Speaking of books Idea Channel should put up a reading list somewhere with the main texts used in making the episodes. I would love to have a look at that and I'm sure a lot of other fans would too.
Hey, mike. I just wanted you to know that i suggested your logical fallacies vids to my English Comp teacher and she not only liked them, but used them in class and gave me extra credit!
I gots a question/suggestion! Possibly for an episode, or maybe even a series as I'm not sure how easily this can be answered but its on the topic of 'Mastering something'. The conversation came up once around the dinner table with the family when the number of hours we do something during the day was brought up and as usual my excessive amount of video game time was brought up. I've heard estimates of anywhere from 8,000 to 15,000 hours to become a 'Master' in a subject, when your knowledge and expertise reaches a level few others strive to attain. The question is actually this: What does this mean within the context of our society today? A thousand years ago a master blacksmith was a person who was prized above all others for his superior craftsmanship and abilities to shape and form metal. Shakespeare is considered to be a master playwright, someone who's works are unparalleled, but what about today? People like this certainly exist, masters of trade that move their area's of expertise forwards but do we put them in equal caliber to those before or is the title of 'Master' one that isn't really relevant anymore
Right, so what you're referencing with the 8000-15000 hours thing is the most famous idea put forth in Malcolm Gladwell's book Outliers, so if you want to know more about this kind of thing, that would be a great place to start. It's also interesting that you look at that idea as applying to premodern industry because the book is actually about mastery in modern society. So Gladwell clearly thinks it's still relevant. That said, there's been some criticism of that book. Gladwell is a pop-science author and not a scientist, so that's important to keep in mind. Personally, I think that the idea of applying a linear progression dynamic to almost any progression is misleading, since what's "best" in any creative, political, or social endeavor is subjective and even in mechanical jobs, technological advancement usually comes out of "working smarter, not harder." I don't know if that discredits the idea that you have to work hard at something to be good at it necessarily, but certainly the idea that you progress in a straight line towards a thing called "mastery," which takes any consistent amount of time to achieve, seems kind of inaccurate.
Boolean Earth "First you get good then you get fast". in order to learn how to do a job smarter you have to learn how to do it properly. Anyone can rush a job, take shortcuts and save time. The key difference is that unless you've paid your dues and become a master, you'll make the wrong shortcuts wreck the job, start again and finish the work slower than you would have if you followed instruction. The difference between laziness and wisdom is that the wise know what they're doing.
***** I have to agree with this. My husband entered army training within the last two months, and has never had any real gun training. Through our letters I learned that within the first 3 weeks my husband can now take apart and put together any M-16 within 3 minutes. "First you get good and then you get fast."
Not considering yourself an on camera personality is one of the best things about idea channel. It makes it real, it makes it feel like you're one of my friends with fresh ideas and honest questions, not some talking head presenting some prefabricated questions just to answer them a moment later. Your awkardness/insecurity/idontknowwhat is what keeps the conversation alive. I hope you'll keep having a hard time with that.
I love how down to earth you are. When you start to talk about the modicum of success and fame you have you go all weird, that was clearly not an aim for you. That is what I love about the educational community of youtube, few if any are actually in it for the fame.
we're also grateful at you for making this show :) I frankly wouldn't be able to imagine my weeks without this dose of reflection, pop culture discovery and gif hilarity.
No enemies here, Mike! I was excited to read the Hunger Games first time around--mostly because everyone I know that reads loves them and said so, loudly and often--but from the very first sentence I was put off. First person, present-tense is an incredibly difficult POV to write in, and most of the time, I don't think is worth it. It's so very limiting, and in HG's case, prevents us from getting a larger picture of this world. And I think that because the movies are so good, it demonstrates how interesting this world can be, how dynamic the characters are (props, Jennifer Lawrence), when the mode of story-telling fits with the story.
Honestly, man, if it exists, there are gonna be people who hate it; even if it is popular, *especially* if it's popular. I mean, I love Hunger Games, but it's not like I care if people hate it, because it's to be expected, as with everything else I may like.
I just felt like both the books and the movies were hollow shells, waiting for a better author to fill in the blanks. Susan Collins' writing was so uninteresting and not detailed at all.
Hatsune Candy What about people like me who like the movies... but think the books were the least engaging things ever? The main reason is because of the extreme amounts of monologues of Katniss which, more often than necessary, paused the entire story to the point where it seemed like a lot of teenage emo poetry...
I share your super power, Mike!. Although I recognize people who are dedicated voice actors more easily than live action actors who occasionally do voice over.
