@rdtsc Great idea, I'll check out if there's a makerspace close to me. The one I checked out some itme ago was pretty expensive (due to a lot of cool tools) but there's got to be more around in Stockholm. Never heard of ham fests -- seems to be more about radio? Will check it out too!
Yes, there's certainly no shortcut around years of schooling and experience, but I still think I learn a lot faster when someone can glance at my project and says "hey, why don't you do X instead?" or "did you professionals always do Y?" instead of my figuring it out after weeks of testing and googling, even …