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Mark Rober (former NASA) launches a 30 day Creative Engineering Class

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Re: Mark Rober (former NASA) launches a 30 day Creative Engineering Class

#31

Post by epsilonclose »

fastball wrote: post #22

I've enjoyed Mark Rober's content over the years, but I'm skeptical for two reasons: 1. I think people frequently underestimate how useful it is to do the "boring" parts of engineering (or any discipline). The unfortunate reality is that a lot of learning (that can be applied generally) comes from failure / mistakes, and you don't really get that if you're taught "this is how you can make this particular cool thing".…

I think your skepticism is well-placed. If this were a "30 day creative programming" course, I wonder what the HN reaction would be. My guess is that it would be: just pick a project and go for it, you don't need a class to start learning. Maybe atoms inspire more trepidation than bits though.

Re: Mark Rober (former NASA) launches a 30 day Creative Engineering Class

#32

Post by gowld »

jld wrote: post #24
mdoms wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That first one the catapulted him into Youtube stardom turned out to be fake, right?

After his latest video I was wondering if his recording of the thieves in their homes runs afoul of wiretapping laws. I can appreciate that someone who just stole a package probably isn't likely to try to press charges, but made me wonder if he is just assuming that risk. Maybe the box has a 'shrinkwrap' license agreeing to be recorded?

The box has a lot of text on it to indicate it's a fake product. I wonder if it mentions the microphone.

The project bugs me a bit, as it's designed to find the 3% of people (IIRC from Rober's report) willing to steal and open an obvious fake package -- dumb kids, or mentally ill, or desperate and stupid.

Also, he's famous, so he's risking retaliation bombs.

Re: Mark Rober (former NASA) launches a 30 day Creative Engineering Class

#33

Post by gowld »

fastball wrote: post #22

I've enjoyed Mark Rober's content over the years, but I'm skeptical for two reasons: 1. I think people frequently underestimate how useful it is to do the "boring" parts of engineering (or any discipline). The unfortunate reality is that a lot of learning (that can be applied generally) comes from failure / mistakes, and you don't really get that if you're taught "this is how you can make this particular cool thing".…

The real value is for an engineering expert (with a makerspace) to use Rober's class as a curriculum. I don't think it'll be great for an individual student.

Re: Mark Rober (former NASA) launches a 30 day Creative Engineering Class

#34

Post by gowld »

bigbubba wrote: post #2

This guy sure gets a lot of milage out of his past employer. It's rare to hear him mentioned without NASA being mentioned in the same breath.

He has to differentiate himself from the posters, because he's too good-looking and laid-back-looking for people to not prejudge him before seeing his impressive engineering talent.

Re: Mark Rober (former NASA) launches a 30 day Creative Engineering Class

#35

Post by PragmaticPulp »

fxtentacle wrote: post #30

This is clearly marketing, and clearly good one. From what I can tell, it's a course that was mostly produced by someone else and will be delivered by someone else, but they recorded Mark Rober - the guy famous on YouTube for glitterbombing people - as the instructor. But their FAQ already states that he will "be able to" look at what students are doing and "may occasionally [..] give feedback", so most likely he won…

It’s increasingly common for online courses and other material to be attached to famous influencers. Leveraging the influencer’s audience and credibility is a shortcut to gaining massive traction. People really, really trust their favorite influencers.

I was shocked when a semi-famous influencer admitted that one of the businesses that bears his name actually receives zero input from him, yet he takes 60% of the profits. He was approached by someone who wanted to use his name to jumpstart the audience and the deal was too good to pass up.

I wouldn’t be surprised if the recently publicized “Mr Beast Burger” is a similar collaboration. It’s pitched as something Mr Beast came up with, but I wouldn’t be surprised if some entrepreneurs were already building a ghost kitchen business and shopped it around to influencers who were willing to claim it was “theirs” in exchange for some of the profits.

Re: Mark Rober (former NASA) launches a 30 day Creative Engineering Class

#36

Post by bigbubba »

jld wrote: post #24
mdoms wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That first one the catapulted him into Youtube stardom turned out to be fake, right?

After his latest video I was wondering if his recording of the thieves in their homes runs afoul of wiretapping laws. I can appreciate that someone who just stole a package probably isn't likely to try to press charges, but made me wonder if he is just assuming that risk. Maybe the box has a 'shrinkwrap' license agreeing to be recorded?

I guess he'd have to do it in a one-party consent state to be safe? But is this fundamentally different from all the surveillance camera footage of gas station robberies you can find online? Also I believe local news stations like to broadcast footage of porch thieves too.

Example: https://youtube.com/watch?v=Buce4AbOO9k

Re: Mark Rober (former NASA) launches a 30 day Creative Engineering Class

#37

Post by fastball »

natenthe wrote: post #5

I saw this and found it interesting. As a CS guy and software engineer, I've always wanted to combine that knowledge with actual physical engineering (i.e. mechanical and electrical) in order to build cool stuff and complete my knowledge base as an engineer. I've always seen his videos and wanted to be able to prototype and engineer actual physical things like him, rather than spending my whole life building software…

For people that want to learn "physical engineering", I recommend the same thing I do when people ask people the best way to learn software engineering: you need a project.

Find something in your life that you want to automate, and automate it. Motivation is easier to maintain ("I still want this problem fixed") and you'll learn so much more from failure and iteration than you will following someone else's tutorial about "how to build X".

Re: Mark Rober (former NASA) launches a 30 day Creative Engineering Class

#38

Post by mdoms »

jld wrote: post #24
mdoms wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That first one the catapulted him into Youtube stardom turned out to be fake, right?

After his latest video I was wondering if his recording of the thieves in their homes runs afoul of wiretapping laws. I can appreciate that someone who just stole a package probably isn't likely to try to press charges, but made me wonder if he is just assuming that risk. Maybe the box has a 'shrinkwrap' license agreeing to be recorded?

Surely there are provisions in the law for this? Otherwise I could just go to your home, steal one of your wireless security cameras, place it in my house and have you charged with wiretapping?

Re: Mark Rober (former NASA) launches a 30 day Creative Engineering Class

#39

Post by buzzerbetrayed »

TheGallopedHigh wrote: post #26
enobrev wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd recommend watching those videos before knocking him for the glitter bombs. They are impressively engineered, with entertaining videos which contain a good deal of detail about how, why, and in the most recent version, how they are working with law enforcement to crack down on package thieves.

If you’re into this type of engineering check out “stuff made here” or “BPS Space”.

"Stuff Made Here" is amazing. I can't believe how talented that guy is. And he seems much less edited/fake than Rober (who I also enjoy). I watch both of their videos whenever they upload a new one, but "Stuff Made Here" appeals much more to my engineering side, and I appreciate the lack of "showmanship" that is so prevalent in Rober videos.

Re: Mark Rober (former NASA) launches a 30 day Creative Engineering Class

#40

Post by buzzerbetrayed »

freetime2 wrote: post #28

Rober just put out a new video with version 3.0 of his Glitter Bomb, and the engineering is seriously impressive. I’m sure he gets lots of help on his projects from others at this point, but I still have a lot of admiration for this guy. The video is pretty funny, too! https://youtu.be/h4T_LlK1VE4

I agree it is very impressive, but I wish he'd do something new for the holiday season. I feel like v3 is basically v2, but you can't put the lid back on. I wish he'd shake things up a bit.
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