Kind: captions
Language: en
it's the machine it was my friend Daniel
Beauchamp and I we had this long-running
joke about a proud parent machine that
you could give a quarter and a passcode
on the shoulder says proud of you yeah
um so yeah I still have that hanging on
my wall in my workshop so that one I'm
I'm really happy with I just think it's
a really funny concept and also I
executed the build wealth so it's an arm
like what's the build I built it off of
an old lamp arm yeah basically it's just
a motorized arm and this kind of torso
of a person
so it's actually a hand right it's just
laser cut plywood and it kind of has
like it looks creepy yeah and yeah it's
as proud of you son because I just
thought that sounded more funny than
proud of you daughter and also proud of
you son just
it immediately communicates that it's a
parent it's not just like a collie or
something it's like proud of you
yeah oh my charges you a quarter for it
yeah but it added like Chad GPT on top
of that and uh fine tune it on
conversations you've had with your
parents and all of a sudden you have a
thing that can fundamentally transform
your psyche yeah
the following is a conversation with
Simone yet an inventor designer engineer
and roboticist famous for a combination
of humor and Brilliant Creative Design
in the systems and products she creates
including as part of her new product
design company called yetch she has a
popular YouTube channel which she has
demonstrated a lot of her incredible and
fun designs and inventions from quote
shitty robots to a Tesla Model 3
converted into a truck
but where she also revealed her personal
Journey after having been diagnosed with
a brain tumor
Simone is a brilliant fun and inspiring
human being it was truly an honor for me
to get to meet her and to have this chat
this is Alex Friedman podcast to support
it please check out our sponsors in the
description and now dear friends here's
Simone yet
what was the first cool thing you built
or you fell in love with the process of
making stuff you know I think
run into the limitations of your of your
skills so much so I feel like honestly
building gets less and less
frustrating or like I love it more and
more the more I know so the limitations
aren't fun like the limitations are fun
but it's like when you have an idea of
something and you want to make it a
certain level and then you just have to
compromise with the materials and the
tools and the skills you have
um so I can't remember first time where
I felt like I'm proud of this wow this
was so smooth I'm so proud of it like I
feel like
a lot of people I watch them build stuff
and it's just like watching water pour
down you know it's just like so easy and
for me it's just like
trying to shove a toy car into a wall so
you're not able to step back and Marvel
like at the early Creations even like
even like
um we're not even talking loud we know
stuff even before then I'm from Sweden
and you have to choose either sewing or
Woodworking and I chose to like
woodworking in middle school and I
remember the sense of Pride when I got
to bring something home and that thing
of like oh my God I get to show my
parents this
and
I think that is kind of the feeling that
I've built my job around it's like the
sense of Pride and wanting to show
people something that I made and like
back then it was like a little wooden
spoon you know
and now it's a slightly larger wooden
wood spoon this Dynamic it moves and has
a mind of its own
um you first started doing more
engineering type stuff with uh Arduino
boards at punch to design which is an SF
engineering firm what are just from your
memory there what are some cool things
you built there so the thing is I I went
to advertising school and I just like a
vocational studies a year and I realized
there that I didn't care much for
advertising but I thought it was really
fun to build stuff and programs so like
I just completely focused on that and
there I built
my first Hardware project or like
Electronics project which was this uh
iPhone case with retractable guitar
strings so basically I imagine that you
could like pull out guitar strings from
the bottom of your iPhone and you could
pluck it to your belt and then you could
hold a cord on the screen and I built
that together with my friend Jonathan
and I was like oh this is dope I thought
it was so much fun and I considered like
oh should I go to school for this but
then I thought maybe I can get a job and
I could get paid to learn about
Electronics so just based off of that
one project I got the job at punch
through design there's actually was a
one year internship can you explain what
we're talking about here so it's a case
with guitar strings attached yeah does
it actually work at all
these are not on the screen guitar
strings no so they're actual strings
that you pull out so there's a mechanism
that's almost like a seat belt mechanism
and yeah you pull them out from the
bottom of uh your phone and you can
attach them to your belt I mean it's
terrible
there's a few different ways to decide
if somebody's touching a guitar string
and what you do in a real guitar is you
have the little it's like measuring the
vibration or the change and the as as
the yeah you're measuring how the guitar
is vibrating and you can't really do
that because I can't have a a receiving
sensor because the guitar strings are
going to move in relationship to that
because you don't have like a rigid neck
and this is like yeah this was my first
Electronics project I was a little
fledging baby maker but what I decided
was to use capacitive touch
because that is independent on if the
guitar strings are moving in
relationship to something or in relation
to something so basically there was just
this little Bluetooth Arduino board that
this company punched through design made
so that was how I found them and I
measured the capacitive touch so like
whenever
um the guitar string was measured there
was this little microcontroller that was
like oh my God a guitar string got
measured or touched and then that sent a
signal over Bluetooth to my phone and I
built a little iPhone app that
interpreted those Bluetooth signals and
then checked what type of cord I was
holding on the screen and then played
the code here I see holding the chords
on the screen so you're doing the
multi-touch sensing there
that's incredible I honestly cannot
believe that I pulled it off because I
think I was I was ignorance was
definitely Bliss because that was like
yeah the first Hardware
project I'd ever built the first iPhone
app I'd ever programmed and like now if
somebody was like Hey I want this to be
my first project I would probably be
like oh that's a lot but
we'll get off because that's such an
interesting thing
for people to hear because it's your
first project and a lot of people stop
because of the difficulty of their first
project they never truly discovered
their own genius because they stopped
with the first and you didn't stop so
it'd be interesting to kind of
psychoanalyze you on the couch of why
you didn't stop because you have to
build an app you have to figure out how
to did you know how to program much or
no okay I mean a little bit but I never
programmed and or done any iOS apps okay
so you have to figure out how to get
forget like what the app does just get
the app running and working and then you
have to figure out how to get the
sensors in like real time to finger
touching and you have to connect how to
get the capacitor's touch working with
the microcontrollers do you know
anything about the capacitor touch
sensors at that time I mean it's pretty
easy
um now it's basically everything's easy
yeah you know Rockets are pretty easy
you sound like my grandma she's I have
an Italian grandma and uh I always
trying to get her we're like trying to
get her to tell her recipes and every
recipe starts with
it's very simple yeah and then there's
like 45 minutes of her explaining it
it's like with gymnastics at the
Olympics they make it look easy the best
people in the world always make the the
impossible to seem easy I pride myself
with making buildings that look really
hard because I feel like I'm always
struggling so much you make the easiest
human possible no uh
so how many strings was it is it just oh
gosh I think this is such a long time
ago no it was six oh six strings and you
could touch it and then there's
wow and it can and then the phone itself
makes a sound
still think it's such a cool concept to
have this like mobile I'm not even a
guitar player I don't know I was I mean
I got the idea because I was uh kind of
strumming on my charge cord of my phone
oh like an air guitar but on a cord yeah
fun to go back to that project with what
I know now but the problem with it is
that when you're producing the tension
in your string just with your arm like
you can't make it taut enough to
actually play like it kind of becomes
playing these like saggy strings so as
you're not really getting that
experience and I think that's why I mean
I
yeah I haven't really pursued I wonder
if there's a way to generate the
tightness
from the case itself
it's a good device that unfolds and then
with some kind of tightening mechanisms
yeah but then it kind of becomes like a
whole thing in a guitar then it just
becomes a really shitty guitar yeah like
which this is a really shitty guitar but
it's also but it's so shitty it's
awesome yeah I don't know I don't know
but it's a cool it's cool that you have
an interface between
a device that's capable of incredible
computational power and an actual
Hardware thing is there something that
you can psychoanalize
that made you finish that others could
hear
in their own struggle to uh
do their first project like that because
you were not you were in a
non-engineering person technically
and you did a pretty cool Renegade out
there
wild no instructions
engineering projects no it's definitely
it was an off-road build where it's like
if you're building a Lego kit it's very
much on the road and you're following
instructions and this is like you have
no idea if you're headed for a cliff or
a dead end or you're gonna get stuck
um I think it had a natural pressure to
it because it was a school project yeah
so it did have deadlines built into it
and and stuff like that so that
definitely helped but I think also it
was just so incredibly motivating when I
realized that I might be able to pull it
off
like that was I felt like a bloodhound
you know and you're just like oh my God
I can actually make this happen and I
think if
I hadn't seen that the Horizon it would
have been harder to stick through you
were you able to see the end of the
tunnel um
pretty early on no not really
so there's something just suffering for
a while I don't know how how your brain
works but it's like if I have a problem
I can't stop thinking about it like it's
so fun to think about it like I spent I
spent
two and a half years designing a coat
hanger
and I just can't stop thinking about it
like I get so into it because I think
it's so much fun
take me to this
two-year journey of the code hanging out
of the code hanger what how did it begin
how did it begin it began with a corner
in my home where I couldn't fit a coat
rack the thing is I shouldn't have
brought this up because I'm gonna
release it as a product probably in a
year on an actual product okay well it
is a mystery it's a mystery yeah but it
solves a fundamental problem in in The
Human Condition and I am so excited
about it and I cannot I don't yeah but
this is I get so
pumped about it because I see it's just
this issue or like this problem that I
want to solve and I I kind of can't put
it to rest until I have
it's I mean speaking of cone hangers
uh doorknobs have always been
interesting to me
it's cool how there's things that
everybody uses that somebody designed
yeah oh my God so okay so this is I so I
have two like big so basically I started
on YouTube and and I'm been doing that
for like the last seven or eight years
and I've kind of been thinking of like
okay what's next for me because I want
to keep on trying out new things and I'm
I'm kind of
going into two different Avenues one is
the product business that I started code
hinders TBD
um and then I am working on a pilot
episode of a show where each episode is
about an everyday object and why they
look the way that they do so we've
written a pilot episode about forks and
it's all about like why do they look the
way that they do why did this became the
like eating Implement of the West why
are we ruled by an iron Fork how did
that happen in every everyday object
that you have and that you just take for
granted somebody's just made it up yeah
we're all sheep well I'll keep using it
yeah even if it's not optimal I mean
presumably most objects are optimal you
hope or at least a local options yeah
and that's what I think is so like the
world around us and this is why I love
building things is because it just opens
up this idea that the world around us is
so malleable
can make objects work for you better
like I spent I I made this fruit bowl I
had a fruit bowl and I was always
annoyed that I had either too little or
too much fruit for it so I made a fruit
bowl where I can change the diameter of
it it has a mechanism so you can like
make it bigger or smaller and that's
just like the thing of being like
bowls why are they the way that they are
