
Why the ‘Queen of Shitty Robots’ Renounced Her Crown - pluma
https://www.wired.com/story/simone-giertz-build-what-you-want/
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DagAgren
> For a long time, building shitty robots meant Giertz never had to face
> failure, even if the robots themselves failed. “One of the things that I've
> been trying to figure out is: Was building shitty robots in some way a
> method for me to minimize myself, to make myself smaller?” Giertz says.
> “Because that's what I notice—a lot of women being really scared to step up
> and be an expert.”

This rings really true, and as funny as the shitty robots were, I really have
been enjoying her later videos a lot more than those. She's really funny and
talented and deserves a lot more than shitty robots. And I hope she'll be ok.

~~~
macspoofing
>She's really funny and talented and deserves a lot more than shitty robots.

Why? There's nothing wrong with moving onto other things and pursuing other
interests, but she has this perplexing perspective (which you echoed in this
statement) that somehow the 'shitty robots' content was something to look down
on. It was good stuff, and if she wanted to continue, it would have been
perfectly fine and something you could build a career around.

~~~
CydeWeys
She has bigger aspirations than making shitty robots for a joke and YouTube ad
revenue.

~~~
macspoofing
And there's nothing wrong with that. In fact, that's great. Sometimes people
don't know when to give up a shtick and end up being typecast for decades.

The part that's perplexing is why she (and some others) see that content as
somehow beneath her and why she has this general negative and insecure
attitude towards the "shitty robots" content she created. That content
entertained a lot of people and allowed her to stand out from the mass of
other Youtube content creators.

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bhouston
My daughter, who is interested in science and engineering loved the shitty
robot videos. It was a form of engineering comedy. I guess if she wasn't a
women, creating shitty robots would be just funny and inventive way that she
figured out how to make money. Comedians make people laugh using inventive and
unexpected constructions, she was no different. A lot of comedians do things
that are in one way or another demeaning to themselves or showing a lack of
self-respect, but they do it because they actually incredibly confident in
themselves that they can stand up and make those jokes.

How was her videos not that different than the stchick that is Mr Bean. Rowan
Atkinson is definitely not an idiot in real life, but that stchick sure got
him attention he wouldn't have gotten any other way, because it was unique and
over the top and funny.

It is also fine for her to move on to other topics. No one is forced to stay
in any specific role they have invented for themselves, no matter what fans
think.

~~~
throwaway-9320
Would like to mention Mehdi (ElectroBOOM) here as he seems to match the
description, but with electricity and physics:
[https://www.youtube.com/user/msadaghd](https://www.youtube.com/user/msadaghd)

~~~
taneq
Seconded, this guy is great. He plays it well enough that it takes a little
while of growing incredulity before you realise he’s doing it all on purpose.

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sixothree
I have a random observation about the comments sections of the types of videos
she makes. In videos that feature female makers, commenters seem to address
them by first name far more often than happens in the male maker videos. I am
not sure why it bothers me but it feels off.

~~~
stronglikedan
IME, that reflects (at least American) society in general, where males are
referred to by their last names among friends much more often than females.

~~~
wvenable
It also depends on the last name. Short last names will be used more than long
ones, male or female. Funny last names more than non-funny ones.

~~~
marblar
Did you vote for Donald or Hillary?

~~~
AareyBaba
Bernie or Warren ?

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lonelappde
This is the story of most comedians. Good comedy is easier than good drama and
deep art and invention. It's a young person's game. Good to move on to
something bigger and better.

Yes, Simone is a better robotocist than most of us. That's not a compliment
_to her_ , because her dreams aim higher.

The sexist fear angle of the story is unfortunate, though. People shouldn't
hold themselves back because of imagined differences in what they are allowed
to do.

~~~
romwell
>Good comedy is easier than good drama

I highly disagree. Good comedy, especially one that stands the test of time
(and not just wit _du jour_ ) is _hard_.

>It's a young person's game.

I thought I couldn't disagree more, but I actually do.

From Leslie Nielsen to George Carlin, a lot of my favorite comedians were
grey-haired, old people.

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dredmorbius
Article is presently 404.

IA WBM:
[https://web.archive.org/web/20191210130453/https://www.wired...](https://web.archive.org/web/20191210130453/https://www.wired.com/story/simone-
giertz-build-what-you-want/)

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6gvONxR4sf7o
>"There are so many things that are amazing that are not perfect. And there
are so many things that are perfect that are fucking boring," [Giertz] says.
"Perfect is a corset. It doesn't let you breathe. It doesn't let you roll
around. It's a small pen to be in."

Oof. That hits the perfectionist in me hard.

~~~
shrimp_emoji
To achieve perfection is to sacrifice growth DuckerZ

~~~
jimmux
"Perfect is the enemy of good"

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exabrial
Side note: Why couldn't Tesla license her truck design instead of the
Cybertruck. Sigh.

~~~
bdamm
I don't think Tesla needs to license her design as there is no trademark or
patent. They can start manufacturing mini-pickups any time they want to. They
probably aren't because the market for small electric pickups with miniature
beds is a small one. The direction they are going seems like the right one to
me; big, powerful, featured, luxurious vehicles that absolutely out-class ICE
vehicles and leave us wondering why we spent a century going the wrong way, is
the correct market to address. Musk being a dick driving around LA in his
hulking machine is also correct and brilliant marketing.

~~~
exabrial
Was a joke comment. I just wanted an electric El Camino

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jvanderbot
Good on her. She's seen the value of quality engineering over quality humor.

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Jemm
You go Simone

