Quentin Lebastard of Bastard Keyboards, designer of the Charybdis and Dilemma, talks about himself and his designs on the occasion of the upcoming release of the Dilemma Max.
No connection. I neither own nor have any particular interest in owning a Bastard keyboard, though I can admire them, but I thought the interview and behind the scenes peeks into a hobby-turned-business were interesting.
I opened this bracing for a condescending tech bro, and that couldn’t be further from what the interview was actually like! As a Developer Advocate and documentarian, I especially appreciated this bit:
Finally, because I’m creating keyboards that are going to be built by multiple people with different backgrounds in DIY, I need to make sure the process goes smoothly. This means that during the design process, the 3d and electronic parts have to be made in a way where it’s expected there will be mistakes. It can and will happen that the screw inserts are not installed properly, the components are installed in reverse, there are shorts and cut traces and burnt plastic. People will make mistakes, and I need to work on making those mistakes less likely to happen, but also make sure that the keyboard is easy to fix.
This is so important, yet so infrequently prioritized. 👏