I can make them different and I think
like I want to make an episode about
doorknobs I think it's so interesting
why are they the way they are why are
they placed the way where they are I
think there's going to be a rabbit hole
from which you will never return I would
happily live in that rabbit hole forever
like if I could if I can like dig out a
little niche for myself there because I
think it's like
because you know they go so deep they're
also on different sides of doors you
never like the push-pull situation on
doors in general like that's one of the
main problems of humanity
figuring out which is embarrassing yeah
just okay how many there's eight billion
peoples on people on Earth every single
second there is millions of people being
embarrassed by the confusion
some guy first time in college he's
trying to be impressive to everybody to
pushes on and he plays it off like it's
cool oh shit I knew that nope and it
affects our behaviors that was why I
think it's so interesting with forks is
that Forks actually affect our eating
behaviors and they can get you to eat
faster or slower take bigger bites or
smaller bites and they're all these ways
or like the social I mean the reason
that
um Chopsticks work is because they do
the food shopping in kitchen
rather than on the plate and also you
have a bowl that you bring to your mouth
with whereas a plate you keep on the
like they're just all these ways and
these objects affect our Behavior
opening and closing doors and I think
it's such an interesting take on culture
through and like human behavior through
these objects that we use every day and
we never question them really yeah and
then there's institutions that are
controlling our mind that don't want us
to know the truth why are sporks not
more popular have you asked yourself
that question yeah no it's all big
utensil is behind all of it all right so
I mean in those early days
um did you suffer from imposter syndrome
like that leap to being an engineer
was there
especially when you started uh working a
punch the design
on a team of Engineers was there
insecurity
both yes and no I think I've um
I always try to flip my flaws into
selling points and for that so getting
that job I
I was like oh you're a team of Engineers
everybody working here is an engineer
your customers are not all Engineers you
need somebody who can be your filter and
tell you when something's going to be
too hard for your customers to
understand so it was more me being like
Oh No it might seem that me not having
skills is a bad thing like actually it's
a great thing I represent the everyday
person I understand deeply what
everybody needs and wants yes that is me
the representation of the of the average
human
um but I mean I I remember that so I
studied physics for a year in college
and then I dropped out and I had this
rule for myself that whenever I did not
understand any something I would ask a
question so I was always raising my hand
in class and it's this room entirely
like Auditorium filled with incredibly
intelligent people who are mortified of
seeming stupid and I think that was
really like and I remember people people
at the end of the year coming up to me
being like thank you so much for all the
questions you asked because whenever
there was something that I was too
scared to ask you always raised your
hand so
I think it is a bit of a skill and I
think that is kind of how I Channel my
imposter syndrome is I'm just like
now let's lay it all out there is you
okay being almost like self-deprecating
just coming off I mean I'm definitely
that I kind of lean into call myself an
idiot I lean into being stupid I think
not all heroes wear capes and the guy
and girl who asks the stupid question
is everybody's hero including the
teachers yeah I think it's it's both
it's a double-edged sword
I started out on the internet kind of I
kind of got the moniker the queen of
shitty robots because I posted a lot of
stuff on slash R shitty robots on Reddit
and people started calling me the queen
of Slash R shitty robots and then the
slash R kind of dropped so what I'm
trying to say is I did not come up with
that with myself
um but I did happily adopt it so I
definitely came from a place of like
building things that didn't work and
kind of
yeah everything going wrong every time
like happily failing and I think that
was amazing it was a really powerful
tool for me to like not get my
perfectionism in the way because if I
set out to do something that's great
then I'm never gonna start and I was
like no I just need something that looks
funny
um
but what I've realized
now is there's also a defense mechanism
being self-deprecating is like always
beating people to the punch
it kind of was a survival tactic on the
internet of being like never daring to
set out as an expert and I still do that
like I'm terrified to tell people how to
do something even if I know
um because it kind of opens you up for
being shot down so I think I have I
definitely have a conflicted
relationship with it and now especially
as I'm I'm getting older I am more
skilled than I was before I mean I'm a
CEO of three businesses and I'm like I
don't need to like keep on talking
myself down all the time so yeah I think
it's definitely something that has
served me really really well and that is
still like a
thing that I have in my work life and in
my relationships but I'm also trying to
only
do it when it's beneficial to me and not
when it's harmful yeah I mean but when
you're as successful as you are I feel
like people like it when you're
self-deprecating you don't take yourself
seriously you have that humility
I think it's probably the hardest when
you're starting out yeah because
I think it was easy
but nobody takes you seriously right and
when you're starting out when you're
young like you know I just realized that
I played a lot more stupid than I was
and
I think it's also
oh gosh I can't believe I'm the one
bringing this up uh but like being a
woman in a male dominated field
and you're like trying I was just trying
to make myself the least amount
threatening or like really unthreatening
because people are threatened by you in
different ways and it's like you have
such a thin line that you can walk where
you're like okay I need to be just
attractive enough for people to not be
offended by my appearance but just
unattractive enough for people to not
sexualize me I have to be just smart and
witty enough for people to be like oh my
God that's really cool but also shoot
myself down enough for other people not
to be able to do it or be like oh yeah
watch this woman try to thinking that
she knows how to
build Electronics you know so it's like
that's a interesting skill to build
especially when you put yourself out
there on the internet yeah like you
unfortunately that's the reality of the
internet
and it's a skill you have to kind of
develop and it's actually why a lot of
really brilliant people avoid the
internet yeah like there's not many
people like at MIT for example there's
not many
brilliant professors or PhD students and
so on just putting their stuff out there
because
like
um if they
what like if they really put their heart
and soul into a thing first of all
that's really hard and nobody nobody
sees it and everyone's like this is
boring so there's so many failure modes
like this is boring or like like you
said you're coming off as too much of an
expert you're not self-deprecating
enough well there's just so many failure
modes and it's terrifying for people but
I feel like that's a skill you should
learn because
most people like nmit University and so
on are doing a lot of awesome stuff yeah
and he should show it off but I feel
like
you figured out a really good process of
of showing it off when you fail when you
succeed all of it not taking yourself
too seriously but also revealing through
the humor and the self-deprecation a
kind of Genius a kind of intelligence
and curiosity can't I just want to
snapshot that quote and put it on my
LinkedIn
what is your autobiography oh never
you don't want to say that because like
a year from now oh gosh I don't wanna I
don't want to shit on autobiographies
yeah no no but even just by saying that
I'm shitting on autobiographies I just
me being interested enough in somebody
to want to read 600 pages about them
talking about themselves it's a
no well well that's exactly the kind of
person that should write one but yeah
but also I'm fucking 32 years old what
do I have to write about like I went
through puberty I lost my virginity and
here we are like I don't know it's like
such a
three chapters yeah it's a coloring book
chapter seven I learned to tie my own
shoelaces
I feel like it would be awesome anyway
what's the uh the queen so how did you
achieve the status of royalty the queen
of shitty robots what's the origin story
there I've I mean I have officially
renounced my title now can you still
speak of the time when you like I can't
still speak of the time your kingdom yes
uh no I mean it started on because I did
you rule by love or fear by fear of
rejection
from me that people would reject me so I
um yeah I started making these little
gifts like my the early projects that I
did were very gift forward
it was always like I only did it because
they could be translated into a gif give
forward I like it yeah but honestly it
was like it's a really good mental
exercise to vet if your project is easy
enough to be explained by like a seven
second looping video without audio
and because like nobody's gonna care
that it also has Bluetooth like it's
really like is it is it self-explanatory
enough to
um be explained through a gif so yeah
just pause I'm sorry to interrupt but I
feel like all scientific papers and
projects should go through that exercise
yeah actually uh deepmind does a good
job of this like you know this we've saw
protein folding here's a gif that's
literally what they do yeah because
who's gonna read the nature paper so
like this you have to like how do we
communicate this visually in a sexy
clean way where people can intuitively
understand even if you don't know what a
protein is even if you don't know what
protein folding is yeah it's very like
yeah if somebody comes out of context
and that's been really interesting also
like building this product business and
trying to do the marketing around that
and I'm like if somebody comes in and
they have no idea
about what this product is will they get
it explained to them in this ad and I
don't know but it's definitely a
worthwhile exercise to do so I started
making these projects that got
translated into gifts
and I posted them on slash R City robots
on Reddit so that's how bright it
existed yeah
I loved it I thought it was really fun
and I was like I want to contribute with
content here
I don't I mean okay I don't know I was I
think I was voted top user of 2015. so
yeah that's an old Merit but once you
win a Nobel Prize you always have the
notebook okay so what was the first do
you remember the early gifts that you
created so this is when I was at punch
through design in San Francisco I would
kind of building a lot of Hardware
projects for them but I also felt and
they were so supportive of me but I also
it's such a different way representing a
brand versus representing yourself so
there were some projects that I just
like ruled out because I was like this
feels too weird for this brand
and I started building them on the side
one of them was a toothbrush helmet and
yeah so it's like a skateboard helmet
with a robot arm on the forehead kind of
like a unicorn horn and it brushes your
teeth for you is that the first YouTube
video you uploaded it was the first gift
that I uploaded so actually I wanted to
um I wanted to do a kids show about
Electronics in Sweden because I was like
I love Electronics I think it's fucking
dope I could do a kids show about it so
I filmed this terrible terrible pilot
episode in my bedroom in San Francisco
and that's when I built the toothbrush
helmet and I emailed it to them I mean
just cold email like I'd know in or
anything but I was like Hey I want to do
this and
um they didn't get back to me nobody's
surprised and I was like well I have
this
thing I built I might as well post it on
the internet so that's why I made the
little GIF and I posted it on slash I do
robots and I think it got like 50 000
views and I was like Wow and from there
I just kept on building things and I
think Within
six months it was my full-time job can
you go through the detailed design of
this toothbrush helmet there's a motor
it's like a server like what what uh
what's the motor what's the is an
Arduino involved yeah so I built it off
of
um this robot arm called me arm
so it's just this acrylic robot arm
and
um I think it has three Servo Motors
and it's all controlled by an Arduino
all the electronics already pre-built
there was a kit so I assembled it how do
you make sure the the length of the arm
is the proper I mean the arm came down
so it's like yeah I just programmed it
to come down to my mouth and then poorly
brush my front teeth yeah yeah it was
just swung back and forth I mean trialum
error what was the challenges of that
do you remember oh gosh or was that one
not much of a struggle challenge no it
was definitely a struggle
um because also how do you Loop it with
a nice gift
I mean it looks fine yeah it looks like
yeah that's not that's not that hard uh
