Ted Talk #170: The Super Mario Effect

Watching TED Talks is a popular pastime at CN&CO. We visit TED.com regularly to clear our heads, have a laugh or get inspired. TED Talks open our minds, spark new ways of thinking and can lead to some very interesting conversations. Each week we pick a favourite and publish it on a Tuesday, because we like how “TED Talk Tuesday” sounds. It’s also a way that the CN&CO team play their part on spreading ideas and helping to make the world a better place. This week’s talk is posted by Rob Christian. Here’s why he choose it:

I think most people have had a bit more time on their hands recently and what better way to entertain yourself than peruse the internet if you can. During some lockdown downtime I came across a Youtube video on making a Ninja Warrior style course for squirrels to get to a bird feeder, which, peculiarities aside, was highly entertaining.

Cue the rabbit hole of Youtube and the video’s creator Mark Rober’s entertaining physics experiments for several hours and eventually I came across his TEDx talk.

As an aside, Rober is an engineer who previously worked at NASA and aims to make science more accessible for the average person, mainly through his YouTube videos. His views on changing the learning mindset are intriguing so if you have found yourself attempting to learn something new in these times, it might resonate with you.