[HN Gopher] James Dyson answers design questions from Twitter [v...
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       James Dyson answers design questions from Twitter [video]
        
       Author : open-source-ux
       Score  : 47 points
       Date   : 2021-12-15 11:54 UTC (11 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.youtube.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.youtube.com)
        
       | open-source-ux wrote:
       | _Summary_ :
       | 
       | He talks about:
       | 
       | - His favourite products
       | 
       | - The worst designed product he owns
       | 
       | - His design heroes (and why)
       | 
       | - On the lack of experience when creating a product and turning
       | that to an advantage (see below)
       | 
       | - On creating a prototype and patenting your physical product
       | 
       | - Speed of execution when creating a product
       | 
       | - Why hand dryers are not quiet
       | 
       | - Why he believes design and engineering is inseparable
       | 
       | An interesting opinion from Dyson on the lack of experience:
       | 
       | > "I think a lack of experience is a great help. An expert thinks
       | he knows it all but he's also rather inhibited by his experience,
       | his knowledge. He finds it difficult to steer off the well-known
       | path.
       | 
       | > Whereas if you have a lack of experience, but huge curiosity,
       | and you approach your new challenge with naivety, I think it's
       | easier for you as inexperienced designer to come up with
       | something different and to follow a different path."
        
       | verisimi wrote:
       | Does he talk about the design of the legal structure for his tax
       | avoidance vehicle that holds the land he has bought up in the UK?
       | lol
       | 
       | https://whoownsengland.org/2017/09/19/why-is-james-dyson-hoo...
       | "By July 2017, Farmers Weekly was reporting that Dyson's empire
       | had grown to 13,355 hectares, or 33,000 acres."
        
         | brink wrote:
         | Bill Gates is doing the same thing. It's annoying.
         | 
         | https://agfundernews.com/gates-if-not-for-climate-then-why-i...
        
           | verisimi wrote:
           | "Despite sustainable agricultural development being one of
           | the key focus areas for his nonprofit Gates Foundation, the
           | Microsoft co-founder claims that his farmland investments are
           | not tied to climate. But while Gates might be solely focused
           | on returns, one should not overlook farmland investing's
           | potential to drive sustainability on a massive scale."
           | 
           | how is a non-profit able to make farmland investments at all?
           | What exactly is the difference between an investment vehicle
           | and a non-profit?
           | 
           | But... these guys care for us!
        
         | jimnotgym wrote:
         | I really dislike Dyson.
         | 
         | 1) Move to Singapore, citing that Britain won't join the euro
         | as a factor. 2) EU energy efficiency test goes against his
         | product 3) Campaigns for Brexit
         | 
         | I had one of his vacuum cleaners and it was under powered and
         | always needed cleaning inside. I got a Meile with a bag
         | afterwards. Much more powerful for less money.
        
           | jimnotgym wrote:
           | Then the ventilators thing happened. "Don't give resources to
           | medical firms that know how to build ventilators...give it to
           | Dyson who will build it faster, better...unapproved and a
           | complete failure
           | 
           | https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2021/apr/22/covid-
           | lan...
        
             | verytrivial wrote:
             | And stitching up getting Dyson as one of only two brands of
             | approved air ventilation in state schools. Grifter.
        
               | [deleted]
        
           | rootusrootus wrote:
           | It's hit or miss. For a plug-in vacuum, there are others I
           | would choose first. But for a cordless stick vacuum, nobody
           | else is comparable.
        
             | chrisseaton wrote:
             | Their hair straighteners are also awesome - the only brand
             | able to put a curl into my wife's hair.
        
               | celticninja wrote:
               | Hmmm, straighteners, put in a curl, sounds defective.
        
               | chrisseaton wrote:
               | No, it's called a 'straightener' but it's a generic tool
               | for controlling the shape of hair - can straighten or
               | curl - both are intended use-cases.
        
               | blitzar wrote:
               | Can hair curlers also straighten hair or is it a one way
               | process?
        
               | chrisseaton wrote:
               | I think hair curlers are cylindrical, while straighteners
               | are flat. You can curl with a flat surface by heating up
               | and then curling around the whole thing. But with a
               | curler there's nothing flat to shape against!
        
             | blitzar wrote:
             | > But for a cordless stick vacuum, nobody else is
             | comparable.
             | 
             | I own one; if it is better than the rest then the whole
             | genre of stick vacuum cleaners should be taken out back and
             | shot.
             | 
             | Core function (sucking things up from my carpet and
             | disposing of the content): charitably I would say it is
             | poor for the half a room that the battery charge lasts for.
             | Build quality: terrible cheap brittle cheap shattering
             | cheap plastic. Price: extremely expensive, 2x anything
             | else.
             | 
             | I have had some shitty appliances over the years, but those
             | tend to at least be so cheap that the only guilt you feel
             | throwing them in the bin is that you are destroying the
             | planet and not your finances.
        