Unjust wanted to add that every single time I watch your videos you make me smile. Your upbeat personality is infectious, and that's a good thing. So, thanks. Bad joke of the day: What did the turkey say to the President! Pardon me, sir.
1:38 My eight grade English teacher had us read The Hunger Games in class... _instead of The Merchant of Venice._ It's written in present tense, and we read it instead of Shakespeare. I hate that series with a passion and a fury.
only20frickinletters Wow, that's unlucky. We read some pretty good books in English: Of Mice and Men, Lord of the Flies. In terms of Shakespeare we read Romeo and Juliet and A Midsummer Nights Dream
B0ristheCabbage I read those in school as well, but I read Hunger Games on my own. I wanted the Hunger Games books to be good, but they disappointed me.
You aren't supposed to like the books you read in class. They are supposed to fill you with furry. It is all meant to prepare you for the real world, where books roam the streets in large packs and hunt people for their bones.
I've never heard someone talk about the Hunger Games books like that and I just realized that it makes sense. Talking to people about the movies they say that it's impressive that they follow the books so well. Now it totally makes sense hear you say that they read like a screenplay.
Yeah, the ones I've only really known to be often considered better than the book is The Shining. If anything, the closest I've seen is that the movie adaptation is good enough to be seen independently of the movie; like, I hear more people talk about Jurassic Park the movie a whole lot more than the book, and both Apocalypse Now and Heart of Darkness are both revered pieces in themselves. This could just be the people I have encountered in my life, though, I don't know.
Jack! Sometimes I don't even realize it is a book adaptation (I'm not well read), so realizing that a movie is a book adaptation surprises me so much more than it really should
For what I heard, another very good example of a movie being vastly superior to a book is _Fight Club_. Even the author said that he felt his book was bad when compared with the movie, and that it made him feel ashamed of having writing it.
Oh, and now that I think about it, the TV series of _Dexter_ (at least for the first season) is orders of magnitude more compelling and fun than the book. The book is okay, but it is only after you incorporate Michael C. Hall that the concept explodes into sheer awesomeness :D
You do have nice, interesting fans! I think that's because you're one of the only RU-vidrs who fosters the best things in their community, by shining a spotlight on the good, instead of the bad. Keep that up. Yours is the only comments section it's fun to hang out in.
I'm right on board with that super power Mike. I've always been able to identify voices and voice actors in mere seconds, even when they are distorting their voice to sound differently. I think it goes along with my savant level intuition when it comes to identifying movies and tv shows other people are watching in seconds, more often than not of things I've never actually seen or are very old. (It honestly annoys my family how I do it, cause I can't explain it)
Speaking of RU-vid-technologies you could use, here's an idea: How about once there's a new episode up where you've dealt with the comments in the previous one - you could put a click-box link with minute/second marker in at the end of the last one (before comment-comments of course) on the video so people can head right on over to the response/summary of the discussion. (Great sentence, Kant!) Scenario: Watching old episode, get to end of current theme X, when hearing "what do you guys have to say about X?" I can click a link right there in the video that says "go straight to our response to the discussion about X", it takes me into video Y at the very second where your comments on the discussion about X begins.
The Tempest is actually one of my favorite Shakespeare plays. It's my favorite comedy alongside Midsummer Night's Dream, while my favorite tragedy is Hamlet. Of those plays, I've only seen actual performances of Hamlet and Midsummer Night's Dream.
Yesssss, Einstein on the Beach! It's nice to know that my theatre studies degree won't be entirely useless as long as there are series like this out there in the big, vast interwebs.
Yay, Black and Red! My two best decks were black/red! One was a direct damage / destroy deck with barely any permanents, the other was focused on cards costing 3 mana or less, mostly monsters + destroy creature cards. The idea was to flood the enemy with a lot of low-damage creatures, but never let them put a creature on the table :) Both worked like a charm against less experienced players, because they tended to focus on creatures in their decks and so it was freaky to combat my no-creature deck.
Love that you found Tufte's books important for you. Even though it was outside my expertize, I created graphics for a company. I spent a lot of time making sure the graphic was illustrating the idea properly. Tufte's books helped me in achieving that goal. I get very frustrated when I see a graphic that does not properly represent the ideas in the accompanying verbiage (text or oral). Quite often I point out the problem to the author and recommend Tufte's books. (to echo another commenter - "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" YES)
Cool stuff! Thanks for doing Q&As. Was not surprised at all by the Hitchhiker's Guide shout out, but I was surprised by the play answer. I was kind of expecting something absurdist and science-y/philosophical like Arcadia. Though I'm probably just projecting, I saw it a few weeks ago for the first time and it blew me away.
