第 372 期·中文精讀

西蒙·吉爾茨:爛機器人女王、創新工程與設計

Simone Giertz: Queen of Sh*tty Robots, Innovative Engineering, and Design

以「爛機器人」走紅的工程師談創意製作與設計思路,以及如何把玩笑做成真正的工程實驗。

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中文精讀由 AI 基於原始訪談改寫,非官方翻譯,可能存在偏差或錯誤;表述以原音訊與官方文稿為準。說明

西蒙·吉爾茨(Simone Giertz)為了設計一個衣帽架,花了兩年半。

起因很具體:她家裡有一個角落,放不下任何市面上的衣帽架。於是她決定自己造一個。兩年半里,這件事一直掛在她腦子裡,做原型,改結構,推倒重來。她說只要問題沒解決,她就沒法把它放下。這個產品明年大概會上市,她在播客裡差點說漏嘴,然後又趕緊剎住車,只說了一句:它解決的是人類處境裡一個根本性的問題。

一個衣帽架,兩年半,三家公司的 CEO。這三個事實放在一起,大概能概括這個人做事的方式。

第一件帶回家的東西是一把木勺

瑞典的中學裡,學生在縫紉和木工之間必須二選一。她選了木工。學期末她帶回家一把木勺,那種手工課上做出來的、歪歪扭扭的小東西。她說她記得那種驕傲感,那種「天啊我終於能給我爸媽看這個了」的衝動。

她現在的工作,本質上還是這件事的放大版。當年是一把木勺,現在是一把稍微大一點的木勺,會動,有自己的脾氣,還能連藍芽。

「我想我就是圍繞著那種感覺建立起我的職業的。做出一個東西,然後想給別人看。」(西蒙·吉爾茨)

她講得很坦白,說做東西這件事,在早期其實更挫敗。因為你腦子裡有一個明確的畫面,想要做到某個水準,最後只能在材料、工具和自己的能力之間妥協。所以她說,隨著技術變好,她反而越來越喜歡這個過程,因為妥協變少了。

這句話值得停一下。大多數人以為做東西的樂趣來自「完成」,她的說法是,樂趣來自「不再被迫將就」。這兩者的區別很大:前者會隨專案結束而消失,後者會隨時間累積。

她先讀的是廣告學校

她高中畢業後去讀了一年廣告方向的職業課程,很快發現廣告本身讓她提不起勁,但她喜歡做東西和寫程式碼。於是把全部注意力挪過去,做出了人生第一個硬體專案。

那是一個帶可伸縮吉他弦的 iPhone 殼。結構上有點像安全帶或者捲尺,六根真弦從手機底部拉出來,掛到腰帶上,螢幕上一按和絃,撥絃就出聲。

技術方案上她做了一個關鍵判斷。真正的吉他靠測弦的振動來拾音,但她的弦沒有剛性琴頸,一直在晃。所以她改用電容觸控,因為電容檢測不依賴弦相對某個東西的位置。

識別到撥絃之後,一枚藍芽微控制器把訊號發給手機上的 App,App 判斷你此刻在螢幕上按的是哪個和絃,然後播放對應的聲音。這中間涉及藍芽通訊、實時觸控檢測、多點觸控識別,還有她人生第一個 iOS App。

「我現在真的不敢相認我當時把它做成了,因為那是我做的第一個硬體專案,第一個 iPhone App。現在如果有人跟我說這是他第一個專案,我大概會說,這個量有點大。」(西蒙·吉爾茨)

播客裡 Lex 追問了一句很有意思的話:很多人就是卡在第一個專案的難度上,從此再沒發現自己身上的那點天賦。他半開玩笑地說要在沙發上給她做心理分析,為什麼你沒卡住。

她的回答裡有兩個因素。一是這是學校專案,有截止日期,外部壓力天然存在。二是更重要的那個:她看見了地平線。她說當她意識到「我好像真的能把這個做出來」的那一刻,整個人像獵犬聞到味道一樣亢奮。如果看不到那個遠景,她大概也撐不下來。

這裡藏著一個可以複用的方法論。讓人堅持下來的通常不是意志力,是提前獲得的一點點「這事能成」的證據。所以做難事的時候,第一步不該是埋頭開幹,是想辦法儘快製造一個微小的、可感知的成功訊號。

這個專案最後還有個遺憾。人的手臂拉不出足夠大的張力,弦太鬆,彈出來是綿軟的聲音,跟真正彈吉他差得遠。她想過讓手機殼自己產生張力,但那樣一來,它就變成了一把裝在殼裡的、很爛的真吉他。

「結果就是一把非常爛的吉他。但它爛到某個程度,反而挺酷的。」(西蒙·吉爾茨)

這個靈感來源也很樸素:她經常拿手機充電線當空氣吉他撥著玩。

爛機器人是一門關於失敗美學的工程學

她最早在網上被人叫「爛機器人女王」,出處是 Reddit 的 r/shittyrobots 版塊。她在上面發自己做的小玩意,2015 年被票選為年度最佳使用者,頭銜就這麼來了。她強調這不是她自己起的名字,但她欣然接受,現在正式宣佈退位。

早期她有一個非常特別的篩選標準:這個專案能不能被壓縮成七秒鐘的、沒有聲音的迴圈 GIF。

「如果你沒法用一個 GIF 解釋清楚,那它就不夠自解釋。沒人在乎它還有藍芽功能。」(西蒙·吉爾茨)

