Estonians have long had a passion for inventiveness. Up until the 20th century the majority of Estonians lived in the countryside which meant most things were homemade. The wooden peasant age refers to the period when people made things from the resources in their vicinity (before urbanisation). Estonians have a knack for making something out of nothing, and some of the results have been quite interesting. For example, this boy from Tarvastu, designed and built his own wooden bike in 1912.
During the Soviet occupation, do-it-yourself gadgets were common in Estonia due to the drop in living standards and the unavailability of many products. Getting by in life often required creative solutions and so many things were created using a bit of ingenuity. Some of these included making a heating coil out of a soldering iron, a car muffler out of a fireman's foam extinguisher or a lawnmover out of a Riga washing machine motor. Today, despite living in a modern society, Estonians have not lost their technical savvy and habit of crafting things themselves whenever the need arises. In modern times this cultural trait is manifested in the country's high rate of entrepreneurship, particularly in the tech sectors.
