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> Want to make AI things? Make them. Want to make coat hangers? Make them. Want to make a book stand? Make it. Or, you could just, you know, buy them. My beef
by traceroute66 3y ago
> Want to make AI things? Make them. Want to make coat hangers? Make them. Want to make a book stand? Make it.
Or, you could just, you know, buy them.
My beef with people who say, like you do that 3D printers are cheap or you can buy an arduino/pi/whatever, is simple.
People consistently fail to value their time, and the startup cost.
The startup cost because your thinking works on the assumption that people know how to use, e.g. a 3D printer out of the box. The reality is that most people don't. And as such, they will expend a great deal of time with Mr Google and various internet forums trying to figure it out. They will then proceed to flush money down the pan on materials during their learning.
Second people seem to value their time at zero. If you value your time at zero, then sure, its cheaper to make it yourself. But if you value your time realistically, its cheaper to either (a) buy it or (b) pay a domain-expert to make it for you.
- yard2010 3y agoBut what's the fun in just buying stuff? Imagine every problem is solved with money, there is no taste to anything amymore.. if she could just buy a foldable hanger this video was much shorter, not fun, not interesting..
- throwaway71271 3y agoI don't value my time at zero, I just think making something is more valuable than my time.
- Kodix 3y agoYou are correct about the utility calculation, of course. It's just that many people can afford to have hobbies, and hobbies do not have to earn money or be a good investment in order to be worth doing.
- fxtentacle 3y agoSadly, 3D printers are still cheaper. I once needed to make a few customized gears out of food safe plastic. I asked several online services for quotes and I called several on-location shops in northern Germany. The quotes I got were all around $1800 per unique gear shape. Since I needed 4 different shapes (i.e. $7k for outsourcing), it was much cheaper to buy a 3D printer, watch some tutorials and spend two working days just to make them myself. Plus I honestly don't know why Shapeways (for example) will always quote you multiple weeks in lead time. What do they do in those 2 weeks after the print finished but before they send the parcel?
- thorncorona 3y agoyou probably get scheduled in the down time between actually important clients.
- m_eiman 3y ago> Plus I honestly don't know why Shapeways (for example) will always quote you multiple weeks in lead time Because they can get you to pay more to skip the wait, probably.
- dendrite9 3y agoWould you consider the parts you made foodsafe? Or would you have to use the parts to make a mold, then produce foodsafe parts? The nooks and crannies in 3d printed plastic, plus the less controlled melting/cooling has concerned me for making something which is food safe. Mostly the concern about places for bacteria to hide on the parts.
- withinboredom 3y agoIt also depends on what you are doing. If they are single-use, they can be made food-safe pretty easily, even with the nooks and crannies. With 3d printing, it can be pretty cheap to do single-use stuff. You can also electro-plate them with silver and have a pretty sanitary part.
- alpaca128 3y agoProbably the only way to make it reliably foodsafe without a lot of postprocessing would be replacing the parts frequently. It's possible to perfectly merge the layers by printing with 100% infill, burying the part in fine grained salt and then remelting it in an oven, but that takes time.
- coldtea 3y ago>People consistently fail to value their time, and the startup cost. For many people, most of it is spent doing such BS, doom-scrolling, binge-watching, games, and so on, that taking time making DIY stuff would be quite an improvement with regards to value their time, outcome, and even their mental health.
- blkhawk 3y agoexactly - I would call this the "forgetting the entertainment value" fallacy :) Also you can't turn your time into money as fungible as spending money is. So Tme is more "liquid" than cash. That said I got a 3d printer in mid-2016 and basically printed daily getting to know it until the start of 2019 - I had sooo much fan turning the wooden printer i started out with into something reliable. Nowadays i mainly print stuff as I design and need it a couple times a month.
- yard2010 3y agoTime is not money. When you spend money - you lose money. When you don't spend time - you lose time!
- coldtea 3y agoWith inflation when you don't spend money you lose money too.
- withinboredom 3y agoIf you sell your time for a living, then time (during certain parts of the day), does have a value. If you aren't selling your time and are doing something else, you are losing money.
- mrguyorama 3y agoFor the vast majority of people who sell their time for a living, their time doesn't actually have value because they are either on salary, and cannot exchange more time for more money, or their manager controls their schedule and they do not get to choose how much time they get to sell for how much money.
- the_real_osho 3y agoI think you're missing the point, which is that for some people making things is immensely rewarding