craftandhustle

Fresh out of university in 2009 I worked as a graphic designer at a tiny UX/UI studio (4 including myself) that did contract work primarily for RIM (Blackberry). A year into this job, the founder surprised me with announcing that we would do a 2-week creative exploration (what I'd now call a hackathon)— everything else was put on hold completely. A ton of ideas (and fun) were had. We ended up shipping two iOS games over the next 6-12mo... that, frankly, didn't amount to much (in hindsight, how could it— we were all kids (<24yrs old) with 0 experience in games).

It was strange, interesting and amazing time.

Gorgeous.

And, as a curious artist— is the 'GeoColor' image composited by the satellite camera or done manually afterward in post? Mostly, I'd love to see raw stills of the different bands they reference in the image (like the infrared band).

Similar.

Except, I won a pentium (286?) machine running windows 3.11 in 1998 as a 13 year old from a top hat raffle (yes, a magician's type top hat). True story.

It had a flavor of BASIC (I don't remember which) and accompanying manual which changed my life.

Now, as a 30 year old Creative Director in the "new media" field, I hope there are similar parallels for the "youth", especially within the rural regions of where I grew up.

If anyone has the capacity and wish to assist, a long term goal of mine has always been to provide a space for adolescents from similar backgrounds to explore these notions through the lens of Computer Science and Art.

I'll admit #2 is an annoyance for me... but I'll reluctantly bite.

However, I would have a hard time giving up #1 to a machine. I do a great deal of my creative thinking, scheduling, et al during my time hand-washing dishes. I liken it to creative thinking during a shower, I can't imagine it being replaced by a 'bot. I realize YMMV but we all find solace in varying small corners. For me, it's the dishes, for others' it might be a long drive or vacuuming, etc.

I'm a huge proponent of automation, and the advancements that tech will provide in the future, however as an artist I still need the time to procrastinate (ie: THINK). I don't know that I could do this in the solace of a vacuum. I pay $10/mo to listen to white noise on Spotify while I write treatments for various commercial projects.

For me, dealing with imposter syndrome is about empathetic perspective; YMMV. It's 1:30am and I'm 'pulling a shift' with my 1 month old while my wife and 4 year old sleep. I'm slowly learning to really prioritize what's most valuable towards my goals. And those slight, and constant, mistakes cost me dearly.

Nobody is perfect. Online social lives are skewed; if that's your metric.

I like to embrace the fact that I "have so much to learn".

I am a 30 year old, "first generation Mexican-American" who has had to work incredibly hard... from manual farm labor to today's creative tech/entrepreneurial world... for my current immense privileges in life. I have been analytical and overthinking; to the point of pausing and deciding daily whether the over-priced almond chai latte barista will mangle my full name or I should shorten and anglicize it.

I'm not outwardly extremely confident, but have been able to mostly get what I want. I've started a lot of things and messed up my fair share. It's past 2am, I'm in my workspace/studio jamming on personally fulfilling work with an amazing 40-week pregnant wife and four year old sleeping two floors above me.

What does self-destruct mean to you? Self loathing? I am genuinely wondering if lack of clarity, doubt and direction in your life are the real issues. If so, I'd like to say that every year since my 20s I've felt the same... and, I'm inwardly extremely confident about where I am in life. Time heals, maybe it's clarity through maturity. Perhaps a mentor would have been useful. If, like myself, you haven't had the fortune of one then seeking someone to talk to, a friend / colleague / professional, would be beneficial.

Along a similar path, there was a dystopian theory (story?) I came across that made a somewhat insightful reference to this in connection with the Fermi Paradox - what if advanced civilizations all "go digital" (or in to the "XR" space)? I could imagine future peoples not being bothered to physically explore if their new reality all existed in a virtual/holographic state. A self-imposed pod, The Matrix-style, for everyone. Man, I love sci-fi.

As someone who had the opportunity to shoot a few of these last year [0], I wholeheartedly agree. There's so much left wanting out of the experience beyond the gimmick of the wraparound video. And, I'm not sure that films/docs translate 1:1 into VR. As you mentioned, interactive content (and thus new technology enabling this content) seems like a much better bet. You're already starting to see it with frameworks like ForgeJS from GoPro. I'd love to see the ability to export this type of content from the various engines (like Unity) into YouTube/Facebook. The only reason I still feel it's still more than a valid venue for content is the reach and access they've enabled for regular, mobile users as opposed to Oculus/Vive/etc.