       | LeoPanthera wrote:
       | Here are the subtitles from the video, if you don't want to watch
       | a video: https://pastebin.com/zwapbcy0
        
       | tigerlily wrote:
       | Well, the worst product I own is one of his bagless vacuum
       | cleaners. The crummy look and feel, the unbelievably loud and
       | high-pitched whine and the accompanying tinnitus-inducing higher
       | order acoustic harmonics, and just the overall plasticky
       | shittiness of it after about an hour of dragging it around is
       | simply vomit-inducing.
       | 
       | My pet hate is the 100x added friction between the retractable
       | bristles and my plush carpet. It's costing me extra in time and
       | energy to push this thing around.
       | 
       | My next vacuum cleaner will instead be a janitor-grade Nilfisk.
        
         | [deleted]
        
         | mas-ev wrote:
         | I love my Dyson SV10. Bought it 3 years ago and it's still
         | working like a champ. I don't use it to vacuum a whole room but
         | more for rugs or clean up jobs. I've got a Roomba S9+ for whole
         | floor jobs. Swiffer wet jet for mopping/dust/hard floor.
        
       | chrisseaton wrote:
       | When he says printers are the worst designed things, would be
       | great to see a Dyson-engineered printer that was solid and
       | reliable. Shame there probably isn't the market for them anymore.
        
         | estsauver wrote:
         | Brother printers are consistently reliable and high quality,
         | particularly the laser jet ones. I highly recommend getting one
         | that doesn't have a scanner also, they just do one thing,
         | really really well.
        
           | Jolter wrote:
           | I've been using a Canon MFP 4270 since 2008 and it's been
           | consistently reliable and great.
           | 
           | The only issue is Windows no longer recognizes it by default,
           | so you have to manually install drivers off their website.
           | And of course, Windows Update regularly breaks the install so
           | I have to reinstall them. I don't blame Canon for that
           | though.
           | 
           | Getting new toner cartridges has been no problem as of yet,
           | but I suspect the market is drying up by now because there
           | were mostly off-brand ones available last time I had to get
           | one.
        
           | rcdemski wrote:
           | I second this. I bought a brother multifunction laser printer
           | several years ago and it consistently works without fail,
           | works with built in drivers on Windows and Mac so there's no
           | funky packages installed, and their toner lasts forever.
        
           | chrisseaton wrote:
           | I've got a higher-end Brother laser printer with no other
           | functions integrated and it still frequently gets confused.
           | Just doesn't feel robust or solid.
        
           | aaronax wrote:
           | Eh, the multifunction one I bought a year ago told me the
           | toner was out and wouldn't print until I reset the counter
           | using some obscure menu process. I have printed hundreds of
           | pages since then, so they apparently are into scamming just
           | like the rest.
        
       | verytrivial wrote:
       | How nice of him. I'd rather he paid his tax though.
        
       | AussieWog93 wrote:
       | So many angry people here using any excuse they can to shit-talk
       | this guy. It's almost like I'm on Reddit and someone has made the
       | mistaking of expressing a shred of admiration for Elon Musk.
        
         | chrisseaton wrote:
         | Yeah, had no idea there was this much bitterness and hatred for
         | Dyson of all people!
        
       | reedf1 wrote:
       | Maybe he should explain his Brexit position? As far as I know
       | this man is not an expert in anything but shirking expensive
       | gimmicky fans and being a huge hypocrite, why he should be
       | considered a authority in design I don't know.
       | 
       | I've ways wondered what clout James Dyson gets for being confused
       | with Freeman Dyson, an actual genius.
        
         | blamazon wrote:
         | Also, Dyson products feel incredibly cheap in the hand to me
         | for the price paid. You can just feel how many cycles of cost
         | reduction each one went through.
         | 
         | Expensive products are one thing, but products that are
         | upmarketed primarily because a big name wants more money, rub
         | me the wrong way. It shows a disdain for your customer.
         | 
         | I feel holding him up as some guru perpetuates this annoyance.
        
       | vladharbuz wrote:
       | I find it repulsive that his first recommendation to "inventors"
       | is to file for a patent. Really, the most valuable piece of
       | advice you have is "make sure you secure legal protection in case
       | other people rip you off"? By all means, that's probably a thing
       | you have to think about at some point, but surely there is more
       | important advice for creatives than "lawyer up".
        
         | blamazon wrote:
         | To quote Dyson from the same video:
         | 
         | > "An expert thinks he knows it all but he's also rather
         | inhibited by his experience, his knowledge. He finds it
         | difficult to steer off the well-known path."
         | 
         | One of Dyson's well-known paths might be wielding patent laws
         | against competitors.
        
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       (page generated 2021-12-15 23:00 UTC)