- Hello and welcome to the Hard Reset 2022 Gift Guide.
Please like and subscribe so that we can share
this whole series with you.
As we research the Hard Reset series,
we see a lot of amazing technologies and products,
and some we feature in the show and some we don't.
But now that it's getting towards the end of the year
and people are doing gift shopping,
we thought some of that information might be helpful
for you as you look for cool gifts
for the people in your life.
And not just cool, but also invite you to rethink your life
or some part of your life from the ground up.
We put that together into this gift guide
and we think it'll be good for you to come up with ideas
for things you can share
or just start conversations with your friends.
This particular episode is all about learning
and personal development, so stick around,
we have some fun things to talk about-
and if you wanna learn how you can win one of these,
just hang on and we'll tell you exactly how to do that.
So this episode is all about gifts that are focused
on learning and expanding our understanding of the world.
As a kid, and now as a childish and unreliable adult,
I love learning new things-
and I think it's something that is pretty common
within our audience as well.
We read your comments so we know that you want to get
in there and get hands on with things like robotics
and genetic engineering.
If you know someone who's like that,
this gift guide is gonna be perfect for them,
and hopefully it will help you find a gift that they'll love
and that they'd never think to get for themselves.
Also, if you're interested in getting one
of these items for free, please write a comment about one
of the gifts that you received that taught you the most
or made the biggest impact on your life.
We'll pick our favorites from the top comments
and then we're gonna send them one
of these genetic design kits.
Okay! Let's get to the gifts.
So this first gift is actually a gift
that can help people dive into learning about making things
from one of the world's most famous makers, Mark Rober.
Now, if you're not familiar with Mark Rober's glitter bombs
or squirrel training courses, I frankly pity you.
But I'm also excited
that you're probably gonna soon discover
and experience one of these modern treasures
of internet culture for the first time.
Anyway, Mark Rober is a former NASA engineer who worked
on the Mars Rover, 'Curiosity.'
But he's more widely known for his work
as a YouTube content creator who dives
into engineering projects that are delightfully excessive.
Now he's teaching an online engineering course at studio.com
and it's a great gift for someone you know
that wants to learn more about how to make cool inventions
with things like Arduinos and robotic components.
This is a 'hard reset' for how we think
about the creative capabilities
that might otherwise be dormant in people around the world.
A great teacher or mentor can make a huge difference
in the course of a person's life.
But a hundred years ago, a great teacher
would never be able to reach millions,
let alone billions of students,
because they were limited by the restrictions
of geography and media.
Think about if someone like Mark Rober,
who has literally built robots exploring other planets,
can reach out and help educate people all over the world,
what will that mean for the future?
What kind of potential will that unlock?
This class costs about 19 bucks a month
and it's perfect for someone who wants
to learn how to work with electronics,
but doesn't really know where to start.
Frankly, any gift guide that doesn't include a Lego set
on it is probably just irredeemably broken
in some fundamental way.
This is the Lego Boost Robotics Kit.
It's like an entry-level version of their Mindstorms Kit,
and it's a great way to introduce kids
to the concepts of robotics and programming.
It's also kind of just a lot of fun.
The builds are really cool and you can use their sensors
and motors to create all kinds of machines and robots,
even musical instruments like this one.
It's a bit more structured
than their earlier Mindstorms products,
but it's a really solid kit that anyone can enjoy.
The hard reset here is
that Lego has done something really amazing.
They've made a programming interface that is almost as fun
and intuitive as they're building block system.
I think for a lot of people
the idea of writing a computer program
is very abstract and it's hard to get your head around
what's happening when you write these commands
with these functions.
With Lego, they've made that very visual.
All the functions take the form of blocks
on the screen that you can then stack
and move around and combine together.
You create chains of instructions that way.
There are blocks for event handlers,
loops, and conditionals,
so you can see what commands are being executed
in what order and what the consequence is.
I think if I had something like that when I was younger,
I would've had a lot easier time learning how
to program things
and it would've given me a much greater opportunity
of the capabilities of these sorts of technologies.
This set costs about 160 bucks
and it's perfect for anyone who wants to learn
about how to build simple robots and programs.
It includes everything you need to get started except
of course batteries, because batteries are never included-
you should know this by now-
or an iPad or a phone
that you can use to program your robot.
This is the Elegoo DIY Robot Car Kit.
It uses more standard robotics components,
like an Arduino and other common components,
to build a functioning robot car.
What's nice about this kit is not only can it teach you how
to build and use a robot and program it,
but all these components can be repurposed later on.
