The Life Experiment Theory: One Rule That Changes How You Do Everything

Mark Rober (00:01):

If you are not failing, that's a problem, right? You need to be testing the limits to understand if you're being so conservative on everything, you have no idea how much bigger and cooler this thing could be.

 

Mel Robbins (00:12):

I got to be honest with you, I'm not excited about failing.

 

Mark Rober (00:14):

Mark. I think we overestimate the negative impact on failure and underestimate our ability to handle it. This framework really does help. I call this the Super Mario effect, but I have not really talked about this publicly, Mel, but can I give you a big bombshell here?

 

Mel Robbins (00:34):

Sure.

 

Mark Rober (00:34):

We're doing this thing we're taking, it's going to cost about 55 million to make, and then we're going to make it free for all teachers.

 

Mel Robbins (00:42):

Are you kidding me?

 

Mark Rober (00:44):

I just feel like teachers specifically, it's like it's the most, I think, important profession and perhaps the most underappreciated or undersupported profession. So it's kind of like, Hey, reinforcements are on the way. We got you.

 

Mel Robbins (01:02):

Why does this bring up so much for you?

 

Mark Rober (01:05):

I myself, am product of great teachers. My mom, she passed away like six months before I even made my first YouTube video. Regardless of what you believe about what happens when we die, I think we can all agree A successful life is one where you leave the world a better place than you found it.

Mark Rober (01:30):

I'm so excited to be here.

 

Mel Robbins (01:31):

I am so excited to be here too.

 

Mark Rober (01:34):

You're like one of my heroes on the digital front of, I feel like we're kind of had similar stories, so I feel like I'm in the room with a hero that's very relatable to me.

 

Mel Robbins (01:45):

Well, I feel the same, and you've made a huge impact in a lot of my family members' lives. My nephew, my son is a monster fan. I would not let him skip college for the day to come in and meet you. I'm a mean mom, but I would love to start, mark, by having you tell me how could my life be different if I take everything to heart that you're about to share and teach us today about failure, about creativity, about really being true to yourself and knowing who you are to heart and I apply it to my life.

 

Mark Rober (02:19):

Yeah. I think something that's helped me a lot in life is valuable frameworks, especially when looking at challenges and when looking at failure. Viewing failure in a way that it doesn't mean you are a failure, but it almost flips it where it's exciting. And that approach to problems and challenges, seeing them as exciting opportunities really is a framework thing that I've found has just been an incredible help in my life.

 

Mel Robbins (02:48):

I personally love frameworks because it feels then the things I need to do feel a little less arduous and it doesn't feel like the things I screw it up are so personal. And I love the idea that you have a framework to help make better decisions.

 

Mark Rober (03:09):

My favorite feeling truly is when that aha moment when you learn something new and you have a new framework and it allows you to kind of see the world. We've all read a book or listened to a podcast that sticks with you and then changes. Heck, the book let them right? Is this for so many people and I love that moment so much. The only thing I love more is giving that to someone else. I love to be that conduit.

 

Mel Robbins (03:34):

How do you describe what you do? You know what I mean? For somebody who may be listening right now or watching right now and they're like, I love this guy. Who's this guy? What's this guy do? Tell me more about this guy. How would you describe what you do?

 

Mark Rober (03:46):

Yeah, so I'm a mechanical engineer. I got my bachelor's in in mechanical engineer. I worked at NASA for a decade working on the Curiosity Rover.

 

Mel Robbins (03:56):

Wait, the thing that went to Mars?

 

Mark Rober (03:57):

Yeah.

 

Mel Robbins (03:58):

Wait, what did you do with that?

 

Mark Rober (04:00):

I worked on the jet pack that lowers it to the ground and then some hardware on the top deck of the rover. So the arm digs in the dirt, dumps it into the belly of the rover and my hardware accepted the sample.

 

Mel Robbins (04:09):

That's so cool.

 

Mark Rober (04:10):

And it's still working to this day, so fingers crossed.

 

Mel Robbins (04:13):

Wow. Okay. So you worked at NASA?

 

Mark Rober (04:15):

Yep.

 

Mel Robbins (04:16):

Doing all kinds of cool stuff.

 

Mark Rober (04:18):

And then I worked at Apple for five years in their special projects group, and then eventually when I

 

Mel Robbins (04:22):

Is that top secret stuff?

 

Mark Rober (04:23):

Yeah, I worked on the, what the hell, I worked on the Apple car.

 

Mel Robbins (04:28):

You did?

