Lex Fridman - Simone Giertz

1) Simone Giertz talks about her first project, a guitar attachment made with capacitive touch sensors that sends signals over Bluetooth to a phone app that interprets the signals and plays chords on the phone screen depending on which type of cord she was holding. Despite being a beginner in hardware projects and iOS programming, Simone managed to pull it off even though the project was challenging. She also discusses the difficulties of producing the right tensionin the strings and emphasizes the importance of not giving up on your first project.

2) Simone attributes some of the motivation to the deadlines imposed by it being a school project, but also because she found it incredibly motivating when she realized that she might be able to actually pull it off. Simone also reveals that she spent two and a half years designing a coat hanger, mentioning her creative process and her fascination with everydayobjects like door knobs and forks. She is currently working on a product business and a pilot episode of a show that explores everyday objects and their designs. She remarks that the world around us is so malleable, and it's fascinating how one can make objects work better for them.

3) Simone discusses how everyday objects such as doors, forks, and chopsticks shape and affect our behavior without us even realizing it. She also touches upon how she uses her flaws and lack of skills as a selling point to represent the average person, and how she channels her imposter syndrome by asking questions and being self-deprecating. Giertz reflects on her start as the “Queen of Sh*tty Robots,” and how her happy failures helped her to overcome her perfectionism while building things that looked funny. However, she acknowledges that being self-deprecating can also be a defense mechanism and a survival tactic on the internet.

4) Simone discusses her conflicted relationship with self-deprecation and how it has served her both positively and negatively in her work life and relationships. As a woman in a male-dominated field, she explains how she had to walk a thin line of being attractive, smart, and witty while also not being too threatening or sexualized. Simone also talks about her journey to becoming the "Queen of Sh*tty Robots," which started with making small gift-forward projects that could be easily translated into a seven-second looping video without audio.

5) Simone discusses the importance of communicating scientific papers and projects visually, using examples from her work creating GIFs to explain her projects. Giertz explains that in building her projects, she created GIFs that would be able to explain the purpose of the product simply and visually if a viewer had no context of what it was. She also touches on her experience building a toothbrush helmet, discussing the materials she used and her process for building it, as well as the challenges and struggles she faced.

6) Simone discusses how starting her career in her living room through YouTube allowed her to find her own voice and not just rely on presenting a certain personality, but also need to focus on the product she is creating. She talks about how acting plays a role in her videos, but she only really plays the role of herself. Simone also highlights the challenges of creating robots, such as the breakfast robot she made, with everything needing to be in the right location and many takes before getting everything right. She talks about the value of creating flawed robots, and how they can end up being endearing and evoke a sense of anthropomorphism in humans.

7) Simone and Lex discussed the relationship between humans and robots. Simone mentioned how humans gain so much value from their interaction with dynamic objects and how humans should lean into that connection with robots. However, she highlighted how most roboticists run away from that connection because humans are sensitive and squishy, which posesso much liability. Simone suggested that there is a lot to gain for any technology company that figures out a way to get people to love their robots like they love pets.

8) Giertz discusses her fascination with bubble wrap and the extensive research she went through to figure out the best material to pop bubble wrap with. She explains how increasing the pop reliability was a huge effort and required squishing a squishy material with another squishy material to prevent the air from escaping anywhere. Although she found joy in studying bubble wrap, she reveals that she dropped out of college after one year because she realized that she was there for the wrong reasons and that she was a generalist at heart. Simone advises that people should consider their reasons for going to college and explore other options, such as visiting a workplace to see if it aligns with their interests, before committing to higher education.

9) Simone discusses the importance of finding the right context when pursuing one's passion. She explains that while it's essential to figure out what one wants to do, it's equally vital to determine where they want to do it. Simone points out that she felt unfulfilled building things for Punch Through Design because she wasn't motivated by the context. However, everything changed when she changed the context. She believes that although people do consider their resume when choosing a college or job, they focus too much on it in modern times.

