I watched the documentary "Print the Legend" on Netflix just now and wanted to share a few of my thoughts. I'm no titan of the 3D printing industry, but I do own one of the machines and was quite interested from the consumer standpoint in what the filmmaker had to say about the industry and the printers themselves.
If you haven't seen the film (Which I suspect is true of almost all of my friends and family), it tells the story of how a few of the 3D printing industry's most notable businesses got started- namely Makerbot and Formlabs and follows their growth from garage-based start-ups to major companies.
My first thoughts right off the bat are twofold:
1. I thought it was a well constructed documentary that told several separate stories simultaneously, yet wove them together into one well-structured arc. That arc, unfortunately, had nothing to do with 3D printing as a technology or a consumer product. The overall story told by this film is one about businesses and the people who found them.
2. The biggest takeaway by far for me was "For the love of God, whatever you do, do NOT go into business with friends."
To me, the overall theme of the documentary was a sort of cautionary tale about what greed and ambition will drive someone to become. In one of my favorite podcasts, "Still Untitled: The Adam Savage Project" (Found on Tested.com- my favorite website), Adam Savage said something to the effect (I'm too tired to go through every episode to find the exact quote...) that corporations exist for a single purpose: To make as much money as possible. The product or service that corporation sells is ultimately immaterial to that goal. That is the feeling I got from watching this film.
What was shocking to me was really how similar Makerbot and Formlabs were in their infant stages. Both companies started with a small group of friends who were fascinated by and obsessed with innovation in the 3D printing industry. Both of these groups came up with some very creative and interesting ideas that gained popularity. Both groups then started tiny start up companies to develop and market these ideas. Those tiny companies were tight-nit and fun places to be. They were both populated by people who shared the passion for their product with the founders. Eventually both companies gained lots of money and suddenly, one of the founders (each company had three co-founders) was tasked with leading the company. In both cases, the one co-founder in this position gradually became more egotistical and arrogant and pushed the others away. In the case of Makerbot, the CEO's focus shifted from the product to company growth. This causes an even larger rift between the co-founders and eventually one or more leave the company.
So the moral of the story is "Money and power turn good friends against each other and good men into assholes."
Also, they interviewed the crazy "Everyone should be able to 3D print a handgun" anarchist guy. That was annoying. The association of 3D printing with making illegal firearms is really upsetting to me but that's a post for a different time (and perhaps a different blog).
Ultimately, I'd say it was a very good documentary. I didn't find myself getting bored at any point in its 99 minutes. The soundtrack was also very good. My main disappointment is that it wasn't really a documentary about 3D printing. It did make me really wonder if starting a company is ever a good idea. Maybe that was their point.
Oh well. I don't have a Makerbot or a Formlabs printer, I have a Solidoodle 4.
And I love it.
-J
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