5 ms·

Simone Giertz talks about invention

137 points by pseudolus 2y ago

october8140 2y ago
She’s cool.
kadoban 2y ago
They didn't want the phrase "shitty robots" in their headline I guess? Too bad xD Am I missing anything or was that an _extremely_ short interview. 3 questions? I kept looking for a "read more" link or something.
teruakohatu 2y ago
It seems quite normal for very popular Youtubers to branch out and not be dependant on one source of income, while simultaneously leveraging their marketing reach. The daily goal tracker she developed is really neat, and I would love to own. The profit margin on it must be insane though at the price. https://yetch-shop.fourthwall.com/en-nzd/products/every-day-goal-calendar https://yetch-shop.fourthwall.com/en-nzd/products/every-day-...
- leros 2y ago
  I dunno about that profit margin. Don't underestimate how expensive developing products is as low scale. It would not surprise me if the margin is pretty normal.
  - KMnO4 2y ago
    Simone actually has a pretty good video that covers her costs to run the product business. TL;DW, not very much profit, especially at the beginning/low volumes. https://youtube.com/watch?v=iEAShZ8TJCs https://youtube.com/watch?v=iEAShZ8TJCs
    - xmprt 2y ago
      It actually sounded like she was running it at a loss. Or rather that if there was any profit, it was because she was taking pretty much no salary out of the company. I really hope it succeeds but I think this is one case where someone with good marketing and sales skills could help her out a lot while she's able to focus on product.
- pryelluw 2y ago
  I have a software version of this that was built for my own purposes. I plan on opening it up but let me tell you habit tracking works awesome.
  - MatthiasWandel 2y ago
    Since a daily activity once checked presumably never become unchecked, this could be just a big sheet of hexagons you can color in when the activity is done. Yes, you need to print out a new one once a year, but that's pretty trivial cost and time wise compared to the calendar gadget. Granted, the calendar is a cool gadget.
    - pryelluw 2y ago
      Tried that and didn’t work for me. I do hope it works for others. Sometimes we do need custom tools even for the most basic needs. Mine is built to track not only that I did it but it allows me to comment on it. I can then go back and read through different entries. It’s super useful. One of the use cases is tracking medications. I then share the notes with my GP (they appreciate things being timestamped). Btw, love your website! I use it for multiple things like writing. I will just create an entry to track it and then just write away. I also track when I work on my projects. One button click and it records the time when I start working on my car for example. Then I can track how much I spend on it and calculate how much a given repair or modification might take to complete. Yes, I love tracking things …
    - kataklasm 2y ago
      Oh wow! Did not expect you here, but it makes sense. You were the reason I started building my own ukuleles at the age of 14 or so. They became quite amazing after the third one ;-) Thanks a ton for your work and have an amazing day, Matthias!
    - buffington 2y ago
      I use a pocket sized notepad with graph paper that I use to track "streaks." Each row represents a day, and each column represents the activity that I want to track. The day to day benefits are nice. It's easy to use, doesn't need batteries, and is always with me. What I didn't anticipate when I started doing it was how cool it is to look back on what I've tracked - it's like a weird little art piece I get to have as a reminder of the hard work.
- deleted 2y ago
  [deleted]
- francislavoie 2y ago
  Actually, she spoke about that recently in a video, she's still at a loss on that product, mentioned here https://youtu.be/iEAShZ8TJCs?t=269 https://youtu.be/iEAShZ8TJCs?t=269
- JohnFen 2y ago
  It's just good business. It's never a great idea to have only one source of income (especially one as inherently risky as YouTube). That's a serious vulnerability. Ideally, you not only have multiple sources but you choose the sources so that they have different economic dependencies. That way, conditions that adversely impact one of them don't adversely impact the others -- or, even better, so that conditions that adversely impacts one positively impacts another.
SonOfLilit 2y ago
It's a very short interview, feels empty of substance. Just go watch her videos or something.
- LilBytes 2y ago
  This video covers the same topic, and it's a video from Simone. Much better and has a lot more content and substance: "Was starting a product business a mistake?" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iEAShZ8TJCs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iEAShZ8TJCs