Lex 當場接了一句,說所有科學論文和科研專案都應該過一遍這個測試。他舉了 DeepMind 的例子:蛋白質摺疊那種級別的研究,最後能傳遍世界的,是一張讓完全不懂蛋白質的人也能直覺看懂的動圖。因為沒人真的會去讀那篇 Nature 論文。

這個類比的殺傷力在於,它把「傳播」從包裝環節提到了設計環節。她做東西的時候,自解釋性是一開始就要滿足的約束條件,而不是最後找人做營銷。

她說早期專案幾乎都是「禮物導向」的,只有能變成禮物送出去的東西,她才有動力做。這個說法聽起來很輕,其實是一種極強的自我約束:如果一個專案最終不能變成一件讓人想轉給朋友的東西,那它大概不值得開工。

牙刷頭盔和那檔沒人回的兒童節目

她原本想做一檔瑞典的兒童電子節目。她喜歡電子,覺得這東西酷得要命,覺得小孩子應該看。於是她在舊金山自己的臥室裡拍了一集試播,把牙刷頭盔做了出來,冷郵件發給電視臺。

沒人回。

那個頭盔的結構並不複雜:一套叫 MeArm 的亞克力機械臂套件,三個舵機,一枚 Arduino 控制,裝在滑板頭盔的額前,像獨角獸的角,一上一下地擺動,幫她刷門牙。動作幅度是她反覆試出來的,靠的是最原始的試錯。

她那時的拍法是「主持人模式」:語調上揚,動作誇張,「今天我們要學的是,這個東西叫做舵機」。她自己現在回看,形容為極度尷尬、令人腳趾摳地。

「我現在特別慶幸他們沒回我。因為如果你在自己客廳裡起步,對著鏡頭跑來跑去,拍完再回看,你其實是在很彆扭地摸索。我後來是用了另一種方式才找到自己的聲音。」(西蒙·吉爾茨)

一年之後電視臺回頭找她做節目,她已經跑起來了,直接拒絕。

這裡面有個反常識的地方:被拒絕的那個版本,幫她把東西做出來了。如果當時有人點頭,她會沿著一個不是自己的角色往下走很多年。冷啟動階段的失敗,往往在幫你把不合身的路徑提前關掉,代價是你當時並不知道。

後來她把 GIF 發到了 r/shittyrobots 上,播放量大概五萬。半年之內,做這些東西成了她的全職工作。

第二個專案是早餐機器人,負責倒牛奶、舀麥片、把勺子送到她嘴邊。這個專案難的地方不在機構設計,在於所有東西必須同時對準位置,而且因為要拍出效果,她拍了十幾次。用的是 Cheerios 麥片,拍完之後舊金山那間臥室的地板黏了好幾個星期。除此之外還有湯機器人、倒啤酒機器人。

Lex 說了一句挺有意思的話:餵食是人跟人之間最親密的動作之一,一個機械臂要把勺子準確送到嘴邊,這在機器人學裡從來都不是簡單任務,哪怕是完美版本。

她的回應揭示了「爛」這件事背後的手藝:

「做得很爛、或者失敗得很壯觀,本身就是一種技能。最爛的機器人是根本開不了機的那個,但那個沒什麼可看的。所以你要的是一種特定形態的失敗。」(西蒙·吉爾茨)

這句話把一個玩笑拆成了技術問題。隨機失敗不好看,精心設計的失敗才好看。你得讓觀眾在東西倒下之前就預感到它會倒下,然後倒下的方式還要比預想的更荒誕一點。這是節奏感,是敘事,跟真正的工程能力一樣需要練習,只是評價標準從「能不能用」換成了「好不好看」。

她還提到自己做東西有個特點:她讓建造這件事看起來很難。Lex 反過來說,世界上最頂尖的人都擅長把不可能弄得像喝水一樣簡單,她正好相反,把簡單弄得像不可能。

這句自嘲挺準的。它同時解釋了為什麼她的影片好看:觀眾在她身上看到的是自己上手時的真實體驗,而不是成品釋出會上的絲滑剪輯。

為什麼叉子長這樣,門到底該推還是該拉

她正在推進兩件事。一件是產品公司,衣帽架還在裡面。另一件是一檔節目的試播集,每集講一個日常物品,講它為什麼長成現在這樣。試播集寫的是叉子。

核心問題是一連串的:為什麼是叉子成了西方世界的進食工具?為什麼我們最後被一把鐵叉統治?這件事是怎麼發生的?

她的觀察很細:餐具會改變人的進食行為。叉子的形狀會影響你每口吃多大、吃多快。筷子的邏輯完全不同,切割在廚房裡就完成了,不用在盤子上進行,而且碗可以端到嘴邊,盤子則一直留在桌上。工具的形狀,反向塑造了用餐的姿勢、節奏和社交方式。

「你擁有的每一件日常物品,你都當成理所當然,但每一件都是某個人想出來的。」(西蒙·吉爾茨)

她還提到了門。推還是拉,這個問題每年羞辱幾百萬人。地球上八十億人,每一秒鐘都有幾十萬人在門前猶豫、試探、然後假裝自己一開始就知道。一個大學新生第一次去上課,想在所有人面前表現得從容,結果一把沒拉開,只能硬撐著說「我知道,我試試而已」。

她做過的另一件小事是一個直徑可變的果盤。因為她家的果盤永遠處在兩個狀態:水果太少顯得空,水果太多塞不下。於是她做了一套機構,讓盤子的直徑能放大縮小。她的原話邏輯是:碗為什麼非得是現在這樣?我可以讓它不一樣。

