration and documentation
• Creating templates for future educational content
• Establishing relationships with key partners for the Build My Van event

Education

This aspect is crucial both for my growth and the project’s impact:

• Creating content that concretely helps others while documenting my journey
• Overcoming my fears of filming and expressing myself, especially in English
• Moving past impostor syndrome – I’m smart enough to produce quality content worth sharing
• Finding peace with the “money concept” – accepting that value deserves compensation

What Will Be Done

“Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.” — Leonardo da Vinci

The goal is to get on the road quickly and let real-world experience guide further development. I’ll approach this as I know best, like Modern Software Development. This project embraces simplicity and agility – starting with the minimum needed and evolving from there.

Van Build

Approach:

In the spirit of a MVP (Minimum Viable Product), just enough to…

• Cover all aspects for a complete experience – to be able to learn, share, and teach
• Demonstrate my capabilities and thought process
• Enable full-time living and working
• Reflect excellence, minimalism, and innovation
• Not waste time and budget

Key Principles:

• Start with a second-hand light utility vehicle
• Transform it into a piece of art Mini-Me camper van
• Embrace minimalism while staying full-featured
• Choose elegant simplicity over complexity
• Question everything – e-vry-thing!
• Aim for excellence
• Before compromising, think harder
• Design for maintenance and evolution
• Make everything serve multiple purposes

Spirit:

• Dieter Rams’ good design
• Apple’s UX philosophy
• Elon Musk’s thinking
• MacGyver’s resourcefulness
• Swiss army knife’s versatility
• God’s in the details

“It seems that perfection is attained not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing more to remove.” — Antoine de Saint Exupéry

Out of Scope:

• Perfectionism – only excellence 😉
• Complex systems – KISS
• Permanent fixtures – keeping flexibility
• Full digital fabrication – start with craftsmanship
• Perfect aesthetic finishes – function first

Documenting the Journey

Primary Objectives:

• Get started with video documenting
• Confronting my fears, with zero expectations
• Must not be time consuming – this is not the main focus

Approach:

• Keep it simple and manageable
• Focus on progress over perfection
• Build confidence through practice
• Quality light and sound, basic editing

Coverage:

• Daily quick stories: objectives, progress, recap
• Weekly updates: achievements, failures, next steps
• In-depth blog posts: planning, execution, learnings
• Record material for later use

Educational Content

Focus:

• Methodical, engineering-driven approach
• Detailed build process from concept to completion
• Thorough step-by-step guidance
• Decision-making process
• Science behind reasoning, decisions, and actions
• Practical templates and starting points

Spirit:

• First principles thinking
• User-centric decision
• Craftsmanship execution
• Left no stones unturned

Out of Scope:

• Complete course production – finalized after this

How It Will Be Done

• Question: thinking everything from first principles
• Research: analyzing what others are doing and getting inspiration
• Learn: understanding how things work, what to do and why
• Prototype: testing and validating ideas
• Define: creating concrete thorough specifications

But that will be covered in the following articles – stay tuned…