When you mix some of yourself into raw materials, you get something more than the finished product you’ve built. There is a difference between buying a chair and building one, an intangible connection that the mind makes to the resulting object. In a technical sense, buying a chair with money you worked for is still “making a chair,” but it’s too many steps removed for the subconscious mind to see in that way. When you really sweat something into existence, your mind also invests value in that thing, value which radiates back outward each time you use it.
So when you build something together with someone else, you get that same intangible investment, only now it’s an inseparable connection between two or more people as well. The car you build with your friend, the house you build with your partner, or the Lego set you build with your son will always carry something a little extra within the confines of its physical space. It will always be a vessel for some of the bond you’ve made. That is a valuable experience.
The Opportunity Machine 