Lex 說這個兔子洞進去就出不來。她的回答是,她願意永遠住在裡面。

這套思維方式的價值在於,它把「設計」從一個美學問題變成了一個提問能力的問題。絕大多數人不是不會做,是從來沒想過「這個形狀是可以被質疑的」。日常物品之所以隱身,是因為它們太成功了,成功到你根本注意不到它們在做決定。

舉手問蠢問題,是一種被嚴重低估的工程能力

她在大學讀了一年物理,然後退學。那一年她給自己定了一條規矩:只要有一個地方沒聽懂,就舉手提問。

她說那個階梯教室裡坐滿了極其聰明的人,而這些人最怕的事情就是顯得蠢。整學期她一直在舉手。到了年底,有同學專門走過來跟她說:謝謝你問的那些問題,因為每次我想問又不敢問的時候,你總是先舉手了。

「我覺得這是一項技能。這也是我處理冒名頂替綜合徵的方式:行,那就全攤開吧。」(西蒙·吉爾茨)

她去 Punch Through Design 實習的時候,用的也是同一套邏輯,只是這次她把它變成了談判籌碼。她意識到那家公司裡所有人都是工程師,但客戶不是。所以她沒有掩飾自己技術不深這件事,反而把它包裝成價值:你們需要一個過濾器,一個能替普通使用者判斷「這東西對他們是不是太難了」的人。我就是那個普通人。

她把這個策略總結得很直接:把自己的缺陷翻轉成賣點。

這套東西在起步階段特別有效,因為那時你確實沒有別的籌碼。但它有一個隱形成本,後面的對話裡她自己把它講了出來。

自嘲是護甲,穿久了會長進肉裡

她說自嘲最初是一種生存策略。網際網路上,你永遠不能以專家身份出場,因為那等於把靶子畫在自己身上。所以她搶在所有人前面把自己貶低一遍,這樣別人就沒有下手的地方。她管自己叫白痴,主動往「我不懂」的位置上靠。

然後她講了一段很實在的話。作為一個在男性主導領域裡的女性,她必須走一條極窄的線:

「你要足夠好看,別人不會因為你的外貌感到被冒犯;但又不能好看過頭,好到別人開始性化你。你要足夠聰明、足夠機敏,讓人說一句這真酷;但你又得把自己踩得夠狠,狠到別人搶不走這個動作,狠到他們沒法再說『哦,看看這個女人,她還以為自己會做電子呢』。」(西蒙·吉爾茨)

這段話解釋了為什麼很多真正厲害的人乾脆不上網。她說 MIT 裡那些做出極好工作的教授和博士生,大多不把自己的東西發出來。失敗模式太多了:可能太無聊,沒人看;可能顯得太專業,不夠自嘲;可能被嘲諷,可能被無視。每一種都足以讓人退回去。

而她現在三十二歲,管著三家公司,開始覺得沒必要一直把自己往下按。她說自嘲在她的工作和關係裡一直很有用,但現在她只在該用的時候用,不該用的時候收起來。

這個轉變值得留意。自我貶低在低權力位置上是護甲,在高權力位置上就變成了自我設限。同一個動作,前期幫你避開攻擊,後期則會讓別人真的按你描述的那個版本來評估你。很多人卡在這個切換點上,因為他們太擅長前者了。

Lex 提到自傳的事,她說永遠不寫。理由是:一個人得對另一個人感興趣到什麼程度,才會想看六百頁的自我敘述。被追問之後她說,我才三十二歲,我有什麼可寫的,我經歷了青春期,我失去了童貞,就這樣。三章就能寫完,還是一本填色書。

她形容日常生活中的自己是 YouTube 版本的兌水版。影片裡那個版本加了剪輯、加了配樂、每一句笑話都反覆打磨到落地,現實裡沒有這些,但人還是同一個人。

把禮物做出來,比把事情做對更重要

把這場對話裡的碎片拼起來,會看到一個相當一致的做事系統。

她的起點永遠是一個具體的、微小的、讓自己不舒服的摩擦:角落裡放不下衣帽架,果盤裡的水果永遠不合適,充電線在手裡像吉他弦,門不知道該推還是該拉。這些摩擦小到大多數人會直接繞過去,她的反應是停下來,然後開始想。

接著她會給專案加一個殘酷的約束:能不能變成一個七秒無聲 GIF,能不能變成一件想送給別人的禮物。這兩條約束同時篩掉了「技術上很酷但沒人關心」和「自己做得爽但說不清楚」的所有可能。

最後她允許失敗,但要求失敗得好看。這一點讓她的作品在網際網路上流通了七八年,也讓「爛機器人」這個標籤變成了一個精確的自我定位,而不是一句謙虛。

衣帽架做了兩年半,這件事本身說明她的耐心閾值和她的專案篩選標準是配套的。篩選階段極度苛刻,所以透過的每一個都值得投入幾百天。多數人的問題正好反過來:什麼專案都接著幹,每一個都做三個月。