I have that same superpower of reconizing voice over work. Truly, we must test who is superior. Wait... you said you weren't competitive, right? And neither am I, actually... nevermind.
I have to say, I've always found your videos to be so much fun to watch, especially when I know nothing about the subject matter. I also think that you have such a nice nature that it is no wonder that the fans that you meet in the street are so nice as well. Now that that's over, I feel the same way about The Song of Ice and Fire as you do about The Hunger Games. I think the books are better written as a screenplay for HBO than as books themselves. That's why I think Game of Thrones is right at home on HBO
OH MY GOSH I 100% agree about the Hunger Games. You necessarily suffer some losses when you move from book to movie, and I hear people lamenting that you don't get "Katniss' inner monologue" from the movies, but the STORYTELLING is so much better and more convincing in the movies, I just. Yes, thank you for saying this.
Loved Gatz! Saw it in London. Amazingly, not the longest play I've seen though, haha. The longest was a trilogy of plays by Wajdi Mouawad (Lebanese/Quebecois guy) that was 12hrs long (including a couple of long breaks but still). It was great though! The second play (Incendies) was turned into an oscar nominated movie that I recommend! Also, LOOOOOVE Einstein on the Beach. Saw that in London too. As an opera singer, it just blew my mind about what opera could be. And theatre in general. It was weird in the beginning and then started feeling very meditative.
I've just had a thought and I'd like to ask a question to the community. I think this is one of the best communities on all of RU-vid and that got me thinking a few things: 1) How did we seem to develop a community where the trolls either don't exist or get ignored so much I just never see anything from them? This seems particularly related to this video and you saying you don't like the hunger games, (I myself have yet to read the books or watch the movies,) and a quick read through top comments is still full of intelligent discussion. 2) Why can't this kind of community exist in more places on RU-vid? I know that other communities exist such as the Vlogbrothers, and I'm sure some more that my brain is just too tired to think of currently. I have this thought because I'm assuming that most people who watch this video, also watch other RU-vid videos so why can't we have discussions in them? Is it just to do with the content on the videos, the amount of viewers, or the comment system on RU-vid? 3) Finally just a question about what other RU-vidrs you all watch, I'd love to see other guys with great communities and try to get involved myself.
1) I think it's because communities like this one are very communicative and interactive with the content maker. Mike encourages us to have active, intelligent discussion, both with him and with each other, and that's something that not a lot of other RU-vidrs do.. Also, I think it's the way that the opinions and ideas are presented in these videos that help the community built around it be so awesome like this. Every idea or opinion that Mike talks about, he talks about as just that: an opinion. He recognizes that there will be differing opinions than his, and talks about as many sides of an issue that he can. Also, the way he talks about the ideas in each episode is very casual and open to discussion. 2) I think it's the type of content that's presented.. A lot of the videos on this channel have to do with some type of philosophy or other thought-provoking questions, which easily facilitate discussion. Also, I think there's an expectation that the viewers are at least a little bit intelligent and kind, to be able to understand and discuss the ideas the way we do. 3) I mostly watch gaming channels, mainly The Creatures (who's comments section is uh.. not the best regarding kindness, I'd say) and Markiplier (who has also built up a good community around him). Other than that, ADoseOfBuckley and CinemaSins are on the list. A lot of nerdy channels like Science Friction, Geekvolution, and BlackNerdComedy have good comments sections/communities that I've seen.
I think that the amount a youtuber interacts with the comment section has a direct impact on the quality of the comment section. Idea channel does this in the videos but Iv seen good community where the video creator reply's directly to a bunch of comments.
1) This channel is surprisingly difficult to troll, I think. Its content and the references made are rather learned or at least approached in a College class sort of way, so most trolls would find very little low hanging fruit, as it were. There is also very few people here who would care to engage a troll. Most people here who stick around to comment have a certain level of emotional and intellectual maturity. So since trolls don't have much to say and very few people to say it to, there's less trolls that stick around. 2) I think the above suggests that there is a fairly special mix here. Additionally, Mike positively reinforces intelligent conversation, so that helps too. Other communities provide or even promote the type of content that is easily trolled. Or they don't seem to care about what happens in their comments, or they "feed the trolls" themselves. 3) Hank and John Green, and everyone they work with, are amazing, as such I spend a lot of time amongst Nerdfighters, who are generally awesome people. Gopher from Gophersvids is a let's player and modder who is rather awesome. He interacts with his commenters, but sometimes he feeds the trolls and occasionally has content which is easily trolled, so occasionally has issues there. Channels like CGP Grey, Veritasium, and Minute Physics have content that makes it harder to troll so their communities are pretty solid too. Dodger from PressHeartToContinue and DexterityBonus has been going strong for a long time, though trolls will come and go, she's got a long-standing community who is very supportive of her, so it's generally very nice place to hang out.
