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22-year-old builds chips in his parents' garage (2022)

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Re: 22-year-old builds chips in his parents' garage (2022)

#101

Post by hiAndrewQuinn »

EliRivers wrote: post #78
mitthrowaway2 wrote: post #6

Indeed. The hardest part these days is getting access to a garage.

On that thread, his garage is larger than the entire space I rented for living in when I was his age. But the point I'm going on to make isn't just about how stupid the cost of housing is; it's that the high cost of housing comes with extra costs that we might not even see. How many people would be doing all sorts of neat things, some of which would genuinely bloom into real advances and ideas and genuine new wealth…

If you want to compromise on neither location nor space, your only real option is to build upwards. Tall residential skyscrapers are the only way.

Personally I'm fine with that, but I get why people might have an aesthetic issue with it. They're of course allowed to compromise on one of the other 2 points to get a better looking neighborhood if they want.

Re: 22-year-old builds chips in his parents' garage (2022)

#102

Post by hiAndrewQuinn »

ccorcos wrote: post #22
mitthrowaway2 wrote: post #6

Indeed. The hardest part these days is getting access to a garage.

I’m constantly surprised how tech folks seem to undervalue the suburbs.

I like the "concrete suburbs" we have here in Finland. I get why people born here don't have the highest opinion of them, but something about seeing identical 8-story high unadorned buildings for several blocks in a row, separated by little patches of park and forest sets me at ease. It feels like even if I were to lose my job I would still be able to pay rent here. Maybe it comes from growing up in an American city and seeing just how brutal the rent race can get firsthand.

Re: 22-year-old builds chips in his parents' garage (2022)

#103

Post by [deleted] »

ChainOfFools wrote: post #59
OccamsMirror wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not in Australia. Even rural is expensive.

Recently moved into a four-bedroom home in a moderately desirable suburb of Los Angeles. I myself work in tech field and my spouse is university faculty. Our subdiv is a large tract of homes built 15-25 years ago, all in the mid six figures to just a hair over seven. At least three of the neighbors within sight of my own house are some sort of residential construction or property trade contractor. Two are public scho…

[deleted]

Re: 22-year-old builds chips in his parents' garage (2022)

#104

Post by thfuran »

ChainOfFools wrote: post #59
OccamsMirror wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not in Australia. Even rural is expensive.

Recently moved into a four-bedroom home in a moderately desirable suburb of Los Angeles. I myself work in tech field and my spouse is university faculty. Our subdiv is a large tract of homes built 15-25 years ago, all in the mid six figures to just a hair over seven. At least three of the neighbors within sight of my own house are some sort of residential construction or property trade contractor. Two are public scho…

I suspect the key to that success is having bought in before the house prices significantly increased.

Re: 22-year-old builds chips in his parents' garage (2022)

#105

Post by RetroTechie »

thalassophobia wrote: post #87
vasco wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> How many people would be doing all sorts of neat things, Not many, same distribution would apply to that population. Most would scroll tiktok in a larger house.

Yes, but more creative people would be making something new, even if most would use it for nothing. No matter the amount of additional innovators, the total would still be bigger than it is now.

On a more practical note: people lifted out of poverty that become innovators, are (more) likely to do so in a frugal manner. Because make do with limited resources was spoonfed from early age.

Read: they could make for some very cost-effective innovation.

Lifting other people out of poverty that don't become innovators, would be 'bycatch' from that p.o.v. But still a worthwhile goal.

Re: 22-year-old builds chips in his parents' garage (2022)

#106

Post by thfuran »

hoc wrote: post #12
SOLAR_FIELDS wrote: post #4

It really is wild what you can do in your garage these days. Since the early 2010’s there has been a true revolution in this space that has only accelerated over the last few years. I have an injection molding machine that I built in my garage for less than $1500 USD that has a 3 cubic inch injection volume, able to make a large variety of plastic components at small production scale using a mold I printed from my $5…

The main issue I have with all that is that one could have had/home-built most of that in the 80s already (except for the resins). So in a way this all is more about online orders as well as global access and visibility than about the actual tech. Wasted decades in a way. Guess we needed to build the interwebs first.

What would you have used in the 80s to make molds?

Re: 22-year-old builds chips in his parents' garage (2022)

#107

Post by stephen_g »

xyzzy123 wrote: post #13
SOLAR_FIELDS wrote: post #4

It really is wild what you can do in your garage these days. Since the early 2010’s there has been a true revolution in this space that has only accelerated over the last few years. I have an injection molding machine that I built in my garage for less than $1500 USD that has a 3 cubic inch injection volume, able to make a large variety of plastic components at small production scale using a mold I printed from my $5…

> he is etching wafers on his desktop CNC Wait do you mean etching wafers, or milling PCBs? One of those things you listed is not like the others.

I assumed that they must have meant milling PCBs, because the only kind of “cnc-ish” way of manipulating things on wafers I can think of would be atomic manipulation with a scanning tunnelling microscope, which really doesn’t seem likely!

Re: 22-year-old builds chips in his parents' garage (2022)

#109

Post by saidinesh5 »

EliRivers wrote: post #78
mitthrowaway2 wrote: post #6

Indeed. The hardest part these days is getting access to a garage.

On that thread, his garage is larger than the entire space I rented for living in when I was his age. But the point I'm going on to make isn't just about how stupid the cost of housing is; it's that the high cost of housing comes with extra costs that we might not even see. How many people would be doing all sorts of neat things, some of which would genuinely bloom into real advances and ideas and genuine new wealth…

> if only they could afford some goddamn space in which to do it...

It doesn't even have to be own space... just places like repair shops that let you hang around, maker/hacker spaces would go a long way.

I learned / had so much fun just hanging out at "Radio"(/TV/Tape recorder) Repair shops when I was a kid. Of course most of things i built back there were silly things like lights for my bicycle, longer earphone wires etc... But it is a valuable experience for me.

Re: 22-year-old builds chips in his parents' garage (2022)

#110

Post by flask_manager »

dottjt wrote: post #64
111111101101 wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is the answer. Young people especially need to realise that this country doesn't want them.

Interestingly, as a young Australian, I've thought about this a lot and I genuinely struggle to find a better country to live in. We have our share of problems, but compared to the problems of other countries, I can't help but feel they're significantly less. A large part of it being how isolated we are from the rest of the world and all the benefits that provides. Not to mention the low population density of the cou…

It really depends what specific circumstances you are comparing. If you are looking at trades, low skill full time, or casual work, I dont think there is a better place to be. If you are comparing the lifestyle available from a full time skilled job (tech especially) its honestly not great.

Work anywhere in Asia, and while your wage may be lower, what you get for it goes a whole lot further. Restaurants are a focus, but things like a regular cleaner, doorman, club memberships are a whole lot more accessible. Things that are really only available in Australia to generational wealth these days, are available to skilled employees.

Work in western Europe, and the wages are slightly higher, and the cost of living is slightly lower; however the expectation for work-life balance is far better. 38hr weeks are very strict, with an expectation of flex time and time in lieu. with more weeks off, and better access to things like parental leave and study accommodations.

People make poor comparisons to America, because its a very hard thing to generalize. From my personal experience as a skilled full time worker, there is not one metric where Australia is a clear winner, and many where its far behind. The top end of healthcare is better in the USA, and if you factor in the lower taxes cheaper too. Crime statistics are worse, but localized to places I have no reason to go... I would say that USA as country is worse, but if you only look at the experience of someone who already has a skilled job, then you come out far ahead in the states.

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