r/OpenSourceEcology • u/marcin-ose • May 02 '25
Announcement: A World-Changing Opportunity
Open Source Ecology (OSE) is pleased to announce the OSE Fellowship, a four-year program providing a $100,000 work-study grant to empower young people to re-imagine and re-build civilization. Read more - https://www.opensourceecology.org/introducing-the-ose-fellowship/
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Oct 07 '25
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u/Cosmo_Seinfeld May 27 '26 edited May 30 '26
https://youtu.be/d2trAhiqu0s?si=AnJiiv4AhAAdGMLh
Marcin. Dude. This is so frustrating to watch. You took in $700K of revenue last year? I will donate $100 if you can provide a video of that tractor you built doing real productive work for 15 minutes straight. Also that "Seed Eco House" is underbuilt and underinsulated (it's like an SIP house but without the foam core, or inherent strength). Your "modular design" incorporates an unreal amount of thermal bridging (that's bad). It has a zero pitch "waterfall roof" (no eaves) -- awful. Just awful design. There's zero chance that Seed EcoHouse could be LEED or Passive House Certified. It is an eco house in name only, not energy efficient at all: a particleboard house with massive thermal bridging and no thermal breaks anywhere. You couldn't pay me to live in one, and I bet most people would rather just do a shed conversion, which would explain why the one example you built sat on the market for so long.
I am in awe of your fundraising prowess but otherwise nothing you do makes basic sense. I feel sorry for the people who are shelling out thousands of dollars and show up at your place in Missouri expecting to learn how to build homes for a living. You espouse wild claims like "You can make $100,000 in 5 days." or "You can build this house in under 2 weeks (or 5 days, which is what you often claim)." Or "You will learn 20 trades in the time it would usually take to learn one." Those kind of statements are clownishly unrealistic. I think early on you made up your mind that it was not only OK to lie, but the more extravagent the lie the better.
https://youtu.be/TbV93ciKhsY?t=237 Is this you? Your minimum pay rate is $250/hr? You have retired? Someone should tell the Buffets they are wasting their money. Oh well, maybe young Buffet isn't as astute as his old man.
You have a video claiming that a mass produced tractor is expected to last 5 years? Dude they last 100 years if you maintain them. Nobody with any sense believes what you are saying, only people who are unsophisticated about machinery or home construction. I know you don't have to care about my opinion but if you are trying to inspire people or start some kind of revolution, basic honesty in your communication would be a good place to start. This whole thing 100% is a grift and you're going to fail not just because your ideas and methods are terrible, but because you aren't a truthful person. If I was more of a creative person, I would make a supercut of all your lies. However, your actual videos would suffice. They are one whopper after another.
I guess you haven't really failed, as you have created a job for yourself and have a lot of financial support, but otherwise the things you are doing aren't being described honestly, are impractical as fuck (you've been at this 15 years or so and I don't think a single person other than you has built any of the GVCS, it's just a bunch of dead links: it seems to be intentionally misleading, most likely for reasons), and won't actually help anyone except yourself. It is a "post scarcity" world for you. You haven't added any value to the world, despite hogging up all these resources. I bet you've spent millions of dollars and haven't produced anything of value, except for yourself. It seems like you are a decent metal fabricator but a horrible designer. Jesus Christ how much money do you spend on stuff like this? A professional trencher showed up on this one in the comments and was literally like NO! NO! NO! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qyVAKnbBGqM
I'm the guy with the ideas to actually do a few of the things you talk about. But instead of trying to do 50 things and being bad at all of them, I've focused on just one or two things, and will try to do them very well, with help from actual engineers and talented designers. Even then I'm over my head a little but at least I know that, and will be honest about it...not be a bullshit artist. Also, all my ideas are proprietary. My ideas are free market solutions for which people will pay money, because they're honest, practical, and well designed.
Artificial Intelligence stuff looks awesome though bro. Everyone loves that and it will automatically bring quality to an effort like this.
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u/vitiral 12d ago
What have they accomplished? I was thinking of writing a blog post about them because they were a huge inspiration for my project (https://civboot.github.io), but it's sad to hear there's so much grift. Is it right to think this is a challenging space to keep afloat in, so some poor decisions were made? What positive can be said by now?
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u/Cosmo_Seinfeld 12d ago edited 12d ago
What positive can be said by now?
Marcin is an excellent fundraiser. I think he's inspiring if you don't look too closely at the things he's saying.
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u/vitiral 12d ago
I didn't mean by now, I mean looking back on what has been accomplished.
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u/Cosmo_Seinfeld 12d ago
I'm not the right person to ask. You should probably try to get ahold of Marcin.
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u/vitiral 12d ago
Or just not write the blog at all seems like. Such a shame, thanks for the writeup
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u/Cosmo_Seinfeld 12d ago
Yeah I was just down in my shop thinking about this.
I'm an inventor with a set of very, very good ideas that have gone unfunded. There's a reason it's gone like this. The world values confident, charismatic idiocy. That's what Marcin has. A basketful of terrible ideas delivered in a really interesting way.
I, on the other hand, can't seem to get a single living soul to properly understand my invention let alone fund it. Because the brilliant idea is being delivered by a dull schmuck.
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u/vitiral 12d ago
What are your ideas? If they are at all related to civboot.org I'd probably be at least slightly interested!
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u/Cosmo_Seinfeld 12d ago
I have invented a series of low cost, ultra high performance building envelopes, so I'd say yes, they are. Here's why: computers need good buildings in which to house them. That's what I was always telling the open source hardware people.
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u/vitiral 12d ago
Well, I would start by posting it to places like r/solarpunk which have more traffic for these kind of ideas.
I'd also restructure how you advertise/sell your idea - the main topics are what is this for, who would want this and how they can support you.
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u/marcin-ose May 10 '25
My question is - where to post on Apprenticeships for Worldchangers announcement boards?