Well, since 01 and 02 are connected, I'd say that it has everything to do with the subject and presentation of the videos and the kind of culture they create as well as the kinds of people who watch them. That's kind of obvious, right? People who watch prank videos are probably awful; people who watch thoughtful and supportive discussions are probably not. That said, looking at some examples in between shows that it's not quite that simple. Some people who are wonderful get a ton of trolls and some people who are aggressive and mean-spirited don't. I'd expect part of it has to do with the overlap with other communities, both online and off. For instance, you mentioned Nerdfighters. There's a significant overlap between them and Idea Channel viewers. Both communities are full of lovely, courteous people. I've seen some video game channels that are themselves equally nice but have a lot of overlap in their viewer-base with subcultures that are far more inflammatory. That just has to do with social norms and how culture propagates, I guess. People probably come to Idea Channel through a million different pathways, and that affects how they act, I'm sure. Of course, I also would definitely not say this channel is without trolls or awful people generally. Most of the commenters seem pretty great, but in a couple different videos I can think of, the comments section was truly horrendous. In fact, if anything I'm surprised by how many people are here who really don't seem to coincide with Mike on some very basic social or political levels. As for your third question, I watch waaaaay too many RU-vidrs, so you'd have to be more specific with what you're looking for, I guess. I love Ze Frank, Andrew Huang and Gunnarolla, Vi Hart, and Brady Haran. There are other people I like but they're much more different to this sort of thing.
Kyle Walker That's an interesting theory; It sort of coincides with the theory that online messages are so horrendous because people feel they have an invulnerabillity to their statements.
Under 301 woo Serious Note: I really like this show and I hope you keep going for a long time; I started watching when you had maybe 15 episodes out and watch the new one on release every single time.
1:38. I kind of now what you're on about, but in reverse. I watched LotR and then read the first few chapters of Fellowship...yeah the films are my favourite, I found the book a chore and simply didn't enjoy it.
I'm in the same boat. I loved the Hobbit (the book, not the money engine), to the point of memorizing the runes at the back of the book and annoying my family by obsessing over writing things with them, but I stopped reading the trilogy somewhere in the middle of Two Towers. I think they were in the plains, and I just got sick of hearing about how nice the grass was or whatever he was on about.
I'm with you. Funny thing is, I read the books twice all the way through, loving them. Second time I breezed through. Some years later after reading a lot more fantasy, I got stuck in the second book. Few years after that I decided to read the books in English, again I got stuck in the second book. Still, some parts of the books could have been more prominent in the movies.
Randygandalf95 I agree with you, actually. Granted, the Lord of the Rings was much more in-depth and larger in scope, and the movies were able to take the, well, historical document that the books were and make them into an actual adventure story. The Hobbit, however, in both forms, I see as much more of a children's tale- and not in the 'it's kiddy stuff' way, either. It's a story that's meant to evoke wonder and excitement and stay light-hearted throughout even the darkest parts, using classical motifs to entertain- fighting trolls, slaying dragons, going on quests to get treasure and all that. Lord of the Rings was Myth, rather, with allies and foes all mixed together, a lack of classic 'monsters' (aside from Shelob) and a quest to actually _get rid_ of a piece of treasure. I feel that the movies of each stay true to that dichotomy, and so The Hobbit movies are lighthearted (Bombur in a barrel, anyone?) with clear Good Guys and Bad Guys, and aside from a few moments of artificially created tension (where the audience knows what's going on anyways) there's little true danger to the characters that you feel for.
Earthenfist I also enjoyed how the way they tied it into LotR more with the Necromancer storyline. That said, they're not beyond criticism. The poor use of CGI is a big criticism, and it did get a bit over the top at the end of Desolation of Smaug.
Speaking as a fellow Red/Black deck person, I choose those colors because they reflect my fighting style the most: make you lose as many health points as possible while keeping mine as high as possible
Since you have very similar taste in boardgames may I suggest one for you if you ever get some time off from making your wonderful show? It's called Android: Netrunner and it is a 2 player asymmetrical card game where one player is a corporation trying to enact their evil plans (such as writing their logo on the moon for example) and the other is a hacker trying to get into their severs and expose their plans. I know you said you aren't competitive but Netrunner is so tense, funny, and full of little victories, that everyone who plays it has a fantastic time even when losing. It has a bit of a high barrier for entry since there are a lot of terms to learn but once you get that down the game just blossoms. Hope you give it a shot, thanks for all the excellent content!
