The Imaginary Engineer – Karl Hans Janke's Flights of Fancy
7 comments
·March 4, 2025ge96
Damn I can relate, I used to make crazy ass claims backed by nothing it was cringe, at least I got out of it/know what reality is now. Not saying you should limit your imagination but reality is reality (until it's changed).
Unfortunately reality is also money (does your idea actually make money)
Edit: I also realize there is a difference in not knowing and enthusiasm too, a kid probably doesn't know about the thermo laws
If nothing else art/sci-fi sells
kurthr
It seems like there's a lot of stuff over the last 10-15 years that has "created" a lot of "value", but hasn't made much if any profit.
Whether we're post-truth or not, the "market it until you make it" is real, and the market can remain irrational longer than most expect.
He'd have done much better, post 2001.
daveguy
You know, sometimes an idea doesn't have to make money. It can be a purely academic question, and the answer can produce a breakthrough. Requiring everything to make money is how you get into artificial minima and maxima. It's detrimental to discovery.
It does, however, have to be testable.
robocat
Beautiful examples - reminds me of some art.
It makes me wonder how much of technology is driven by the need to look cool.
charlie0
Is this where the word "janky" comes from?
cytocync
[dead]
All the links in the article are dead, and not captured by the Archive, but I found a gallery of 3435 (!) of his drawings:
https://deutschefotothek.de/ews/ete?action=queryGallery&inde...