 

Mark Rober (04:29):

Yeah. Which didn't end up becoming a thing.

 

Mel Robbins (04:30):

I was going to say, is there an Apple car?

 

Mark Rober (04:32):

No.

 

Mel Robbins (04:32):

Okay.

 

Mark Rober (04:33):

They canceled it soon after I left.

 

Mel Robbins (04:35):

Okay. Well it's because you left.

 

Mark Rober (04:36):

Yeah, I like to think so. And only then when I had 10 million YouTube subscribers at that point did I quit my actual job to do YouTube full time.

 

Mel Robbins (04:47):

Okay. So hold on. And why did you start making videos on YouTube? You got big jobs at NASA and Apple and how old were you when you kind of started tinkering I'll say?

 

Mark Rober (04:58):

My first video I uploaded, I was like 31 years old and it was a Halloween costume. It was like an iPad in front and an iPad in back. If you do a FaceTime video call, it looks like you have a hole in your body because the camera in the front shows what's on the back. So it's like an optical illusion.

 

Mel Robbins (05:15):

Oh, so you have the camera in back, you have the camera in the front calling the camera in the back

 

Mark Rober (05:21):

And vice versa. So what happens if you wave your hand in the front? It shows that on the screen in the back, if you cut a hole in your shirt, it looks like you have a hole in your body. Right?

 

Mel Robbins (05:30):

Oh my God. So both ways.

 

Mark Rober (05:32):

Both ways. It was a very, I love ideas that are really simple and that you could just make with stuff you already have. And so I uploaded that YouTube video. I took it to a Halloween party and everyone's like, this is amazing. And it went super viral out of the gate, 3 million views, and I was like, well, this is a good feeling. I have way more ideas. And back then you didn't know you could make money or get famous on YouTube and you're just sharing ideas.

 

Mel Robbins (06:00):

Got it.

 

Mark Rober (06:01):

And basically, I've uploaded one video a month since that day, so almost 15 years now.

 

Mel Robbins (06:06):

So for 15 years, one video a month since that day. And the videos are all explaining super cool things, mostly about science

 

Mark Rober (06:17):

Generally. It might be like someone stole a package for my porch. I engineered a glitter bomb that could get revenge on porch pirates where it has four phones inside that record and uploaded the cloud, but there's also a cup that spins a pound of the world's finest glitter. Of course there's some fart spray in there, so they have to get it rid of it out of their house. We built eventually like 20 and put 'em on porches all across America in spots we knew were hotspots for getting porch pirates. And then we just tracked them all and we would know when one got stolen and then it's watching the footage real time and you get some pretty hilarious reactions.

Mark Rober (07:16):

You just have to evoke a visceral response. In other words, it has to make them laugh. They have to feel excited. They just have to feel something, right? For something to be remarkable, it has to be able to be remarked about. And so you don't share a video, you don't finish watching. So if you could just make them feel something, then they are way more likely to actually take action and share it. And I think this is applicable in people's lives. If you want, A lot of times we just want to focus on the facts like, well, the facts are on my side, so I'm just going to state the facts. But if you don't emotionally connect with someone, maybe you want to pitch something to your boss like this big idea. Maybe you want to apologize to your partner or your kid. If the emotion's not there, it doesn't cause that shift in the heart. And we survived long before written to tell stories to each other. And so it's in our DNA to resonate with stories. And I think this is very applicable for people's lives of just leaning into the story and the emotion of a thing just for interpersonal relationships. Your apologies will be accepted faster

 

(08:29):

And more earnestly. You will find that you can pitch ideas to coworkers, even just like where are we going to eat? You are more influential if you can remember that we are hardwired to tell stories.

 

Mel Robbins (08:41):

So if you don't think you're a good storyteller or you're like a really shy person, is there any advice that you have about how you can use this framework of thinking about the emotion or I love that thing that you said to be, you have to have people remark about you and telling somebody a story or moving them emotionally or getting them excited about something is what makes people remark about you.

 

(09:07):

So how could somebody think about storytelling as a tool to use to prepare for anything, whether it's a date or it's a job interview or it's having a hard conversation or it's trying to go viral, making your next video.

 

Mark Rober (09:21):

The biggest downside, especially as an engineer, I get this, is to focus on the facts. Let's say you're selling a thing, it's like, well, my processor has 20% more gigahertz. People don't care. It's just a spec sheet, right? They want to know how this will make them feel. So I think part of it is empathizing with the other person you're talking to and putting yourself in their shoes and understanding from their perspective what would feel meaningful to them.