Hey,I just wanted to say thanks for making these Videos. I know I rarely comment but I love watching and you have expanded my world view more than once and introduced me to many cool things.
You said "Are there cool colours" and that instinctively made me think about colours being only an illusion which always gives me a chill. Colours are great, don't get me wrong but they are so unreal. In fact one video Vsauce³ made I really enjoyed where he was talking about displays, like monitors and such, also just creating illusions and did a thing in the end where I got the chills again. He said that no one who hasn't seen him in perosn could know that he actually existed and then in the end pulled the camera back so you could see that the entire last segment was just a video of on a computer screen. What do you think about the limitations of our brain and does it frighten you too? I just revisited the cave allegory and the brain in a jar theory and I was really paranoid after that =) I just recently discovered you and the only time I saw such an intelligent person here on the intrawebs it was Michael from Vsauce and all the other Vsaucers and I'm not used to discussing these things actually in the commentsection, so I hope I will get into it soon. Great videos man, keep it up.
You have the same opinion of the Hunger Games books that I have! I'm so much more interested in the politics and history of Panam than I am of Katniss' thoughts and opinions. I think they would have been so much better if they were third person narrative novels.
Urbanization would be great topic. Specifically I would love to hear a discussion about Edward Glaeser's contention that the city is mankind's greatest invention.
"The Tempest" is NEVER an unpopular response: next to "Hamlet", it's my favorite Shakespeare play. He does so many new things in that play, and it's really fun to act in/stage. I played Stephano the drunken butler at my university's Shakespeare in the Park performance. Do you have a favorite character/line from the play?
Yay, Hitchhiker's guide! Any ideas about an eventual Hitchhiker's Guide episode? And what are your thoughts about the 2005 movie, and it's current lack of a sequel, or perhaps - rather than a "sequel" - a "The Restaurant at the End of the Universe" movie?
My thoughts on the Hunger Games books/movies exactly. I suffered the books, but so far I've enjoyed the movies, which usually has happened for me the other way around with screen adaptations of books. (Let Foundation be good, let Foundation be good, let Foundation be good, let Foundation be good, let Foundation be good...)
Oh man I love Pandemic! I thought it was so great since it was the first board game I'd seen where you actually work with all the other people rather than against. Tried to play it a lot at my High School's gaming club, though not everyone would join in.
I haven't played MTG in a long time either, but my colors were Green/Blue. My crowning moment was I beat a guy using a tournament worthy Fairy deck using a slapped together preconstructed Blue/Green deck.
Significant question that came to me after watching Interstellar. Let me drop a hypothetical scenario for you. You are the last living organism in the entire universe. Everywhere. For some insane reason, you're it. Everything else is entirely sterile. Now, you are about to die, only a few breaths left. With you is a canister containing the genetic make up for every prior living creature, along with an accelerant that will promote life conditions (...big canister). Do you plant the canister and perpetuate life or do you die and extinguish life forever from the universe? The main question: why or why not? It comes down to this: is life superior to non-existence? Does the experience of life, with its misery, happiness, sacrifice, indifference, rank higher than a state that we cannot fathom (nothing)? If you choose to plant the canister, is it only an urge for survival? A deep impulse? If you choose not to, is it a result of a life bias (you've been hurt by existence and choose to stop the cycle)? Hurry now. Only a breath left.
Mike, you mentioned the idea of borders disappearing - this is exactly what happened in the European Union. The effects are interesting to say the least. Those countries which enjoyed a certain standard of living experienced little social change. The countries which were behind the Iron Curtain, however, went through massive emigration. The internal migration rate of the EU is around 2%, most of which is comprised of Poles, Hungarians, Romanians, and such. A particularly interesting example is the unified Germany. Without the language barriers, everyone from the East moved West. Minor cities and rural areas suffer from relatively high unemployment, and the entire generation of people aged between 20 and 30 is missing. It's "Die Fehlende Generation". All young women in particular are missing in those areas, as women are typically more mobile than men. It truly is a tragic sight.
I didn't mind the Hunger Games, it isn't my favorite movie, but I certainly enjoyed them. The overall message of the movie/book is really interesting. Hank green did a video about the movie that I found fascinating.
I love hitch hikers guide, I reread it once a year. So idea channel, as another fan of the books, what did you think of the movie? I actually liked it despite the fact that they changed much of the story. In fact, everytime I read the book now I hear Alan Rickman whenever Marvin is talking lol