可以立刻用起來的三件事

  • 給你的下一個專案加一條硬約束:能不能用一個七秒無聲迴圈 GIF 講清楚。講不清楚就先別動手,說明想法還沒成形,或者你對它的理解還停留在自己腦子裡。
  • 在任何學習場合執行「聽不懂就舉手」這條規矩,並且不要只舉一次。整間教室最聰明的人往往最怕顯得蠢,你替他們問出來的問題,會變成你後面幾年最硬的一層理解。
  • 把你身上的缺陷寫成一段明確的自我陳述,找到它在這件事上真實的價值,然後拿去用。但每年檢查一次:這個自嘲還在幫你進入房間,還是已經變成你不往上走的理由。
  • 找一件你每天用、但從來沒質疑過的小東西,盯著它問三個問題:它為什麼是這個形狀,它為什麼放在這個位置,如果由我來做會不一樣嗎。答案不重要,重要的是你開始看見那些隱身的設計。
  • 面對一個難專案時,先別急著規劃全流程,先想辦法造出一個「我好像真能做成」的證據,哪怕只是一個粗糙到不能看的原型。讓人撐下去的從來不是意志力,是地平線上那點亮光。
文稿由本站用語音識別模型(基於官方釋出音訊)機器轉寫,可能有識別錯誤,人名與數字請以音訊為準。
Lex Fridman Podcast #372 – Simone Giertz: Queen of Sh*tty Robots, Innovative Engineering, and Design Machine transcription by Qwen3-ASR 0.6B (MLX, local, Apache-2.0). May contain recognition errors. The following is a conversation with Simone Yech, an inventor, designer, engineer and robotist, famous for a combination of humor and brilliant creative design in the systems and products she creates, including as part of her new product design company called Yech. She has a popular YouTube channel where she has demonstrated a lot of her incredible and fun designs and inventions from, "quote, shitty robots to a Tesla Model Three converted into a truck. " But where she also revealed her personal journey after having been diagnosed with a brain tumor. Simone is a brilliant, fun and inspiring human being. It was truly an honor for me to get to meet her and to have this chat. And now a quick few second mention of each sponsor. Check them out in the description. It's the best way to support this podcast. We got MasterClass for learning, InsideTracker for biological data and Athletic Greens for my daily multivitamin. Choose wisely, my friends. Also, if you want to work with our amazing team, we're always hiring. Go to lexfrieman dot com slash hiring. And now on to the full ad reads. As always, no ads in the middle. I try to make this interesting, but if you must skip them, please still check out our sponsors. I love their stuff, and maybe you will too. This show, Speaking of love, is brought to you by MasterClass. One hundred and eighty bucks a year gets you an all access pass to watch courses from the best people in the world at their respective disciplines. The list is so long, and it's amazing exploration of all the humanity's able to create. You know when I ask about the meaning of life. To me, at the core, it's love, but the way that love manifests itself in the human condition in society. 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This show is also brought to you by InsideTracker, a service I use to track biological data that comes from my body to give me recommendations on what the heck I should be doing in my life. I am happy to report if you cared that most markers for me are looking pretty good. The only small exceptions I think reveal themselves in just the tremendous amount of stress I've been under over the past year. And I think, stress or not, many of you listening to this are going through a rough time for reasons that are hard to explain and for reasons that are obvious. The human mind can experience some deep moments of deep days and weeks and months of loneliness, for reasons that make no sense to the outside world, but it's still real to the human mind. And of course, our life is such that we experience a lot of loss, a lot of struggle, a lot of pain and suffering, and through that, it's more obvious that the mind can be in turmoil and suffer and feel lonely and feel hopelessly lost in this world. 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The point is you don't have to worry about all the vitamins and minerals you are supposed to get because Athletic Greens takes care of all that for you. For me, it's a little bit of home in a bottle. I make the drink, and even when I am traveling, I feel, I feel grounded. All the turmoil, all the madness going on in the outside world. There is something at least I can rely on. A little bit of habit. I do the same thing with meditation. I wake up every morning and repeat a mantra to myself. And most evenings before bed, unless I am really struggling, I'll repeat a mantra, and it's a kind of meditative process. So that to me, no matter where I am, feels like home because home is a place you live in inside your mind. But little triggers, positive triggers like drinking an Athletic Greens drink. Is very much that for me. All of a sudden, I am transformed into this place, into this feeling of home. They'll give you a free one year supply of vitamin D and five free travel packs with your first purchase when you go to athleticgreens dot com slash lex. This is Alex Friedman podcast to support it. Please check out our sponsors in the description. And now, dear friends, here Simone Yech. What was the first cool thing you built where you fell in love with the process of making stuff? You know I think in the beginning of building stuff you run into the limitations of your skills so much so I feel like honestly building gets less and less. Frustrating or like I love it more and more the more I know. So the limitations aren't fun. Like when it's the limitations are fun, but it's like when you have an idea of something and you want to make it a certain level and then you just have to compromise with the materials and the tools and the skills you have. Um, so I can't remember first time where I felt like. I am proud of this. Wow, this was so smooth. I am so proud of it. Like I feel like a lot of people I watch them build stuff and it's just like watching water pour down. You know it's just like so easy and for me it's just like. Trying to shove a toy car into a wall. So you are not able to step back and marvel like at the early creations even like even like we're not even talking Arduino stuff even before then. I am from Sweden, and you have to choose either sewing or woodworking, and I chose like woodworking in middle school, and I remember the sense of pride when I got to bring something home and that thing of like oh my god I get to show my parents this. And I think that is kind of the feeling that I've built my job around. It's like the sense of pride and wanting to show people something that I made and like back then it was like a little wooden spoon you know. And now it's a slightly larger wooden spoon that is dynamic and moves and has a mind of its own. You first started doing more engineering type stuff with Arduino boards at. Punch through design, which is an SF engineering firm. What are just from your memory there? What are some cool things you built there? So the thing is, I went to advertising school and I just like vocational studies a year, and I realized there that I didn't care much for advertising, but I thought it was really fun to build stuff and program. So like I just. Completely focused on that, and there I built my first hardware project or like electronics project, which was this iPhone case with retractable guitar strings. So basically I imagined that you could like pull out guitar strings from the bottom of your iPhone and you could pluck it to your belt and then you