Sunday 28 December 2014

Head Talks?

A True Master Never Stops Learning?

Received an email from a friend recommending a TED Talk on Happiness, the following was my response.

Thank you! I love TEd Talks and can't imagine a better way for increasing smarts, happiness and perhaps even worldliness.

I've even been working on a new marketing angle, something along the lines of "Chainman Challenges". The concept is for participants to build a chain shirt while passively absorbing TED or other educational content. Such as VSauce (for the faster minds amongst us) or ever those neat RSA Animate white board talks.

Ultimately TED is like anything else; there will be ideas to cheer, ideas to jeer and a lot of stuff that simply blows your mind.

Some of the mind blowing ideas I've come across are:

The First 20 Hours - How To Learn Anything

Hack Schooling

Do Schools Kill Creativity?

Philosophy for Happiness

An example Chainman challenge would be to knit a chain coif and passively absorb 20 hours of educational videos.


I only recently learnt about TED and discovered that there are over 900+ hours of TED material.

For the last couple of months I have been listening to as many random educational videos as possible each Saturday at Whytes on the second floor of the Gore Bay Harbour Centre. Where I mind the shop when my wife is unable.

It's been quiet on the island of late. As always this has led a great need to entertain ourselves. I don't know about you, but most modern movies and TV leave me with the same deja amnesia experience of having been there and done that all before.

Thank goodness I love learning! One of the most important things I have ever learnt is that statistically I know nothing. I consider this awesome because it means that's always something new to learn!

Enjoyed the article about Sir William Marshall, whom I had previously not come across. What a character! Thank you once again for expanding my knowledge base. Grace is something rather hard for an uncoordinated buffoon like myself to quantify.

When I was younger I can remember wishing that it were possible to know everything there was to know. Now I can't imagine any worse fate than knowing it all. As it would mean there was nothing new to learn.

Anyhow, I reckon that 900 hours is about as long as it would take a chain neophyte to knit themselves a nice chain work. Such as a hauberk;

By the end of the process not only should the reader have picked up a new skill (see The First 20 Hours) and lots of other ideas worth spreading by osmosis, but also have an chain garment of literal value. For example, I just listed the pictured XXL chain hauberk on Etsy. So at the very least there's a physical gain that can be passed on to friends, family or even customers.

Plus, if nothing else, anybody with the literal willpower to make a chain garment will undoubtedly pick up a modicum of patience. Which to my perspective is definitely virtue.

What do you think? Would there be interest in a Chainman Challenge Kit?

Instructions, materials and tools to make your own "real" chain armour?

What would you pay for such a novelty?

Quote of the Day : Bacon; because life is only black and white when developing negatives.

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