pstrateman 2y ago
How does this article not mention anywhere that she had brain cancer? That's almost certainly the answer to the headline.
- dang 2y ago
  (We changed the headline to the less baity HTML doc title.)
- Ey7NFZ3P0nzAe 2y ago
  Well it has a dramatic impact if you live in a place where cancer can bankrupt you, not so much if you're Swedish maybe?
  - tverbeure 2y ago
    According to Wikipedia, She currently lives in LA.
  - AStonesThrow 2y ago
    Giertz did live in her native Sweden until 2016, but she now lives in these United States. Her citizenship is not mentioned in Wikipedia, so her health insurance coverage may be a matter of private, personal funds, because she probably has neither Medicaid nor FTE with benefits.
    - qingcharles 2y ago
      Her American accent always amazes me. You'd never guess she was making Swedish content in Sweden until only a few years ago. I would hope she has health insurance. Whenever I was self-employed I still made sure I had a private plan of some sort, and she has a whole company with employees, so it would be pretty easy for her to get a group plan.
    - Findecanor 2y ago
      I got the impression that she had the surgeries in the US and that she was employed at Adam Savage's Tested at the time. Therefore, I had always supposed that her employment would have involved health insurance. If she had gone back to Sweden to do it, the surgery would have been free but she would first have had to reestablish herself in Sweden and then struggled with waiting time for her first doctor's appointment and possibly multiple referrals before she would have been put on a waiting list for surgery ... during which time her condition could have worsened. (I live in her old home town and have gone through something similar...) If she had been diagnosed at a hospital in the US she would already have been in its system and would probably have been put on its priority list right away.
rectang 2y ago
> What advice do you have for aspiring inventors? > Giertz: Make things that you want. Few things make me so cynical as a successful entertainer doling out "do what you love" advice. It's what the audience wants to hear, but your life isn't going to work out like that of your celebrity friend.
- xyzzy_plugh 2y ago
  Weird, it doesn't look like "do what you love" to me. It looks like "make things that you want." My read of it is such that the "make things other people want" part is implied. The bar is much higher when you're making something you wouldn't personally use. It's certainly possible, and occasionally profitable, to do just that, but boy are things easier if you're solving a problem you happen to also have.
  - eesmith 2y ago
    I agree that interpretation is weird. It much closer to Hewlett's view (of Hewlett-Packard fame) that "if the engineer at the next bench liked it and thought it would make his job easier, then it was worth doing." (quoting https://hpmuseum.org/hp35.htm https://hpmuseum.org/hp35.htm )
- cma 2y ago
  Isn't this roughly the same advice as Paul Graham? https://www.paulgraham.com/startupideas.html https://www.paulgraham.com/startupideas.html
  - amoshebb 2y ago
    I think there’s an appreciable gap between how applicable to the masses “if you have a niche but expensive problem, fix it, others may be excited to solve it with money” and “just sell $500 arduino advent calendars. when you’re famous you can raise half a million dollars on a 6 month waitlist for $200 wire coat hangers” is
    - kadoban 2y ago
sophiacamille 2y ago
I wish Tesla produced her "truckla" instead of the cyber truck.
- JohnFen 2y ago
  At least from an aesthetic point of view, I agree. Truckla was actually a good-looking result.
deleted 2y ago
[deleted]
type0 2y ago
She should just sell robotic chindogu goods, current stuff in the shop is kinda boring /s
spiritplumber 2y ago
I'm so glad she's doing well.
- detritus 2y ago
  Me too, I remember tearing up watching her videos when she realised she had a tumour in her brain, before the operations.
justmarc 2y ago
It's cool, and I really like the PCB bit. But you're stuck with one task. I suggest two options: 1. Hack it with an additional display on top to display different calendars according to the task you're keeping track of and the ability to scroll though them, while showing the calendar state for that task. 2. Make a similarly sized touchscreen calendar which allows one to switch between them, and also add stuff like reminders, challenges, gamification/gratification stuff. The BOM cost for a DIY should funnily enough be roughly similar, or if you're savvy enough, possibly much less.
ggernov 2y ago
[flagged]
- mattdm 2y ago
  What's wrong with you?