[0] http://robertobrambila.com/projects/gatesnotes-360vr

Your comment is spot on and resonates profoundly with me. I'm also from a family in the bottom income bracket - my family were migrant farm laborers ever since we emigrated to the US when I was two. My outlook for college was dim and I didn't know anyone that had gone past a year or two at a local community college, certainly not in my family. It didn't help that I was raised in a tiny farming town of ~1500 people, devoid of many educational resources, with a similar background.

I also applied to and had interest from an elite school in the east coast but faced the financial burden (fees, traveling to a major city for face-to-face interview, etc) and lack of mentorship/guidance in HS to successfully pursue it. I was very fortunate however to earn a full ride scholarship to any in-state public university through a new program that was targeting students like myself, otherwise the financial aspect alone would have made it impossible. Not to mention the obstacles "navigating college" that you articulated so well.

I eventually earned my BFA and feel pretty fortunate to be in the position that I'm currently in. In the last few months, I reached out to the foundation that provided my scholarship and have started volunteering my time and story with students facing similar situations. I had always been very hesitant because I felt that there wasn't much I could offer, but the more I talk with students I'm reminded of what it was like when I was in their situation - just looking for someone that could provide a little bit of guidance and/or clarity.

From my perspective, this tool and others like it in areas like web development or stock photography are beneficial. Affordable access to these resources for businesses and individuals will make the world a better (aesthetically speaking) place.

When I'm introduced to new clients, I always explain that what they get out of hiring me is my critical thinking and manner of solving problems. Deliverables, be they logos or videos or interactive experiences, are incidental to the strategy.

Sometimes clients say all they want is a <logo|image|video>. After listening to their reasoning (financial, time sensitive, short-term need, etc), as designers we can and should offer honest advice and any guidance that comes along with that. I'm often amazed at the public ridicule some designers will put people through for simple inquiries. It might not be the right project for me, and I would thus not recommend anyone else for it, but I could point them to a service like this.

I follow a very similar pattern here on HN. One thing I've been thinking about lately is that I always read the comments first and only sometimes visit the link. The links act as topics that allow for discussion more than an end/reward in and of themselves (like on reddit for example). I'm always interested in hearing domain expertise, anecdotes, opinions, etc from the HN crowd which is, admittedly, much different than my active social circle.

I, for one, am really excited that Google has approached these "experiments" in the manner it has. I'm a designer with a keen eye on new media; so by no means a programmer/developer. For me, it has made machine learning a lot more accessible. Up to this point, I hadn't figured out how to "play" with this technology and now I can.

For Quick, Draw specifically, I'm interested in a "search" functionality where I can input a term such as "computer" and see not only the average representation, but more importantly, the fringe.

The possibilities for creative brainstorming are tremendous.

Loved it — just wished there were links to YouTube clips with examples from classic cartoons.

While reading this, I started wondering if there are any other 3rd party (civilian?) accounts of the event or if the geography / remoteness made it 'invisible' to everyone else? I have a funny visual in my head of a random farmer casually mentioning to his wife a 'weird glow in the horizon' on an otherwise regular Monday morning.

I agree with these thoughts based on the current state of 360VR (or non-interactive, if you will) but I'm optimistic about the future changing this perspective. 360VR for narrative storytelling is in a very early, experimental stage. It's difficult in part because it feels inherently gimmicky. A lot of the traditional elements in the craft & technique of filmmaking are unavailable to the storyteller (or, rather, need to be rethought). Closeups, stylized editing, etc.

VR directors are slowly figuring out the best ways to draw attention / guide the viewer, transition between shots and, most importantly, keep you immersed in the STORY. But, there's a lot of room for improvement in the technology as well. "Simple" things even — such as tracking the viewer's orientation so that the following shot can be focused where the director wants regardless of where the viewer has "travelled" to. Right now, the mass distribution system's for VR (such as YouTube 360, Vrideo, et al which use Cardboard or GearVR tech), don't currently allow for this.

I'd love to see the interactive tools of VR currently used in gaming (like Unity) made available for narrative storytelling. Specifically, it's more of an issue on the distribution side. The explosion in 360VR feels like it was largely due to the ease and accessibility brought on by Google (Cardboard & YouTube 360), now we need these tools to evolve.. and they are, slowly.

tl;dr; 360VR for storytelling is a bit gimmicky currently because it's in a very early stage. I'm optimistic about a new wave of cinematic narratives in VR as the technology evolves allowing for more direction/expression of the craft.

After recently finishing The Three-Body Problem by Liu Cixin, the sci-fi trope of life at different magnitudes is fascinating to think about. Without spoiling too much, there's a chapter where an entire universe rich with intelligent life is discovered as scientists "unfold" a single proton.