Simone Giertz: Embracing Failure Through Useless Inventions
Swedish inventor and YouTube personality Simone Giertz delivered an insightful and entertaining TED Talk in 2018 titled “Why You Should Make Useless Things.” In her presentation, Giertz makes a compelling case for the value of creating intentionally useless inventions as a way to overcome perfectionism, embrace failure, and unlock creativity.
The Queen of Shitty Robots
Giertz begins her talk by introducing herself as “the queen of shitty robots.” This self-deprecating title refers to her popular YouTube channel, where she showcases her deliberately terrible robotic inventions. Some of her most famous creations include:
- A alarm clock that slaps you awake
- A helmet with a robotic arm to brush your teeth
- A machine that pours cereal but spills it everywhere
- A lipstick-applying robot that smears makeup all over your face
These comically dysfunctional inventions have earned Giertz millions of views and a dedicated online following. However, as she explains in her TED Talk, the true value of these projects goes far beyond entertainment.
Overcoming Perfectionism and Fear of Failure
A key theme of Giertz’s talk is how creating intentionally useless things helped her overcome crippling perfectionism and fear of failure. She shares that as a child and teenager, she was an overachiever who put immense pressure on herself to excel academically. This led to severe performance anxiety that began to hold her back.
Giertz explains how building ridiculous robots allowed her to short-circuit this perfectionism:
“The true beauty of making useless things [is] this acknowledgment that you don’t always know what the best answer is. It turns off that voice in your head that tells you that you know exactly how the world works. Maybe a toothbrush helmet isn’t the answer, but at least you’re asking the question.”
By intentionally aiming for failure, Giertz found she could bypass her anxiety and actually complete projects. The act of finishing something, even if it was silly or non-functional, built her confidence and skills over time.
Reframing Failure as a Positive
Another key insight from Giertz’s talk is the importance of reframing how we view failure. She argues that the fear of failure often prevents people from trying new things or pursuing their ideas. However, by deliberately creating “useless” inventions, Giertz turns failure into the goal rather than something to be avoided.
She explains: “I’m not an engineer. I didn’t study engineering in school… But I was a super ambitious student growing up… That, paired with my fear of failure, made me miss out on a lot of chances to learn new things.”
By giving herself permission to fail and create non-functional devices, Giertz opened herself up to learning through experimentation. She emphasizes that her ridiculous robots aren’t really failures at all – they succeed at their intended purpose of being useless and entertaining.
This reframing allows her to approach inventing with a sense of play and curiosity rather than pressure and anxiety. It’s an attitude she encourages others to adopt in their own creative pursuits.
The Value of Asking New Questions
While Giertz’s inventions may be impractical, she argues that the process of creating them is far from pointless. By approaching problems from unusual angles, she often stumbles upon interesting questions and insights.
She gives the example of her breakfast machine, which attempts to pour cereal and milk but ends up spilling it everywhere. While not a practical solution, it led her to ponder deeper questions about why humans eat cereal for breakfast in the first place and how our morning routines are structured.
Giertz contends that asking these types of unconventional questions is valuable, even if the inventions themselves serve no practical purpose. It’s a way of challenging assumptions and approaching problems with fresh eyes.
Overcoming Stage Fright Through Absurdity
In a particularly poignant section of her talk, Giertz shares how she used her philosophy of useless inventions to overcome her fear of public speaking. Terrified of trembling hands while holding a glass of water on stage, she created a ridiculous “human solar system” contraption to wear instead.
This absurd wearable device features mechanical arms that orbit a glass around the speaker’s body. While completely impractical, it gave Giertz a way to reframe her anxiety. Instead of worrying about shaky hands, she could focus on the silly invention.
Giertz demonstrates the device on stage, showing how it fails to actually hold the water glass steady. But in doing so, she’s able to speak confidently and humorously about her fear of public speaking. It’s a perfect embodiment of her philosophy of using useless inventions to overcome mental blocks.
The Broader Applications of Useless Creativity
While much of Giertz’s talk focuses on her personal journey, she also touches on how embracing useless inventions can have broader positive impacts:
- It encourages people to challenge assumptions and approach problems in new ways
- It provides a low-stakes way to learn new skills through hands-on experimentation
- It can lead to serendipitous discoveries that spark more practical innovations
- It injects humor and play into the often serious world of technology and engineering
Giertz argues that giving ourselves permission to create silly, impractical things can unlock creativity in all areas of life. She encourages viewers to adopt a mindset of playful experimentation in their own pursuits.
Conclusion: The Usefulness of Uselessness
Simone Giertz concludes her TED Talk by reiterating the paradoxical value she’s found in making useless things:
“I’m sure that you’ve experienced this too – maybe not by building useless machines, but by pursuing something that you were truly excited about. And then the excitement of the pursuit took on a life of its own and became the reward in and of itself. I think that’s what really happens when you pursue useless things.”
By giving ourselves permission to create without worrying about practical outcomes, we open ourselves up to joy, learning, and unexpected discoveries. Giertz’s delightfully absurd inventions serve as an inspiring reminder to embrace failure, ask unconventional questions, and approach creativity with a sense of play.
Her TED Talk offers a compelling argument for why we should all consider making more useless things. In doing so, we may find that the process itself becomes immensely useful for personal growth, overcoming mental blocks, and unlocking new realms of creativity.
Citations:
[1] https://singjupost.com/why-you-should-make-useless-things-simone-giertz-full-transcript/
[2] https://coolhunting.com/culture/ted-2018-useless-things-simone-giertz/
[3] https://www.ted.com/talks/simone_giertz_why_you_should_make_useless_things
[4] https://www.ted.com/speakers/simone_giertz
[5] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u9GAnW8xFJY
[6] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7MotVcGvFMg
[7] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c0bsKc4tiuY
[8] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mandelbrot_set
