Office Hours Side Projects Edition N°266
Office Hours Side Projects Edition N°266
Office Hours Side Projects Edition N°266 Cover Art
Contributed By: Julian Bleecker
Post Reference Date: Jul 4, 2025, 09:00:00 PDT
Published On: Jul 5, 2025, 11:22:26 PDT
Updated On: Jul 5, 2025, 11:22:26 PDT

In this session of Office Hours Side Projects Edition N°266, we dive into an enriching Zoom meet-up where three participants, Ben, Eduardo, and Sabrina, share their unique side projects.

Ben demonstrates his journey in transforming 2D images into 3D prints using AI, generating an engaging discussion on the intricacies and potential applications of his project.

Eduardo presents ‘Toaster,’ a web app designed to help organize and recall meeting notes, inspiring thoughts on personal tool development and its use cases.

Sabrina brings a leadership card game modeled after ‘Cards Against Humanity’ aimed at fostering innovative leadership skills and forward-thinking. Attendees provide generative and insightful feedback, making this session an amazing platform for networking and professional development.

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00:00 Introduction and Ice Breakers

01:54 3D Printing and Family Projects

04:06 Office Hours and Project Sharing

06:42 Eduardo’s Toaster App Demo

14:27 Feedback and Suggestions for Toaster

36:58 Ben’s 2.5D Image to 3D Conversion Project

45:39 Creative Date Night Ideas

46:42 3D Models and AI in Creative Projects

48:22 Human-AI Collaboration in Design

50:21 Prototyping and User Interfaces

01:01:49 Leadership and Innovation

01:03:03 Reimagining Leadership with Games

01:08:42 Expanding the Leadership Card Game

01:11:12 Cultural Context in Leadership

01:15:05 Intuition and AI in Decision Making

01:17:57 Final Thoughts and Future Directions

Chat Transcript

00:04:14 Sandro: Curtis’ new doc “Shifty” is worth watching, to learn how we changed as people in response to the shift of societal control towards finance
00:04:55 Benjamin Bueno De Mesquita: sure why not 🙂 I volunteer if there's time
00:05:51 Scott Paterson: https://www.barcelo.com/pinandtravel/en/vermouth-in-spain-spanish-aperitif/
00:06:21 Benjamin Bueno De Mesquita: Reacted to "https://www.barcelo...." with 🎉
00:06:25 Sandro: I’m feeling very receptive.
00:06:36 Benjamin Bueno De Mesquita: Replying to "https://www.barcelo...."
Manhattan is my go-to!
00:07:01 Sandro: Reacted to "Manhattan is my go-t..." with 🏆
00:07:26 Sandro: Replying to "https://www.barcelo...."
Manhattan’s are my only cocktail choice
00:07:37 Sandro: Replying to "https://www.barcelo...."
The vermouth is key
00:08:27 @pawelhalicki: Reacted to "The vermouth is key" with 🍹
00:14:22 Sabrina Sullivan: I could use creative brains on the continuation of my card project. Will just pull from another presentation and show a few things, if we have time. Will be a random and rough convo.
00:14:24 Mateusz Pożar: Stickers and playfulness reminds me of https://mmm.page/
00:15:34 Julian Bleecker: Reacted to "I could use creative..." with 🤟🏽
00:16:04 Karis Balôck: Reacted to "Stickers and playf..." with ❤️
00:22:54 Sandro: Imagine a map of stickers attached to meeting being the sole navigation interface, where you see constellations of stickers, and therefore see a map of runes which might be a better way for you to find topics
00:23:33 Sandro: Grouped by time, in concentric orbits following the arrow of time
00:24:59 Julian Bleecker: http://zach.li/
00:25:11 Julian Bleecker: https://www.google.com/search?q=golan+levin
00:26:35 Julian Bleecker: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oblique_Strategies
00:27:09 Andrew Korf: Bruc Mau is the designer was thinking of “start anywhere”
00:27:59 Sandro: “Some people say give the customers what they want, but that’s not my approach. Our job is to figure out what they’re going to want before they do. I think Henry Ford once said, ‘If I’d ask customers what they wanted, they would’ve told me a faster horse.’ People don’t know what they want until you show it to them. That’s why I never rely on market research. Our task is to read things that are not yet on the page.”
00:28:25 Sandro: Jobs
00:28:26 Scott Paterson: http://feltron.com/index.html
00:28:48 Scott Paterson: He made these obsessive annual reports on some aspects of his life. Truly amazing designs
00:29:39 Sabrina Sullivan: Replying to "“Some people say giv..."
On an unrelated note, having worked at Ford, the Ford historian actually informed us that Henry Ford did not actually say that. It has just become lore over the years.
00:30:56 Andrew Korf: https://brucemaustudio.com/projects/an-incomplete-manifesto-for-growth/
00:32:07 Sandro: Replying to "He made these obsess..."
I gave a talk on those reports and how they relate to vibe coding, design: https://youtu.be/g8ruyVMRjzk?si=Jypu6XuCyHxwu5Qr&t=1581
