Try looking up videos from an old PBS show called “This Old House”. There should be lots of videos up on Youtube. The hosts are professional contractors and each season they rennovate an old house and use it as a way to teach the viewers how to do proper repairs. They also have tutorials on plumbing, wiring, etc.
You can also try getting an Arduino or Raspberry Pi and start trying to use them for random tinkering projects. There’s plenty of examples and walkthroughs on Adafruit’s websites for examples. That being said, you might need to look up guides on some different skills like soldering, but that’s thr benefit - the projects get you to learn new skills.
Sorry if this doesn’t directly address your request to learn resourcefulness, but there’s a point to it. In my opinion, gaining a broader skillset via DIY projects helps with being resourceful, as you’re equipped with more tools to apply to a given problem.
Seconding the home lab / micro controler project. A bit of research and you can get most things (especially shitty IOT crap off amazon) to dump their firmware and let you go digging around in usually lazy code. (A friend and I took apart an automated water bowl for a cat the other day, took a few hours, but we now have the tools and know what to search for on the next time someones shitty internet enabled fish feeder dies)
The reason is that in [current year], knowing stuff is great, but knowing where to find the info you need is more important. Thats why AI is taking off like it is. Its users ask in plain text for answers to things, the resourceful people only use that as a tool to find what they need not the complete answer(Also keep good notes. So you only have to find something once).
Perhaps not a course, but a lot of trades require similar types of “improvised” problem solving using only the resources available to you.
It seems like, from the very limited info you have provided, you’re looking to be a problem solver with no problem. Go make or fix something, even it just out cardboard, tape and chewing gums.
A lot of inventiveness and resourcefulness comes from repeatedly solving problems and applying the cumulative experience gained each time.
Also remember characters like Violet or MacGyver are in fictional worlds. Their surrounding, problems, and “quick” thinking has all been carefully thought out over time by the author. If the character needs some duct tape, guess what’s going to be conveniently on a shelf nearby.
Learn how things work. Take them apart. Try to put them back together again properly. Buy sacrificial items at thrift stores/Goodwill/Craigslist for this. Look for broken/worn out items and try to make them work better. Small kitchen appliances are a great place to start. Sometimes all it needs is to be taken apart, cleaned and relubricated. Collect common components (motors, screws, magnets, springs, wiring, lights) from the things you can’t fix, and recycyle the rest if possible.
As you take things apart, pay attention to how the different pieces are connected. Take pictures for later reference. Look at it and ask, why this component and why is it oriented this specific way inside the appliance and connected to that other component? What function do the two parts accomplish together? What were the design choices that led to this arrangement? And if applicable, which part of it broke, and what was the likely cause, can it be fixed, and can the failure be prevented in the future?
You can really learn a lot by taking things apart, even if you’re not able to fix it.
Volunteer at a farm. When everything is far away and stuff needs to get done, you learn how to be resourceful and get by with what you have available to you.
Not familiar with the reference but check out Theory of Inventive Problem Solving aka TRIZ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TRIZ there’s lots of courses
Yes! If you’re young, join the Scouts.
i kind of saw the character as a young engineer. maybe start down that road.
If you watch enough tiktok you’ll get there!
