
Ten Bullets [video] - brudgers
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=49p1JVLHUos&t=68s
======
maliker
Tom Sachs does have a reputation for being a dictator, but that attitude has
led to fascinating work that can't be put together without the close
collaboration of a big team (e.g.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tm3M9v3vS0I](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tm3M9v3vS0I)).
Remember, it's typical for famous artists to work with assistants who are not
credited (e.g. Damien Hirst's spot painters
[https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/art/art-
news/9010657/Dam...](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/art/art-
news/9010657/Damien-Hirst-assistants-make-my-spot-paintings-but-my-heart-is-
in-them-all.html)). Sach's team is front and center in a lot of his work.

I confess I have his ten bullets on my wall because I think it helps me be a
good contributor to my team. I think you can boil it down even further to
Brancusi's 3 bullets: "create like a god, command like a king, work like a
slave".

------
xorand
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Sachs_(artist)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Sachs_\(artist\))

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mertens
I thought I was going to find this unknown but great bullet-hell game here:
[https://www.crazygames.com/game/10-bullets-
html-5](https://www.crazygames.com/game/10-bullets-html-5)

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gravypod
Always be knolling is a great lesson for pretending you're organized.

~~~
ken
Even if you don't care about the angles, "put away everything not in use" and
"group like objects together" sound like actual organization to me.

What does "organized" mean to you, if not these?

~~~
CamperBob2
Organization doesn't happen when you put things away, it happens when you go
to locate them again.

For some people that's a tautology, but not for everyone.

~~~
bch
I like this. I love the aesthetic of a clean “organized” workspace, but damned
if mine aren’t often the opposite. Your observation of what-follows-what is
actually profound in light of what I guess (and you suggest) an “obviously
organized” space is.

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ken
What exactly does it mean to "maintain a Work Hard, Play Hard policy"? Besides
being required verbiage on every company's 'Culture' and 'Career' webpages, of
course. In the Seattle web startup community, it seems to mean Drink Hard, but
I don't think that's what he means here.

Is it just an empty phrase that means nothing, so the speaker and listener can
both nod and think they agree perfectly, when in fact they have no common
conception of this idea at all?

~~~
SerLava
It is an empty phrase used to excuse overwork.

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csours
On the one hand, I agree with commentors that this is way too long and way too
over the top... but I think that is definitely the point.

If you don't want to be in my studio, and follow my rules, I don't want you to
be in my studio. The length and tone of the video ensures that non-compliers
will self select out of the applicant pool.

However, not having the content available in written form is really not
acceptable.

------
fishbacon
Was thinking this video was very Casey Neistat especially the way it is
oragnised, and then he shows up.

~~~
graetzer
I think it was directed and voiced by his brother Van Neistat

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XpXDzL-h7cI](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XpXDzL-h7cI)

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natex
TOM SACHS is a sculptor, probably best known for his elaborate recreations of
various Modern icons, all of them masterpieces of engineering and design of
one kind or another. In an early show he made Knoll office furniture out of
phone books and duct tape; later, he recreated Le Corbusier's 1952 Unité
d'Habitation using only foamcore and a glue gun. Other projects have included
his versions of various Cold War masterpieces, like the Apollo 11 Lunar
Excursion Module, and the bridge of the battleship USS Enterprise. And because
no engineering project is more complex and pervasive than the corporate
ecosystem, he's done versions of those, too, including a McDonald's he built
using plywood, glue, assorted kitchen appliances. He's also done Hello Kitty
and her friends in materials ranging from foamcore to bronze.

A lot has been made of the conceptual underpinnings of these sculptures: how
Sachs' sampling capitalist culture, remixing, dubbing and spitting it back out
again, so that the results are transformed and transforming. Equally, if not
more important, is his total embrace of "showing his work." All the steps that
led up to the end result are always on display. On a practical level, this
means that all seams, joints, screws or for that matter anything holding stuff
together, like foamcore and plywood, are left exposed. Nothing is erased,
sanded away, or rendered invisible. On a more philosophical level, this means
that nothing Sachs makes is ever finished. Like any good engineering project,
everything can always be stripped down, stripped out, redesigned and improved.

The reward for work is more work.

\--Mark van de Walle

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otterpro
I found out about Tom Sachs because of Casey Neistat, as Casey worked for him
when he first came to NYC. He was the biggest mentor to Casey, and if you ever
watch Casey's Youtube video, you can see Tom's influence on everything, such
as his studio setup and his "analog" video style. Ultimately, Tom Sach has had
a great influence on Youtube, even though it was indirect. I believe Casey's
brother, Van, still works for Tom.

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ttflee
A must-see for those who loved this:

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vFl31p89VCM&list=PL9DA5B1371...](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vFl31p89VCM&list=PL9DA5B137134D549B)

EDIT:

In case you need English translation:

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qCpbBVthD7o&list=PL2FC1B24C6...](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qCpbBVthD7o&list=PL2FC1B24C6302A7EB)

------
LifeLiverTransp
Bullet 11) Forget all the compulsive controll freaks that are your bosses said
in the video. Think like management- ask yourself, is it efficient, to clean
up my workspace after me? Or could somebody else, somebody cheaper do it.
Outsource all the stupid stuff.

Buellet 12) Remove that idiotic video from youtube.

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ken
I'm surprised at the backlash I see here. Doesn't your eye start twitching if
someone used the wrong number of spaces in a source file? This is coding style
for the physical world. This is far less oppressive than any "SCRUM" I've had
to deal with (or whatever the latest trendy name for XP is).

It's easy to see shop rules as overly controlling, until you've had to work in
a shop for a few weeks or months and seen things get completely out of
control. It's no different than working on a software project. Non-programmers
(and beginners) will try writing a 30-line program, without knowing any of the
best-practice conventions that experienced programmers know about. Then they
post their mess on StackOverflow to get help. What's the first comment?
Always: "We can't read this. Fix your indentation! Fix your capitalization!
Remove those unused variables!" In other words, knoll that source code.

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yboris
_Discipline of Do Easy_ by Gus Van Sant (video adaptation of William
Burroughs) is somewhat similar and definitely amazing:

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eoOUBETTyMI](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eoOUBETTyMI)

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justtopost
I feel exausted just watching this, not sure it makes the point it is trying
to. Now I just feel like I am watching someones therapy session.

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denart2203
That was probably the weakest soldering joint I've ever seen. It was very
funny to me though, so perhaps they were going for irony?

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alexandercrohde
I can't tell if that's put up as parody or not.

Either way, whatever point is intended, it doesn't justify the video length.

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Neputys
Right things explained by a myopic cretin. Wouldn't be surprised to find out
that Corbusier was like that.

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LordHeini
When it comes to "educational workspace videos" nothing will ever beat
Staplerfahrer Klaus.