137 points by pseudolus 2y ago

She’s cool.

They didn't want the phrase "shitty robots" in their headline I guess? Too bad xD Am I missing anything or was that an _extremely_ short interview. 3 questions? I kept looking for a "read more" link or something.

teruakohatu 2y ago

It seems quite normal for very popular Youtubers to branch out and not be dependant on one source of income, while simultaneously leveraging their marketing reach. The daily goal tracker she developed is really neat, and I would love to own. The profit margin on it must be insane though at the price. https://yetch-shop.fourthwall.com/en-nzd/products/every-day-goal-calendar https://yetch-shop.fourthwall.com/en-nzd/products/every-day-...

leros 2y ago
I dunno about that profit margin. Don't underestimate how expensive developing products is as low scale. It would not surprise me if the margin is pretty normal.
- KMnO4 2y ago
  Simone actually has a pretty good video that covers her costs to run the product business. TL;DW, not very much profit, especially at the beginning/low volumes. https://youtube.com/watch?v=iEAShZ8TJCs https://youtube.com/watch?v=iEAShZ8TJCs
  - xmprt 2y ago
    It actually sounded like she was running it at a loss. Or rather that if there was any profit, it was because she was taking pretty much no salary out of the company. I really hope it succeeds but I think this is one case where someone with good marketing and sales skills could help her out a lot while she's able to focus on product.
pryelluw 2y ago
I have a software version of this that was built for my own purposes. I plan on opening it up but let me tell you habit tracking works awesome.
- MatthiasWandel 2y ago
  Since a daily activity once checked presumably never become unchecked, this could be just a big sheet of hexagons you can color in when the activity is done. Yes, you need to print out a new one once a year, but that's pretty trivial cost and time wise compared to the calendar gadget. Granted, the calendar is a cool gadget.
  - pryelluw 2y ago
    Tried that and didn’t work for me. I do hope it works for others. Sometimes we do need custom tools even for the most basic needs. Mine is built to track not only that I did it but it allows me to comment on it. I can then go back and read through different entries. It’s super useful. One of the use cases is tracking medications. I then share the notes with my GP (they appreciate things being timestamped). Btw, love your website! I use it for multiple things like writing. I will just create an entry to track it and then just write away. I also track when I work on my projects. One button click and it records the time when I start working on my car for example. Then I can track how much I spend on it and calculate how much a given repair or modification might take to complete. Yes, I love tracking things …
  - kataklasm 2y ago
    Oh wow! Did not expect you here, but it makes sense. You were the reason I started building my own ukuleles at the age of 14 or so. They became quite amazing after the third one ;-) Thanks a ton for your work and have an amazing day, Matthias!
  - buffington 2y ago
    I use a pocket sized notepad with graph paper that I use to track "streaks." Each row represents a day, and each column represents the activity that I want to track. The day to day benefits are nice. It's easy to use, doesn't need batteries, and is always with me. What I didn't anticipate when I started doing it was how cool it is to look back on what I've tracked - it's like a weird little art piece I get to have as a reminder of the hard work.
deleted 2y ago
[deleted]
francislavoie 2y ago
Actually, she spoke about that recently in a video, she's still at a loss on that product, mentioned here https://youtu.be/iEAShZ8TJCs?t=269 https://youtu.be/iEAShZ8TJCs?t=269
JohnFen 2y ago
It's just good business. It's never a great idea to have only one source of income (especially one as inherently risky as YouTube). That's a serious vulnerability. Ideally, you not only have multiple sources but you choose the sources so that they have different economic dependencies. That way, conditions that adversely impact one of them don't adversely impact the others -- or, even better, so that conditions that adversely impacts one positively impacts another.

SonOfLilit 2y ago

It's a very short interview, feels empty of substance. Just go watch her videos or something.

