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Lessons learned shipping 500 units of my first hardware product

simonberens.com

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Re: Lessons learned shipping 500 units of my first hardware product

#71

Post by cyanydeez »

throwup238 wrote: post #67
mmh0000 wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He literally said he was gonna: "Trump vows massive new tariffs if elected, risking global economic war" https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2023/08/22/trump-tra... ( https://archive.is/20231125045858/https://www.washingtonpost... ) EDIT - Found this after my post, a MUCH better "he said it": https://www.donaldjtrump.com/agenda47/agenda47-president-tru...

And he did it last time too: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tariffs_in_the_first_Trump_adm... “Living under a rock” is the technical term, I believe.

Yeah, I find it curiously delusional, but the reality seems to be a segment of the population just refuses to accept the drastic change in pace to political change.

Re: Lessons learned shipping 500 units of my first hardware product

#72

Post by skrtskrt »

skybrian wrote: post #60
cwal37 wrote: post #52

> As someone who generally stays out of politics, I didn’t know much about the incoming administration’s stance towards tariffs, though I don’t think anyone could have predicted such drastic hikes. I have an appreciation for very bright lamps, and the project is neat, but that stuck out to me. I'm always fascinated by people who both feel comfortable ignoring maybe the single most impactful society-determining appara…

I'm doubtful that knowing how much politics matters, but only in a vague way, would have been enough to help them. Could someone who was obsessed with following the Trump administration's every move have predicted the tariffs in advance? I don't think financial markets priced them in?

This isn't about timing the market by being clairvoyant about the timing of a madman's tariffs.

This is about taking reasonable risk calculations as a small business with extremely high tariff exposure, when a president who did a bunch of high tariffs last time wins and election and says he'll do it again.

Sure multi-trillion-dollar financial institutions didn't run for the hills because they get paid when it goes up and paid when it goes down.

Re: Lessons learned shipping 500 units of my first hardware product

#73

Post by [deleted] »

cwal37 wrote: post #52

> As someone who generally stays out of politics, I didn’t know much about the incoming administration’s stance towards tariffs, though I don’t think anyone could have predicted such drastic hikes. I have an appreciation for very bright lamps, and the project is neat, but that stuck out to me. I'm always fascinated by people who both feel comfortable ignoring maybe the single most impactful society-determining appara…

[deleted]

Re: Lessons learned shipping 500 units of my first hardware product

#74

Post by swang »

skybrian wrote: post #60
cwal37 wrote: post #52

> As someone who generally stays out of politics, I didn’t know much about the incoming administration’s stance towards tariffs, though I don’t think anyone could have predicted such drastic hikes. I have an appreciation for very bright lamps, and the project is neat, but that stuck out to me. I'm always fascinated by people who both feel comfortable ignoring maybe the single most impactful society-determining appara…

I'm doubtful that knowing how much politics matters, but only in a vague way, would have been enough to help them. Could someone who was obsessed with following the Trump administration's every move have predicted the tariffs in advance? I don't think financial markets priced them in?

let me guess... you don't follow politics either...

Re: Lessons learned shipping 500 units of my first hardware product

#75

Post by skybrian »

mmh0000 wrote: post #64
skybrian wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm doubtful that knowing how much politics matters, but only in a vague way, would have been enough to help them. Could someone who was obsessed with following the Trump administration's every move have predicted the tariffs in advance? I don't think financial markets priced them in?

He literally said he was gonna: "Trump vows massive new tariffs if elected, risking global economic war" https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2023/08/22/trump-tra... ( https://archive.is/20231125045858/https://www.washingtonpost... ) EDIT - Found this after my post, a MUCH better "he said it": https://www.donaldjtrump.com/agenda47/agenda47-president-tru...

No, knowing that Trump really likes tariffs is not enough to know specifically how he's going to do it. (And which laws he's going to break to get there.)

Re: Lessons learned shipping 500 units of my first hardware product

#76

Post by JKCalhoun »

mmh0000 wrote: post #58

This is super interesting, and I'd actually be quite interested in buying a 60K-Lumen lamp... but not at $1200. Years ago, there was an HN article "You Need More Lumens"[1], which in turn led me down a rabbit hole. I ended up purchasing: 4 standard table lamps from Target, 28 2000-lumen Cree LEDs bulbs[2] and, 4 7-way splitters[3]. The end result is somewhere around 56,000 lumens. And I LOVE it. Makes me much happier…

Curious if LEDs can really match the black-body that is our sun (and therefore incandescents).

I would get/build such a thing for my mental health, but I worry the LED illumination will be counter-productive.

Re: Lessons learned shipping 500 units of my first hardware product

#77

Post by ihaveajob »

cwal37 wrote: post #52

> As someone who generally stays out of politics, I didn’t know much about the incoming administration’s stance towards tariffs, though I don’t think anyone could have predicted such drastic hikes. I have an appreciation for very bright lamps, and the project is neat, but that stuck out to me. I'm always fascinated by people who both feel comfortable ignoring maybe the single most impactful society-determining appara…

In Athens, an "idiotes" was a citizen who focused only on private matters rather than participating in the polis (city-state). Because civic participation was considered a duty, this term carried a negative connotation of being socially irresponsible or uninvolved.

This term evolved into the modern "idiot" which we are familiar with.

Re: Lessons learned shipping 500 units of my first hardware product

#78

Post by skybrian »

throwup238 wrote: post #67
mmh0000 wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He literally said he was gonna: "Trump vows massive new tariffs if elected, risking global economic war" https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2023/08/22/trump-tra... ( https://archive.is/20231125045858/https://www.washingtonpost... ) EDIT - Found this after my post, a MUCH better "he said it": https://www.donaldjtrump.com/agenda47/agenda47-president-tru...

And he did it last time too: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tariffs_in_the_first_Trump_adm... “Living under a rock” is the technical term, I believe.

He didn't do it the same way last time. Trump's second term is significantly different.

Re: Lessons learned shipping 500 units of my first hardware product

#79

Post by mhb »

JoshTriplett wrote: post #59

I'm curious, what would be the engineering challenges (either hardware or software) in making it dimmable substantially below 2500 lumens, so that it could continue to work as a primary light source when winding down after the sun goes down, rather than switching to other light sources capable of getting dimmer?

The manual version could be done with a plastic frame and some filters: https://us.rosco.com/en/products/catalog/roscolux

Re: Lessons learned shipping 500 units of my first hardware product

#80

Post by Soerensen »

The $10 deposit validation approach before committing to manufacturing is underrated. So many hardware projects fail because founders fall in love with the build before confirming anyone will pay.

What stood out to me: the factory miscommunications and quality issues compound because you can't iterate as fast as software. Each mistake costs weeks and thousands of dollars.

For anyone considering hardware: if you're not getting deposits or strong signals of purchase intent before tooling up, you're basically gambling. The author's approach of getting commitments first is the right playbook.

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