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#550 – Finishing Prototypes with Zack Freedman
This is a crossover episode with The Contextual Electronics podcast (also made by Chris). There is a video version of this podcast available as well.
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- 0:00 Introduction
- 2:05 What Zack is building (a computer)
- 2:40 A water cooled oscilloscope
- 3:40 How Zack got started
- 4:40 Hackaday article
- 5:20 Bluetooth heads up display
- 5:40 Hoboken Hackerspace
- 7:15 NYC electronics scene
- 8:30 Working with artists
- 10:00 Working on the set of Mr Robot
- 11:05 Doing a first run prototype for a startup
- 13:10 Building skills in high pressure environments and on consulting jobs
- 17:45 Working on deadlines
- 19:10 How many projects are in a single video?
- 20:45 Building subassemblies
- 21:30 Building projects “backwards” (outside in)
- 23:00 Not thinking your idea is the last good idea you’ll ever have
- 24:15 The prototyping mindset
- 27:00 Ranking risk in a project
- 29:15 Usability in wearable projects
- 31:30 “The role of most prototypes is to try to kill the idea”
- 33:30 What makes people want to buy a prototype?
- 35:45 Minimizing features in any one prototype / test
- 36:30 Consumer products should be shown to thousands before going to market
- 38:00 YouTubers’ battle for attention (check out Voidstar Lab to see all of Zack’s videos)
- 41:00 YouTube theories
- 44:45 Zack’s persona
- 47:00 Filming b-roll to keep things interesting
- 51:00 YouTube comment positivity
- 52:25 Maker Twitter
- 54:00 Full time YouTube
- 54:20 Changes in the hardware space since 2012
- 56:40 Prototyping tools
- 58:30 “The Maker Movement”
- 59:25 Working for industrial clients
- 1:01:40 Focusing on the technology vs the purpose of the technology
- 1:03:30 Building a project because you want the thing (output)
- 1:05:30 Technology being used to move the world forward
- 1:07:15 What will Zack build in the future?
- 1:09:40 The Cyberdeck
- 1:12:15 Cyberdeck cafe Discord
- 1:13:10 Building on a stream vs on a video (streams happen on Zack’s Patreon every Monday and Friday)
- 1:14:40 Previously wanting to go into game design
- 1:16:30 Providing a representation of what people think the process is
- 1:17:20 People think IronMan is reality
- 1:18:20 Bringing people into the field
- 1:20:25 “Finish more projects”
- 1:23:30 Going beyond the getting started projects
- 1:26:20 People genuinely interested in a topic will skip beginner classes
- 1:27:35 Engineering is intrinsically solitary
- 1:29:30 Trying to figure out gender discrepancies in making
- 1:31:05 “What’s it like to put yourself out there?”
- 1:32:30 Putting yourself out there will help you find more positive feedback
- 1:35:05 Building community
- 1:37:00 Finding Zack’s work and joining his community
- Patreon
- YouTube
- Discord
- 1:38:40 Conclusion