 

Mel Robbins (09:51):

You only do one video a month when you are sitting down to think of the idea, are there particular check boxes that you go through? Because one of them has to be what emotion are we evoking? What story are we telling? Is there a framework you use that helps you architect the type of experiment that you're going to do or how you're using this? How do I evoke something? How do I engineer a story that creates emotion for people?

 

Mark Rober (10:21):

What I do is I like to say hide the vegetables. What

 

Mel Robbins (10:25):

Does that mean? Oh, you mean blend them? What are you talking about?

 

Mark Rober (10:27):

No, no. Yeah, so I'll say, so at the end of the day, my goal is to reach as many brains as possible with this story of learning how to think critically, to be curious to embrace failure, thinking like an engineer, even if you're not an engineer that is my north star. So the way I do that is hiding the vegetables. So I might have a video that's like a 15 ton jello pool, which is very hard to do, by the way

 

Mel Robbins (10:50):

Now 15 ton jello pool.

 

Mark Rober (10:51):

That's

 

Mel Robbins (10:51):

Right. Is that like a swimming pool full of jello?

 

Mark Rober (10:53):

Yes, that weighs 15 tons, which no one has literally ever in the history of the internet, actually pulled that off. We were the first because we had to go to, because jello, you have to boil it and then you have to cool it down. So I went to the perfect spot in the United States where overnight it would get to refrigerator temperatures. We boiled it in six huge 55 gallon drums. It took a full week. I lost 10 pounds. I was so stressed out, but we pulled it off and you could see someone belly flopping in a pool of jello. That's a very clickbait title and thumbnail, but once you click on the video, Mel is where I get you, because pretty soon you're learning about chemistry, you're learning about the scientific method, you're learning about the variables we controlled. So it's like I can't teach you if I don't have your attention. So by teaching science in this way via spectacle, you come in, you get hooked, you're like, wait, what? And so that's what I really do. I get your attention. I hide the vegetables. And this is actually something I have not really talked about this publicly, Mel, but can I give you a big bombshell here, a big announcement here? Sure. We're taking all the tricks I've learned over this 15 years of hiding the vegetables of teaching science in a way that's exciting.

 

(12:15):

Kids and adults are choosing to watch these on the YouTube. There's so many other options they can click on. So we're going to make a full science curriculum.

 

Mel Robbins (12:23):

You are

 

Mark Rober (12:24):

Third to eighth grade. This includes really cool videos, includes a lot of their favorite YouTubers that they already watch.

 

Mel Robbins (12:31):

Oh my gosh.

 

Mark Rober (12:31):

It Includes resources for teachers. It includes really cool demos they can do in class that are very inexpensive. It also adheres to all the science standards. And then we're going to make it free for all teachers.

 

Mel Robbins (12:44):

Are you kidding me?

 

Mark Rober (12:46):

No, it's going to toss three. It'll take about three years total. We're about a year into it. And yeah, I just feel like teachers specifically the most, I think, important profession and perhaps the most underappreciated or undersupported profession, so especially to these teachers who are paying their own money for curriculum, that's terrible. So it's kind of like, Hey, reinforcements are on the way. We got you. We're coming with this really cool thing. So that I think will be the most important thing I do in my whole life I were really excited about it.

 

Mel Robbins (13:31):

I can see how emotional it makes you.

 

Mark Rober (13:35):

Yeah, I'm really, really excited about that.

 

Mel Robbins (13:38):

Why does this bring up so much for you?

 

Mark Rober (13:44):

I myself, am product of great teachers. My mom, she passed away six months before I even made my first YouTube video, and she didn't even go to, she barely graduated high school, but she has had, she's had more impact on my life than anyone by very comfortable margin, which honestly, I almost think is a beautiful thing where you never really know the full measure of your life, the impact that you have, regardless of what you believe about what happens when we die, I think we can all agree a successful life is one where you leave the world a better place than you found it. And the impact you have on others, you'll just never really know. And I almost think it's beautiful that she had no idea that what happened just right after she passed away, where I started getting all this reach and now I'm trying to reach as many brains as possible. And basically what she did for me and what other great teachers did for me, that's what teachers are. They're seed planners. So if we want to invest in the future of the world, there's big problems coming down the pipeline. Mel, this is an all brains on deck situation, right?

 

Mel Robbins (15:04):

It is.