no I mean it doesn't have to be perfect
it's a gif it's the internet things are
shitty all the time I think I mean I
think the biggest struggle of that was
that I had this intention for it to be
this show and then
them not giving oh yeah yeah giving back
and I was like well if they don't want
it then maybe YouTube will have me they
don't notice my genius yet what was it
what was so bad about the pilot do you
remember what's like the most
embarrassing oh cringy yeah I mean it's
thankfully not on the internet so nobody
can find it but it's very much me being
in what I called host mode which is
where I'm like okay so what we're gonna
learn today is that we're gonna look at
this this is something called a Servo
motor and it's like the intonation and
everything is really different
and I'm actually I mean I thinking back
of that I'm so happy that they didn't
get back to me
because it's such a different thing to
kind of start your career in your living
room running back and forth to the
camera and like filming something and
looking at it and like I got to really
find my own voice in a different way and
then like a year later
they offered me a show but then I was so
off and running I was like no I don't
want to do this you didn't fall into the
place of being like a
actor like a YouTuber where you're
presenting a kind of personality you're
more focused on the product you're
creating I mean I think it's a the
combination
of it I mean I I think of it as acting
sometimes but I only play the role of
myself but of course it's like when
you're shooting something for the
seventh time yeah like you have to be
able to Muster that enthusiasm but no
it's not a kind of
think of everyday life me as a watered
down version of the YouTube version it's
like that's a cheap knockoff
yes.com version no it's just like add a
few parts water
but like on YouTube it's just so
condensed because you have jump cuts and
you know like I'll scrape jokes and make
sure that everything lands and there's
music and stuff and then like in real
life you don't have any of that but it's
still me uh what are some other cool
robots in the early days that stand out
to you I mean there's a million we can
go through like what um maybe what what
was like a challenging one like a really
challenging one in the early days
I mean I remember the breakfast robot
which was my second project was a
challenging one so eating cereal yeah
it's a robot that like pours milk and
cereal and feeds me with a spoon I was
mostly challenging because it was so
like
everything had to be in the right
location and there were so many takes
before I got everything right and by
right I mean it makes an absolute mess
um yeah that one was challenging but it
takes was that one
I don't know probably 12 10 so it's just
a mess everywhere as a mess and also I
use like Cheerios for the cereals and my
it's shot in my old bedroom in San
Francisco and the floors were sticky for
weeks afterwards juicer goes into your
autobiography yeah
nice let's check it just type out this
podcast let's release it as a and my
manager would be stoked we'll fix it in
post
um yeah the feed because you have like a
couple of feeding ones right a soup
isn't there a soup one yeah there's a
soup robot
um there's a beer pouring robot
I mean that's that's awesome that's a
difficult robotics problem
in the shitty and the in the perfect
version
of having an arm that interacts
intimately with a human being and one of
the most intimate things you can do with
a human being that's PG is defeated
where's he going with this uh oh my God
he's a YouTube comic come live like damn
it so like to me there's uh like feeding
is tricky
or even like getting a beer even pouring
a beer is tough into a glass yeah it's
trickier than anyone who hasn't tried it
thanks and
even making it I think what I realized
is that like
making things really shitty or like
failing in a spectacular way is also its
own sort of skill because like the
shittiest robot is the one that doesn't
turn on right but like that isn't much
to watch so it was always like wanting
for it to fail in these kind of
spectacular ways
um no there's a lot of stuff to be said
about Engineering in it is there
something to be said on a philosophical
level about the value of a flawed robot
so like
the kind of robots you want is to be
partially flawed like do you think the
kind of robots will have in the home
that are friends and
um you know almost like pets wouldn't
they need to be kind of shitty because
we can love the somehow we humans loved
the shitty I mean it is kind of
endearing and because I think it it kind
of I'm gonna mess up this world word
anthropomorphize system
I think it's I mean I never feel as
deeply connected to my Roomba as when
it's like
I'm on a cliff like paper have you had
roomba's taught me ledge no I really
yeah I've done that a lot yeah when they
talk to you yeah
immediately anthropomorphize them yeah
and then you have if they have a name
which is why most roboticists don't give
names or gender to robots because you
become connected to them I'm of the
opposite mind
you should have like an intimate
relationship sounds weird but you should
have a close connection to robots I mean
there there's power in that there's a
social element of Robotics even an arm
I don't know there's something about us
humans that gain so much value
from our interaction with Dynamic
objects and we should like lean into
that as opposed to run away from it that
was always the confusing thing to me
about robotics is that most roboticists
run away from that yeah
weird because it's obviously going to be
robots are obviously going to be
everywhere
yeah obviously but it's also humans are
sensitive and Squishy and there's so
much liability oh yeah
yeah but the humans are sensitive and
Squishy
when they interact with each other and
they hurt each other all the time
like sometimes they get together and
they're like oh you're the best you know
you're the best and then they leave each
other and then they break each other's
heart sorry about your breakup life he's
trying to get over this
I'm actually drunk for this interview I
haven't been able to sleep
but
from a safety protocol perspective
people think about like physical damage
not emotional damage I know this sounds
ridiculous I know it sounds ridiculous
but it won't be it's already happening
there's an app called replica where
people have an intimate relationship
with an AI chatbot and they hurt
themselves I was thinking about this
yeah okay in dating what if you because
you can train
like a chat bot to kind of mimic the way
that you talk to people and interact
with people go on yeah but then I'm like
okay but what if we could all make AI
versions of ourselves and have them date
yeah like thousands of thousands of
other AI people and have that as a way
to turn out potential potential
candidates like I feel like that's gonna
be what's what's the
yeah what's the what no but what's the
point of like meeting 20 people if
you're like oh but if we just had our AI
versions of ourselves in Iraq they'd be
like oh your your method of conflict is
not going to match or what if the AI
version of you like sleeps around with
all the other AIS and it becomes famous
for that and it starts its own only fans
and then it becomes and you're like what
did you do you come back home you'd
realize like I don't I didn't want to
created a monster create a monster I
mean do I get a cut exactly that's the
question I have to ask but I think it's
definitely like yeah the the human
technology interaction is really
interesting because I feel like I don't
love any of the machines that I have in
my life really you haven't you haven't I
mean I don't love my phone I touch it
all the time and it's there and it's
like constantly it's a constant presence
but there's nothing in the meat that
feels like oh I love this object like I
kind of despise it
well that might be the way you show love
I don't know yeah that's a deeper that's
another psychoanalysis thing uh so you
know there's not robots whom you've
taken apart that you miss
no they're all terrible I mean I I have
objects that I built that I love
um none of the robots I think but that's
also because it was a different that was
a different era where I wasn't really
putting a lot of care into the projects
I built so the more care you put into it
into the design to actually make it look
to make it functional and look good
that's where you put the love in yeah I
mean it is it's like I feel like any
technology company that figures out a
way to get you to actually genuinely
love your Roomba or like love it in the
way that you would love a pet
there's a lot to
be gained yeah and I think it's scary
depending on who the company is because
then they can manipulate you yeah if you
love your Roomba
and all of a sudden your Roomba starts
telling you
to buy stuff yeah or it's leaving to put
lotion on Jeff bezos's head yeah yeah I
don't know where the lotion came in but
yes maybe if I certainly I just imagine
my Amazon Echo being like hey Jeff Bezos
is really a great guy
but even though you haven't do you think
it's possible to fall in love with the
robot yeah I mean people fall in love
with things all the time well people
have fallen in love with Yoshi robots
probably
I guarantee you there's people listening
to this that are a little bit
heartbroken saying that you've never
fall in love with your shitty robots
they're like but I had a relationship
like I have an emotional connection to
that robot like the one with the parent
Patsy on the back oh that one that one I
do like I like that one a lot um that's
probably my favorite like shitty robot
can you explain it so it's the machine
it was my friend Daniel Beauchamp and I
we had this long-running joke about a
proud parent machine that you could give
a quarter and a passcode on the shoulder
says proud of you yeah
um so yeah I still have that hanging on
my wall in my workshop so that one I'm
I'm really happy with I just think it's
a really
funny concept and also I executed the
build well so that was so it's an arm
like what's the build yeah I built it
off of an old lamp arm yeah basically
it's just a motorized arm and this kind
of torso
of of a person so it's actually a hand
right that's not it correctly it's like
a laser cut it's just laser cut plywood
and it kind of has like it looks creepy
yeah which I like yeah the creepy helps
with the yeah
and yeah it's as proud of you son
because I just thought that sounded more
funny than proud of you daughter and
also proud of you son just
it immediately communicates that it's a
parent it's not just like a colleague or
something it's like proud of you
yeah oh my charges do a quarter for it
yeah but he added like Chad GPT on top
of that and uh fine tune it on
conversations you've had with your
parents and all of a sudden you have a
thing that can fundamentally transform
your psyche yeah
that's all it takes that's a beautiful
creation how'd you come up with that
creation I was my friend Daniel and I
who had a long-running joke about it
high level can you speak to your
creative process I think a lot of it I
mean it's changed for the Shady robots
yeah I mean it has a lot of overlap
um so it's identifying everyday problems
and in the shitty robot era I would kind
of take an everyday problem like oh I
have a hard time getting up in the
morning and I would have solve it in the
most ridiculous spectacular way I could
think of so for waking up in the morning
it was having an alarm clock that slaps
me in the face with a rubber hand
and what I'm doing now is still
identifying everyday problems but I'm
actually trying to like product design
my way out of it what in your experience
was the funniest thing is it violence
like the hand slapping you food eating
is there is or is it just a case about
it funniest
is no I think it's more like the proud
parent machine it's not violent it
doesn't there's no nothing it's just
emotional and it's kind of
a commentary on this fraught
relationship that we sometimes have with
our parents and their pride of us
sometimes every time
sometimes my dad visited like last week
and he was like I just want to say I'm
so proud of you and for the built life
you've built for yourself and that was
really sweet
yeah I'll put that on the back of my
autobiography too yeah it's not your
fault Simone it's not your fault that
stuff is my fault
what was the longest one to complete for
the Shady robots that you remember
because he spent on a few of them you
spent quite a long time
[Music]
which is also inspiring when you take so
long in a project yeah I think um
can even the more like fun Whimsical
Department rather than shitty robots I
built recently
um this music box so like a small music
box that kind of has a barrel with
little spikes and it plays the song but
I did a large version of that that pops
a sheet of bubble wrap and then like
plays tones into a pan flute so yeah you
can actually program it to play
different songs
that one kicked my butt in so many
creative ways that it was such a pain I
think that is probably the like
weird funny project that's taken me the
longest and like the biggest engineering
effort where's the all sound coming from
so if you it all came from me realizing
that if you pop bubble wrap and you pop
it right in front of the opening of a
pamphlet or like one of the pipes you
