Yeah, I was paraphrasing the interview and then going into more detail on why I thought it was interesting in the sentences after the one you stopped reading on.
Honestly, I was kinda hoping to hear some better constructed and well reasoned insights & counter points beyond your “regurgitated mind swill” hot take but I guess that’s on me for not managing expectations.
Ah well, I usually comment once a year or so and then get immediately reminded why I stay off HN. See y’all in 2024!
I thought it was a really interesting interview. If an ML system has been trained to identify whether or not a picture has a cat in it, it is very tempting to anthropomorphize this and say “the system has learned what cats are” but this is not what is really happening from the model’s point of view. The system doesn’t know what the difference between a picture of cat is vs a real cat or how cats behave or what mammals are or anything. It just knows the data in and yes/no out.
Modern AI that can generate text, pictures or videos are truly phenomenal accomplishments but adding larger training sets, structural complexity and output capabilities does not really seem to be getting any closer to a General AI. Something with the framework for a level of agency that could say “wait, what exactly are these cat things I keep getting asked about?”
The argument goes that, without the ability to self construct that higher level framework and then question the integrity of that mental model, current generation AI’s will always act erratically (at least from a human perspective).
Consoles need standardized control inputs so games can be ported easier. That’s why all controllers kind of evolved to look the same over the last 20 years or so (and why companies like Nintendo always have strange input devices).
There are more effective devices that get around the bad ergonomics of trying to used a mouse on the couch; basically trackballs in controllers.
I was curious if this was true and looked it up. According to the American Arbitration Association rules section R-9:
Small Claims Option for the Parties
If a party’s claim is within the jurisdiction of a small claims court, either party may choose to take the claim to that court instead of arbitration as follows: (a) The parties may take their claims to small claims court without first filing with the AAA.
I am very much not a lawyer and have zero experience with arbitration but that seems pretty strait forward unless I am missing something?
Sure, if I define Mickey as entertainment, the Yankees as baseball and the Grand Canyon as nature than anything else will be a pale knock-off.
I have great memories of doing all that stuff too but I also remember standing in line in 90 degree heat for over an hour, seeing grown men getting into fist fights over a game and the majority of nature on display being forests of selfie sticks.
Point is that you can do that stuff once in a while and then step back, figure out what you like and don't like about the experiences and then find cheaper local alternatives that are pretty amazing too.
If your goal is to spend a nice summer night walking around with the family, seeing interesting stuff while eating churros and taking the occasional tea cup ride then you don't exclusively have to pay Disney $1,000+ to do it.
There are some pretty impressive online fabrication houses to look into that can help you work through manufacturing process options:
Fathom (fathommfg.com)
Stratasys (stratasysdirect.com)
Protolabs (protolabs.com)
ICO Mold (icomold.com)
Xometry (xometry.com)
If you want a DIY approach to producing parts you could think about casting polyurethane parts in Silicone RTV molds from a 3D printed buck. This is something you could do at home without much extra support hardware, maybe just a vacuum chamber. Check out Smooth-On (smooth-on.com).
You mentioned rotomolding which sounds like you are looking for large parts. Because of the high cost of rotomolding tooling I would recommend looking into fiberglass construction for dimensionally large short run parts. If you can find a local CNC shop you can have foam bucks machined and then take them to a fiberglasser to create a run of parts or one-offs.
DIY fiberglassing is also very possible on a reasonable budget.
For most molding processes you will need to get familiar with draft angles, part lines, minimum wall thickness, sprue placement, etc. These are things that will have an impact on your parts during the design phase.
Very generally speaking on manufacturing, it is good to get into the habit of defining your budget, how big the parts you want to make are, how many you need and what material you want them in. As you answer those questions the better fabrication methods for a part will become more obvious.
Final (and probably unpopular) piece of advice; I would stay away from buying a CNC machine or other large equipment until you know exactly what you need. If your goal is to make finished prototypes and products then it's usually better to spend your time understanding the various manufacturing methods vs learning to be a machine operator for a specific process.
I don't think it was an issue of misuse of tax payer dollars or anything like that.
The point of allowing astronauts to bring personal items was to help keep their mental health stable and morale high over the course of an 8+ day journey in a very confined space under extreme stress. Having crew members thinking about how their side hustle was going to pan out when they got home would be a distraction and not in line with the goal of the personal item allocation.
Additionally, if it was left unchecked then future astronauts would have had to choose between bringing a picture of their loved ones or passing up on a financial bonus which would have led to a bad situation.
I can see why NASA cracked down on it pretty aggressively.
As pointed out above, if you are looking for a rough logo for a personal project logo generators can be good enough.
Step above that would be the "gig economy" marketplace style sites for generic logo creation. Be wary here though, many people spam these with knock-offs or direct copies of existing logos & resell content. Basically make sure to image search anything you get.
From a pragmatic standpoint you can get something pretty good out of these for the short term before rebranding down the road.
For finding serious custom branding services you can look through a number of creative sites for talent. Creative job boards like Cloroflot (www.coroflot.com/design-jobs), Behance (www.behance.net/joblist) or Dribbble (dribbble.com/jobs) can fit the bill here. You can also search portfolios at these sites and directly reach out to designers that match your style.
Thanks for the article, I graduated from Art Center College of Design in Pasadena and have seen similar issues with skyrocketing tuition costs [1]. In addition, I have also noticed an equally alarming decrease in the average age of the student body going from late 20’s to the now common immediate post high school age being the norm.
I feel like that is particularly troubling as younger students that may not know if they want to be in the field over the long term end up being saddled with crippling $200,000+ debt.
You also listed some excellent resources in gaining skills for creative trade work but, to be honest, I don’t know if I agree that these can act as a complete replacement particularly in entertainment design, industrial design, interactive art or even UI/UX due to the scope of knowledge needed to be competent in these fields.
I personally think there is starting to be an uptick in doing only part of a program where students will only do two years of a four-year degree to get the networking and skill benefits with less debt. This is a pretty bitter pill to swallow though as you end could easily end up paying $100,000+ for no degree...
In any case, I would be really interested in hearing more of your thoughts on trade specific strategies for creative education.
Honestly, I was kinda hoping to hear some better constructed and well reasoned insights & counter points beyond your “regurgitated mind swill” hot take but I guess that’s on me for not managing expectations.
Ah well, I usually comment once a year or so and then get immediately reminded why I stay off HN. See y’all in 2024!