Would you wear a mask while working? Or while playing video games? You may need the Phasma mask! A problem known mostly to gamers with small apartments and a girlfriend! But also an issue because of those useless open space offices, where it’s always too loud. This is a conspiracy! Just go to another room or get a different apartment! Shut up and take my money!

Meet Andrés, the founder and inventor from Metadox, the company behind the revolutionary 'Phasma' mask. This is no ordinary face mask from the good old Covid times - it's a groundbreaking piece of technology that is soundproof and equipped with a microphone, allowing you to communicate with the world while maintaining a peaceful environment for those around you. Let's dive into this journey of innovation in the gaming industry, crowdfunding and why it’s so hard to develop a hardware product from scratch.

Hosted by two former CTOs who decided to stay hands-on, both veterans of the industry with decades of experience as engineers. You can expect many stories from current and past ventures. Meet Innovation Engineer Tarek Madany Mamlouk and Principal Engineer Sebastian "Waschi" Waschnick.

Key Takeaways

• Creating and shipping a hardware product is way harder than you might think, planning is way more relevant compared to building software products. It’s also very hard for a small company to find a team which works.
• Move fast and start things as fast as possible. If you can start with a prototype and 3d printers, go for it. Don’t directly start production in Asia, as this is most of the time the biggest risk to lose everything at once.
• Nothing is written when you start a company. You get a lot of advice and everybody wants to tell you something. But you have the choice and the freedom to do things differently. You can do them your way.  
• It’s hard to market to companies and freelancers, as even giving your employees the Phasma for free would be really strange
• Crowdfunding is more like a donation for creators, but the marketing from the big providers let it sound like you are guaranteed your selected benefits. Which is just not true.
• Not having investors can also be a huge benefit, especially in hard times like the Covid pandemic.

Chapters

• 0:00 Intro

Stuff we mentioned

We really need to talk more about cool gadgets - I promise we will do this more in future episodes!

• 🧑‍🎨 Phasma https://metadox.pro/
• ⚽️ Kickstarter https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/metadox/the-phasma-a-voice-dampening-mask-for-gamers
  
  

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• YouTube:  The Innovation Engineer
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Lars is one of us. Would you trust an Artificial Intelligence to make the right political choices? More than you trust our modern politicians? Today we talk to Asker Bryld Staunæs, the founder and acting party secretary of the Danish Synthetic Party - the world's first political party driven by artificial intelligence. But Asker will only be the party secretary until their AI figurehead Leader Lars is legally allowed to take over!

The official representative and face of The Synthetic Party is actually an AI called Leader Lars and also their policies are derived from AI! We talk about what happens if you have a public discussion between Leader Lars and a real conservative politician, what the name Lars stands for, why you can’t use the infamous GPT-3 model for Leader Lars and if data is objective or not.

And let’s be honest, this interview is totally biased: With Tarek being a former AI researcher and Waschi being a real Cyborg with an artificial ear, it’s already clear what our opinion on this topic is going to be!

Hosted by two former CTOs who decided to stay hands-on, both veterans of the industry with decades of experience as engineers. You can expect many stories from current and past ventures. Meet Innovation Engineer Tarek Madany Mamlouk and Principal Engineer Sebastian "Waschi" Waschnick.

Key Takeaways

• If you look at the US elections, it’s already clear that Artificial Intelligence is used for quite a while to make decisions, at least for the various campaigns. 
• After the Cambridge Analytica scandal, many tech companies just try to close their eyes to obvious problems and just forbid any political use of their technology.
• It is possible to have a public AI which is not going to be racist or whatever.
• If you have a discussion between a real politician and an AI it’s surprising how similar both sides' arguments and phrases are. 
• Data is always biased, but in the same way as our democratic system is.
• In the future AI will be more of an assistant, not a replacement.