 

Mark Rober (15:04):

So we should be investing in the seed planners, those who are creating the next generation of big problem solvers. And so just this idea of supporting and celebrating them and just saying thank you, and also just putting a thumb on the scale that's like, this is a cool profession and people should aspire to be this. My dream job, truly, and I've said this for a decade, is to be a middle school or high school science teacher. Honestly, I thought by now I would be retired and I would just be doing that as a volunteer. And then what I realized is, by the way, I still want to do that. That is still going to be what I do eventually, but I can have more impact using the platform that I have by supporting other teachers in the meantime.

 

Mel Robbins (15:51):

Well, I'm so moved. I didn't think I'd cry talking to you. Honestly. I kept thinking you would be my dream science teacher for my kids. And I'm sure as you're listening or watching this, you're like, man, I wish Mark was my kid's teacher. And what occurred to me is that your mom is clearly with us and that you actually are the world's science teacher. That is what you're doing. You just happen to have the largest science classroom in the world. No, really? That's what you're doing.

 

Mark Rober (16:33):

Yeah. I mean, I guess it's funny. I don't think about it in those terms. I'm just like, what's the next video I want to make next month? That's exciting to me. And I think that is, yeah, I kind of think when people are like, what's your 10 year plan? Especially when they ask kids in middle school or something, it's like, I don't know. Nobody knows any adult who tells you, oh, yeah, I knew I'd be exactly right here in my life 20 years ago. Bull, that's not true. My philosophy is it's like crossing a river and there's a bunch of stones on it. You don't necessarily know the right path. But what I can do is I could wiggle the three rocks in front of me and it's like, oh, this is the best rock right here, so I'm going to hop on this one. And now that I'm on that one now, I could touch my toe out and wiggle the next three.

 

(17:24):

So my whole thing, and I really try this, tell this kids as well. It's like whatever the options are in front of me, okay, I'm going to pick the best one. I'm just going to put everything into this thing. And then once you do that, now suddenly, guess what? Four more doors open and now choose the best one from there. And now, oh, now there's seven more doors. And so if you're 15, you don't know what you want to be when you grow up, what makes you excited? Do you love to draw? Just draw a ton and get as good as you can be. Do you love to write? Well, then just write as much as you can, talk to other folks, learn more about that. And just a life where you just follow your passions is one that just very naturally just feels very, very fulfilling. And so when you say, Hey, you're in a position, you're the world science teacher. It's like, I don't know. I guess I'm not looking at that, Mel. I'm looking at the rock in front of me. And then, yeah, sometimes you zoom out and you're like, oh, holy crud, 71 million subscribers and 20 billion views on science videos. Yeah, that is a lot. But I mean, my team will tell you, we'll release a video. And they're like, oh, the video's great. I'm like, wait, what? I'm already on the next thing. No, we got more work to do.

Mark Rober (20:15):

Yeah. So I think what I found over time is this started, the first time I noticed this was trying to make a dart board where you get a bullseye every time where you could throw a dart, it would track the dart through the air, it would predict where it would land, and then it would move the dart board in 400 milliseconds.

 

Mel Robbins (20:35):

No way.

 

Mark Rober (20:35):

That's less than a blink of an eye. And that video took me three years to build that. And there were a lot of setbacks, Mel. There was a lot of moments where it's like, oh, we thought this would work, but it doesn't. And what I realized is at no part in any of that was I like, I'm a failure. This is the worst I want to give up. It's almost like with each setback, I was more and more determined. I learned one more way not to do it. And what I realized is it's a video game. I call this the Super Mario Effect. In any video game, there's an objective or a goal. You have to rescue the princess from the castle or get a certain amount of points, but there's obstacles in that way,

 

Mel Robbins (21:18):

Okay,

 

Mark Rober (21:19):

There might be pits, there might be bad guys. And if you die, you go back to the beginning and you just keep trying. And over time you get better and better, and you learn to avoid the obstacles better and better. Super Mario Brothers, you're just trying to pass the level. And on that level, there's pits that you could fall into.

 

(21:35):

There's sliding green turtle shells. There's lots of ways that you could die, but no one ever picks up that controller for the first time and falls into a pit and is like, I'm such a failure. I'm an idiot. How embarrassing. I'd never want to play this again. No. Instead you're like, oh, crud. Okay, there's a pit there. I got to remember that next time I'm going to come a little faster. I'm going to jump a little earlier. And so by having this attitude toward failure, by focusing on rescuing the princess from the castle, the focus is on the princess. And the goal in mind, you focus on the win, right? You're not focused on the failures. And that doesn't mean it doesn't sting, right? On level eight one, there's this huge pit you have to jump over and land on this tiny little platform. It's really hard to do, and you've made it all the way there, and then you die. And it stings, Mel, it still hurts. It's not this Pollyanna attitude of like, oh, well, everything's good,

 

Mel Robbins (22:32):

Just and even the sound at the end when you die. Oh,

 

Mark Rober (22:38):

Right. It's very sad, even the sound, but it stings. But you're immediately like, what did I learn? Now I'm going to try this again because I now know one more way not to attempt that jump.

