Sıfırdan Maker Olmaya

by David Lang

Bir startup şirketindeki işini kaybetmesi David Lang'in başına gelen belki de en iyi şey oldu. Bu, onun için uyanış çağrısı oldu: Gerçek anlamda tek becerisi bilgisayar başında oturmaktan ibaretti. İşten çıkarılmayı bir ders olarak kabul edip kendisini bir şeyler “üretmeye” adamaya karar verdi. Fakat lehim demiri ile saç maşası arasındaki farkı bile doğru düzgün bilmiyordu.

Sonraki birkaç ay içerisinde bu durumu değiştirdi. Doğramacılıktan elektroniğe kadar her şeyin dersini aldı ve yeni dijital üretim araçlarına karşı özel bir ilgi geliştirdi.

Sıfırdan Maker Olmaya Lang’in maker hareketi içerisinde meraklı bir seyirciden, aktif bir katılımcıya dönüşme hikâyesidir. Bu kitapta Lang öğrendiği en önemli dersleri paylaşıyor ve bu deneyimlerinin nasıl ona açık kaynaklı su altı keşfine odaklanan bir DIY topluluğu ve ürün yelpazesi olan OpenROV’u kurmasına olanak sağladığını anlatıyor.

DAVID LANG Sivil okyanus kâşifleri ve düşük maliyetli su altı robotu yapan insanlardan oluşan bir topluluk olan OpenROV’un eş kurucusudur. David 2013’te bir TED Fellow’u seçilmiştir ve MAKE: dergisine katkıda bulunmaktadır. Kendisi San Francisco Körfezi’ndeki bir yelkenli gemide yaşıyor.

Genres: Nonfiction, Technology, Education, Reference, Crafts, Biography, Science

204 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2013

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name. This profile may contain books from multiple authors of this name.

David Lang is a co-founder of OpenROV, a community of citizen ocean explorers and creators of low-cost underwater robots.

David is a contributing editor to MAKE: Magazine and the author of the upcoming book, Zero to Maker, where he chronicles his journey from under-skilled beginner to manufacturing entrepreneur and ocean explorer. The book is a guide for anyone-- regardless of experience level-- to get involved with the maker movement and digital fabrication tools, like 3D printing.

David was named a 2013 TED Fellow. Prior to underwater robots, David managed OCSC Sailing in Berkeley, California, where he helped hundreds of students learn to sail and led sailing adventures around the world.

Learn more at www.ZeroToMaker.com

Reviews

[bartosz · Rating 2 out of 5]

The last time I bought books from Amazon (http://amazon.com) I noticed David Lang's Zero to Maker - Learn (Just Enough) to Make (Just About) Anything. Not discouraged by the cheesy cover, I decided that the subtitle and table of contents were interesting enough to warrant buying.

I guess I can only blame myself for this mess.

Zero to Maker is one part autobiography, one part advocacy and one part advertisement for maker magazine (https://makezine.com/) and other companies. In the book the author describes the maker movement, his personal journey in it and people he has met along the way.

I don't want to disparage someone for their passion but the author presents everything with a zeal usually associated with kids explaining superheros or teenagers writing on each other blogs. Everybody is super awesome, passionate, visionary. Everybody gets a shoutout and a link to their personal project and their kickstarter page (https://www.kickstarter.com/).

I feel duped for paying money to read this propaganda. The amount of hyperlinks peppered throughout the text was so high that at one point I had to recheck if the book isn't a badly formated blog reprint. That, at least, would explain something. As it is, the book reached comedic heights of advertisement only previously matched by Wayne's World (Wayne's World (1992) http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0105793/ - available on Blue Ray for $14.99!) or some dictatorships.

The book is surprisingly sparse with content. If you know what a 3D printer, CNC machine or a maker space is - or can use wikipedia (https://www.wikipedia.org/ - the free online encyclopedia) and you aren't interested in the author's personal journey or amazon (http://amazon.com) reviews of blenders[1] you won't find much of worth in this book. If you want a technical book - stay away. Buy this only if you want to be evangelized to, you want to get really hyped about the maker movement or get an example of a successful (borderline) scam.

The only thing that makes me give this more than one star (sans cognitive dissonance) is the fact that non technical aspects of the book were truly interesting. David Lang's personal story and how anyone can go from "zero to maker" and some of the background stories of projects described in the book piqued my interest. I just feel that the book would work better in a blog format and having eschewed any pretenses of being a DIY manual.