can have it play different tones
so that's what it does so I built this
music instrument off of that okay if
it's okay can you describe some
something like how it works some of the
the technical details here yeah so
basically I mean one of the
things that I worked with
um as of a year and a half back I hired
an engineer stew so we were
collaborating on it
um but a big issue that we had was
feeding in the bubble wrap
sheet and like making sure that it feeds
them straight and doesn't get skewed
because you need to make like the
popping feet which is where you program
this Barrel to pop different bubbles
need to be so perfectly aligned on the
bubble of the bubble wrap for it to pop
in the right location so there's a
feeder for the bubble wrap that's a
challenge and then you have to have a
barrel with the little baby feet on it
yeah that pops the ball around why is it
so exciting that Barrel was a pain as
well I had to get a like this rotary
setup for my CNC and yeah it was it was
a lot of work
um but that was really fun and it's just
like
this is probably my
favorite
privilege of my job is that I can
go down any Rabbit Hole I think find
interesting did you have a lot of
Joy from popping the
yeah the bubbles a lot of self-soothing
and like I got to spend I think I spent
a week trying to figure out the best
material to pop bubble wrap with because
if you have two if you kind of put them
to to through uh or through if you put a
sheet of bubble wrap through two rigid
tubes the air kind of just escapes from
one side of the bubble into the other so
what I realized was that if you have a
squishy material like kind of a yoga mat
material in between it it actually it
prevents that and Pops it a lot more
reliably but like increasing the pop
reliability was a huge effort as well
you have to pop a squishy thing with
another squishy because you don't need a
lot of force yeah like you just need it
to not the air to not be able to escape
anywhere wow but then also we had there
was different qualities of bubble wrap
where there was a lot of transference
between different bubbles so instead of
the bubble popping it would just seep
the air and to a neighboring bubble and
that like membrane would kind of so you
know I I just like getting to spend
weeks on weeks of just studying bubble
wrap did you ever think about like
publishing academic work on Bubble Wrap
no
wouldn't that be epic because nobody's
done this I bet you nobody's done
squishing it squishing material on
Squishy versus squishy
for popping I bet somebody has but you
know I I always I thought I was gonna go
into Academia like I was such an
ambitious student I loved school I
actually applied to MIT but then I
pulled out because I was like no I don't
want to do it
um but now I realize it's really good
that I didn't because I'm too much of a
spouse too much of the spaz now I'm
distracted I'm thinking there must be
papers about when you have two bubbles
yeah you need to know the physics of two
bubbles when you have two bubbles
colliding
one will pop first
and there has to be good models of that
but that's very that has to do with
chemistry and whatever the uh the
material the ball was made from but then
no there's materials in here this guy
somebody must understand bubble wrap
deeply
like deeply
so I'm just going to take a quick
restroom break because uh Lex is on his
own train now and I'm just gonna leave
yeah you actually don't need to go to
the restroom okay
so I'm going to insert like a two hour
uh instructional here with like a
Blackboard right it's the skill
the skill store it's I
throw you any topic and you could just
go on about it I don't know if I have
that skill I just
okay
um Bubble on Bubble
an interaction
so you did mention
um MIT uh you went to college for
physics for one year and you dropped out
what do you learn from that
who do you think should and shouldn't go
to college hmm
I think first of all you shouldn't
listen to me
um
that should be the name of your
autobiography
I
you know I realized that I was there for
the wrong reasons I had this deep I got
completely like starting to get grades
in school which in Sweden at that time
we started getting in at eighth grade so
when I was 14 it just kind of hijacked
my brain because I realized that I could
put a number on how smart I was and I
got obsessed with it and I
wanted to study mechanical engineering
because I was like I like machines
but then physics was kind of the hardest
thing you could do when I had this like
deep need to prove to myself that I was
smart so I started studying physics
realized I wasn't that smart
I realized or I mean just mostly that I
like I love math but I don't love math
hours a day yeah and also I think I am a
generalist through and through like I'm
decent at a fair amount of things but
definitely not a specialist and anyways
and this it was such a specialist type
of area
um that I felt like the other parts of
my brain kind of just dwindled and died
so I think I think most of all if people
are thinking about going to college and
especially if you're here in the States
and it's so fucking expensive
really
okay there's two there's two things I
want to do one is like actually go to a
workplace where people are doing the job
that you think you want to do if you
want to become a doctor like be at a
hospital and like try to see how doctors
work and if you actually like it because
I feel like people have a lot of ideas
of what it's going to be like and it
just doesn't match with reality and then
I think when people figure out what they
want to do there's kind of
that's two separate questions or there's
two questions that you can split out of
that one is like what do you actually
want to do that for me
for the last 10 years is building stuff
but then there's a second part to that
question which is what context do you
want to do that do you want to build
stuff at a startup or at a big
Corporation Do you want to build stuff
for an art gallery or for the movies or
for YouTube and
I think that's often like people only
learn how to answer the first question
but then it's like the context means as
much because I was building stuff at
punch through design and I wasn't
getting that like deep fulfillment like
I felt like
I wasn't fully using myself and like
hitting all of my gears because I just
wasn't that motivated about building
stuff for other people and I changed the
context and everything changed
and so sometimes you do need to consider
resume and stuff like that depending on
the
but some I think people consider that
way too much especially in modern times
I feel like
you don't need to go to college just for
the resume
I feel like the biggest benefit of
college I mean there's a bunch but one
is just do hard things but you could do
hard things anywhere
but
um some people need to be I was probably
one of those people
to be forced to do hard things and
um the other is to meet fascinating
humans from all walks of life
that are pursuing they have all kinds of
different Passions
and allows you to learn
depending on the major you can be you
can learn generally and you can search
if you're doing it efficiently about
what actually inspires you and the other
thing is the the resume thing yeah But
ultimately you don't need college to
find your passion to run with it I mean
I mean I have so much College fomo
though like I think it's I chose
a different set of experiences and when
I applied to MIT I was I think I was 24.
because I was like oh maybe I should
become an electrical engineer because I
really liked Electronics but then I
remember seeing that the average age was
18 and I was like fuck no I can't hang
out or like be in a room filled with 18
year olds who are smarter than me yeah
um so I think I definitely like missed
the Train on having that experience but
at the same time I did so many other
things and I chose other experiences and
I wouldn't trade them
but I still like I mean I'll go to on a
campus and I'll be like oh yeah but I
think it's also because I have a dreamy
idea of what it is because I never get
to do it and practice fully exactly it's
the fomo yeah
huh yeah a lot of people really struggle
with that burden they'll they'll go it
doesn't matter how long you go through
if you don't go all the way to the PhD
you a lot of people have the fomo it
doesn't it's a silly silly silly little
notion I think
because I think you should be doing
college or school until you find
something that lights your heart aflame
where you're like fuck yes I want to do
this yeah and run with it I mean you can
you can find that in other contexts as
well I've
found it yeah but yeah but it is a
buffet of experiences
that you can have
what about what was the most fun robot
to make or um musical
artistic creation
where the process was the most fun oh
they're all painful in different ways so
pain yeah you find pain fun
no but it's it definitely
the pride of make getting to pull
something off or like managing to pull
something off even when it was really
difficult is
is very satisfying what was the
difficult thing that you pulled off you
were like yeah this is cool I like
working on jigsaw puzzles but I don't
like how much table space they take up
because I like just have one big table
where I can do it and that's also my
dining table
so I made this mechanical table where
you can switch between two table tops
and that was an incredibly painful
project and I'm really happy with the
outcome and like so proud that I managed
to pull it off how does this wish table
tops it's Tambor mechanism so like
Tambor like you'll have on like old
record player
um like it's these like thin Slots of
wood with fabric on the back and you can
kind of get them to go around curves so
basically one of the table tops or table
surfaces is Tambor and then there's a
little crank and you can kind of roll it
off to the side and it reveals another
tabletop under it that you can then lift
up because it's on cams
um so you can switch between the two I
think that one was both really difficult
to pull off and it's also one of few
projects that I use in my everyday life
like I use it almost every day you know
what a really cool one was that uh that
was part of your TED Talk
where there's a rotating thing that you
wear on your shoulders was that hard to
make so for people who haven't seen your
Ted Talk they should of course but it's
uh the best joke
you put how would you call that device
sorry I don't even know I never used it
beyond the Ted Talk really
shoulder rig and it's this like almost
like saturn ring looking platform that
goes around I can't even remember what
the problem proposition was that I was
trying to solve variety probably
introduce me to your life yeah maybe in
this in an element of surprise because
you can put popcorn as you did on it and
it goes around as a little hand why is
it like a tiny hand funny I don't know
but it just slams whatever is online
into your face yeah I don't know was
that easy to make yeah that one's fine
I can
there was I mean my TED Talk was so
yeah for one once again they cut out my
best joke what was the best joke my best
joke they didn't even ask me about it it
was
um
so there's this whole lead up where I
built a chopping machine so it's a
machine that chops vegetables and has
two giant knives and it goes it's kind
of terrifying and I show
a video of it and then it ends on this
GIF of it chopping up a banana and I'm
kind of scrunching up my face being like
and the whole reason I show that project
is because I'm leading it up to the
punchline of oh and as a bonus this gift
right here is the perfect response if
anyone ever sends you dick pics you
don't want
which brought down the house it does it
every time and they cut it out without
asking me because they're like oh but we
wanted people to be able to show it in
classrooms and I was like I have
abandoned the hope of being shown in
classrooms for years ago I think that's
a good joke thank you that's a really
that's a really good one you're you're
okay going sometimes a little bit edgy
I say that I'm I'm crude and wholesome
because I can be very crude but I also
try really really hard to be a good
person yeah and to like I'll say shit
and fucking all that stuff which I don't
even think is crude
um but
yeah but I really really try to wield
the power that I have in a thoughtful
way
so
no I I wouldn't call me edgy because I'm
not I don't think it's edgy it's all
like shopping a banana one nice and
saying it's a good gift response to
anyone that sends you dick pics is
definitely not edgy you're correct yeah
this is a funny joke oh yeah it's pretty
funny I feel bad that Ted cut that I
mean it's fine it's like it's a decision
that I made really early on where I was
like what I'm I think often people
misinterpret what I'm doing as being for
children which I think is part because
like my projects were always really
colorful and fun
but I think it also has some
sprinkles of sexism of being like Oh
it's a woman doing something she must be
doing it for the children and I'm like
fuck the children I'm doing it for
myself good so I think I I would just
really early on excited of like oh no I
want to try to cater to that which like
still I mean I get a lot of messages
from parents being like can you please
stop cussing in your videos and I'm also
like
I get it but also that is not what's
going to mess up your kids like I really