00:32:22 Andrew Korf: Bruce mau?
00:33:46 Sandro: “Bruce Mau” is a good name for an AI agent that focuses on increasing engagement.
00:33:59 Andrew Korf: There was that other guy who tracked his whole life then shared yearly info graphics that were awesome
00:34:29 Andrew Korf: Reacted to "“Bruce Mau” is a goo…" with 😂
00:34:31 Sandro: Replying to "There was that other..."
Other than Felton?
00:35:12 Andrew Korf: Replying to "There was that other…"
Ya Felton!
00:35:19 Scott Paterson: Some food for thought on creative tech, finding your unique voice, etc: https://johnmaeda.medium.com/autodesigners-on-autopilot-88c5b07609b9
00:35:30 Andrew Korf: Replying to "There was that other…"
I think he went to FB way back when
00:35:31 Sandro: Replying to "There was that other..."
He also did the FB timeline
00:35:34 Sandro: Replying to "There was that other..."
ha
00:35:36 Sandro: Replying to "There was that other..."
jinx
00:36:06 Andrew Korf: Replying to "There was that other…"
Exactly - got his RSus and disappeared
00:36:34 Sandro: Replying to "There was that other..."
I gave a talk on those reports and how they relate to vibe coding, design: https://youtu.be/g8ruyVMRjzk?si=Jypu6XuCyHxwu5Qr&t=1581
00:43:46 Heather Sparks: Reacted to "Some food for though..." with 🙏
00:44:17 Eduardo Hernandez: Reacted to "Stickers and playf..." with ❤️
00:44:20 Sandro: Six fingers in AI images is sometimes called “a Rugen Wave”
00:44:48 Sandro: Or anyway, that’s what I call it
00:45:02 Eduardo Hernandez: Reacted to "Imagine a map of s..." with 💡
00:45:57 Heather Sparks: With the recent AI rulings, this work might be “transformative” enough that lawsuits might not be as much of a problem anymore.
00:48:48 Karis Balôck: Did you just say you're trained as an architect Scott ?
00:48:53 Andrew Korf: Reacted to "I gave a talk on tho…" with ☺️
00:49:22 Julian Bleecker: Replying to "Did just say you say..."
Yes, Scott is an architect!
00:49:36 Karis Balôck: Reacted to "Yes, Scott is an a..." with ❤️
00:50:26 Karis Balôck: Ok, I am a trained architect as well :)
00:50:46 Julian Bleecker: Reacted to "Ok, I am a trained a..." with 🤟🏽
00:50:48 Sandro: Replying to "Did you just say you..."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_Architect
00:55:57 Scott Paterson: Replying to "Did you just say you..."
My dad was not Lou Kahn however ;)
00:58:33 Scott Paterson: https://www.designboom.com/design/printing-things-visions-and-essentials-for-3d-printing-gestalten-06-03-2014/
00:59:00 Sandro: Replying to "Did you just say you..."
@Scott Paterson Dre Labre did something that reminded me of Kahn’s style: http://instagram.com/reel/DLYdMJIMOit/
01:00:03 Andrew Korf: Reacted to "Some food for though…" with 🙏
01:00:21 Benjamin Bueno De Mesquita: Reacted to "https://www.designbo..." with 👏
01:00:51 Sandro: I built half my earlier design career on gaussian blurs
01:01:29 Benjamin Bueno De Mesquita: you might be on "push to talk" lol
01:04:01 Sean Park (he/him): Just ordered a set! Awesome cards - my son Theo had fun playing with me
01:04:30 Andrew Korf: Excited about this project
01:04:38 Scott Paterson: Former client…https://www.mursion.com/
01:07:53 Scott Paterson: Can have separate add-on decks based on ideas like this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Geography_of_Thought
01:11:46 Sandro: As a Canadian I really want to make a joke here but I won’t
01:12:04 Benjamin Bueno De Mesquita: Also Canadian here! I'm actually moving back to Ottawa in September
01:15:28 Andrew Korf: We would use these with
my primary clients - crazy but Andruil as well ( future client in the pipeline ) … obviously need to be thinking about the future of what they are doing
01:18:02 Sandro: https://pinnguaq.com/stories/cree-coding/
01:19:23 Scott Paterson: Enact it
01:20:49 Andrew Korf: Reacted to "Enact it" with ❤️
01:23:18 Sean Park (he/him): Thanks y’all - have a great weekend
01:24:46 Karis Balôck: Is there a card or an aspect of the game where humans still want to make all the decisions using their skills, but AI is only used to correct big consequential mistakes ? Kind of like a parent that lets their kid explore but helps them stand back up when they fall ?
01:27:33 Scott Paterson: I highly recommend checking out Mursion. It is a practice based experience for leadership training…https://www.mursion.com/
01:27:57 Sabrina Sullivan: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sabrinamsullivan/
01:28:13 Heather Sparks: All such good side projects today!
01:28:56 Giula Passarelli: Need to drop 🙂 have a nice weekend! See you at the next one
01:32:05 Julian Bleecker: https://nearfuturelaboratory.com/office-hours-signup
01:32:23 Benjamin Bueno De Mesquita: thank you!
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