“Maybe we just call it Arduino, and we can change the name later on.” - Massimo Banzi, Arduino
"We were lucky that we made payroll, but we also learned a lot of lessons about how to handle inventory correctly and work with your bank. It was pretty scary." - Nathan Seidle, Sparkfun
“My new hobby that I’ve turned into a job is designing and manufacturing pinball machines—that’s my new job.” - Ben Heck, Ben Heck Show
“When I was in high school, I built my first Tesla coil. ” - Eric Kettenburg, Digistump
“If you have to make all the decisions when you’re dumb, and then follow those dumb decisions, you’ll end up with software that makes you look you’re dumb.” - Ward Cunningham, Wiki
“The interesting part is I seem to break all the rules when it comes to online video.” - Dave Jones, EEVblog
"I ended up landing a gig at Jim Henson’s Creature Shop, working on film sets and doing stuff with animatronics." - Bre Pettis, Makerbot
“It’s a really different world [in China]. That ecosystem and mentality doesn’t exist in the US. If we could bring that back somehow, that would be great, but it’s just not there.” - bunnie Huang, bunnie Studios
What do you get when you combine an electronics hobbyist, hacker, garage mechanic, kitchen table inventor, tinkerer, and entrepreneur? A “maker,” of course. Playful and creative, makers are—through expertise and experimentation—creating art, products, and processes that are helping change the way all of us think and interact with the world.
As you’ll see from the 21 interviews in Makers at Work, inquisitive makers are just as apt to pick up a laser cutter or an Arduino as a wrench to fashion something new. For example, you’ll meet Jeri Ellsworth, who might provide a video lecture on magnetic logic one day and then another tomorrow on installing a roll bar on a stock car. You’ll also meet Eben Upton, who put cheap, powerful computing in the hands of everyone with the Raspberry Pi; Becky Stern, who jazzes up clothing with sensors and LEDs; and bunnie Huang, who knows the ins and outs of the Shenzhen, China, electronics parts markets as well as anyone. As all the interviews in Makers at Work show, makers have something in common: reverence for our technical past coupled with an aversion to convention. If they can’t invent new processes or products, it’s simply not worth doing.
Makers at Work puts a spotlight on the maker mindset and motivation of those who are reinventing the world one object or idea at a time. You will:
The new masters of the “Makerverse” ask two questions: Can it be done? Is it fun? As these interviews will show, the answer to both questions is, “Let’s find out.”