This printing technology has revolutionized the workflow in many businesses and industries. 3D printing technology allows people to save time and energy, and instead to allocate their effort to work that requires people’s creativity. In this regard, the rising prevalence of printing technology resembles the trends associated with the advent of the Internet.
The other day, a friend of mine at Stanford raised the question about 3D printing for kids. She said that people, today, recommend giving 3D printers to kids for their own use, but she thinks the idea is not necessarily good for kids. She pointed out that the power of the printer deprives kids of the chance to make something by themselves. My first response to her question was that the power of the printer doesn’t supplant a kid’s use of creativity. However, I immediately knew I didn’t have solid rationale for my response.
After thinking about the question, I have reached a conclusion that I had been mixed up between the value of cutting redundancy and the value of investing a good deal of time and effort to make something. In the business world, the two values go hand in hand.
For example, in the consumer industry, finalizing a product design had been a time-consuming and labor-intensive process. It required much trial-and-error: developing drawings, painstakingly assembling a mockup, discussing the mockup, revising the drawings, and repeating the whole process as many times as necessary. This trial and error consumed the major part of the product design process. With the power of 3D printing, the trial-and-error portion became almost negligible by making it possible to quickly revise drawings in the computer and to print a mock up. Without draining their energy on a redundant editing process, product designers are now able to easily integrate their creative ideas in a product and focus on products that can better serve customers. Thus, the business world can enjoy the merits of 3D printing without losing any values.
However, in a kid’s life, in high probability, they would miss the chance to invest a good deal of time to make things and enjoy being creative in return of the value of cutting redundancy.
My thoughts about the printing triggered to think about the value of the Internet. My life includes the pre-Internet era (I’m confessing my age!). During the pre-Internet time, research meant interacting with the analog world. I had to go to the library and read magazines, newspapers, and any associated paper documents. I also had to talk with or consult people. Looking back at the research process I think the whole activity of information gathering was a social activity. As a product planner in my early career, when I developed the concept and goal specifications of a new product, I needed to understand the current market/customer needs and to foresee the future market as well as my own vision of the future product. To get these tasks done, I discussed with my group colleagues to absorb their ideas (sometimes conversations could get quite heated), contacted the market research group for relevant information, went to the company library, and constructed my own view of the new product. However, I was not perfectly confident of my view of the new product as it came from such limited sources: intra-company and general information. Often, I would approach our sales people who, on a daily basis, interact with customers, their complaints, and their needs. Although they knew customers’ current needs, sales people didn’t always clearly represent the customers’ requests. They would sometimes add their own opinion about market needs, biased by a wish to accomplish their revenue target.
As a result, I often met with customers in person to distinguish real customer needs from the sales people’s biases. Conversations with the customers often required lots of patience. They would begin the conversation with complaints about current products. However, if I listened to them and answered as much as I could, in many cases, they would start opening their minds and become willing to talk and share more fundamental information: the nature of their company’s business, workflow, and the issues to be solved. At the end of the day, I was often able to see not only their current requirements but also potential future needs that even the customers hadn’t noticed.
The entire research process for a new product plan would lead to the success of my proposal before the executives. The persuasiveness of my proposal was often directly related to the reliability of my information due to the variety and cross-referencing of my sources. The old-fashioned process may have been time-intensive and required much energy; however, it gave me millions of chances to interact with people internal and external to the company.
Emphasize what you want:
Although the process was time-intensive and required much energy, it gave me millions of chances to interact with people internal and external to the company.
The process may have been time-intensive and required much energy; however, it gave me millions of chances to interact with people internal and external to the company
By repeating such a process, I was able to make many friends in my company and among customers. Thus, without intending to, I developed many interpersonal skills. I wonder how many teenagers today can research a project from beginning to end without interacting with a single person.
I’ll admit, thanks to the Internet, I am able to capture the necessary and timely information at high quality and instantly: it takes me only several hundredths of the time and energy of gathering information in the old-fashion way. The Internet truly helps me in not only my business but even in many aspects of my life. However, the younger generation, who have lived only in the Internet era, may miss the opportunities to enjoy browsing information on papers and interacting with people: a lot of good things about the analog world.
The 3D printing technology promises a tremendous opportunity for kids. On the other hand, it’s easy to forget the unintended value of doing things yourself, slowly and methodically. Technology evolves, anyway. But as it does, how to integrate the old value in the new value should remain important.