Greg IsenbergLearnAsk
Video12:10–13:11

First rep for the rare triangle: teach a desk robot one boring task

By Greg Isenberg

If you wanted to learn this skill, the first rep is very concrete. Buy or build a cheap robot arm. Attach a cheap camera to it. Teach it a boring task — sort three objects, press a button, move something from one tray to another. Then document every failure. Maybe the camera angle was bad, or the lighting changed. Maybe the gripper slipped or the dataset was too small. The model looked good in one setup and then fell apart when the object moved 5 centimeters. That is exactly the point. That is how you learn a skill. In robotics especially, you quickly learn humility — and that humility becomes your expertise.

Go deeper with Greg Isenberg

Ask anything about this, and Greg Isenberg answers from everything they've shared.