Simone Giertz: The Queen of Shitty Robots, Innovative Design, and the Malleability of Everyday Objects

Simone Giertz, renowned as the "Queen of Shitty Robots," delves into her unconventional journey as an inventor, designer, engineer, and roboticist. She articulates a philosophy that marries humor with profound creative design, emphasizing the iterative process of learning through hands-on building and embracing imperfection. Her early projects, such as the "Proud Parent Machine" and an iPhone case with retractable guitar strings, exemplify her unique approach to problem-solving and her commitment to making the world more "malleable" by questioning the design of everyday objects.

Giertz distinguishes between "on-road" builds, which follow clear instructions, and "off-road" projects, which involve navigating uncharted territory without a predefined path. She reflects on the evolution of her public persona, initially adopting the "shitty robots" moniker as a powerful defense mechanism against perfectionism and a survival tactic in the often-critical online environment. While acknowledging its past utility, she discusses her current efforts to balance self-deprecation with her growing expertise and leadership roles as a CEO, recognizing the need to adapt her public identity as her career progresses.

Practical insights from her experience include the importance of persistence in initial projects, where "ignorance was definitely Bliss" allowed her to tackle complex challenges without being overwhelmed. She champions the skill of asking "stupid questions" as a way to overcome imposter syndrome and serve as a valuable filter for technical information, especially in male-dominated fields. Furthermore, Giertz advocates for a "GIF-forward" design approach, a mental exercise that ensures projects are visually self-explanatory and easily digestible, a method she believes is applicable even to scientific communication.

The conversation extends to the broader implications of design on human behavior and culture, illustrating how seemingly simple objects like forks can influence eating habits or how poorly designed doorknobs can cause universal embarrassment. Giertz's work highlights the profound impact of the built environment on our daily lives and encourages a critical re-evaluation of the objects we take for granted. Her journey serves as an inspiring example of how embracing curiosity, humor, and a willingness to fail can lead to significant innovation and a fresh perspective on the designed world.

"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"

"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"

"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"

"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"

"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"

"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"

"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"

"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"

"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"

"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"