10) Simone talks about some of her most memorable projects. She discusses a shoulder rig from her TED Talk that she made to solvea problem she can't seem to recall, which allowed her to put popcorn on it and have it go around like a tiny hand. She talks about a joke that got cut fromher TED Talk, which involved a GIF of a terrifying chopping machine that ends with a humorous response to unsolicited photos. Simone also touches on her desire to be a thoughtful role model, even though sometimes people misconstrue her colorful and fun projects as being for children.

11) Simone Giertz discusses her experience with brain surgery and radiation treatment. While both were terrifying, she found surgery to be both harder and easier than radiation treatment. Recovery from surgery was pretty linear, but radiation treatment drained her in a way that was hard to predict. Simone also talks about some of the unexpected side effects of radiation, including feeling high and disoriented from Alzheimer's medication that she was given to prevent dementia. She was surprised by how little she was willing to think critically about her treatment options and trusted her doctors, which allowed her to go through with the procedure.

12) Simone discusses how going through illness changed her relationship with death and life. Recovering from a brain surgery made her redefine what it means to be good and made her more gentle and delicate with herself and others. She also talks about the importance of taking care of the biological vehicle that we have and being motivated to postpone sickness. Simone shares her appreciation for her body’s resilience and the amazing ability of the human body to recover from even the harshest things such as brain surgery. Lastly, she discusses her experience designing an everyday calendar to build a habit of meditating every day.

13) Simone talks about her decision to start a product business as a way of diversifying her income streams and using her YouTube channel as an R&D department. She discusses the benefits of having a separate brand from her own persona, as well as the upfront investment needed for developing products. Among the products she has released is a puzzle with one missing piece, which she calls the world's first officially incomplete puzzle. She also talks about the power of reputation and the trust people have in her to produce cool stuff.

14) Simone discusses the process of creating new products for her brand, which involves developing novel takes on existing products. She mentions that her tagline is "unique solutions to everyday problems." Simone talks about the challenges of designing and creating the Everyday Calendar, which originally had physical mechanical toggle switches. However, to bring down the cost of the product, she had to switch to a cheaper and more reliable option, which was capacitive touch. She also shares that as a designer, a lot of the work involves trying to simplify the product and make it cheaper without losing its magic.

15) Simone talks about how she turned a Tesla Model 3 into a pickup truck, which was a challenging project as she's not a car person and wanted to ensure safety. Although she initially focused on the car's function and was fine with it looking ugly, the result was a badass-looking truck. She also discusses how she reuses parts from previous robots and tries to keep projects intact, as she hopes to have a museum exhibit with them one day. Simone says that her male followers sometimes sexualize her and her relationship with robots, as they don't know how to have female role models. She also mentions that people request weapons on her robots.

16) Simone discusses the dark side of robotics and AI, specifically the potential for them to be used as tools for destruction and the manipulation of people's beliefs and actions. She expresses her concerns about the development of language models and chatbots, which have the potential to manipulate people's worldviews and control their behavior on a large scale. Giertz also discusses her lack of anthropomorphism toward the robots she builds due to her understanding of how they work, although she acknowledges the desire for them to move in more organic and human-like ways.

17) Simone discusses some of her most complex projects, including the truckload and the bubble wrap music box. She also talks about her past experience as a mixed martial arts (MMA) reporter and reveals how she got into the field. Simone had practiced martial arts herself, but an unfortunate incident during an interview with Alexander Gustafsson led to her getting kicked out of the event, and she stopped pursuing MMA reporting. Simone also briefly touches on her experience as a student in China and the differences between the two cultures.

18) Simone advises aspiring YouTubers to work on a team and choose to do things with integrity. She mentions how going viral is overwhelming and maintained her humanity while defining her meaning of success. Simone strives to be proud of the projects she creates and have full control over how she spends her time. She emphasizes that one should define what success means to them, realizing it may not be the world's biggest YouTube channel, and putting love into products we create like Johnny Ive. Additionally, Simone talks about how combining design, engineering, and fun can create amazing robots that inspire others.