[1] - I swear I'm not making this up - a full review of a blender was included with the book

[Kim · Rating 5 out of 5]

While my middle grades son found this book quite inspiring in his recently bloomed quest to begin being a "maker", for me it was ok. For me, it was a good primer on some of the sites/places/etc. that I can go to look for ideas and projects to help my kids and myself build skills. It's focus on monetizing and making a business (or licensing) out of your making, was just not relevant for us. Our focus is on learning competence and persistence - we have no desire / intent to monetize at this juncture.

We like that he included a number of resources, though many we were aware of already. And my son found it motivating in a manifesto-style way. He keeps quoting different parts of it, that are helping him shape his own flavor of the maker ethos. So for getting a 10 year old so excited about working hard, maybe I should have given more points... but then it would be his review and not my own. :)

Upon reflection, I have bumped up the points for the book, because it has had true staying power with my son - 6 months later and he is still engaged by it, telling stories from it and using it to craft his own narrative about his journey as a maker. Not only that, we had the distinct pleasure of meeting David and his Open ROV team at the NYC Maker Faire and they could not have been kinder. He has cemented his place as one of my son's heroes by not only taking a photo with him, but by giving him a signed copy of his book, when asked for a signature on an Open ROV sticker. It made my son's birthday far more memorable than I dared hope. Any book that can get my son so excited about ideas, trying new things, embrace resilience and help him internalize the reality that failure is not permanent and those that get their hands dirty have the most fun is a five star book in my world. Wishing David and Open ROV team success and, if not, lots of wonderful stories on their journey.

[Bruno Nowak · Rating 4 out of 5]

Inspiration before information.

This is in all fairness a really good book. But as the author himself explains very late in the book the subtitle can be very deceiving depending on how you come about the book. My particular situation was that I was coming back to playing with software and electronics and I was also interested in 3D Printing, woodworking and other skills I wanted to develop as I tried to inspire my 8YO daughter to engage in more making, building, failing, drawing, messing than just reading and watching.

Because of that I expected this book to walk me through a road map of learning that I could pick and choose from on my way to an updated 21st century tinkerer. If that is your case than just be aware: this book contains some of that but it is not the main purpose of it. This is a meta road map more than anything embedded into the authors own experience in building his road map.

You will get to know (or understand better) a lot of the great resources available plus another long list of unknown (to me) ones. You'll also understand the process and the benefits to one's learning and life to engage in "making" activities as you'll also get an inside view into the philosophy and principles behind the movement.

I finish this book way more inspired and excited to continue my explorations than ever but I didn't get as much information as I expected. I don't see that as bad thing but rather as an unexpected path for my making journey. If you're starting up or rekindling your tinkering and/or making abilities go ahead and read it too. Its an easy and relatively short read (unless you decide to take on all the links provide through the book - which can be a good thing).

[Edward · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you want to get an introduction to the "Maker Movement", this book provides a good overview. The book covers different aspects, including the change of mindset from being a passive consumer to making things and being a craftsman and the various technical areas such as digital fabrication and open source hardware and electronics. The book doesn't go into details in each of the technical areas but provides references and ideas of how one might get into it. The author is using his own personal story and his journey to become a maker to show us how to navigate into this new culture and environment. I find the reading quite interesting and inspiring and am ready to start my project.

One key message from the book is that as a maker you don't need to do it alone. In fact, the best result is to work with shared minds (and there are lots out there) in a community. The open source community, the sharing mindset and the standardization of tools, components and data formats is what driving this Maker Movement. This area is moving quickly that some of the information in the book is probably already outdated. Nevertheless, if you haven't been involved in the maker community, this book can help you start your journey.

[Kamal · Rating 3 out of 5]

A useful book for those getting started in the maker world. However, like so many of these nouveau-DIY books, it reads like a message from a cult. What I find annoying about the maker-lifestyle is that it is just that--a lifestyle--another fad, another thing for hipsters to do with their surplus leisure time. It came as a surprise to people in the late 1990s that the Internet was as democratic and accessible to all as the public was led to believe. In the end, if you weren't rich enough to own a computer, you were left out of the digital revolution. These issues are only now being resolved decades later (esp. in so-called developing countries). The same pattern is playing out with the "maker" revolution. It is revolutionary for the privileged (i.e. those who can afford 3D printers, CNC routers or memberships to techshops). These are out of reach for most citizens outside of the small domain of middle-class comfort. This book doesn't address these issues at all. Instead, it presents naive boosterism in the place of critical analysis of these burgeoning technologies.

