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PaperclipPerfector  22hr ago (text post)   649 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for June 7, 2026

Do you have a dumb question that you're kind of embarrassed to ask in the main thread? Is there something you're just not sure about?

This is your opportunity to ask questions. No question too simple or too silly.

Culture war topics are accepted, and proposals for a better intro post are appreciated.

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https://www.satyress.com/

Is this satire or do I simply not understand startup culture? I'm officially at the point where I can't tell anymore.

The name of the website wasn’t a clue?

In a world where juicero got $120M in funding? No.

I don't get it. Satyress is one step removed from "satire". Juicero is...?

When I first saw juicero, I thought it was satire. It turned out that it was, in fact, not satire.

Probably more incapability than insincerity. I'd give a rough BOM cost under <10k USD to build a functional prototype with that design and core capabilities at unit size one, probably three or four times that in compliance costs, quadrobic 12-dof motor control is (very) annoying math and tuning but well-solved in the open-source world. And while they're choosing a stupid way to solve a bunch of random problems -- selling to .gov sources is basically impossible for a startup this shape so they're trying to sell to randos, but selling to end-users has some major political risk so you get an intentionally-bulky robot -- they're at least some problems that already exist like 'I have to cut a fallen tree apart and I don't want to lose a leg to a chainsaw'.

But they've been around over a year, have a lot of renders, and no actual action shots. Or pretense of action shots, which is what makes me think it's not self-aware enough to be satire.

But the complete lack of social media presence or public push does leave satire on the table.

It's a joke.

A disapointing joke. Like TacoCopter.

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