Making My Stuff Mine

About This Video

Van Neistat opens Making My Stuff Mine with a misattributed quote and a list of grievances. The clip runs 1 minute and 31 seconds and turns everyday friction into a creative engine: cords that don't fit, power buttons in the wrong place, gear that won't stay put.

He thinks it was Mammoth who said we create because we are annoyed, though he can't find the source. The video is the proof. Every complaint is physical and tactile: nowhere to mount the mic, no tripod threads, no lens filter, no self-timer, a keyboard missing the B. The annoyances repeat like a chant. Stay put. Stay put. Stay put. Then comes the promise to fix all of it with what he calls the most powerful technology that man hath wrought, and a Wizard of Oz threat aimed at the problems themselves. I'll get you, my pretty.

The clip is a teaser cut from Long-Form Episode 1, and it withholds the payoff on purpose. The fix lives in the full episode. What it establishes is the channel's thesis in miniature: the point of the new tools is to make your stuff yours.

What Van Uses: His Leica Q2, the source of half the complaints (no tripod threads, no filter, no self-timer), and AI as the tool he points at the whole list of annoyances.

Related: Giving AI Another Chance, the full Using AI to Live More Analog episode this clip comes from, and the analog living thread.

FAQ

What is Making My Stuff Mine about?
It's a 90-second catalog of physical annoyances, from cords to a missing keyboard B, framed by the idea that we create because we are annoyed. Van promises to fix all of it with AI, but the clip is a teaser for the full episode.

Who said we create because we are annoyed?
Van attributes it to Mammoth but admits he can't find the source. The line works as the clip's thesis regardless: friction, not inspiration, is what drives him to make things.

Where does this clip come from?
It's cut from Using AI to Live More Analog, Long-Form Episode 1. The clip names the annoyances; the episode delivers the fix.

Transcript

I can't find it anywhere, but I think it was Mammoth who said something like, "We create because we are annoyed."

Cords don't fit. Power buttons lame. Nowhere to put the mic.

I can't spell. Where's the B? Stay put. Stay put. Stay put. Where are they? Where are they? Ouch. Ain't got no tripod threads, no lens filter, no selftimer.

But to rectify the annoyances contained herein will take the assistance of the most powerful technology that man hath wrought.

I'll get you my pretty and your little dog tooth. Join our Patreon here. See how this video fits into the full episode here. The Patreon is how you get in touch with me and contains the alternate universe to this channel.

Products & Tools Mentioned

• Leica Q2 (implied) frustration — "ain't got no tripod threads, no lens filter, no selftimer"
• AI (implied) tool — "the most powerful technology that man hath wrought" to fix annoyances

People Referenced

Mammoth (uncertain attribution)