[Sebastian Stabinger · Rating 2 out of 5]

The book was OK, but definitely not what I expected. You will not learn anything about tools except for the knowledge of their existence.

This book is mostly about the personal journey of the author from not knowing how to hold a screwdriver and being (for some reason) afraid of using tools to being engaged in the maker movement and organizing a small business that sells maker kits (in his case an open source underwater robot).

The emphasis should be put on "personal journey". You will not learn anything of depth in any of these topics. Maybe read it as a biography of the author or as a summary of the maker movement around 2012/2013.
Personally I would have enjoyed if the book would have focused on one of these topics and went all the way. For a really enjoyable biography it is not personal enough, for a summary of the maker movement it is neither comprehensive nor reflective enough.

That said it is not a bad book and I am pretty sure there are more than enough people who will like the mix of personal stories, information, and the overview of the maker movement.

[Owen · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is not just inspiring, but also informative.

It is partly the chronicle of Lang's journey from unemployed economics graduate to a full fledged Maker of underwater robots. But it is also the chronicle of the rise of the Maker culture, particularly in the United States. But the focus is not on the history of making: the crux of the book is that Making is more than just an odd habit. It has the potential to radically transform the way companies and individuals have interacted for decades. Instead of the consumer, there is a rise in the "pro-sumers", people who are keen on making things better by taking them into their own hands.

[Ward · Rating 3 out of 5]

While the book certainly is inspiring, I strongly disagree with the sentiment that making is a team sport. Sure it can be, but there is nothing wrong with making by yourself.

[Susan · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great introduction to the Maker movement and the vocabulary.

[Mike Smart · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some excellent chapters. In particular, I thoroughly enjoyed the content that focused on developing a maker mindset—what elements constitute a maker's thinking, and how to build those characteristics.

Some of the content is dated now, as the book is four years old, but because the book focuses on skill development, I didn't feel in many places that I was wasting my time.

At times the book lost focus, however, and gets repetitive. Some of the stories are told multiple times to pretty much the same effect. In all, one more round of focused editing would have raised this to five stars.

Still, I recommend this to anyone interested in learning to develop their inner maker. Lots of helpful content, and I'm very glad I read it!

[Joe Hoggard · Rating 4 out of 5]

Step by step guide to embracing the maker movement, learning to embrace constraints, and not worrying about failure along the way. It is an optimistic and encouraging work about dreaming big, learning from others and passing on what you learn. It is filled with resources, unfortunately some of them are out of service, but that is to be expected in the dynamic world of maker spaces rising and falling, and the evolving tools becoming more powerful and cheaper to bring dreams to reality. Recommended for those with an itch to create but don't know what tools or groups can help.

I got a copy as part of a Humble Bundle of Make publications I purchased at a bargain, so my expectations were in check and I just enjoyed it for what it offered. Your mileage may vary.

[Brenda Ritter Metcalfe Fish · Rating 5 out of 5]

good introduction to maker spaces, 3D printing, and Arduino boards

[David M · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great read for anyone who likes making things. Especially if you are a total noob.

[Lensvol · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sometimes it reads like an a advertisment for TechShop, but it does contain some good ideas about maker mentality.

[David · Rating 1 out of 5]

Pretty basic

[Matija · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book details one man's journey from someone with two left hands to an accomplished maker.

While this journey is quite interesting and well written, it does not deliver on the promise of its (sub)title, as it contains very little concrete advice on the matter of becoming a maker. All the advice is pretty generic, much of it is rather self-obvious and sometimes it dips its toes into the murky waters of motivational speaking and self-help jargon (YOU can do it!). It is also pretty heavily geared towards wanna-be makers who live in large population centers, where there are makerspaces, hackerspaces, tool-lending libraries and such.

Nevertheless, still a worthy read if you're just starting out, as there is still useful advice in there, especially if you're completely lost on how to start making things.

[Michael Carnell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Are you a closet inventor? Have you heard about the strange new thing called 3-D printing and would like to try your hand at it? Do you believe you could create electronic devices to solve problems around the home or office? If any of these sounds like you, then you may be a “maker”. Makers are those among us who dream of better ways to do things and creative uses for the objects around us. They are the tinkerers and programmers, the hackers and explorers. If any of this sounds appealing to you, then the book “Zero to Maker: Learn (Just Enough) to Make (Just About) Anything” by David Lang is a good place for you to start.

