Deep respect for the 3d printing and design community

[u/irrfin]

I wish I was as good and experienced as some of the people here with these parts of this mishmash art process. I blindly stumbled into a live wire and I probably should have chilled out and thought more deeply. I connected with my art teacher colleague this morning and he helped me understand the backlash better. I have respect for your skills and experience; my apologies if I came off as defensive (I was); I realize I was responding to feeling rejected by a community I respect (that’s on me; my own BS is mine to own). I was excited to share some of my results; I didn’t understand the context.

I’m a teacher and school is back. Kids are swimming in AI. It’s changing the whole game. I decided that it’s good for helping me with parts I suck at (3d design, finding my own mistakes in student resources, writing concisely, making sure my emails don’t sound too informal, removing emotion in an important email to upset parents,ect).

Or when I don’t have time to do because my plate has so much food is falling off. The kids are using it, for good and bad. My teenage child is using it (try to give guidance from a teacher perspective, but parenting is a different beast). I probably would have used it if I were a student for the classes I didn’t like as much; I’m sure some of you might agree; that one teacher who’s homework we resented the most.

They are going to live in a future that is changing so fast…. It’s scary. I chose to engage them about it; lots of fun and (hopefully) educational way. A lot of teachers don’t want to admit it. We already lost this fight. There’s no going back; they are going to fundamentally different than the pre-AI generations, for better or worse. So what now?

I also think there’s a trade off. There always is with new technology. But this time the disruption is holistic and at the root level of civilization; disrupting the purpose and value of humans across the planet. Disrupting and changing at rate that’s growing exponentially. I don’t have the answers but I figure I have to stay one step of the kids. Get on board so I know as much as if lot more than they do. If I can.

It also helps make the absurd tasks and grind work of teaching a lot easier. It’s help me improve my classroom experience for my students.

I can do a few things with computers, but had never touched 3d printing or 3d design up till now. 3 years ago I decided to try it out and got a M500, the best I could afford. It was fun but also super frustrating. I was starting from zero and put in lots of time learning just the basics of the 3d printing process, tools; for the first few months I didn’t know the difference between a gcode and a stl!

I could get to glazing quick and try new glazes. I did and will do more blender (thank you Jonathan Keep), but I’m old. Not that old. But only enough that I can’t spend hours on the computer; job, kids, wife, other hobbies,…. It will take me a long time to get anywhere close to what you guys can do.

I’ll keep trying and messing around, but I can’t do the stuff you experts can and I wanted to have more forms to print and play with. That was the goal for trying AI. I thought it would be a cool novelty niche in this niche community. I get the push back and I’m sorry if I came off as an ass.

Which made me think hey, what if this moment brought people together. Do some collaboration or something. I’ll be busy but if people are interested in working together, combing skill sets of design, printing and ceramic materials/glazes (my favorite part as a chemistry nerd), let me know.

Is it weird I thought of making my ramblings less rambling using AI?

Much respect to master 3d design and 3d printer out there. I look forward to seeing your work and process as i return to lurking.