try to be
thoughtful and a decent enough role
model but I'll also acknowledge that
humans fuck
yeah it's okay somehow that you being
able to say the fu
[Laughter]
foreign
have you ever made a robot that dances
with you no okay you need a dance
partner
yeah I feel like that's the theme of
this whole podcast yeah
what's the most embarrassed you've ever
been on your podcast
so I don't know if you've experienced
this but I generally embarrassed by most
things I say inside my head yeah
it's like when I say something
like no it's just this voice inside my
head that goes
yeah like what
your disappointment
um like that the parent petting in the
back the the hand stops working yeah
just slows down
um
yeah
and then there's an awkward silence you
don't know what to say next that's
really embarrassing usually
um Mr work as a journalist so I know how
to sit with the silence and try to drag
it out of you
foreign
see what I did there
you gave up
I quit you're like sweating literally
sweating okay also because you're in a
full fucking suit what is that like how
did that come about
actually it was probably on my tea is
because everybody
was dressing in like sweatpants very
chill wear and I was like
I like taking everything seriously
it just felt like a as it was my way of
saying Fu to the way things are because
I like I always admire Richard Feynman I
like it how there's like a classiness to
it
so I don't know if it's for visual
purposes but it's just how I feel when I
put on a suit it makes it makes me feel
like I'm going to take this really
really seriously yeah and if I embarrass
myself
it's all my fault because I tried
there's no excuse I tried 100
the interesting thing about your Ted
talk to go to a dark topic
um
this is what happened when I walked off
stage now what happened when you walked
off station found out that I had a brain
tumor
was that not where you're going there's
nothing else dark about my yeah well yes
um
I thought you knew through the Ted Talk
you found out right after I mean the
reason that I found out was partly
because of the Ted talk because my mom
came into town to be there for it
and my right eyelid was swollen and it
kind of been swelling over a while
and I even gotten comments about it on
my YouTube channel and I thought it was
allergies because I was like oh it's
just pollen allergies it's just
affecting my one eye because maybe I
sleep mostly on that side I don't know
and my mom came into
um
the stage in the Vancouver for my TED
talk and she's like Simone you have to
like have a scan or see what's up like
we have to go to the doctor and she
really pushed me to do it because I was
like playing fine
um
and I had an MRI scan
on like 5 p.m on a Friday night my
boyfriend at the time was there and
I remember like halfway through an MRI
scan they kind of pull you out and they
put inject contrast fluid
or this like thing that yeah just gives
them another type of scan and the nurse
looked at me in this way and was like
how long have you had symptoms for and
that's what I knew that they'd found
something and then they like shove you
back into the machine for another 20
minutes and my ex was just seeing like
them like zooming in and out of my scans
and there was like this obviously
something that just looked wrong in
there and they sent me to the ER and I
found out that I had
a brain tumor the size of a golf ball
they've probably been grown since I was
a teenager so I'd been growing over like
10 15 years
and yeah I had surgery to remove it and
then it kept on growing the parts that
they couldn't remove and I went through
radiation treatments so that was like
two years that just
was kind of dedicated to just getting
better and getting back to where I am
now and I remember like I was so stoked
about 2020 because I was like this is
the first year that I'm not held back by
my health and I'm like finally going to
be able to do everything on feathered
and then the pandemic happens and you're
kind of it's like okay just in the back
seat of what's happening and things that
are out of my control again
in your public you made a couple of
videos about yeah about it I have a
brain tumor my brain tumors back
you kind of you know you name your tumor
Brian you kind of make it a
light-hearted thing
but so you don't reveal much of the
darkness
but were you scared or some low plants
of of course I was of course I was
scared
I mean it's terrifying it's like
and also when it's in your brain like
you know I was like take any other part
of me but don't take my brain
um no it's this unfathomable thing that
happens and you're like I'm healthy I've
had how could this possibly be a brain
tumor like my eye is swollen like
there's nothing there I haven't had any
seizures I haven't had any cognitive
issues I haven't had any headaches even
like how is that even possible
um so you go through a lot of different
stages of just trying to understand what
it is and I think I remember
being hit like right as I found out when
we're in like an Uber poor Uber driver
from where I had my MRI scanned to the
ER where they sent me
and I was really both really grateful
that I've gotten so much more out of
life than I ever thought I would like
I've had
a hell of a life and even if we would
have ended really early I would have
done so much more than I ever thought
but I was also really really sad that I
hadn't had kids yet like that was my big
grief of like fuck I haven't had had
time to have kids yet
um but no it's terrifying I mean the
prospect of somebody cutting up your
head
like that's
terrifying but it honestly
wasn't as bad as I thought it was gonna
be what about the radiation treatment
what are some things that
you know people should you learned about
it about the process and about yourself
or that the the people might be
interested about I think
surgery was both harder and easier than
radiation treatment because it was it
was harder because it was
so much more intense and it's such a
dramatic thing like going to the
hospital that morning and being like
I don't know and you feel so awful when
you wake up and but then the recovery
from it was pretty linear like almost
every week I would get a little bit
better the thing about radiation is that
it was not linear at all and it kind of
drained me in this weird like it was so
hard to predict and also they put me on
these um
I spent months feeling like I was high
out of my mind
and I couldn't process reality in a way
that I normally would like everything
just felt off like I felt yeah I felt
like I was high on drugs and I kept on
asking my doctors what was going on and
they're like no I don't know don't think
it's anything related
and
I was on this Alzheimer's medicine that
they put you on to prevent dementia from
radiation treatment like kind of as a
preventative and I found all these
subreddits of people using that
Alzheimer's medicine to get high and
people be like oh my God bro like 20
milligrams yesterday and I was high out
of my mind and I'm like I'm on 30
milligrams a day like of course it feels
weird and that was honestly one of the
scariest parts of it because that was
the first time where I felt like it
genuinely affected my way of processing
reality and yeah I was so relieved when
I found out that that was what was
causing it because I felt like I was
going crazy but even after surgery like
I woke up and I felt like myself like
everything was I got no brain injury so
obviously this is like my experience
from somebody who came out of it pretty
unscathed who didn't get any brain
injuries and didn't have to do any of
that recovery it's more just the
recovery from like the physical act of
somebody cutting your skull open and
taking a large chunk out did you
research all the things that can go
wrong no brain surgery no I honestly am
I'm a bit surprised by how I acted
pausing for you to pour
your welcome editors
actually a commercial
this is like work injury from being a
YouTuber it's not like freeze if there's
audio that comes in
ah yeah yeah sponsored by tap water
um I was surprised by
how little I was willing to
think critically about what my doctors
told me to do
like I very early on I I the neurologist
that I worked with
he was the one who was on call at the ER
the day where I came in and he was the
one who ended up doing my surgery and he
kind of became like by Rock in this and
I just 100 trusted him and he turned out
to be an amazing doctor and like did a
great job and was just like a
so I got so so lucky but I remember my
mom being like Oh but we should like
talk about second opinions and like we
should try to do more research and I was
like so unwilling to do that because
opening up to the idea that
there are
multiple ways or multiple things that
might be right or wrong was so
terrifying like I wanted there to just
be like no this is the only option this
is what we need to do
and if I started questioning that then I
don't know if I would have been able to
go through with it so yeah it was
estranged I just really wanted to trust
the doctors that I worked with and I was
very scared to question them in any way
how did that process change your
relationship with death
are you afraid of death
you Ponder your mortality yeah I think
it took away a part of Youth
for me like the Innocence yeah I mean
you kind of think of terrible things as
something that happens to other people
and death and illness
um
so I think it kind of fast tracked that
for me
but it mostly changed my relationship to
life
it changed it's made me so much more
gentle with myself like going through
illness
it forces you to redefine what it means
to be good and before being good had
been pushing myself really hard it had
been working and
I don't know just just being really hard
with myself and disciplined and when
you're healing from something being good
is listening to your body it's resting
it's like really being in tuned with
what your health where your health is at
and I think that is something that's
kind of stuck with me since then I'm
like so much more gentle and delicate
with myself
and with others oh yeah
I think it definitely it's like when
you're young and healthy it's really
hard to yeah
um
know what it feels like to be ill and I
remember
you know you like go to yoga class and
you'd be like oh my God this is too slow
like I wanted to be I have so much more
energy like I need to and when I was
recovering from my brain surgery there
was this yoga studio nearby my house and
they had uh yoga for seniors and I was
so stoked because I was like oh this is
the yoga class I'll be able to take yeah
and I think that was really eye-opening
of just like there's no you kind of
imagine that it's just like oh just push
yourself harder but no that's not it
with age or sickness or it's just you've
got to be so gentle with yourself and
you have to
cater to people where they're at
yeah just uh appreciation of this like
biological vehicle you get and you
should take care of it being sick
it's awful and I really I'm really
motivated to
postpone that for as much as I can and
also I was so tremendously grateful when
I got ill that I felt like I had so much
to take from like I had so many energy
arrested Wars I'd spent my life taking
pretty decent care of my body and like
exercising and eating well and like not
wrecking my body in any way and I felt
like
this was the first time where that was
so critical and I felt like my body was
ready for it you know
I thought you're gonna go the other way
like um you can you can take care of
your body all you want and it's
um bad stuff happened so you should you
should go on drug binges and go wild and
do crazy things and I mean I also had
that good
I fucking floss every day how do I have
a brain tumor I've been good like why
does this happen to me but more so it
was like my body was so resilient and
ready for it and
um I was I was really really proud of it
it's amazing that the human body is able
to recover from even the harshest things
yeah it's it's wild and my brain so
after
after surgery because yeah I had to
brain tumor the size of a golf ball kind
of behind my right eye and after brain
surgery you kind of just have this big
hole in your head like this void and
usually your brain stays that way like
it retains the shape even after the
brain tumor is gone but for some reason
my brain was feeling really ambitious
and it has completely flopped back and I
have almost like a normal looking brain
now where doctors are like oh we would
almost not be able to tell that you had
one
um so yeah that just blew my mind I feel
like when did it was that why I had all
those headaches yeah for surgery it's
just my brain being like
trying yeah
oh pretty cool thing I want to ask you
about is the everyday calendar that you
worked on
that was a long time that took a long
time yeah so basically I I designed this
calendar like I wanted to start
meditating every day
but it's really hard to meditate every
day and to like kind of build that habit
and what I would do is I would make
these grids in my notebooks where I
could like check a box for every day
like I just wanted like a little ding I
did it and like this thing of
accountability
but then I was like this is I don't want
to have a notebook that I do this in
like I want an art piece that I can hang
on my wall like accountability art and I
made uh this thing called the everyday
calendar which has an entire year on it