It's a bit more complicated than building a Lego set,
but it's a lot of fun,
and it can give someone valuable experience
if they're interested in learning more about this stuff.
This gift would pair very well
with a Mark Rober engineering class
because it uses a lot of the same kinds of components,
and I think it'll overlap nicely with the areas of learning.
The reason we selected this is
because robots are just a lot more essential
to everyday life than ever before,
and that's only gonna become more and more of a thing.
Learning about how robots work
can help expand your understanding
of the possible futures that we're gonna be headed towards.
Learning robotics is a fun activity for any age
but it's quickly becoming essential skills
for the next generations who will probably be put
to work maintaining our new robotic overlords.
This kit costs about $70,
but there are lots of other options out there
that have different configurations and options.
This is a perfect gift for someone who wants to get
into making simple robotics and is fairly comfortable
with assembling simple electronic components.
So, I'm gonna guess that you thought
we were just gonna be talking about robots, well, no.
This is the Genetic Design Kit from The Odin,
a company that wants you to take genetic engineering home
and play with it.
They have a variety of different kits
that you can buy to jump into this.
You can insert genes into bacteria,
you can learn how to use CRISPR,
and you can even learn how
to genetically modify living organisms.
I love the fact that The Odin has taken such a hands
on DIY approach to genetic engineering.
I think it demystifies something that is otherwise
a little intimidating to people.
The "Hard Reset" side of this should be pretty clear:
Biotechnology has untold potential to change the world.
Bacteria and microorganisms can be engineered
to do incredible things like clean up the atmosphere
or treat diseases.
For thousands of years already,
we've relied on bacteria to do things
like make our bread rise or brew grains into beer,
and just those two simple things
have been pillars of civilization.
Now, we have the ability to give bacteria way
more specific instructions,
and it's kind of amazing to think what we'll be able
to accomplish in the next 10,000 years
with a little help from our microscopic friends.
This technology is just getting started,
but I think that the more people who apply their creativity
and intelligence to it, the more likely it'll be a force
for good as it changes the world.
This kit costs about $50
and gives you everything you need to get started.
As you get more advanced, they offer more complete sets
of equipment and even classes and one-on-one sessions
to get you more comfortable working with these materials.
This is a perfect gift for someone
in your life who is curious about science
and technology and wants to learn how living systems work.
Full disclosure: The Odin did provide us with this kit
to evaluate and test,
but that did not affect the content of our recommendation
or review, other than me having to include this disclaimer.
The last gift that I wanna talk about is Melodics.
Melodics is a subscription service
that helps you learn how to play
a musical instrument over MIDI.
You can use it to learn how to play keyboard
or piano drums or a pad controller,
because apparently that is a musical instrument now.
Anyway, it's designed to help keep you motivated
which is a big deal when it comes
to practicing a skill like this.
One of the ways it does that is
it gives you immediate results and immediate feedback
so that you don't feel like you have to wait a long time
before you are competent at making music.
So the hard reset here is that it's taking
the art of teaching music and centering it around what's
most engaging for the student.
And while it does feel like it's sort of drawing
on pro music apps for its design,
it feels more like it's drawing on things like "Beat Saber"
or "Guitar Hero," really fun games that are engaging
and give you that thrill of completion and reward.
Think about how much time you spent
practicing "Sweet Child of Mine" on Guitar Hero
just so you could impress your friends.
Now, consider how good you'd be if you spent
that time practicing a real instrument instead
of just pushing keys on a controller.
That's the general idea here.
Melodics costs about 30 bucks a month or $150 a year,
but there's a free version with limited features
and some usage restrictions if you wanna try it out
before you commit.
It's a perfect gift for the musician in your life who wants
to get more serious about practicing,
or anyone who has always wanted to learn an instrument
but never had the chance.
We hope you enjoyed this gift guide
and that you'll like and subscribe to the channel.
The opportunity to learn something new is always rewarding,
and we think it makes for a great gift any time of year.
So make a great comment
and tell us how gifts have impacted you-
if you want to make glowing jellyfish bacteria at home.
What you eat might make your body,
but what you learn makes up the most important part of you.
And these gifts are a great way to help people
expand their horizons.
Also, make sure you check out the Hard Reset series
for other great topics you might be interested in.
Come back for our other gift guide episodes on food,
the Metaverse, personal technology, and books.
And please make sure you like and subscribe
so that we can keep you in the loop and share more news
about the people and ideas that are changing the world.
Okay, I'm gonna go build this Lego.
Take a quick Lego break.
I gotta go.