Disappointed - My opinion

Hi Dale,

Thank you for your excellent project. The only way to think about a situation like this and come away with a smile is to concentrate on the 50% who did a good job. It is human nature to have good intentions and then not follow through. We see it all around us and in every aspect of life. Some times I marvel that we were ever able to find a way to today's level of technology given our tendency as a species to take the easy path. Somewhere between the young ones who think they can but can't and the the old ones who know they can't and don't try there is apparently 50% like yourself who put the effort in and don't give up when things get tough with the final result being progress. Congratulations!

John

Hi John,

Thank you for the kind words!!

You are absolutely right, we came away with 8 great ideas and working projects that could change the world. That is the most important outcome about the challenge. Congratulations to the competitors!!

Dale W

It's been a common issue amongst "giveaway" style contests that holding up the "other end of the bargain" seems to be an issue. RoadTests were another place where we saw this, although it has gotten better through Randall's efforts.

I think the biggest issue probably comes down to issues such as "overpromising" to try to make sure they get selected without a good understanding of the time requirement necessary to actually build, test, debug and document the project. Sometimes some things are underestimated on the expectation they're "easy" to replicate/achieve when unexpected roadblocks suddenly occur - technical or even "personal" ones. Others might overestimate their ability to learn and develop new skills in the time necessary. While some people will always be greedy for free stuff, it's often not the case that bad intentions were there to begin with. Other times, some people just don't have the experience and feel a little shy about writing or posting things seeing just how well others might be doing and so keep deferring until they have something "better" to show which may inevitably never happen. At that stage, they might just throw in the towel. After all, not everyone has the same level of interest, passion, experience, persistence, expertise, skill, dexterity and problem-solving ability necessary to overcome these issues. Marketing has a habit of making things "seem simple" - e.g. "here's a demo that you can get started with in under five minutes" - but taking it from there to an actually useful (albiet flawed or limited) prototype requires so much more ...

As with every project - it won't be a 100% success rate. A failure of the candidates to deliver is also a failure of element14 and the community to support them towards delivering something or to select those with a better probability of delivering. Having only the applications to go by, it's like betting on a horse - it's not easy. But if it even bears some fruit, the value of the return could exceed the outlay and still make it worthwhile doing.

- Gough

Hey,

I feel with you and I truly understand your comments. I must add one thing though, it's not a defence I think it's more about how these are markets and how people perceive them. The work and time needed to accomplish one of these challenges is imnese. It is really designing and implementing a FULL project. There is NO  design team, NO software team and NO Hardware team. It is all up to you the one person. On top of getting the work done blogs and documentation need to be completed. It's not for no reason the original skunk works was lacking documentation but excelled in getting the products out the door.

I genuinely feel, at least for those that started but didn't finish, they don't realize the comitmnet of time and energy needed to complete a single challenge. It's a huge task with a lot of parts to it that takes a lot of time and effort. Hopefully moving forward they will have a better understanding as well as a clearer view of how much time is needed.

Kas

Hi Kas,

I do agree with you that those who start and get overwhelmed can cause them to stop and give up. That is why in my "rant" I also said, " I always feel if you tried your best and didn't complete you still succeeded." I always told my kids when they had a test at school, "If you study hard and do your best, if you fail I won't be upset. But if you don't try or study and then fail you have no excuse". I know its not the same as the competitors may have other reasons why they couldn't continue. I almost couldn't complete my project due to the serious accident we had.

As Gough said, "A failure of the candidates to deliver is also a failure of element14 and the community to support them towards delivering something or to select those with a better probability of delivering". This may be something we need to look at to help those who get overwhelmed and frustrated.

This has got to be the most positive and welcoming electronics site on the planet which is great and I almost did not speak up but will (cynic that I am).  I have sympathy and appreciation for those who started but were unable to finish.  This can happen for all sorts of reasons including underestimating the effort or just the pressing matters of life getting in the way.  But the high number of persons who did not post at all is another matter.  It might be good to see what prior contributions to element14 those who failed to post have made.  Twenty five percent failure to even start is too high and if it can be correlated with low prior contribution then it should be investigated.  All the while remaining cognizant that bringing in and helping new members is one of the strengths of element14.  Thanks for welcoming me about a year ago by the way - I have had numerous people help me and suggest improvements to my projects - but you have to at least post.

Hi Dale,

On the positive side at least I had more spare time! The reason being, if those missing 25/50% of projects were as interesting, detailed and well written as the 50% who did complete, then I'd have been sat in front of my PC reading them, interested to read about the parts they 3D printed, the C code they wrote, the mechanical designs and watching all those fantastic videos.

To those 50% who completed - well done and thank you for al your efforts. I hope the ideas you came up with get to help the widest possible group of people who need some assistance in life.

To the other challengers; I think we accept there are often unseen reasons. Perhaps if you have time in the future, and overcome the issues that prevented you finishing, you can still progress your ideas - it would be great if you could blog about them. Obviously you would have missed the challenge deadline but you'd get a lot of respect from the community by continuing on regardless.

Rod

You're quite right in calling this out.

We've seen a few dropouts in other Design Challenges, and while we'll never know the exact story, looking at their profile and when they last logged, gave a 'feeling' they weren't there for the correct reasons.

There will always be non-finishers.

I've been there myself .... but I was working on it right up til the last day, and trying, rather than giving up after it was announced, or my kit arrived.

I'm not sure that we could look at someones application and estimate how long it would take them, because we have no additional information on their abilities and resources available.

So with the applications coming in, there has to be an element of trust, and their content will help to reinforce that trust.

I'm not so sure the non-starters should be able to hold onto the goods. Perhaps the local office can arrange to collect them, and then forward the goods to someone that will make use of them.

School, University, Maker Group, another element14 member, etc  if nothing else it reinforces the 'no free lunch' ethos and perhaps makes them think about it next time.

What disappoints me more .... do these people think the world owes them something?. How would they behave in employment? ... yes boss I can do that and then nothing.

I'm with Dale that I've always supported my kids as long as they try their best and make the effort, and I'm sure the community does the same.

Mark

I wanted very much to participate and (hopefully) contribute to this activity because i believe that it was a very important one to be able to contribute to. Unfortunately i could not find the time as it came at a time when i needed to greatly increase my focus on activities necessary to find employment. I hope that there will be more "design for a cause" activities in the future and that i could be in a position to participate, but as my prospects of finding employment appear bleak and my resources are few and dwindling, it is difficult for me to even imagine it as a real possibility in my future. In my case it is no loss for the world as my skills are also very limited and probably insufficient to have any real positive impact aside from the pleasure that i would have experienced from making the attempt.

It would not surprise me if there are many others like me in the same situation. From my perspective the world we live in is not an utopia where everyone has the opportunity to participate and contribute. But it is good that some people who have the opportunity do indeed participate.

- raymond

It must be rough for the organisers to guesstimate who's going to deliver on the promise.

On a side note, it seems (own opinion, not backed up by any worthwhile source ) that contests that call on the soft side of people (save the environment, help humanity, promote education)  have the highest number of treasure grabbers.