so it's 365 days and if you tap any of
the days you light it up and we turn it
into a Kickstarter campaign and it's not
a product that I'm selling my through my
product business the extra door what's
it called the yacht store yeah and uh
that for people who are confused is the
right way to pronounce your last name
which does it it's right but it's so
wrong
it makes my last name is spelled
g-i-e-r-t-z who does that song uh If
Loving You Is Wrong I Don't Want to Be
Right yeah
there's nothing in my last name yeah
that's what that's all means because uh
what's his name uh uh the the from the
office he covers it
um from the British office which is the
better office
okay uh tangent upon a tangent upon
tangent so you said you created the
everyday calendar to make a more
beautiful in quotes and more sacred gold
star system on a wall not a notebook
that gets thrown into a drawer yeah well
well said passed me
you uh you said that making this
calendar taught you a lot in quotes I
feel like a like a real investigative
journalist uh
you've said in 2018 yeah I'm waiting for
the gotcha can you share some of the
lessons you've learned like what do you
mean you've you've learned a lot from
making this calendar what are we talking
about as somebody who builds things
manufacturing something is such an
unrelated process like making one of
something and making ten thousands of
something like they're not even distant
cousins like it's completely different
beasts to tackle and
um yeah so that was one of it everything
takes so much longer than you think it's
going to I did a Kickstarter campaign
that we launched in 2018
after my surgery and
yeah it's just you know you think you're
so generous with the timelines we still
ended up being a year late but we
shipped
we're good
um but yeah I mean I'm trying to get my
product business off the ground we
launched in May
and it's just yeah it's just the pain as
somebody who's terrified of
disappointing people I'm like why have I
chosen some of the jobs where it's the
easiest to disappoint people you can
disappoint people at scale no yeah I can
disappoint people at scale and also them
actually haven't paid me money to
deliver on something which is a terrible
transaction but it's I'm just stoked to
realize that I love the job still like I
love the product development aspect of
it I love trying to design stuff for
manufacturing and figure it out and like
anticipate how people are gonna use your
products and like the everyday calendar
I mean we've sold thousands of them now
they're all over the world and it's like
people actually finding something useful
that I made and implementing them into
their lives it's just
mind-boggling especially because this is
tracking habits good habits so they're
bad ones you can do it forever
you can use it however you want I went
in a drinking binge again today yes
kicked another kid
what does it take to a mass manufacture
something what did you learn about that
like what what are can you like
elucidate the gap between the one the
Prototype versus the the product
development for Mass manufacture I mean
for one of it is like yeah the
manufacturing the tooling that they use
in manufacturing and to do things in a
cost-effective way is really different
like I can make a one-off then it's
going to take me 17 hours but obviously
you can't spend 17 hours per calendar
when you're doing something in Factory
um
I think it's that like quality control
is such a beast you cannot trust anybody
telling you that things are going to be
okay like you're you have to have such
trust issues and it's also terrifying I
mean as somebody who's doing everything
independently I haven't raced any
capital for it like it's all
self-invested and we're doing it all
in-house
it's just you know yeah I could buy
10 000 calendars but then what if all of
them are have a manufacturing issue or
you know it's just
it's just terrifying because the risks
are so high but also I got to this point
where for when this is something that I
wanted to do for a long time but
something that going through health
problems taught me
is how fragile my business model is
because I mean I'm basically running an
influencer business where
I make videos on YouTube and then I have
an ad spot and I talk about a brand so
like I'm a human billboard which is fine
it grants me a lot of freedom to play
around
um but if I am not well enough to be on
a stage giving talks or be in front of a
camera everything stops like it's such a
pillar of a business and it can topple
over at any given moment or like
YouTube could change the algorithm like
legislation could catch up and change
how you're able to advertise on the
internet like it's so frail and I really
felt like I need to diversify what I'm
doing and also just to keep it
interesting for myself
so what I decided was to start a product
business because also it's kind of this
perfect combination of businesses where
I can turn my YouTube channel into an r
d Department because I have a reason to
constantly be exploring things and
churning out new products
I can also do that as early audience
testing and see what people are actually
excited about and if there's something
that I think would make an interesting
product I can pass that over to the
product business and then once I'm ready
to Market that and sell it I can pass it
over to the YouTube channel so it's like
I can kind of
once I realized that YouTube didn't feel
like an end goal for me
I was like okay then I can use it as a
tool to accomplish these other things
that I want to do and this was one of
them so yeah it's a lot that went into
it and one of the tools like it says r d
but it's also kind of advertisement for
the cool stuff that you're doing I think
I think Mr Beast is one of the creators
that's also starting to understand this
power of this uh reputation that you've
built
of like people trust you like they love
you
to do cool stuff they trust that you put
your heart and soul into a thing yeah so
like and they feel your pain and the
struggle too you know like if a product
like for example say the everyday
calendar like there was issues in
manufacturing something like this but it
was hot yeah it would feel the pain of
that and there was still support I mean
that that's the beauty of it when you
have the actual person right there
struggling with their with their lows
and highs that's a decision that I made
really early on where I was like the yet
store is supported by me but it's
separate from me it's not merchandise
you don't have to know who I am or care
about who I am to be interested in this
product and if you go on the website
uh like you have to go to the about page
to find anything about me like it's
definitely not like this is the most
brand and I think anybody who's followed
me for a long time will see that like my
personality is sprinkled into it but
it's still like clean off of me and I
think that's also because I wanted
something that was separate from me
because I
I'm also running out of narcissism
believe it or not like I don't feel like
I wanna I don't want it to be about me
and I want it to be something that can
also run independently of me and doesn't
like I want to be able to retire my face
and still do like the other stuff
because I think it's fun but I don't
want that to be the core of it what
other kind of stuff uh have you worked
on for the product design
uh yeah for for you so I mean a lot of
the products I decided to launch the
store with a really small roster of
products because developing products is
such a it's it's such upfront heavy like
cost wise and just investment such a
very big a friend investment so and I
know that it would take a while or I
knew it would take a while for me to
kind of find the right tonality and
visual language for the brand so I just
wanted to launch it have it be out there
start working on it start like learning
more about what it entails uh even if we
just had a small roster product so we've
released it with we have a puzzle
yes this is the web uh but I wanted to
release the puzzle that has one piece
missing so it's actually as far as I can
tell it's the world's first officially
incomplete puzzle you get 499 out of 500
pieces I keep the 500th piece so I have
a box
in my workshop with everybody's missing
pieces yeah and I don't know what to do
with it yet but someday it will come to
me profound artistic statement it is
something uh it's definitely something
and I I'm surprised by how many of them
we've sold which I'm also like I kind of
wanted to have that product product out
there because I was like can you imagine
having a pitch deck if I do ever raise
money of being like
you know how good I am at selling things
I sold people 5 000 incomplete pencils
also have
no it's like a lot of the products I
call them basket fillers like they're
kind of just like stuff where I'm like
yeah this is like easy to throw into
your basket I mean we have these rings
I'm wearing them so there's a
screwdriver ring which is a Phillips
head screwdriver and then a screw ring
that kind of has a recess like a
Phillips head screw I have these sawdust
socks that make you look like your feet
are covered in sawdust like you spent
all time in the all day in the shop
without having to put any of the actual
effort in but then
we have four more products on the
pipeline that we're working on and that
are kind of the more the the big
ambitious
products that are more in line with what
I want the brand to be like the tagline
is unique solutions to Everyday problems
and it's just a lot of like trying to
develop novel takes on existing products
this is something where the function
becomes a bigger bigger part of the
design yeah so what's the process of
creating something like that like the
even the everyday calendar so like what
what are some challenges that are
interesting along the way so you have to
sketch it out you have to like
brainstorm draw things out and then
create a schematic and see like how how
do you know what it's going to look like
visually don't yeah and it's I mean I so
the everyday calendar the first so I
just built it for myself first like that
did not come as a as a product idea
first and that's kind of been the
process that I've had for a lot of
things like I make it for myself and
then I'm like oh maybe other people
would find this useful too so the
everyday calendar the first prototype I
made
it had actually physical mechanical
toggle switches so 365 toggle switches
that you could flip so if you worked out
that day or meditated for me was
meditating
um you can just flip that switch and
that was great but when I started
evaluating it as a product it's
if you have 365 of something in a
product like The Runaway cost is crazy
so the cheapest option most reliable
option we could find was capacitive
touch so basically it's a touch
interface and the front plate is the
circuit board itself so it's this like
this darkest word
um that's designed in this really
fancy way so it looks like a
a beautiful piece of art not to do my
own horn too much uh but it's actually a
circuit board
um which I also thought was really
interesting of like using this that
people usually hide away in in products
and it felt like a nod to my career in
electronics as well being like no let's
make it pretty let's make it put it
front and forward
um
but yeah I mean what I'm realizing now
more and more is like there's so many of
like I would love to turn the puzzle
table into a product
but then it's like that would be a seven
thousand dollar table and I don't want
to sell a table for seven thousand
dollars so you're kind of limited to the
price bracket you're in and it's like
your margins are tough like maintaining
your margins are really really tough and
as somebody who's like I would love to
sell the stuff that we're doing cheaper
but you just it's just not feasible like
you need those marches to survive and
well one of the the genius things in the
conversations I've had with Elon is the
ability through sort of systematic
questioning of how things have been done
in the past to discuss what is the
lowest cost way to solve a problem
and so he's very good at getting to like
with Optimus robot for example the
humanoid robot how do you get the cost
down yeah and that seems to be like one
of the essential things to do
in um in any product that you have to
mask manufacture is constantly discussed
like how do we simplify simplify it's
definitely a design limitation that's
interesting it's both hard and
interesting to work within and that's
such a different thing as well it's like
as I talked about before like what is
the context and what you're creating
things like I'm still building things
I'm still inventing things but I changed
the contacts and has a very different
set of limitations and constantly trying
to simplify your product to make it
cheaper and yeah it's a really
interesting and different type of design
process you can lose some of the magic
though right like
people can do that a little bit too much
I think apple is famous like Johnny Ive
is famous for sort of focusing on design
first and not worrying about the cost
later because you don't want to
sacrifice there's some stuff that's
gonna cost more but it keeps yeah some
of the magic
I think is for some of the products that
we're working on it's like I'm like
let's just make it the best we think it
can be and then we can scale back from
