Mr. Roberts, MR. ROBERTS. Yes, hi, HEY.
Gonna need you to calm down sir.
Take a deep breath, in-out, yeah, perfect.
Not that you don’t have every reason to be pumped.
I won’t lie, I’m impressed.
But I also feel that your talk implies an ease and haste that doesn’t help your cause.
But I also feel that your talk implies an ease and haste that doesn’t help your cause.
I got your point on how these types of things need to simply
be done,
without too much thought or planning,
so that you don’t get stopped by things like planning and details.
without too much thought or planning,
so that you don’t get stopped by things like planning and details.
However, I don’t think there’s any shame in admitting you’ve put hard work into something. You don’t have to make it all sound like something you almost singlehandedly threw together on a whim.
Like the guy on a sitcom who’s trying to impress a girl, so
he goes up to the roof of some abandoned building and slaves away for hours
building the disparaged site into an urban wonderland of romantic wonder. I.e,
trees in bloom, quirky vases filled with rare African flowers that only bloom
for five hours a year, lawn of lush grass, that is of course draped in a sprawling
hand stitched quilt and covered in silk pillows, then nestled in the center is a heart shaped
hand carved palette made from a tree in the forest where she grew up, sitting on top is an array of her favorite
foods from the small Chinese bakery in her hometown that’s five states away,
then hundreds of violet colored candles cover the rim of the building, and twinkling
lights strung into an overhead canopy, accented by the occasional Chinese
lantern.
That weekend he approaches the female, “Hey, I, uh, a pigeon stole my phone.
And flew off with it. I think it took it to the roof.
I have crippling fear of
technology stealing foul.
Want to come up with me. Please.”
Girl: “……That doesn’t make any sens-“
Guy: “NO PLEASE ROOF NOW ME WITH GO WILL YOU?”
Girl: “I don’t think I feel comfort-“
*Guy grabs girl’s hand and drags her to
roof*
They get to the top, and she finds herself in the date night Eden.
She’s astounded, surprised, and impressed, as she turns to him,
“This is
amazing. It’s perfect. It’s beautiful. How did you pull this off?
My god, I
can’t believe you went to this much trouble. It must’ve taken you hours?”
Guy: *causal shrug*
“Oh, what this ? Nah, just threw it together in five
minuets.
Didn’t even really try. Zero
percent effort. Easy.”
Yeah.
Yeah.
I understand that
your efforts weren’t planned to the last detail.
That you embarked on all these tasks with a simplistic determination,
and general disregard for framework.
But I know it wasn’t that easy.
Don’t lie.
“Oh yeah, we just threw up a hundred trees, painted some bike lanes, and built some tables, nbd lol”
WHAT.
I’m sorry, hold on.
Pause.
That you embarked on all these tasks with a simplistic determination,
and general disregard for framework.
But I know it wasn’t that easy.
Don’t lie.
“Oh yeah, we just threw up a hundred trees, painted some bike lanes, and built some tables, nbd lol”
WHAT.
I’m sorry, hold on.
Pause.
Let’s think about this for a second
You just casually found hundreds of trees.
Transported these trees.
Placed these trees.
Found wood for these tables.
Built them.
Painted them.
Set them up.
Bought gallons of paint.
Painted bike lanes down either side of a busy road.
Etc.
All last minute.
-Easy-
Built them.
Painted them.
Set them up.
Bought gallons of paint.
Painted bike lanes down either side of a busy road.
Etc.
All last minute.
-Easy-
Nah, I’m calling bull.
Things like that take a lot of manpower.
A lot of money.
Dedicated people.
A certain amount of time, and planning.
And to play all that off as just something you did on a whim?
Sure, it makes you sound cool.
But, I’m willing to bet it also might scare off some of us who when we accurately estimate what
we’re capable of in our spare time, realize that we can’t do things to quite that level.
Now, that’s not to say that we can’t do some crazy awesome stuff.
Stuff we maybe wouldn’t even have dreamed of.
But still.
Dedicated people.
A certain amount of time, and planning.
And to play all that off as just something you did on a whim?
Sure, it makes you sound cool.
But, I’m willing to bet it also might scare off some of us who when we accurately estimate what
we’re capable of in our spare time, realize that we can’t do things to quite that level.
Now, that’s not to say that we can’t do some crazy awesome stuff.
Stuff we maybe wouldn’t even have dreamed of.
But still.
Basically.
If a guy is standing on the top of mount Everest, bragging about how it was no big
deal,
took ten minuets, total accident really, didn’t even mean for it to
happen, etc.
The people at the bottom might think, wow that was easy for him, I could do that. But they also might then start up the mountain and when it gets hard, feel discouraged that it was so easy for
whats-his-face, but they can’t seem to do it as quickly.
And that’s not a good feeling.
So if I could give some advice to the man on the mountain,
I’d say yeah. Tell your story. Make your journey seem approachable. Be encouraging.
But there’s nothing wrong with putting some hard work into something.
And letting people know that you did.
That way, those people at the bottom will be able to look up and think,
“He actually IS just like me. And if he can do it, so can I.”
Then they'll climb the mountain too.
The people at the bottom might think, wow that was easy for him, I could do that. But they also might then start up the mountain and when it gets hard, feel discouraged that it was so easy for
whats-his-face, but they can’t seem to do it as quickly.
And that’s not a good feeling.
So if I could give some advice to the man on the mountain,
I’d say yeah. Tell your story. Make your journey seem approachable. Be encouraging.
But there’s nothing wrong with putting some hard work into something.
And letting people know that you did.
That way, those people at the bottom will be able to look up and think,
“He actually IS just like me. And if he can do it, so can I.”
Then they'll climb the mountain too.
This is sooooo true. It might have looked especially this way due to the nature of an 18 minute TED talk. Even still, it looked like he needed the crew team of a blockbuster movie to put that place together so quickly.
ReplyDeleteYes to all of this. Also, I felt kinda "eh" about how (even if he didn't mean to) he made it sound as if he did everything alone, by himself. Like that's ever possible. No, I wish he put into more detail about the other people who were working with him, how TOGETHER they made things happen, and that it was hard, but together it was possible. I wish he had outlined the difficulties, talked about the mini-victories and then concluded with their product, but then realizing that it was the process that really made it worthwhile and that even if it didn't work out as perfectly as they wanted, it was still awesome creating something, producing something, working hard towards something together. Yeah. I wish he did that.
ReplyDeleteI thought the same thing when I was watching the TED talk and he was in class. He made himself sound like a bit of an Ubermensch, exercising his supreme power of will and not letting people or government get in his way. Granted, his talk did inspire me to take action and to get past my initial resistance to starting something, which was the point of the talk. Maybe he should do a follow up talk on how hard projects can be that you are supposed to watch a few weeks into your bit-off-more-than-you-can-chew project.
ReplyDelete-_- I've written this comment three times... lol a bit frustrated... you'd think that i'd learn to copy it just in case.
ReplyDeleteAnyways
YAAAAAASS. your post. YES. That's real, there is no way that it's that easy they just break tons of laws to make a point!?!? WAT!? And then the trees that's what killed me. they just kidnapped a tree truck and then sent them on their way?! no that's not right. I can't just stop a truck of bread, buy a loaf and send it on it's way... trucks don't stop... WTF.. plus you're right about it being upsetting hearing that this guy can change the world in a weekend... as if he were changing a shirt.. and I can't even change my study habits....... NO! It's not an encouragement to watch that video but instead it's just upsetting... anyways. I like your outlook on it because you said everything we were all thinking.