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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

#391

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I did say higher chance, not guaranteed to avoid it. The counter extermination was only 5% of Athens total population, or so historians say, so it seems like a lot of nuance was shown.

> The counter extermination was only 5% of Athens total population, or so historians say, so it seems like a lot of nuance was shown. That fact alone doesn't demonstrate nuance. It's possible that 5% of the population was innocent and treated as scapegoats, or chosen randomly, or that anyone high profile regardless of guilt was chosen to die. Unless there's data on who was actually innocent or guilty, the mere fact t…

And your point…?

Of course nobody can prove either way beyond a reasonable doubt for something that happened so long ago.

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

#392
post #383

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Q: Does it get hot/how is it cooled? > A: It's cooled through our large heatsink and ultra quiet Noctua fan. The fan only turns on above 75% brightness. At max power, the heatsink is cool enough to put your hands on it for a couple of seconds.

CENELEC Guide 29, referenced in EU harmonized standards sets burn thresholds: For brief contact (e.g., 1-3 seconds on adult-accessible parts), temperatures should stay below ~48-55°C depending on material; longer reflexive contact requires even lower limits (e.g., 43°C for extended exposure). A surface hot enough that hands can only tolerate it for "a couple of seconds" implies it's above this (likely 60°C+), risking…

Well, at no point do they talk about any kind of certification so my guess is they just didn't care/know/worry about it. So, yes, it's probably not legal to sell this in many places -not just EU-.

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

#393

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What does this even mean?

It means that the consequences of politics will impact you, even if you don't think about politics in the first place.

No, that is the meaning of grand-parent's comment, which makes sense to me, even passively because one has be to aware the environment they move in.

Taking parent's cue of assuming lack of agency - you can even replace "politics" with "the weather", and gp's comment still makes sense, parents inverted riposte does not make sense under its own priors. We can't change the weather, but it's prudent to know which days to carry an umbrella.

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

#394

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What does this even mean?

It means just because you now have an interest in politics, it doesn't mean you will be able to convince anyone of your points of view, or have any impact in whatever level of politics you're joining.

"taking an interest" =/= winning.

My interpretation of the statement is that you can't ignore forces that affect you, even if they bore you. However loudly or frequently you declare or think "I don't care for gravity" matters not as it exists outside of your awareness or acknowledgement of it.

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

#395
post #376
post #280

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> ‘Yes’ means ‘yes, sir’ only in the army. Not really, if you get a "yes" in the Netherlands, Nordics, Germany or Poland it does mean, simply, yes. The consequence of which is that actually getting a "yes" takes a lot of work. I don't dare speak for other countries, no experience there.

I live in Germany. 'Ja' here means 'ich stimme zu' only when explicitly asked. That's why Germans stick 'Ja?' after every second sentence. Ja? In general, 'ja-a...' means 'I hear you', same as almost everywhere else. That has been my experience.

The 'ja?' with a question mark means 'right?'. It just happens to be the same word as 'yes'. So no, not same as almost everywhere else.

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

#396

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Look up what it means when they say "yes", when you're explaining something. Is there a term for this? Because I see it in my personal life as well dealing with some low price manual labor that doesn't speak english. Instructions often get lost in translation, the reply will be "yes" and it doesn't get done. I know they want to sound professional and confident, so saying no or asking questions is a "bad thing".

Lying. It is called lying, deceit, or bearing false witness. In my house I do not permit "yeah", or "okay". It is "yes" and anything else is interpreted as a 'no'. Once you press someone to speak a "yes" as a solid commitment, for example to an understanding of an instruction. If this puts the person on the defensive then you are dealing with someone who is not interested in being held accountable. Let your yes be ye…

This isn't fair, because it's misunderstanding the problem. It's not that they're lying, it's that, in their culture, the meaning of yes is something different, meaning "I hear you" rather than "I understand you". If they're not strong with english they might not have a grasp of this, so (in the case of Mandarin as primary language) you have to usually think of it as an empty "uh huh" type filler word, not a word with actual meaning.

The real problem I have is the "saving face" concept prevents them admitting they don't understand something. This is where the "high context" part comes in. You can't listen to what they say directly, you have to go off how they say it, and other context clues. This is what I have the biggest problem with. The only way to know if they actually understand something is test their understanding, like have them repeat/explain it back to you. From a low context/western perspective, this results in low verbal trust (because it technically is). I've wasted so many hours on taking something said at face value, that I just default to verifying everything that's said, and trying to be patient when I find out the truth. But, I am getting much better at reading the cues, so can usually spot when the (from my western/low context perspective) bullshit when it starts.

There are old stereotypes around this clash of meaning/culture, but it really is just that. If you're from their culture, and speak their language, there's no "bullshitting" or "lying". From what I've been told, it's incredibly clear when someone is saving face, and it's very clear what the response should be, to "help" them save face. Westerners are, literally, just blind to it all. It's an incompatible mindset and language/expression that requires a robust translation layer that needs to exist in one of the parties. I seem to be mostly incapable of high context communication, even in english, so I'm just as "at fault" in the two party role of communication.

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

#397
post #376

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I live in Germany. 'Ja' here means 'ich stimme zu' only when explicitly asked. That's why Germans stick 'Ja?' after every second sentence. Ja? In general, 'ja-a...' means 'I hear you', same as almost everywhere else. That has been my experience.

The 'ja?' with a question mark means 'right?'. It just happens to be the same word as 'yes'. So no, not same as almost everywhere else.

And why do they say ‘right?’ every time? Because without it my ‘ja’ does not mean ‘yes, sir’, but rather ‘I hear you, go on’. So, same as everywhere else.

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

#398
post #224
post #194

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Working with a Chinese vendors is an adversarial first relationship, where 差不多 is deeeeep in the culture (and, from my experience, tends to survive trips across the ocean). There are professional communication/training courses for working with Chinese vendors/colleagues that spell all of this out, because it's not some secret. It's just a very different culture, with high context communication (I'll let you read what…

Googled that ‘yes’ thing. Not different from my experience in other parts of the world. ‘Yes’ means ‘yes, sir’ only in the army. What is your environment?

Hardware engineering, where an inappropriate yes can mean massive amounts of time and money wasted, making it a very low context environment, by necessity.

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

#400

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The 'wasted' electricity is turned into heat, which should be welcome by their target customer base.

I can't imagine the customer base for people who want a ~600W metal disc suspended at eye level is very big.

Q: Does it get hot/how is it cooled? A: It's cooled through our large heatsink and ultra quiet Noctua fan. The fan only turns on above 75% brightness. At max power, the heatsink is cool enough to put your hands on it for a couple of seconds.
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