could hold a cord on the screen. And I built that together with my friend Jonathan and I was like, oh this is dope. I thought it was so much fun and I considered like, oh should I go to school for this, but then I thought maybe I can get a job and I could get paid to learn. About electronics, so just based off of that one project, I got the job at Punch through Design, which actually was a was one year internship. Can you explain what we're talking about here? So it's a case with guitar strings attached. Yeah, does it actually work at all? It does. These are not on the screen guitar strings. No, so they're actual strings that you pull out. So there is a mechanism that's almost like a seat belt mechanism and. Yeah, you pull them out from the bottom of your phone and you can attach them to your belt. I mean, it's terrible. There is a few different ways to decide if somebody's touching a guitar string. And what you do in a real guitar is you have the little it's like measuring the vibration or the change in the. As as the yeah you are measuring how the guitar is vibrating and you can't really do that because I can't have a a receiving sensor because the guitar strings are going to move in relationship to that because you don't have like a rigid neck. And this is like yeah this was my first electronics project I was a little fledging baby maker, but what I decided was to use capacitive touch. Because that is independent on if the guitar strings are moving in relationship to something or in relation to something, so basically there was just this little Bluetooth Arduino board that this company Punch through Design made so that was how I found them. And I measured the capacitive touch so like whenever. Um, the guitar string was measured. There was this little microcontroller that was like, oh my god, a guitar string got measured or touched, and then that sent a signal over Bluetooth to my phone, and I'd built a little iPhone app that interpreted those Bluetooth signals and then checked. What type of cord I was holding on the screen, and then play the coherence. What are you holding the cords on the screen? So you are doing the multi touch sensing there. That's incredible. I honestly cannot believe that I pulled it off because I think I was I was ignorance was definitely bliss because that was like yeah the first hardware. Project I'd ever built the first iPhone app I'd ever programmed and like now if somebody was like hey I want this to be my first project I would probably be like oh that's a lot but. What can it off because that's that's such an interesting thing for people to hear because it's your first project and a lot of people stop because of the difficulty of their first project they never truly discover their own genius because they stop at the first and you didn't stop so it'd be interesting to kind of psychoanalyze you on the couch of why you didn't stop. Because you have to build an app. Yeah, to figure out how to did you know how to program much or no. Okay, I mean a little bit, but I never programmed and or done any iOS apps. Okay, so you have to figure out how to get forget like what the app does, just get the app running and working, and then you have to figure out how to get the sensors in like real time the finger touching and you have to connect how to get the the capacitive touch working with the microcontrollers. Do you know anything about the capacitive touch sensors at that time? I mean it's pretty easy now it's basically everything is easy. Yeah, you know rockets are pretty easy. You sound like my grandma. She's I have a Natalian grandma and I always trying to get her we're like trying to get her to tell her recipes and every recipe starts with. It's very simple, and then there is like forty five minutes of her explaining it. It's like with gymnastics at the Olympics they make it look easy. The best people in the world always make the the impossible seem easy. I pride myself with making buildings look really hard because I feel like I am always struggling so much. You make the easy seem impossible. No, I guess. So how many strings was it? Is it just. Oh gosh, I think it's such a long time ago. No, it was six. Oh, six strings and you can touch it and then there is. Wow, and it can and then the the phone itself makes a sound. And I still I still think it's such a cool concept to have this like I am not even a guitar player I don't know I was I mean I got the idea because I was kind of strumming on my charge cord of my phone. Oh, like an air guitar but on a cord. Yeah, but I've been thinking about it because I am like, oh man, it would be really fun to go back to that project with what I know now. But the problem with it is that. When you are producing the tension in your string just with your arm, like you can't make it taut enough to actually play like it kind of becomes playing these like saggy strings. So it's you are not really getting that experience and I think that's why. I mean I. Yeah, I haven't really pursued. I wonder if there is a way to generate the tightness from the case itself. A device that unfolds and then with some kind of tightening mechanisms tight. Yeah, but then it kind of becomes this like whole thing in a guitar. Then it just becomes a really shitty guitar. Yeah, like which this is a really shitty guitar, but it's also. But it's so shitty, it's awesome. Yeah, I don't know. But it's a cool. It's cool that you have an interface between a device that's capable of incredible computational power and an actual hardware thing. Is there something that you can psychoanalyze? That made you finish that others could hear in their own struggle to do their first project like that because you were you were a non engineering person technically. And you did a pretty cool renegade out there, wild no instructions. Engineering project. No, it definitely was an off road build where it's like if you are building a LEGO kit, it's very much on the road and you are following instructions and this is like you have no idea if you are headed for a cliff or a dead end or you are going to get stuck. I think it had a natural pressure to it because it was a school project. So it did have deadlines built into it and and stuff like that so that definitely helped but I think also it was just so incredibly motivating when I realized that I might be able to pull it off. Like that was I felt like a bloodhound you know and you are just like oh my god I can actually make this happen and I think if. I hadn't seen that the horizon, it would have been harder to stick through. Were you able to see the end of the tunnel pretty early on? No, not really. I mean, so there is something just suffering for a while. I don't know how how your brain works, but it's like if I have a problem, I can't stop thinking about it. Like it's so fun to think about it. Like I spent I spent. Two and a half years designing a coat hanger, and I just can't stop thinking about it. Like I get so into it because I think it's so much fun. Take