 

Mel Robbins (22:50):

How do you use this when a lot of the failing that people need to do is in front of other people? Or you might get negative feedback or people might comment on your video, or you might look stupid at work. Do you see what I'm saying? So what would you say to the person that's like, okay, I can do that with a video game, but I still can't talk at work?

 

Mark Rober (23:13):

I think we overestimate the negative impact on failure and underestimate our ability to handle it when we're imagining towards the future of this failure thing. And I think it's a repetition thing. I get that I hate public speaking and it's a goal of mine right now. It's one of my Super Mario level things I'm working on. And what I'm finding is just the more reps I do it, the more times I do it, you do normalize to it.

 

(23:41):

So I think I get that fear and I recognize that it is different. You're in front of other people, but it's one of those things that just, it's exposure therapy and fail small in front of small groups of people, and then you can eventually fail bigger and bigger. But even still, I will say this framework really does help. I'll have videos that will bomb and there'll be a 10 out of my last 10, and it stings, it's like fallen in that pit, but it's like, oh, you know what though? This kind of makes sense because we started a little differently and we did it this way. And so immediately just the way my brain works, and that's a big failure, Mel, in front of a lot of people,

 

(24:20):

And it stinks for a day. But immediately the way the framework works is I'm like, what did I learn from that? And I call that thinking like an engineer, meaning to get the rover on Mars. We tested so many things you just don't know. And no one, if you have a test that fails at NASA for a landing strut, no one's like, oh, you're a failure. It's like, oh, great. Now we know the limits of what this thing can do, so let's redesign it as an engineer, this is just how you think. If you are not failing, that's a problem. You need to be testing the limits to understand. If you're being so conservative on everything, you have no idea how much bigger and cooler this thing could be, right? Each time you fail, you are learning something. You're learning one more way not to do it. So I think if they can approach it that way and find the positivity in the fail and the learning in the fail, then it gives it a purpose.

 

Mel Robbins (25:17):

You just gave me a huge aha moment as a mom. And I want, as you're listening or watching, I want you to steal this. I want you to use this with every single gamer in your life because I think one of the things that I got very wrong is you tend to attack the gaming because you think the person in your life who's good at gaming or loves gaming is avoiding life by gaming.

 

(25:47):

And I just realized he missed a huge opportunity as a parent because Oakley was only gaming as much as he was because he was good at it, and he was doing it because he was doing it with his friends, and he was doing it because he was learning these incredible skills that you're talking about, thinking like an engineer, tinkering, experimenting, failing, starting over, the resilience, the get back and go the building that muscle over and over and over and over again. It's evidence that they have resilience. It's evidence that they can experiment and fail and learn. It's evidence that they can figure it out,

 

Mark Rober (26:20):

Trying it and then learning. And by the way, you shouldn't just nail it right out of the gate. I think that's what people expect, right? Well, if I'm good at it, you don't expect that in a video game. Why would you expect that in life? You learned a lot more in failure sometimes, especially with kids, than just by succeeding at a thing.

Mark Rober (26:59):

I would say start small and make your goal to fail.

 

Mel Robbins (27:02):

What do you mean make your goal to fail?

 

Mark Rober (27:05):

I just went through this myself, Mel, where it's like, I like to play chess occasionally, and I found I wasn't playing chess because I felt like if I lost somehow I would internalize it. Something about me, this is playing online, and I'm like, what am I doing? So I made a goal that I want to lose 10 games.

 

Mel Robbins (27:24):

What? I love this.

 

Mark Rober (27:25):

This was my goal.

