That's the beauty of living in New York City is that a good chunk of the media is here and willing to drink with you.
Learn how a 3D printer works. Get inspired. Make your own stuff. It is a wonderful time to be innovative. Connect things together. If you're into electronics, get an Arduino.
You learn so much by having customers and figuring out what they want and keeping them satisfied.
Most people don't feel empowered to make CAD models. The MakerBot Digitizer solves that problem.
What I like on Kickstarter is when I see real innovation and I see people building something new. It makes me sad when I see things that are just the same technology; you aren't passing the technology forward.
For me, when you put a MakerBot in a school, you add a manufacturing education to the environment where I think we can really empower the next generation to compete in the global economy.
My personal mission has always been to empower people to be creative. But the Holy Grail of a tinkerer is to make something that makes something.
We got involved with the RepRap Project, a community focused on making 3-D printers that could make copies of themselves and help create a world without money. We started making prototypes.
We raised $10 million in 2011. Our rule was, we wouldn't accept money from anybody we didn't want to have dinner with.
One of my psychoses is that I feel like I can do anything. Actually, I believe anybody can do and make anything, even things that don't exist. The making isn't the hard part; it's having faith. If you do only reasonable things, you'll never start your own business.
I talked to a guy who has old cars, and there are parts that don't exist any more. So he makes radio dial knobs for obscure cars.
I still have the first bottle opener I made on my MakerBot. Things you fabricate are things you care more about. I think there will always be people who go and buy crap at the dollar store. But I think it is cool when people craft things themselves.