me to this two year journey of the coat hanger. The coat hanger. What? How did it begin? How did it begin? It began with a corner in my home where I couldn't fit a coat rack. The thing is, I shouldn't have brought this up because I am going to release it as a product probably in a year. On an actual product. Okay, well that's leave it as a mystery. It's a mystery, yeah, but it solves a fundamental problem in in the human condition. And I am so excited about it and I cannot I don't yeah but this is I get so pumped about it because I see it's just this issue or like this problem that I want to solve and I I kind of can't put it to rest until I have. It's I mean speaking of coat hangers, door knobs have always been interesting to me. It's cool how how there is things that everybody uses that somebody designed. Lex. Yeah. Oh my god. So okay, so this is I so I have two like big. So basically, I started on YouTube and I am been doing that for like the last seven or eight years and I've kind of been thinking of like okay what's next for me because I want to keep on trying out new things and I am I am kind of. Going into two different avenues. One is the product business that I started, coat hangers TBD, and then I am working on a pilot episode of a show where each episode is about an everyday object and why they look the way that they do. So we written a pilot episode about forks. And it's all about like why do they look the way that they do? Why did this become the like eating implement of the West? Why are we ruled by an iron fork? How did that happen? And every everyday object that you have and that you just take for granted, somebody just made it up. Yeah, we're all sheep. We'll keep using it. Yeah, even if it's not optimal. I mean, presumably most objects are optimal. You hope. Or at least a local option. Yeah, and that's what I think is so like the world around us and this is why I love building things is because it just opens up this idea that the world around us is so malleable and you can make objects work for you better like I spent I made this fruit bowl. I had a fruit bowl and I was always annoyed that I had either too little or too much fruit for it. So I made a fruit bowl where I can change the diameter of it. It has a mechanism so you can like make it bigger or smaller and that's just like the thing of being like. Bowls, why are they the way that they are? I can make them different, and I think like I want to make an episode about door knobs. I think it's so interesting. Why are they the way they are? Why are the place the way where they are? I think that's going to be a rabbit hole from which you will never return. I would happily live in that rabbit hole forever. Like if I can if I can like dig out a little niche for myself there because I think it's like. You know they go so deep. They're also on different size of doors. You never like the push pull situation on doors in general. Like that's one of the main problems of humanity is figuring out the push pull figuring out which it is embarrassing. It's just okay. How many? There is eight billion people on people on Earth. Every single second, there is millions of people being embarrassed by the confusion. Of real lifestyle, right now there is somebody, some guy first time in college, he's trying to be impressive to everybody to push his on, and he plays it off like it's cool. Oh shit, I knew that. No, but and it affects our behaviors. That was why I think it's so interesting with forks is that forks actually affect our eating behaviors. And they can get you to eat faster or slower, take bigger bites or smaller bites, and there are all these ways or like the social. I mean the reason that um chopsticks work is because they do the food chopping in kitchen. Rather than on the plate, and also you have a bowl that you bring to your mouth with whereas a plate you keep on the like there are just all these ways of these objects affect our behavior opening and closing doors, and I think it's such an interesting take on culture through and like human behavior through these objects that we use every day and we never question them really. Yeah, and then there is institutions that are controlling our mind that don't want us to know the truth. Why are sporks not more popular? Have you asked yourself that question? Yeah, no, it's all big utensil is behind all of it. All right, so I mean in those early days, did you suffer from imposter syndrome? Like that leap to being an engineer, was there? Especially when you started working a punch through design. On a team of engineers, was there insecurity? Both yes and no. I think I've um, I always try to flip my flaws into selling points, and for that, so getting that job, I. I was like, "Oh, you are a team of engineers. Everybody working here is an engineer. Your customers are not all engineers. You need somebody who can be your filter and tell you when something's going to be too hard for your customers to understand." So it was more me being like, "Oh no, it might seem that me not having skills is a bad thing, but actually it's a great thing." I represent the everyday person. I understand deep, yeah, deeply what everybody needs and wants. Yes, that is me, the representation of the of the average human. Um, but I mean I I remember that so I studied physics for a year in college and then I dropped out. And I had this rule for myself that whenever I did not understand any something I would ask a question. So I was always raising my hand in class, and it's this room entire like auditorium filled with incredibly intelligent people who are mortified of seeming stupid. And I think that was really like and I remember people at the end of the year coming up to me being like, "Thank you so much for all the questions you asked because whenever there was something that I was too scared to ask you always raise your hand so. " I think it is a bit of a skill, and I think that is kind of how I channel my imposter syndrome is I am just like, no, let's lay it all out there. You are okay being almost like self deprecating, just coming off. I mean I am definitely that. I kind of lean into it. I call myself an idiot. I lean into being stupid. I think not all heroes wear capes, and the guy and girl who asked the stupid question. Is everybody CEO, including the teachers? Yeah, I think it's it's both. It's a double edged sword. I started out on the internet, kind of I kind of got the moniker the Queen of Shitty Robots because I posted a lot of stuff on slash r slash shitty robots on Reddit and people started calling me the Queen of slash r slash shitty robots and then the slash r kind of dropped. So what I am trying to say is I did not come up with that with myself. Um, but I did happily adopt it. So I definitely came from a place of like building things that didn't work and kind of. Yeah, everything going wrong every time like happily failing, and I think that was amazing. It was a really powerful tool for me to like not get my perfectionism