• The myriad of things that need to be designed for feature films. Considering how much the movies can influence technologists and vice versa, it's fair to say that these designers of fictional worlds can have a notable affect on the real world. 
  • Design for flexible and continuous development. Hardware is still seen as difficult to iterate on in an ongoing sense, despite advances in rapid prototyping technologies like 3D printing. The product development world is changing, and there is an emergence of designs that leave some doors open for change. Bunnie Huang's open-source laptop Novena has some of these built in allowances for future change, including the "Peek Array," a set of threaded inserts in a grid formation that make it easy to mount and dismount components or devices again and again. There are some downsides to such an approach as well (a lack of optimization in terms of size, greater risk of unpredictable failures, etc.) but we're optimistic about a more open-ended design future that rewards companies who build for future proofing instead of obsolescence. 

Labor Pains: 


Building Things: 



More next week.