there like just like let's not impose
these limitations on ourselves up front
like let's just make it the most
beautiful version of itself and then we
can decide what we want to compromise
with or compromise on yeah that's what I
say every day when I look in the mirror
it's beautiful and then we can
compromise yeah
yeah and see how shit goes wrong later
all right all right uh back a little bit
to the robots just um or actually to one
of your more epic projects I mean
they're all Epic but chocolate yeah
you cutting into a Tesla and turning
into an epic truck what was that like
where did the idea come from
the idea came from that I really wanted
an electric pickup truck like I'm only
really driven electric because I got my
driver's license pretty late and I'm
like one of the first generation drivers
it's like probably never gonna have a
gas vehicle
um but yeah this was in 2018 as well
2018 was a big year yeah yeah uh or
2019. I can't remember and I
figured that we could just make our own
so you took a Tesla Tesla Model three
model three um
and you cut off a piece of it
and you turn it into a pickup truck
what's the um
uh it looks pretty badass so like what
what are some of the challenges of doing
that it's unlike other projects you've
done yeah it's very much outside of my
realm like I'm not a car person I
haven't worked on cars before so we
brought in a big team
um and had another project manager for
it and stuff because also like cars you
definitely don't want things to go wrong
like there's no part of me that wants to
fuck around and make something that's
going to be really unsafe for me or for
other people who are driving with me
um
so yeah I mean it was about a year of
planning
and then we got the car and then we
spent a month just tearing it apart and
trying to make it I was so set like I
really wanted the car just for its
function and
I was like I'm so fine with if it's
really ugly but then we managed to make
it actually look really good so that
wasn't part of the discussion like how
the final thing looks I was I wasn't so
I wasn't that fussed about it I was like
I just wanted to I just want it for its
function like I really want this car I
don't want it because it looks cool but
then it ended up looking pretty cool as
well and I'm really I mean even now a
couple of years later when there are
some more options of electric pickup
trucks I still stand truck law
like she's like rivian Ford F-150 like
they're all great but they're giant
you're sitting there on the porch in
your in your
cowboy hat yeah drinking whiskey and
saying with my Cattle Dog yeah yeah
shotguns I wanted like a small 90s
pickup truck
back to shitty robots you reused parts
of previous robots a lot what's like a
memorable example of that it's just a
graveyard of parts I mean it works out
I've gotten better at keeping projects
intact in the beginning I used to
disassemble every project because I was
also much a much more stringent budget
so if I needed a motor then I would like
steal it off of an existing robot or
previous robot but I've got a really
good at not doing that now
because I'm like maybe one day I want to
have a museum exhibit and then it would
be nice to have all of those machines
intact and not having to rebuild them
centuries from now they'll you know you
can look at Benjamin Franklin's house
oh yeah nobody's gonna look at my house
yeah
there's some weird shit uh yeah that
goes great with my idea of myself
with the autobiography yeah you said
that people keep requesting in the
comments they did I put a dildo on it
yeah they have I have I mean was that
actually where you were gonna ask yeah I
have dildo written in my notes
I thought I just made it into a raunchy
punchline we're actually gonna get there
yeah that was in the early days in the
studio robot days but now I have a
filter on my YouTube channel for every
possible spelling of dildo so I mean
people want to probably sexualize robots
right and then or or they put they want
to sexualize my relationship with them
yeah oh you know because I have majority
male followers and they're so sweet and
so receptive like respectful 99
but I realized like if there is a lot of
I've realized that Society hasn't taught
men how to have female role models and
the way that people Channel it is
through being like Oh it's because I
want to fuck her or I want to date her I
want to marry her
and I'm like I don't think you want any
of those things I think you actually
just admire my work but you don't know
how to look up to a woman yeah
that's beautifully put
uh what about weapons do you give
requests to put weapons on a thing yeah
it's interesting I kind of started in
robotics that's just like a happy camper
who is really into like tinkering and
now I'm kind of seeing some of the
darker parts of it
and I remember first time I went to a
proper Factory and I saw like big
industrial robot arms at work and I was
like oh well this is what it is about
you know and it was almost scary where I
was like oh I've just been like playing
around with these tiny versions of this
and I'm like oh my God everybody
robotics is cool and fun and then you
get in there and you're like this is
kind of terrifying you were platforming
the very things that will destroy no
you're making it fun and entertaining
I'm the mouthpiece and I'm like getting
people into Robotics and engineering and
we're all just building our demise yeah
accelerating speed no but I mean I had
that in like the same with also with
like
companies who are
saying that they're never going to put
weapons on their robots and then have
military contracts and stuff like that
you're like this is dark and scary
fortunately I haven't gotten a lot of
requests for it yeah drones are
terrifying especially they're fucking
terrifying and it's really
everything I mean we're humans are so
good at creative ways of killing and
fucking each other it's like almost how
everything goes like and it's yeah I I'm
terrified of the future where we are
going to use more robust to kill each
other
and come up with new new creative ways
to kill and hurt each other yeah
emotionally psychologically physically
yeah
speaking of which what are your thoughts
about I don't know if you've been paying
attention but Chad GPT the investment in
our in language models and artificial
intelligence have you added speaking
capabilities to any of your devices
yeah I used to have an Amazon Echo in my
house but then I removed it uh it just
freaked me out that I could whisper from
my bed and heard me yeah I'd be like
Alexa
play Spotify I feel like playing Spotify
uh
uh I
I think it is a powerful tool that we
are not fully ready for yeah yeah and I
don't know I I think um the internet is
kind of a parade of us using
powerful things and harmful ways and I
think
chat Bots are really really exciting I'm
stoked to have a personal assistant
that's like a virtual assistant that
actually does a good job and can solve
problems for me
but
yeah it also feels like it can get dark
really really quickly yeah because uh
you can form close connections like
we're talking about with it and then it
can be used to manipulate you
manipulate you in terms of what is true
and manipulating in terms of getting you
to buy stuff yeah or um maybe because at
least for now it's centralized getting
everybody to think the same way I mean
for I mean it's the same in like
algorithms being used to radicalize
people or kind of having that as a
consequence of the way that they work
and combine that with a really Advanced
language model and like you can
control people's world view in a way
that you could I mean it's just
it's it's wild and I think we're not
ready for it and I don't know if we ever
would be because we're
very impressionable a little squishy
flashbacks which takes us back to the
one the squishy flash flashbags interact
which one pops first still um
Bubble new people paper coming out like
three minutes talking about oh
um what about consciousness
so you never anthropomorphize the robots
did they ever come to life for you
where you kind of thought no because
they built them and I know how they work
so that prevents you from being able to
see the magic I don't know yeah but I
think it's like
I definitely when I did a lot of the
shitty robot stuff like I wanted them to
move like a human or like in a more
organic way and not just like point A to
point B which is the easiest way to
program stuff
um so I wanted other people to
anthropomorphize them but I don't think
I I did necessarily
I am trying to think of a piece of
technology that I've
kind of projected feelings upon but no I
can't so sometimes what makes me
anthropomorphize something even though I
built it is uh
there's a element surprise so especially
with machine learning you're surprised
by the kind of things it does have you
ever been surprised by a robot
no because they're all pretty dumb like
also the robots I built it's like
they're all just servos moving from I
mean they're
I don't think I've built anything with a
huge amount of sensors or like they're
just moving in a pattern that I program
them to move what's the most complex
thing you've built
I mean probably truckload yeah was
complex just for the sheer scale of it
and like the
I mean but I think that was my biggest
project both in terms of build scope but
also in terms of impact that it had like
that project just went wild but then
yeah then I don't know the bubble wrap
music box I know they're all called in
different ways that that one is epic how
does the bubble wrap connect to the
flute by the way what's how does that
work
and the flute is just right where like
mounted right where it pops it okay yeah
so fascinating yeah I'm fun funny enough
uh in my in
deep investigative journalistic research
of you yeah says you're you used to be
an MMA reporter yeah
how how how how did that happen how did
you get into it I was really into
martial arts I was like a huge UFC buff
I mean this is
2010 maybe did you practice martial arts
yourself I did yeah I was mostly stand
up I did like um I did a lot of Muay
Thai and then some Brazilian Jiu Jitsu
and just yeah I was really
the thing is I I get really intense
about my hobbies
into it I was all in awesome and
um I had worked a little bit as a
journalist and I was like oh I should
like
do MMA reporting
and I emailed uh this uh MMA website in
Sweden I was like hey can I come and
write for you and they were like oh
actually we're going to an event in
Gothenburg tomorrow do you want to come
yeah and I was like wow this is a lot
it's like 11 p.m at night but sure I'll
come
and I went there to their office I'd
never really met them and I'm like this
is kind of scary like I'm a 20 year old
girl and going there in a group of men
with a group of men and
um they were so rude
they'd like I went there and I was like
hey what's up and they were all kind of
ignoring me and just like not looking at
me or interacting with me
until they realized that
Simon was a girl because we'd only
talked over email and they're like oh
this guy named Simon is Gonna Come and
then they were like oh fuck Simon it's
actually Simone yeah and it's a girl uh
so I kind of like slid into that in a
very very strange way and I did that for
a year but then I got kicked out of an
interview with Alexander Gustafson and
pronunciation is so good
and then I just kind of never went back
and I was done with it and now I'm not
allowed to do martial arts because of
brain stuff so I've kind of put all of
that behind me and it's it's interesting
it's like I definitely see the
athleticism in it and the skill that
goes into it I think as the older I get
the more concerned I am about the health
impacts of the sport and of the people
who are practicing it on an elite level
and I'm just not as
um
cannot as the 100 just here as somebody
beats somebody else up into a pulp yeah
especially considering the effects you
might have on the brain may I ask why
you got kicked out yesterday is anything
fun so embarrassing what happened it
wasn't I didn't it was not I didn't
intend to get kicked out I didn't
realize I was going to get kicked out so
it was Alexander Gusto song was going to
fight Jon Jones yeah and he had just he
was kind of like this Golden Boy in
Sweden and he had just come out to the
press that he had actually been to jail
for violent crimes
and all I wanted to ask all I asked was
what was the reason that you wanted to
bring that forward now
and apparently that was completely like
blacklisted but I hadn't gotten briefed
about it at all and the
um the pr man had a PR of the UFC was
just yelling at me and they kicked me
out of hell in Stockholm and I
immediately called my mom and I was like
Mom you will not believe what just
happened I got kicked out of an
interview
because in the 90s she got kicked out of
an interview with Mel Gibson from the
gun Hotel so that's like runs in the
family so I was just like she party so
yeah no it was just this weird
generational skip where we both gotten
kicked out of interviews at this same
Hotel
you spent uh quite a bit of time in
China as a student uh is that something
you could speak to the differences
and culturally maybe even from like a
student in an engineering perspective
between China and us maybe even Sweden
those are like technologically speaking
just such fundamentally different places
I mean I moved to China when I was 16.