in the way because if I set out to do something that's great, then I am never going to start. And I was like, no, I just need something that looks funny. Um, but what I've realized now is that it's also a defense mechanism being self deprecating is like always beating people to the punch. It kind of was a survival tactic on the internet of being like never daring to set out as an expert and I still do that like I am terrified to tell people how to do something even if I know. Um, because it kind of opens you up for being shot down. So I think I have I definitely have a conflicted relationship with it and now especially as I am I am getting older I am more skilled than I was before. I mean I am a CEO three businesses and I am like I don't need to like keep on talking myself down all the time. So yeah I think it's definitely something that has served me really really well and that is still like a. Thing that I have in my work life and in my relationships, but I am also trying to only do it when it's beneficial to me and not when it's harmful. Yeah, I mean, but when you are as successful as you are, I feel like people like it when you are self deprecating you don't take yourself seriously you have that humility. I think it's probably the hardest when you are starting out. Yeah, because no, I think it was easier than almost. I don't know, but nobody takes you seriously right when you are starting out when you are young like. You know I just realized that I played a lot more stupid than I was, and I think it's also. Oh gosh, I can't believe I am the one bringing this up. Uh, but like being a woman in a male-dominated field, and you are like try. I was just trying to make myself the least amount threatening or like really unthreatening because people are threatened by you in different ways and it's like you have such a thin line that you can walk where you are like, okay I need to be just attractive enough for people to not be offended by my appearance but just unattractive enough for people to not sexualize me. I have to be just smart and witty enough for people to be like, oh my god, that's really cool, but also shoot myself down enough for other people not to be able to do it or be like, oh yeah, watch this woman try to thinking that she knows how to. Build electronics, you know. So it's like. That's a interesting skill to build, especially when you put yourself out there on the internet. Yeah, like unfortunately that's the reality of the internet, and it's a skill you have to kind of develop, and it's actually why a lot of really brilliant people avoid the internet. Yeah, like there is not many people like at MIT for example, there is not many. Brilliant professors of PhD students and so on just putting their stuff out there because, like, um, if they what like if they really put their heart and soul into a thing, first of all that's really hard. And nobody nobody sees it and everyone's like, this is boring. So there is so many failure modes like this is boring or like. Like you said, you coming off as too much of an expert, you are not self deprecating enough. Or like there is just so many failure modes and it's terrifying for people. But I feel like that's a skill you should learn because. Most people like at MIT at university and so on are doing a lot of awesome stuff. Yeah, and they should show it off. But I feel like you figured out a really good process of. Of showing it off, when you fail, when you succeed, all of it not taking yourself too seriously, but also revealing through the humor and the self deprecation a kind of genius, a kind of intelligence and curiosity. Can I just want to snapshot that quote and put it on my LinkedIn? And the back. When is your autobiography coming? Oh never. You don't want to say that because like a year from now. Oh gosh, I don't want to. I don't want to shit on autobiographies. Yeah, no, no, even just by saying that I am shit on autobiographies. I just. Me being interested enough in somebody to want to read six hundred pages about them talking about themselves is. No, well, well that's exactly the kind of person that should write one. But yeah, but also I am fucking thirty two years old. What do I have to write about? Like I went through puberty, I lost my virginity, and here we are. Like I don't know, it's like such a. Three chapters is a coloring book. Chapter seven, I learned to tie my own shoelaces. I feel like it would be awesome anyway. What's the the queen? So how did you achieve the status of royalty, the queen of shitty robots? What's the origin story there? I I mean I have officially renounced my title now. Can you still speak of the time when you led? I can still speak of the time your kingdom. Yes, uh no, I mean it started on because I. Did you rule by love or fear? By fear of rejection from me that people would reject me. So I um yeah I started making these little gifts like my the early projects that I did were very gift forward. It was always like I only did it because it could be translated into a gift. Gift forward, I like it. Yeah, but honestly it was like it's a really good. Mental exercise to vet if your project is easy enough to be explained by like a seven second looping video without audio, and. Because like nobody's going to care that it also has Bluetooth, like it's really like is it self explanatory enough to um be explained through a GIF. So yeah, I could just pause. I am sorry to interrupt, but I feel like all scientific papers and projects should go through that exercise. Can be explained as a GIF. Yeah, actually a deep mind does a good job of this. Like you know this, we saw protein folding. Here is a GIF that's literally what they do because who is going to read the Nature paper. So like this, you have to like how do we communicate this visually in a sexy clean way where people can intuitively understand even if you don't know what a protein is even if you don't know what protein folding is. Yeah, it's cool. It's very like yeah if somebody comes out of context and that's been really interesting also like building this product business and trying to do the marketing around that and I am like. Somebody comes in and they have no idea about what this product is. Will they get it explained to them in this ad? And I don't know, but it's definitely a worthwhile exercise to do. So I started making these projects. I got translated into gifts. And I posted them on slash r slash shitty robots on Reddit. So that subreddit existed. Yeah, and I loved it. I thought it was really fun and I was like I want to contribute with content here. Conquered it. I don't I mean. Okay, I don't know. I was voted I think I was voted top user of twenty fifteen so yeah. That's an old merit. Once you win an Nobel prize, you always have the Nobel. Okay, so what was the first? Do you remember the early gifts that you created? So this is when I was at Punch Through Design in San Francisco. I was kind of building a lot of hardware projects for them, but I also felt and they were