Gladwell, eat my shorts P. 2

August 27, 2017 12:32 PM

Mike Boyd is a Scottish lad who challanged himself to learn many specific skills. He documents the actual time it takes to 'master' them (or at least achieve a certain milestones of mastery). So far he uploaded 35 videos. (Previously.)
posted by growabrain (12 comments total)

Aw, his muscle up video goaded me into working out. You tricked me! Into health!


....bastards.
posted by Diablevert at 12:51 PM on August 27, 2017 [2 favorites]

Watching the 'Learn to Wheelie' one the now and I'm calling shenanigans. No way did he get 4 days of uninterrupted sunshine in Scotland.
posted by oh pollo! at 12:57 PM on August 27, 2017 [9 favorites]

Unless this guy is an....OUTLIER *dramaticmalcomgladwellmusic*
posted by Drumhellz at 3:00 PM on August 27, 2017 [10 favorites]

Dude must be a swan, a full on magic black swan. Now let's see the video of him doing 32 fouette pirouettes en pointe?!?:-)
posted by sammyo at 3:05 PM on August 27, 2017

THAT. CAT. <3

love this channel, I've now wasted hours watching his vids.
posted by cristinacristinacristina at 4:35 PM on August 27, 2017 [1 favorite]

In an attempt to be a healthier person, I am eating way more apples. This is relevant to my interests.
posted by 4ster at 4:53 PM on August 27, 2017

I only watched the boomerang tournament, and Mike's milestones were way too low. Consider the supercatch team event, where one member tosses a maximum time aloft boomerang. Once the boomerang is airborne, two other members throw fast-catch boomerangs that have to travel at least 20 meters. A good fast catch boom does an orbit in 3-4 seconds. The score is the total number of catches these players make until the MTA thrower catches his boom. A dropped MTA results in a 0 score.

That's the difference between taking the first step and mastering something.
posted by morspin at 10:58 PM on August 27, 2017

I watched his one where he learned to wheelie a bike in seven hours a while back. Fucker can go to hell and die.
posted by markr at 1:17 AM on August 28, 2017 [1 favorite]

The QWOP one is great.
posted by markr at 1:53 AM on August 28, 2017

Have to agree with morspin. This isn't anywhere near mastery this is base competence. This is a result of the sigmoid shaped learning curve of many things. Initial novice efforts are difficult but then one reaches a steep rise in capability to competence, followed by a long slow flatish progression to mastery.
posted by The Violet Cypher at 9:13 AM on August 28, 2017 [1 favorite]

The one where he makes am engagement ring for his gf is quite adorable I must say.
posted by greta simone at 11:17 AM on August 29, 2017

I really liked this. Learning new things is a habit and skill that we fall out of, partly because our lives fill up with activities that are already familiar and partly because, as adults, we become a lot less willing to (be seen to) fail. It's great to see someone demonstrating that a surprisingly small amount of sustained effort is required to pick up a whole range of new, fun skills and tricks.

I've met a surprising number of adults who say that they can't think of a genuinely new thing they've learned in years. Seeing someone diving into learning a diverse set of new things, apparently for the joy of it (well, and the youtube views), is inspiring.
posted by metaBugs at 3:39 PM on August 30, 2017