~~~
allworknoplay
this is amazing, thank you

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ckdarby
What did I just watch...

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emilfihlman
I absolutely hate self-important studio people who have idiotic ideas on space
management and tool usage, especially if the space is not theirs.

And that soldering job was weak.

The aesthetics of the video are cool, though, and the ideas are okay, though
presented in an extremely patronising way.

A comment on the video put it nicely:

>I think Ave pranked us all. My eyes are twitching I'm so triggered by this;-)
A great example of the kind of person you never want to work for. Someone
who's utterly concerned with trivialities of HOW things are done instead of
the reasons you're actually in business. Someone who can't see past their own
way of negotiating the world, imposing their own way of doing things on their
staff. I can assure you, being told what to do and how to do it are two
different things. HR nonsense aside, I'd last 10 mins working for someone this
short sighted. The end result is the goal. How you get there is irrelevant,
beyond following some basic safety protocols. And cats should be at home..
litter boxes stink.

~~~
VikingCoder
I think you're being too dismissive of the value of setting expectations about
how work is done. I'll try to make it relatable for software folks...

I've developed software in places where we:

* had coding style guides

* promoted many compiler Warnings to Errors

* worked off of Bug and Feature lists, not just going off coding

* had to document all changes (for the FDA) in a certain way

* were expected to keep Continuous Integration tests running

* were expected to write unit tests as much as possible, and have very high code coverage

* attempted to do Test-Driven Development for most work (because it was the best way to make sure our code was testable [see "Working Effectively With Legacy Code" by Michael C. Feathers for inspiration)

* had a strict process for handling customer feedback, to ensure we triaged it appropriately

* had to lock our workstations when we stepped away (Sarbanes–Oxley)

* had a code review process for submitting changes

* had a design review process for larger changes (especially including adopting new tools)

* used a very restricted set of programming languages for any new work, even for small tools and one-offs

* followed SCRUM (daily stand-ups, story points, etc.)

* used Objectives and Key Results to plan our work

* had a process to discuss changing any of these

* all used one tool to manage our calendar (even for personal time blocks that didn't impact anyone else)

* all used one messaging tool

Every single one of those is an example of being told how to do my work. And
they all existed to set expectations about how I was supposed to interact with
my teammates. Whose responsibility was it to do things, how do we keep track
of the things, how do we make decisions, how do we stay out of each others'
way, how do we avoid unnecessary interruptions.

I've heard someone express the phrase, "We don't do that here." What was meant
by it is, don't get dragged down into a discussion about whether something is
right or wrong. We have a culture. There are rules. We follow them. (And
there's the door, if you don't like it.)

~~~
noir_lord
To be honest everything on that list sounds good to me as each was decently
implemented.

At that level you are much more engineering than throwing stuff over the wall
and running away.

I wish the system I inherited was structured that way!.

I got the code.

No comments, no tests, no test environment, no documentation, no history and
the code is hilarious.

At that point your job is archaeology not engineering.

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PurpleRamen
Maybe I'm getting old, but was youtube always this annoying with ads? I had 2
clips just now, 2.5 minutes together, and none of them were marked as
advertisement. I did'nt even realize it was advertisement until the first clip
was half way through. And I still don't know what it tried to sell. WTF!??