so supportive of me. But I also it's such a different way representing a brand versus representing yourself. So there were some projects that I just like ruled out because I was like this feels too weird for this brand. And I started building them on the side. One of them was a toothbrush helmet, and yeah, so it's like a skateboard helmet with a robot arm on the forehead, kind of like a unicorn horn, and it brushes your teeth for you. Was that the first YouTube video you uploaded? It was the first gift that I uploaded. So actually I wanted to, um, I wanted to do a kids show about electronics in Sweden because I was like I love electronics I think it's fucking dope. I could do a kids show about it. So I filmed this terrible, terrible pilot episode in my bedroom in San Francisco. And that's when I built the toothbrush helmet and I emailed it to them. I mean just cold email like I know in or anything but I was like, hey I want to do this, and um they didn't get back to me. Nobody surprised and I was like, well I have this. Thing I built I might as well post it on the internet so that's what I made the little gift and I posted it on slash r slash shitty robots and I think it got like fifty thousand views and I was like, wow. And from there I just kept on building things and I think within. Six months it was my full time job. Can you go through the detailed design of this toothbrush helmet? There is a motor. It's like a server. Like what what what's the motor? What's the is an Arduino involved? Yeah, so I built it off of um this robot arm called Me Arm. So it's just this acrylic robot arm, and um it has three servo motors. And it's all controlled by an Arduino. All the electronics. It was a kit, so I assembled it. How do you make sure the the length of the arm is the proper? I mean the arm came down so it's like I just programmed it to come down to my mouth and then poorly brush my front teeth. Yeah, yeah, it was just swung back and forth. I mean trial and error as trial and error. What was the challenges of that? Do you remember? Oh gosh, or was that one not much of a struggle. Challenge? No, it was definitely a struggle. Because also how do you loop it with a nice gift? I mean it loops. It loops fine. Yeah, it's like yeah. I said that's not that's not that hard. Uh no, I mean it doesn't have to be perfect. It's a gift. It's the internet. Things are shitty all the time. I think I mean I think the biggest struggle of that was that I had this intention for it to be this show and then. Them not giving, oh yeah, giving back and I was like, well if they don't want it, then maybe YouTube will have me. They don't notice my genius yet. What was what was so bad about the pilot? Do you remember? What's like the most embarrassing? So cringy. Yeah, I mean it's thankfully not on the internet so nobody can find it, but it's very much me being in what I called host mode which is where I am like, okay so what we're going to learn today is that we're going to look at this this is something called a servo motor and it's like the intonation and everything is really different. And I am actually I mean I thinking back of that I am so happy that they didn't get back to me because it's such a different thing to kind of start your career in your living room running back and forth to the camera and like filming something and then looking at it and like I got to really. Find my own voice in different way, and then like a year later, they offered me a show. But then I was so off and running. I was like, no, I don't want to do this. You didn't fall into that place of being like a actor like a YouTuber where you are presenting a kind of personality. You are more focused on the product you are creating. I mean I think it's a combination. Of it, I mean I I think of it as acting sometimes, but I only play the role of myself. But of course it's like when you are shooting something for the seventh time, like you have to be able to muster that enthusiasm. But no, it's not. I kind of. Think of everyday life me as a watered down version of the YouTube version. It's like. That's a cheap knockoff. Yeah, the push up conversion. No, it's just like add few parts water. If you have me, but like on YouTube is just so condensed because you have jump cuts and you know like I'll scrape jokes and make sure that everything lands and there is music and stuff and then like in real life you don't have any of that but it's still me. What are some other cool robots in the early days that stand out to you? I mean there is a million we can go through, but like what maybe what what was like a challenging one like a really challenging one in the early days. I mean I remember the breakfast robot, which was my second project, was a challenging one. So eating cereal. Yeah, it's a robot that like pours milk into cereal and feeds me with a spoon. I was mostly challenging because it was so like. Everything had to be in the right location and there were so many takes before I got everything right. And by right I mean it makes an absolute mess. Um, yeah, that one was challenging. How many takes was that one? I don't know, probably twelve, ten something. It's just a mess everywhere. As a mess and also I use like Cheerios for the cereals and my it's shot in my old bedroom in San Francisco and the floors were sticky for weeks afterwards. This should go into your autobiography. Yeah, it's nice. We could just type out this podcast and release it as a. My manager would be stoked. We'll fix it in post. Um, yeah, the the feed because you have like a couple of feeding ones right. There is soup, isn't there? Soup one. Yeah, there is a soup robot. Um, there is a beer pouring robot. I mean that's that's awesome. That's a difficult robotics problem in the shitty and the in the perfect version. Of having an arm that interacts intimately with a human being and one of the most intimate things you can do with a human being. That's PG is to feed it. Where is he going with this? Oh my god, he's a YouTube comment come live. Like damn it. So like to me, there is a like feeding is tricky, or even like getting a beer even pouring a beer is is tough into a glass. Yeah, it's trickier than anyone who hasn't tried it things and even making it. I think what I realized is that like. Making things really shitty or like failing in a spectacular way is also its own sort of skill because like the shittiest robot is the one that doesn't turn on but like that isn't. Much to watch, so it was always like wanting for it to fail in these kind of spectacular ways. Um, no, there is a lot of stuff to be said about engineering in it. Is there something to be said on a philosophical level about the value of flawed robot? So like the kind of robots you want is to be partially flawed. Like, do you think the kind of robots we'll have in the home that are friends and um you know almost like pets? Wouldn't they need to be kind of shitty? Because we can love the somehow we

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