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You're embarrassed by a successful entrepreneur? Can you explain to me what is embarrassing to you? Is it the making money part? Is it the understanding a ma

You're embarrassed by a successful entrepreneur? Can you explain to me what is embarrassing to you? Is it the making money part? Is it the understanding a market and serving it part? Is it the education and knowledge sharing to better energize and expand the market part? Is it the persistence, perseverance and timing part? Is it the creation of a legion of folks who never would have participated had they not been given the encouragement and clear marketplace part? Is it the successful marketing part? Or is it some other part that I have failed to mention? We live in a world where people made billions selling tobacco, blood diamonds, sub-prime mortgages and Justin Bieber albums. But even without those, I can see very little embarrassing about an entrepreneur channeling passion into advocacy and sales of products customers clearly value.

meaty 14y ago
Yes I will. I find it embarrassing in the same way as I find computer science portrayals in movies embarrassing. Hax0r the planet etc... Making money - selling overpriced modules and branded crap for way more than marginal profit (compared to say RS/Farnell/Digikey) and shipping an identity rather than tools to solve problems. Understanding the market - actually they created a new market full of flashing LED cube machines and crap which actually performs no useful function other than to make other participants in the marketed identity look cool. About the most intelligent use for all of this I've seen (which isn't served elsewhere) is a computer controlled cannabis farm and that isn't exactly going to serve the intelligence of the person who built it well [1] Education - there is very little going on there. Every person I've seen jump into this comes crawling to me for advice but then shits a brick the moment something more complicated than a 4 banger calculator is pulled. You know what a complex number is right? What do you mean you don't understand why that 10 ohm 1/4W resistor smoked across a 12v source - do you know what Ohms law is? The answer is usually "no - we just googled and copied the picture". Persistence, perseverance, timing? None are relevant. Marketing - the bugbear of the whole thing. They created an identity which actually serves the participants badly. Actually you just nailed it - it is equivalent to selling Justin Bieber albums. [1] Sub-rant - the hacks I've seen people use including twist-n-tape mains cables are going to kill someone one day...
- rdl 14y ago
  Paint by numbers is totally acceptable as a way to learn the mechanics of painting. Them, like you do with her kits, use the paints and brushes left over to do you own variations, then independent projects.
  - Codhisattva 14y ago
    I just was in an artist's studio where he was working on several very large commissioned stained glass windows. Numbers everywhere.
- danilocampos 14y ago
  > Persistence, perseverance, timing? None are relevant. Says the guy who gave up the space way back in the 90's while others get magazine stories. Sour grapes are rough man, I'm sorry. But you only embarrass yourself went you vent it so publicly. I won't bother with the rest. You're deriving a lot of self-esteem from your knowledge of things that others don't have. But rather than rejoicing in the spread of that knowledge, you resent anyone who dilutes its scarcity. People start small. Things aren't easy. Not everyone gets to the end. But I'm glad there are those who are willing to roll the dice and hope they can make a bit of money bridging a very wide gulf of knowledge and know-how.
  - meaty 14y ago
    Hardly. I put the kits together in my spare time in the interest of spreading knowledge. The designs were open and published in a magazine in the UK as well. I don't do it any more because I am too damn busy, but the moment I retire, I'm not driving self esteem - I'm just well equipped to say that you can't start without knowing the basics. I actually spent nearly 8 years as an engineering mentor, teaching others so I spread my knowledge. I also sit and help people but to be honest sometimes it's hopeless as they just don't have the fundamentals and aren't interested. My problem is that the fundamentals are completely wiped out by the whole Maker movement in favour of short-cutting and getting things done, regardless of how dangerous or stupid they are.

meaty 14y ago

Yes I will. I find it embarrassing in the same way as I find computer science portrayals in movies embarrassing. Hax0r the planet etc... Making money - selling overpriced modules and branded crap for way more than marginal profit (compared to say RS/Farnell/Digikey) and shipping an identity rather than tools to solve problems. Understanding the market - actually they created a new market full of flashing LED cube machines and crap which actually performs no useful function other than to make other participants in the marketed identity look cool. About the most intelligent use for all of this I've seen (which isn't served elsewhere) is a computer controlled cannabis farm and that isn't exactly going to serve the intelligence of the person who built it well [1] Education - there is very little going on there. Every person I've seen jump into this comes crawling to me for advice but then shits a brick the moment something more complicated than a 4 banger calculator is pulled. You know what a complex number is right? What do you mean you don't understand why that 10 ohm 1/4W resistor smoked across a 12v source - do you know what Ohms law is? The answer is usually "no - we just googled and copied the picture". Persistence, perseverance, timing? None are relevant. Marketing - the bugbear of the whole thing. They created an identity which actually serves the participants badly. Actually you just nailed it - it is equivalent to selling Justin Bieber albums. [1] Sub-rant - the hacks I've seen people use including twist-n-tape mains cables are going to kill someone one day...

rdl 14y ago
Paint by numbers is totally acceptable as a way to learn the mechanics of painting. Them, like you do with her kits, use the paints and brushes left over to do you own variations, then independent projects.
- Codhisattva 14y ago
  I just was in an artist's studio where he was working on several very large commissioned stained glass windows. Numbers everywhere.
danilocampos 14y ago
> Persistence, perseverance, timing? None are relevant. Says the guy who gave up the space way back in the 90's while others get magazine stories. Sour grapes are rough man, I'm sorry. But you only embarrass yourself went you vent it so publicly. I won't bother with the rest. You're deriving a lot of self-esteem from your knowledge of things that others don't have. But rather than rejoicing in the spread of that knowledge, you resent anyone who dilutes its scarcity. People start small. Things aren't easy. Not everyone gets to the end. But I'm glad there are those who are willing to roll the dice and hope they can make a bit of money bridging a very wide gulf of knowledge and know-how.
- meaty 14y ago
  Hardly. I put the kits together in my spare time in the interest of spreading knowledge. The designs were open and published in a magazine in the UK as well. I don't do it any more because I am too damn busy, but the moment I retire, I'm not driving self esteem - I'm just well equipped to say that you can't start without knowing the basics. I actually spent nearly 8 years as an engineering mentor, teaching others so I spread my knowledge. I also sit and help people but to be honest sometimes it's hopeless as they just don't have the fundamentals and aren't interested. My problem is that the fundamentals are completely wiped out by the whole Maker movement in favour of short-cutting and getting things done, regardless of how dangerous or stupid they are.