LilBytes 2y ago
This video covers the same topic, and it's a video from Simone. Much better and has a lot more content and substance: "Was starting a product business a mistake?" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iEAShZ8TJCs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iEAShZ8TJCs

pstrateman 2y ago

How does this article not mention anywhere that she had brain cancer? That's almost certainly the answer to the headline.

dang 2y ago
(We changed the headline to the less baity HTML doc title.)
Ey7NFZ3P0nzAe 2y ago
Well it has a dramatic impact if you live in a place where cancer can bankrupt you, not so much if you're Swedish maybe?
- tverbeure 2y ago
  According to Wikipedia, She currently lives in LA.
- AStonesThrow 2y ago
  Giertz did live in her native Sweden until 2016, but she now lives in these United States. Her citizenship is not mentioned in Wikipedia, so her health insurance coverage may be a matter of private, personal funds, because she probably has neither Medicaid nor FTE with benefits.
  - qingcharles 2y ago
    Her American accent always amazes me. You'd never guess she was making Swedish content in Sweden until only a few years ago. I would hope she has health insurance. Whenever I was self-employed I still made sure I had a private plan of some sort, and she has a whole company with employees, so it would be pretty easy for her to get a group plan.
  - Findecanor 2y ago
    I got the impression that she had the surgeries in the US and that she was employed at Adam Savage's Tested at the time. Therefore, I had always supposed that her employment would have involved health insurance. If she had gone back to Sweden to do it, the surgery would have been free but she would first have had to reestablish herself in Sweden and then struggled with waiting time for her first doctor's appointment and possibly multiple referrals before she would have been put on a waiting list for surgery ... during which time her condition could have worsened. (I live in her old home town and have gone through something similar...) If she had been diagnosed at a hospital in the US she would already have been in its system and would probably have been put on its priority list right away.

rectang 2y ago

> What advice do you have for aspiring inventors? > Giertz: Make things that you want. Few things make me so cynical as a successful entertainer doling out "do what you love" advice. It's what the audience wants to hear, but your life isn't going to work out like that of your celebrity friend.

xyzzy_plugh 2y ago
Weird, it doesn't look like "do what you love" to me. It looks like "make things that you want." My read of it is such that the "make things other people want" part is implied. The bar is much higher when you're making something you wouldn't personally use. It's certainly possible, and occasionally profitable, to do just that, but boy are things easier if you're solving a problem you happen to also have.
- eesmith 2y ago
  I agree that interpretation is weird. It much closer to Hewlett's view (of Hewlett-Packard fame) that "if the engineer at the next bench liked it and thought it would make his job easier, then it was worth doing." (quoting https://hpmuseum.org/hp35.htm https://hpmuseum.org/hp35.htm )
cma 2y ago
Isn't this roughly the same advice as Paul Graham? https://www.paulgraham.com/startupideas.html https://www.paulgraham.com/startupideas.html
- amoshebb 2y ago
  I think there’s an appreciable gap between how applicable to the masses “if you have a niche but expensive problem, fix it, others may be excited to solve it with money” and “just sell $500 arduino advent calendars. when you’re famous you can raise half a million dollars on a 6 month waitlist for $200 wire coat hangers” is
  - kadoban 2y ago

sophiacamille 2y ago

I wish Tesla produced her "truckla" instead of the cyber truck.

JohnFen 2y ago
At least from an aesthetic point of view, I agree. Truckla was actually a good-looking result.

deleted 2y ago

[deleted]

type0 2y ago

She should just sell robotic chindogu goods, current stuff in the shop is kinda boring /s

spiritplumber 2y ago

I'm so glad she's doing well.

detritus 2y ago
Me too, I remember tearing up watching her videos when she realised she had a tumour in her brain, before the operations.

justmarc 2y ago

It's cool, and I really like the PCB bit. But you're stuck with one task. I suggest two options: 1. Hack it with an additional display on top to display different calendars according to the task you're keeping track of and the ability to scroll though them, while showing the calendar state for that task. 2. Make a similarly sized touchscreen calendar which allows one to switch between them, and also add stuff like reminders, challenges, gamification/gratification stuff. The BOM cost for a DIY should funnily enough be roughly similar, or if you're savvy enough, possibly much less.

ggernov 2y ago

[flagged]

mattdm 2y ago
What's wrong with you?