{"id":14325,"date":"2015-02-10T05:10:00","date_gmt":"2015-02-10T05:10:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rafaelfajardo.com\/portfolio\/makers-economic-manifesto\/"},"modified":"2015-02-10T05:10:00","modified_gmt":"2015-02-10T05:10:00","slug":"makers-economic-manifesto","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rafaelfajardo.com\/portfolio\/makers-economic-manifesto\/","title":{"rendered":"Makers: economic\u00a0manifesto"},"content":{"rendered":"

mostlysignssomeportents<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\n
\"image\"<\/figure>\n

Some months ago, Chris Anderson wrote to me to let me know that he was working on a book called Makers<\/a>, and given that I\u2019d written a well-known novel on similar themes with the same title<\/a>, did I mind? Of course I didn\u2019t \u2014 for one thing, having already published many stories with the same title as famous stories that came before them<\/a>, I was hardly in a position to object! But more importantly, I was interested in Anderson\u2019s take on the subject.\n<\/p>\n

\nI\u2019ve thoroughly enjoyed Anderson\u2019s two earlier works on economics in the Internet age (The Long Tail<\/a> and Free<\/a>). Anderson \u2014 formerly a tech editor for The Economist<\/i> \u2014 has got a very good grasp of economics and business; but as the long-time editor-in-chief at Wired<\/i>,
\n he wasn\u2019t afraid of visionary pronouncements about technology either.
\nHe\u2019s also got a background as an indie rocker, and has a good grasp of
\nthe rewards and challenges of a life in the arts. Though I\u2019ve disagreed pretty vociferously<\/a>
\n with some of the things he\u2019s had to say in the past, his work has
\nprovoked more nods from me than head-shakes, and when I\u2019ve disagreed
\nwith him, it\u2019s been for chewy, substantive reasons that were worth
\nexploring.\n<\/p>\n

\nI\u2019ve just finished a copy of (Anderson\u2019s) Makers<\/i> \u2014 having come to the book a bit late due to my own book-tour for Pirate Cinema<\/i><\/a> \u2014 and it delivered on all the promise of Anderson\u2019s earlier work, and then blew past them. Simply put, Makers<\/i>
\n is a thrilling manifesto, a call to arms to quit your day job, pick up
\nyour tools, and change the future of manufacturing and business forever.
\n It\u2019s a recipe for a heady cocktail of open business; free software;
\nlow-cost, global coordination; and community cooperation that Anderson
\ncredibly suggests will forever change the world.\n<\/p>\n

\nAnderson\u2019s Makers<\/i> is a tour through all the different ways that
\n manufacturing in quantities of 1-10,000 units has been transformed, and
\n how this changes the very nature of entrepreneurship and creativity.
\nUsing diverse example from modern times \u2014 and comparing them with
\nmanufacturing stories from the past century \u2014 Anderson shows how 3D
\nprinting, laser-cutting, Internet-based custom fabrication, free and
\nopen development models, and crowdfunding have made it possible to make
\nsomething, make it better, sell it, make it better still through
\nco-development with customers, scale up and up, and serve your needs and
\n the needs of your community.\n<\/p>\n

\nHe doesn\u2019t gloss over the challenges of this sort of thing, but he does<\/i>
\n show how a world where hardware is (nearly) as cheap to prototype and
\nshare as software means that the traditional gatekeepers to creativity
\n\u2014 established manufacturing giants, retail titans, and massive
\ndistributors \u2014 are losing their stranglehold on the market. This means
\nthat you can do something that makes your life better, you can turn it
\ninto a business, and others can turn it into a business, too.\n<\/p>\n

\nBecause this is Anderson, this is firmly a business book, and that\u2019s
\nprobably a good thing. Anderson\u2019s bottom-line practicality is likely to
\nlend the idea of making a certain boardroom credibility that other,
\nwider-eyed literature on the movement lacks. That said, this, more than
\nany of Anderson\u2019s books, acknowledges the role that passion, love,
\ncommunity spirit and personal satisfaction play in the world of
\ninnovation. I was a little disappointed that Free<\/i> glossed over
\nthe ethical and personal reasons that people worked on free and open
\nsystems, but in this volume Anderson\u2019s much more in touch with his
\nindie-rock history than in previous outings, and it\u2019s a very welcome
\naddition.\n<\/p>\n

\nFor all that, there\u2019s still a wide streak of makerish practicality here,
\n and the chapters are only a few steps away from being full-blown HOWTOs
\n for doing it yourself (or, more importantly, doing it with everyone
\nelse who cares about the same stuff as you). And Anderson certainly
\npractices as he preaches: not long after the book\u2019s publication, he quit
\n his job at Wired<\/i> to run his DIY Drone business<\/a> full-time.\n<\/p>\n

\nThis is really Anderson at his finest: a blend of economic big-picture
\nstuff and nitty-gritty, hands-dirty making. I can see it being a perfect
\n kick in the bum for any number of frustrated makers struggling in a
\ncrappy economy and wondering where to take their lives. <\/p>\n

\nMakers: The New Industrial Revolution<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

mostlysignssomeportents: Some months ago, Chris Anderson wrote to me to let me know that he was working on a book called Makers, and given that I\u2019d written a well-known novel on similar themes with the same title, did I mind? Of course I didn\u2019t \u2014 for one thing, having already published many stories with the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14325","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-words"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6PWot-3J3","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rafaelfajardo.com\/portfolio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14325","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rafaelfajardo.com\/portfolio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rafaelfajardo.com\/portfolio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rafaelfajardo.com\/portfolio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rafaelfajardo.com\/portfolio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14325"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rafaelfajardo.com\/portfolio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14325\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rafaelfajardo.com\/portfolio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14325"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rafaelfajardo.com\/portfolio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14325"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rafaelfajardo.com\/portfolio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14325"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}