“Zero to Maker”, published by Maker Media, starts with an overview of the maker phenomena and then gets down to the hands-on nitty-gritty. In contrast to general business style books like “The Maker Movement Manifesto” by Mark Hatch, which stays at a higher more theoretical level, “Zero to Maker” goes in depth with some of the projects and problems that face today’s creators. From the various types of people that you will come in contact with to the different ways of handling specific product problems, the advice given her is concrete and actionable. The next step from here would be actual user manuals for hardware or programming tutorials for system development languages.

When it comes to the maker scene, I am definitely into the computer side of things. I am into the Raspberry PI, the Arduino, and TI’s Launchpad. I guess that makes sense since I am a programmer by trade, but I also like the hardware side of these devices. But, since I have been so preoccupied with software for so many years, my knowledge of basic electronics leaves something to be desired. That is where a book such as this comes in. It doesn’t necessarily tell me everything I need to know about electronics, but it helps lay out a path of where I should go to learn more.

I found Lang’s style easy to read and almost conversational, without become too casual. Making is an area where the excitement of discovery should show through, and it does in this book. Of particular interest is his relating his own journey with the OpenROV project. The path of that project, dealing with underwater robots, from discovery through fruition is one that all makers hope to enjoy.

I would also recommend “Zero to Maker” to parents or teachers who are interested in getting kids interested in engineering, science, or other STEAM fields. (STEAM = Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, Math) This book might give some ideas on how to motivate those kids and also how to deal with the types of personalities that will be encountered.

[Artur Coelho · Rating 3 out of 5]

Os livros da Maker Media não são um primor de profundidade e este não escapa à regra. Livros cheios de entusiasmo, que apostam no cativar de um público que se está a iniciar nas aventuras maker e anseia por saber um pouco mais, com guias introdutórios capazes de mostrar algumas das ferramentas desta nova vertente de trabalho e aprendizagem. É esse o seu mérito, e também demérito. A aposta na simplicidade implica que não sejam livros apropriados a quem queira aprofundar conhecimentos. Se descolarmos a epiderme de isto é tudo fantástico e fabuloso com e olhem que é tão simples usar estas ferramentas, pouco miolo resta. Se querem mesmo aprender a usar as ferramentas, não é com estes guias que se safam. E se querem saber mais sobre as implicações deste movimento, do que nos pode oferecer a nível pessoal, profissional, e, no que toca aos meus interesses, educacional, o que estes livros nos dão são curtos vislumbres de possibilidade. Não deixam de ter o mérito de permitir iniciação rápida.

No caso específico deste livro, o autor decidiu elaborar uma crónica da sua aprendizagem como maker. Lê-se como uma espécie de conto de fadas para fazedores, com uma comunidade aberta, elevada tolerância ao desconhecimento e falta de saber técnico, e um mar de rosas no acesso a equipamentos e projectos. Não que a comunidade maker seja fechada ou avessa à partillha, mas as curvas de aprendizagem técnica não são tão suaves quanto este livro faz parecer, nem o acesso a equipamentos tão facilitado. Diria que a afirmação mais perspicaz do livro está logo nas primeiras páginas, quando num curto parágrafo fala do seu mergulho neste mundo e da forma como passou de consumidor a criador. Um percurso espelhado por muitos. O resto do livro são introduções liminares ao conceito, comunidades, tecnologias de trabalho, modelos de negócio, legislação de direitos de autor e, pormenor que me interessou, iniciativas educacionais.

[Doc Ezra · Rating 3 out of 5]

While not exactly what I was anticipating, Zero to Maker is an excellent introduction to just what the Maker subculture/movement is all about, with a decent top-level overview of how to get involved if you're interested. What I had hoped for was something more akin to a basic reference manual/starter textbook on the techniques and tools discussed. I realize the world of 3D printers, CNC machines, etc is more complex than any slim volume could manage to capture, a few basics to have on-hand as a reusable reference would have been nice. Instead, there's lots of weblinks for further reading.

Despite that disappointment, Lang does a good job digging into the whys and hows of the Maker scene, and introduces readers to a handful of people that have done widely disparate things using the tools and techniques he's talking about. If you've heard references to Makers, MakerFaire, MakerBots, whatever, and have always wondered exactly what people were talking about, this book is the right place to start. If you're generally "Maker-aware," but looking for ways to re-skill and get involved, this is probably a bit remedial reading.

