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While I thank those who are defending the choices made in the kit, and I agree that "Learn to Solder" may be too imperative, or patronizing a name for the kit (Soldering "Stage 1" Kit?), I'd like to make one important point. To wit,
There is NOTHING wrong with ignorance!
The naming of this kit is meant to recognize that many people are inexperienced in the (extremely cool!) physics of soldering, ie, the practice of making electrical joints with nothing but some soft metal alloy and your bare hands.
Another way to word the statement above is that, although one may be somewhat ignorant of the art and science behind, all it takes is a stroke of an soldering iron to wipe away that ignorance and build cool stuff!
Frankly, no one is making money on this kit. At the highest tier it is being sold for cost or slightly under. The iron and stand makes up about 50% of the cost, and the extremely high quality hand tools -- meaning the nippers and the soldapullt (which is by far the most effective simple hand tool for desoldering), make up the other 50%. Massdrop and I have joined forces to sell this kit for the good of the DIY and just-about-ready-to-DIY community.
I am passionate about soldering as a method for opening doors to the world of electronics, physics and computation. My payment for designing and refining this kit over the years is not money, but to watch as it changes people's lives from working with electronic devices in a kind of "fog of war" of incomplete understanding to a mastery of the principles of electron flow, ie, electrical potential and current, and personal development in the practice and theory of engineering of these things.
Hence, I don't post here as a salesperson or someone trying to push a tookit on you that you don't want. I speak from experience, a love of making things, and a fiery passion for STEM education. That is, one doesn't go from zero to mastery in a day. One goes from zero to mastery over months to years of experimentation, practice and learning how to not repeat mistakes. I designed this kit to help people get from point A to point B, and fully acknowledge that there are other ways to get there, but from my own experience, I feel that this is the safest and gentlest way to start off and from there, the running is all up to you. :)