Show Notes

• 0:00 Intro
• 1:13 The nerdiest mug
• 1:40 Very human
• 2:50 How the Computerlars project actually started
• 5:50 Artist or Engineer?
• 6:50 An anti-political party
• 8:12 Training data for a political AI
• 10:46 Data cares who you are
• 12:24 The origin of the name Leader Lars
• 14:45 The danger of using voting data to target swing voters
• 17:47 We don’t want to f*** it up, like Microsoft
• 19:14 The reaction of the people
• 22:08 The debate with the mayor 
• 23:59 Synthetic voice and people assume sentience 
• 26:24 Qualityland
• 29:25 What would Leader Lars vote for in parliament?
• 33:02 What the psychology of the voters would demand 
• 37:49 The biggest obstacle
• 41:20 Let’s sum it up!
• 46:53 Outro

Stuff we mentioned

We really need to talk more about cool gadgets - I promise we will do this more in future episodes!

• 🧑‍🎨 Computerlars https://computerlars.com/
• 💻 Descript https://www.descript.com/
• 📚 Qualityland https://www.amazon.de/-/en/Marc-Uwe-Kling/dp/3548291872/
• 📄 Cambridge Analytica https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/04/us/politics/cambridge-analytica-scandal-fallout.html

What should we talk about next?

• YouTube:  The Innovation Engineer
• Leave a review/comment on YouTube; it's like podcasts, but with video.
• Check our website and find everything you never knew you needed

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Does every company need to introduce OKRs? Obviously not, but most do it anyway. And why are there so many engineers who hate OKRs? It’s getting hot, so tune in and learn about what OKRs are, when not to use them and what the real benefits are.

Tarek and Waschi both have very mixed experiences with using OKRs. It’s a love/hate relationship! There is great value in using them and we saw them bringing so much value to companies! But we also saw them go to waste way too often and being burned, even hated. There is only one thing we can do: We explain why and when to introduce them and discuss the potential pitfalls of OKRs. And provide you with valuable insights on how to avoid them! Join us as we dive deep into the world of OKRs, and help you determine if they are the right tool for your company.

Hosted by two former CTOs who decided to stay hands-on, both veterans of the industry with decades of experience as engineers. You can expect many stories from current and past ventures. Meet Innovation Engineer Tarek Madany Mamlouk and Principal Engineer Sebastian "Waschi" Waschnick.

Key Takeaways

• OKRs are a tool, meant for a certain set of problems. It’s not a multi-tool and not a Swiss Army knife.
• Understand it before you do it. Learning by doing can be harmful in this case. Understanding what you are trying to do and why you are introducing OKRs is important.
• Most of the time you actually don’t need OKRs.
• Stay agile - OKRs don’t work against agile methodologies, always keep reflecting and check if you are still on course. Use regular check-ins and train your mind to think in iterations.
• Less is more - start with very very few Objectives and Key Results. 
• Technical goals are not meant to be Key Results. Except if they are your business. Always think about the business. 

Show Notes

• 0:00 Intro
• 1:09 The nerdiest mug
• 3:30 OKRs are triggering me, everyone hates them for the wrong reasons
• 5:15 Where do OKRs come from?
• 8:25 The beauty of it and why you should love OKRs
• 12:29 What are OKRs and how do they work?
• 18:50 The simple explanation
• 23:05 Why engineers start to hate OKRs
• 24:12 The story which made Tarek fall in love (with OKRs)
• 27:56 Things engineers don’t understand about the value of meetings
• 30:39 Today we have “product developers”, not “software engineers”
• 32:52 The Five Superpowers of OKRs
• 35:00 Does your company really need OKRs?
• 39:09 The most common way do destroy the value of OKRs
• 40:31 What if you work project based?
• 48:02 Technical goals make for bad Key Results
• 50:41 The most important point: Understanding what you are trying to do
• 52:21 Key Takeaways
• 55:04 Outro and Outlook

Stuff we mentioned

We really need to talk more about cool gadgets - I promise we will do this more in future episodes!

• 🧑‍🎨 Bitly - the best link management of the world with a great taste in nerdy mugs

What should we talk about next?

• YouTube:  The Innovation Engineer
• Leave a review/comment on YouTube; it's like podcasts, but with video.
• Check our website and find everything you never knew you needed

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.