yeah and I went through as an extreme
student so that is before I had ever
touched upon those things and it was and
then I went back when I was 19.
to work as an English teacher for a
little bit
it was
it was incredibly challenging
to be there the language barrier the
language the culture all of it I mean I
was like now when I look at 16 year olds
I'm like you're a baby and I moved sorry
10 or 16 year olds listening to this but
like I just can't believe I did that and
yeah I didn't speak the language I got
placed in like a small City with almost
no foreigners it was just a constant
audience of people staring at you
because
they haven't interacted with a lot of
foreigners before and yeah I definitely
and then after that I moved to Kenya
and
I think that was one of the reasons why
it was so interesting to move to the
States because people were like oh isn't
it like hard with the language barrier
or the cultural difference and I was
like yeah there's this nothing and I
could speak the language like I could
speak English well and I could kind of
pass as an American even just as I moved
here and it was such a relief where I
was like wow I'm like an undercover
Foreigner because I got to a point where
I realized like it doesn't matter how
good my Mandarin is I'm never
people are never gonna
fully
accept me here so yeah and you moved you
uh went to Kenya you've spoken about
this after your parents got divorced
I know I know so many things what do you
think this is is it from when I have my
Amazon Echo installed yeah yeah
I came home from China first time I was
there for a year
it's
one of the most turned upside down days
of my life I spent a year there and I
was so excited I had really rough year
and I was so excited just to come home
and like be a child again I remember
thinking and just like feeling like I
belonged and then I came home and I
found out that my parents had separated
when I was gone and they hadn't told me
because they wanted to like not affect
my stay there which I think was 100 the
right decision of them to make but I
kind of came home to a house that was
starting to get picked apart and
a big shock to your world it was both
yes and no
I think I remember I just sat down on my
bed and I was like well this isn't what
I expected but I guess I'll move to
Kenya because I was one of the few there
were a few Swedish boarding schools in
the world there was one in Brussels
Paris London and then one in Nairobi and
I didn't want to miss more school
because I'd taken a gap year when I went
to China
so I was like I guess I'll go to Nairobi
and I'm thinking now like I I think if
my parents had stayed together granted
it was amazing that they they did made
the right decision in every way but I my
roots kind of never grew back after that
and
I think I just kept on moving abroad and
moving around and being really restless
and
yeah and have you ever been able to find
a home
spiritually I have a home yeah I mean I
have a home
in the people around me and I have I
have a lot of different homes you know
it's
I think what I'm realizing more and more
is like you cannot live without
consequence and compromise and sometimes
I can envy people who have that like
same friend group that they had their
entire life or that you know just really
belong in a place
and I realized that would be amazing but
I've chosen different experiences
and one of the upsides of that is I can
feel home almost anywhere
one of the downsides of that is that I
cannot feel fully at home anywhere
oh that's deeply and Darkly poetic do
you feel at home
probably the way you put it is uh really
beautifully put yeah
no
I have to find home in the people I love
yeah
what advice would you give to young
people
uh that look at your Stellar life the
trajectory of of your career as a human
being as a Creator as a engineer as a
designer
as a incredibly interesting personality
who's working on an autobiography what
advice would you give them um like how
how to make their way in this life maybe
high school students maybe college
students on um
how they can have a career they can be
proud of or life they can be proud of oh
my God looks
um
you know it's this is not the advice but
there are very few moments in a career
that feel as good as you think they are
going to
and there are very few moments of
feeling really proud of yourself like I
feel like I often
just feel like I'm not doing it well
enough or big enough or
and now I just had one of those moments
like hearing you say that I'm like oh
I'm actually doing okay
um
I think my main advice is
enthusiasm is a much more potent fuel in
life than Duty
and just because something is boring
doesn't mean that it's important
I
I kind of realized for myself that like
I'm so much better at the things I enjoy
but school doesn't really teach us how
to stay excited about something and how
to stay enthusiastic about something and
if you can find that then like you got a
gold mine of potential
so
I kind of had to reprogram myself to be
like just because this is fun doesn't
mean that it's not important
because I had so much guilt about it in
this weird way or where I'm like no this
is too fun this can't be work and I'm
like no it still work
the boring stuff isn't more important
and the vice versa says you said
just because it's boring and hard
doesn't mean it's the right thing to do
yeah that's interesting I um I'm gonna
have to take that advice and think
through it because I'm my genetically
I'm built a little bit like if this is
really unpleasant it's probably good for
me yeah and it's a dangerous thing to to
think sometimes it's true sometimes it's
not yeah
no and it's like what comes really easy
and where do you have that kind of
effortless momentum and enthusiasm and
that is kind of The Sweet Spot
I think that I'm also really happy that
I spent time trying out so many
different jobs I mean I had I've had so
many different jobs before I did it and
I would do things for a year and then I
quit and it feels like I tried on a
bunch of different pants and you're like
okay I can kind of wear this but they're
like not super comfortable or I don't
love the look of them or whatever and
now I feel like I found this pair of
pants that just like fits me perfectly
and that perfectly caters to my
strengths and my weaknesses like I used
to work as an editor for the Swedish
government
and I remember thinking like
oh I need to be okay that not a lot of
things are happening and that things are
moving slowly and that the work is kind
of like monotonous and then I realized
like or maybe I should be in a workplace
where it's a benefit or strength that I
want a lot of things to happen and that
I can handle a high speed yeah you know
and I think that is really such a good
question task as well like what are my
strengths what are my weaknesses and
what context are most of these things
strengths
if you know that you know the
measurements you can find the right
fitting pants yeah or the right suit
as Lex will tell you
um uh what do you think is the meaning
of life
no I don't think there's any meaning
it's a meaningless void no just that it
doesn't have any meaning doesn't mean
that it's meaningless I don't think that
there's this big Grand meaning I think
um a more important question is what
brings you substantial joy in your life
to me it's the relationships with people
that I have
love
yeah I mean love in all different kinds
of form it's um
I'm really working on figuring out how
to build more Community especially in a
society that isn't really made for it
um I want more passive
Hangouts with people or like I just want
people who are there
together
to get high no together to get high
together yeah I mean I like I I think
seeing somebody for lunch and kind of
shooting the shit and what's what's the
latest with you is great but like what I
want is somebody to just roll up in
sweat pants and open my fridge and like
be like what are you gonna do I don't
know maybe I'll read a book like yeah I
think that sharing kind of like silence
sharing silence being alone together and
that just that type of community I think
is what I'm really seeking out now
um because I think yeah and also like
working on a goal on a joint goal
together with other people you know I
think being a YouTuber can be really
lonely
um I mean as much as I'm working with a
team it's like
yeah I just want to work in a bigger
project and kind of have that sense of
wow we're like doing this together
because I think that access is my pride
a lot better than just being proud of
myself it's so much easier for me to be
proud of a team
than for me to be proud of myself
that's probably good advice for people
who are doing creative work on YouTube
too to work on to work on a team yeah
and just choose
try to do things and take it from the
queen of shitty robots but like try to
do things with Integrity form a queen
robots
do things with Integrity like anything
you do on the Internet is kind of I
think of things as tattoos on my
internet
and on my internet self and I'm I'm
really happy that I said no to some
things early in my career that I know
that I would have regretted now and
you know just think of it in the long
term like going viral is overwhelming
and so stressful and so fun but like so
intense and I'm I'm really happy that I
managed to build that into a more
long-term career
than just have it be something that
passed
and come down from the the viral moment
and maintaining your Humanity yeah and
also
really deliberately defining what
success means to you because there are
so many
reasons or so many definitions that
other people will give you and
especially when you're working on the
internet there are just numbers upon
numbers that are like you're doing well
you're not doing well and something I'm
really happy that I did was early on I
really try to think of like what does
success look like for me and I realize
that it's not having the world's biggest
YouTube channel
it's being proud of the projects that I
put out and having full say in how I
spend my time
like that is the most important thing to
me and if I had a huge YouTube channel
and I was making so much money but I
kind of had this machine run me rather
than the other way around like to me
it's so important to be able to wake up
in the morning and be like I don't want
to do this anymore and for that to be
okay
um and I think I defined that for myself
early on and I've really tried to live
by it and made decisions after that and
I'm really happy that I did that and
also you're with the the store with the
design you're doing now you're putting
a little bit of love in the products you
create a scale I mean that's what Johnny
Ive did hmm that's the cool thing so you
can create something beautiful and then
people can share that love at skills
it's terrifying and beautiful and I'm so
here for it I'm here for it too
um I'm a big fan I'm a big fan of who
you are I'm a big fan of everything you
do of putting yourself out there putting
your love out there in terms of the
designs you create also just because I'm
a fan of Robotics I think you inspire a
lot of people I think
the shitty robots are actually
incredible robots
and uh it's incredible engineering
that's all that's that's the best
combination of design engineering and
fun all of it together so thank you for
doing that you're I'm a big fan you're
an inspiration and thank you for sitting
down with me this is awesome thank you
so much for having me
thanks for listening to this
conversation with Simone yet to support
this podcast please check out our
sponsors in the description and now let
me leave you with some words from Kurt
Vonnegut
we have to continually be jumping off
cliffs and developing our wings on the
way down
thank you for listening and hope to see
you next time