[Todd Pettit · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book, while not at all what I was anticipating, was a very intriguing book and provided an extremely helpful insight into how to learn everything you need to know to do just about anything. It promotes a "learn by doing" style and gives you resources for everything you would need. This book does a great job of eliminating every excuse you have to not start making and it also helps lead you into taking your first steps. I expected a book that would teach me everything I needed to know, and instead I found a book that taught me how to learn everything I could possible need to know.

I will say that the book kind of jumps around while telling the Author's story and there were a few moments where I was a little confused about the timeline, which is the only negative thing I can say about the book. I gave this book a 4/5 stars and would recommend to others interested in learning to make things.

[Joseph II · Rating 4 out of 5]

I picked up the book with the belief I was getting a "Rags to Maker" tale. And for the first portion of the book, David Lang delivers. The story of the creation of OpenROV and his going from "Zero to Maker," was enthralling. Enough to keep my interest and make a few phone calls to my local MakerSpaces.

The latter half of the book feels like a mish-mash of Start-up Advice and Long-term Maker growth snippets. While Lang's success with OpenROV makes him fully qualified to give such advice, I didn't feel it gave a good "ending" to his story. Chapters 6,7,8 are the ones that could have been excised and still kept a good narrative.

Overall, the book is a good read. Worthy of your time if you are a novice maker, or one who aspires to be one. Most of us will remain in the garages and Makerspaces as we take this journey; but listening to Lang's tale will give us hope we might make the next "big" thing someday.

[John · Rating 2 out of 5]

As excited as i was by this book (Kickstarted it) it's just not that awesome. I've set it aside in my "Abandoned books" category on my Kindle.

The aspects that are the author's story, are pretty inspiring, but the rest is super basic "how to be a maker 101". If you live in or around San Francisco it might be more valuable as all the places he talks about are there, so you could stop in, explore etc on your own. Beyond that it just kinda droned on repeating the same thing over and over with slight twists and anecdotes.

[Elizabeth · Rating 4 out of 5]

This introduction to the world of making is great, because it encourages you to just get out there and start doing what interest you. The ebook edition I reviewed came with live links to the resources as they are discussed, allowing you to go straight to the source without even having to bring up google.

I plan to order it for my YA collection and have suggested it for the adult collection as well.

[Cameron Ward · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really enjoyed this book. It gives a nice overview of the Maker Movement and is full of inspiring stories from makers that made their dreams come true. It also inspired me to give some of my ideas a shot. I had been worried that no one would like my ideas, especially not enough to pay for them. But now, after hearing some of the things that people have made,I think it might be time to give it another shot.

[Ruby · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book. I'm going in with little to no maker knowledge and he really laid out some great concepts and ideas to grab hold of. I got some great ideas on how and where to start, awesome websites and examples and so much more! I'm eager to move on to more makerspace stuff and reach out to our local makerfaire to see how I can contribute.

[Cassie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an excellent book for anyone interested in the maker movement, but who has very little experience in making. It will inspire you and show how tangible the maker world is to all of us.

Lots of resources are provided and the book is accessible enough for interested (perhaps ambitious) tweens and teens.

[Aurelio Marty · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent blueprint for newbie maker

For anybody who is interested in joining the maker's movement but just don't know where to start.Eric's personal experience with no prior scientific or engineering background and final achievement is really a great nudge to others who might feel intimidated to launch themself on this daring adventure.

[Peter · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nice book.

Instead of trying to teach the "skills" to make things in this new age, it teaches the concepts necessary to learn ANY of these Maker skills.

Be it Which skills are good starting points for most projects or how to utilize the global knowledge and work together with others to learn, there is LOTS to learn from this book.

[Ibnu Triyono · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book tell stories and cases on how David change from a Non-maker to a Maker (pro). How he struggle and learn how to become a Maker is pretty much detailed, even if most of the case told in the book from US. I think you can search your own example in your country.

Recommending this book for anyone who wants to be a Maker, or if you just want to know what a Maker, and Maker Movement itself.

[Jose Papo · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book is two in one: the personal experiences of David Lang starting as a maker and progressing through it and also a good primer on what and where to learn about the maker movement. A very nice book for starters on the maker revolution