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I spent 3 years working on a coat hanger [video]
321–330 of 456 posts
Re: I spent 3 years working on a coat hanger [video]
#322I just love the maker's mind. > I want something that does not exist, I will make it. Making things has never been so accessible, if you don't know how to start, join a community and ask, if they are hostile, just ask chatgpt and start from there. 3d printers are 200$, esp32 is the same cost as arduino nano. Want to make AI things? Make them. Want to make coat hangers? Make them. Want to make a book stand? Make it. I…
I think the best ideas come when you make something that you really want for yourself. In 2020, I really wanted an eink calendar to hang on my wall. Still, many people built one for themselves and never turned it into a commercial product. It’s a lot of work and some of it is boring. And you have to pay for certification and worry about all that paperwork that comes with a business. It took me 3 years: https://shop.i…
I'd pay more for a version with touchscreen support for reserving a block of time. I've been using Joan's for several years and people generally love them, but their subscription price-to-feature value leaves much to be desired.
Something to consider if you decide to market to businesses.
Re: I spent 3 years working on a coat hanger [video]
#323I just love the maker's mind. > I want something that does not exist, I will make it. Making things has never been so accessible, if you don't know how to start, join a community and ask, if they are hostile, just ask chatgpt and start from there. 3d printers are 200$, esp32 is the same cost as arduino nano. Want to make AI things? Make them. Want to make coat hangers? Make them. Want to make a book stand? Make it. I…
To me, this really shows that marketing is now the most crucial skill. It has become easy and affordable to design products, the process is now almost fully commodified with all those OEM and production services. The only thing that now stands between your idea and financial success is your ability to reach the target market, i.e. marketing. Also, such a slick KickStarter campaign typically costs $10k plus ad spend i…
This is something I’ve come to appreciate much more recently - how hard (or at least unnatural) marketing / sales is. A social media following (upon the right audience) is turning into a new metric for economic power, and it’s a skill in it of itself to self-promote tactfully.
What’s the best way to learn marketing skills? Books, courses? I feel like there’s a lot of trash to sort through here.
I have a product I’ve been working on that is nearly ready, but I’ve told only a few people. Would it be better to learn by getting someone who is great at marketing involved, and learn from them?
Re: I spent 3 years working on a coat hanger [video]
#324Earlier quoted context omitted.
I used to embarassingly think that design was merely a matter of aesthetics until I read The Design of Everyday Things by Don Norman, which opened my eyes to how much thought goes into seemingly simple things. Really changed the way I look at human-designed objects. My favorite anecdote due to its simplicity and ubiquity that I never thought about previously was the anecdote about the idea of making top surfaces slan…
> idea of making top surfaces slanted in public spaces to keep people from placing empty drinking cups and such on top of them That's a low-key example of hostile architecture , isn't it? Other than preventing people from leaving cups around, this decreases the utility of public space. Everyone sometimes finds themselves suddenly needing a flat surface other than pavement for a couple of seconds or minutes. Say you'v…
It is an interesting thing though. Why did the design lead too people leaving the cups behind? I get the hostile part as they do not want to clean up other peoples trash. It is something I think about a lot on the way to work. I see gum on the ground. Not like one or two here and there but hundreds of little blobs on the sidewalk. What is causing people in these particular spots to leave their gum behind and then putting the chore of cleaning it up on someone else. I even see it when there is a trash can nearby many times. What is causing the issue? So yeah so sometimes there is no 'clear fix' but making it seriously inconvenient to do something is an option for those who have to pay to clean it up. So we all suffer because of that.
Re: I spent 3 years working on a coat hanger [video]
#325Earlier quoted context omitted.
Are you misunderstanding something? Clothes Railings are "normally" fixed on the ends (to the wall of the cupboard) or from above and can thus, be positioned any distance from the rear wall. Do an Image Search for "Clothes Railing U Bracket" for example.
Having two sidewalls available such that u brackets work is probably not a good use case for this hanger. Usually it means you're inside a closet? But I agree you could build/attach small sidewalls or simply blocks and use this u bracket. But we've entered DIY space since it's not a common package and "readily available" as a solved problem.
From comments I read elsewhere, there are apparently apartments in places like New York that have non-standard depth closets that don't fit regular hangers that these could be useful for, and the van-life crowd has also been mentioned. In both instances, a regular rod mounted on either side would work fine.
Re: I spent 3 years working on a coat hanger [video]
#326Earlier quoted context omitted.
That is not true, at least not for all types of products. I make an e-paper calendar. There is nothing like it on the market. Regularly, I have customers who say "wow, I have been looking for this for years!". Some of these customers have googled for such a product before mine existed, and found that none exists. Without marketing, how would these people learn that the product they've been looking for does now exist?
How do you expect to face competition from general-purpose, high-resolution E-Ink displays appearing on the market now? They are getting to the point where it would be within the ability of an average computer hobbyist to mount one on their wall along with one of the many 'HDMI stick' computers. Your product looks very polished already, and is considerably cheaper than such general purpose displays right now. However…
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Re: I spent 3 years working on a coat hanger [video]
#327I forgot who she was, so: > Giertz has previously branded herself as "the queen of shitty robots" on her YouTube channel, where she employs deadpan humor to demonstrate mechanical robots of her own creation to automate everyday tasks; despite working from a purely mechanical standpoint, they often fall short of practical usefulness, for comic effect.[9] Giertz's creations have included an alarm clock that slaps the u…
Kevin Scott (the CTO of Microsoft) interviewed her in an episode of his podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/ie/podcast/simone-giertz-inventor...
Lex Fridman too: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OgIo36F6Fsg — great 2-hour conversation.
Re: I spent 3 years working on a coat hanger [video]
#328I just love the maker's mind. > I want something that does not exist, I will make it. Making things has never been so accessible, if you don't know how to start, join a community and ask, if they are hostile, just ask chatgpt and start from there. 3d printers are 200$, esp32 is the same cost as arduino nano. Want to make AI things? Make them. Want to make coat hangers? Make them. Want to make a book stand? Make it. I…
I think the best ideas come when you make something that you really want for yourself. In 2020, I really wanted an eink calendar to hang on my wall. Still, many people built one for themselves and never turned it into a commercial product. It’s a lot of work and some of it is boring. And you have to pay for certification and worry about all that paperwork that comes with a business. It took me 3 years: https://shop.i…
I've wanted something like this for a while... might have to pick one up. Congrats on making something you wanted AND bringing it to market.
Re: I spent 3 years working on a coat hanger [video]
#329I just love the maker's mind. > I want something that does not exist, I will make it. Making things has never been so accessible, if you don't know how to start, join a community and ask, if they are hostile, just ask chatgpt and start from there. 3d printers are 200$, esp32 is the same cost as arduino nano. Want to make AI things? Make them. Want to make coat hangers? Make them. Want to make a book stand? Make it. I…
> 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…
I think you're missing the point, which is that for some people making things is immensely rewarding