 

Mel Robbins (27:26):

Do you know I'm starting to learn chess. Oh, really? And I feel really stupid. And so I played once with Oakley. He smashed me. And then I'm like, okay, I don't want to play with anybody else. I don't want to look done. Because it's your goal to lose 10 times in a row,

 

Mark Rober (27:38):

10 times or just 10 times. It doesn't necessarily need to be in a row, but it's like, Hey, I'm going to play these games and I check a box. I win when I fail this many times, and that just resets everything, and it totally worked for me. Now then I expose myself to losing more, and now I don't even think about it. And I love, I don't internalize it as a negative thing, and now I'm enjoying and playing way more chess. So if you're nervous about speaking up at work, maybe it's public speaking,

 

Mel Robbins (28:12):

Maybe's dating an interview, it could be

 

Mark Rober (28:13):

Dating an interview. Maybe you love to draw and you want to make a YouTube video talking about it. Just make your goal. Let's say for the YouTube case, just to make 10 videos. Don't think anything about views, don't think anything about any sort of metrics goal.

 

Mel Robbins (28:27):

Go for zero views.

 

Mark Rober (28:29):

Yeah, go for zero views, right? Your W is just getting it up and starting to flex that muscle. And it's just like anything in life. It's exposure therapy, and the more you're exposed to it, the better you get. You build those muscles. It's just like training in a gym. Those muscles get stronger, you get more adapted to it, and then you look back at where you were a year ago and you're like, oh, man, I can't believe I was ever worried about this.

 

Mel Robbins (28:53):

Well, here's genius about that, mark, is that I think there's a lot of talk about how failure should be the thing we go for, but what you just did with that framework is you said no, the goal is to fail.

 

Mark Rober (29:05):

Yeah,

 

Mel Robbins (29:05):

I love that. It's so subtle, but it's a really genius way to do it.

 

Mark Rober (29:11):

Just get the pressure off yourself, right? Yes. And understand that will happen, and don't try and avoid that thing.

Mark Rober (29:33):

Oh, yeah. So here's an example of just a very simple demo. I'll pull up. That's down.

 

Mel Robbins (29:38):

Okay, so he's reaching down right now if you're not watching on YouTube, but you're probably going to want to watch this on YouTube at some point. You've got a, oh, you got a hairdryer?

 

Mark Rober (29:45):

Yes. This is just a simple hair dryer you'd have at home and just ping pong,

 

Mel Robbins (29:49):

Ping pong ball. Yeah.

 

Mark Rober (29:50):

Okay. So what I'm going to do, Mel, I'm going to turn this on, and the ping pong ball is levitating in this hair dryer, but even as you twist it left and right, it magically stays in the airflow. So this is a principle called the kawan effect. Essentially what's happening is it's creating a little low pressure bubble for the ball to float in. That's why even at a side angle like this, it's still floating. This is what the principle behind what makes curve balls curve in baseball. It's like the same kind of principle of air flowing around the side to create little bubbles

 

Mel Robbins (30:34):

That move, oh, because the air is coming straight up and out of the hairdryer, but when it hits the mass of the ball, it goes up on the sides of it. So it's almost like cupping it with the fluid that is air. I'm learning.

 

Mark Rober (30:48):

It's exactly it, man. Wow, you explained that so well. But what's so great? That's such a simple demo of Harry Potter levitation, right? I mean, you literally look like a wizard just hovering this thing, and it's just, this is junk. You have lying around your house. So it's like a demo that explains it. That's really cool. That's very approachable. This isn't some fancy scientific instruments, a ping pong ball and a hair. Here's another one that I think will work well on a podcast is I've got a cup.

 

Mel Robbins (31:22):

You've got a little plastic cup like you see in backyard barbecues.

 

Mark Rober (31:25):

Yeah, those red solo cups.

 

Mel Robbins (31:27):

Yeah,

 

Mark Rober (31:28):

There's just a normal string here.

 

Mel Robbins (31:29):

Yeah, just a white string that you've tied to the, you've punched a hole at the end,

 

Mark Rober (31:34):

So it's poked through the end of the bottom of the cup. And then I have a little bit of a, in fact, I'm going to dip this in my water here.

 

Mel Robbins (31:40):

Okay.

 

Mark Rober (31:41):

It's just a paper towel.

 

Mel Robbins (31:42):

Yep. Nothing fancy.

 

Mark Rober (31:43):

And what's interesting now is I'm going to try and make a chicken sound. You tell me if this works.

 

Mel Robbins (31:48):

A chicken sound with a plastic cup and a string and a wet paper towel.

 

Mark Rober (31:51):

See if you believe it. Ready? Here we go.

 

Mel Robbins (31:56):

That's exactly what that sounds like.

 

Mark Rober (32:00):

So all we're doing with this little cup and making a little chicken demo is there's vibrations. As the friction on the string rubs against the paper towel, it vibrates the bottom of this cup. It's a diaphragm. It's like a drum, and then it's amplified through the cup, so it becomes like a little speaker. In other words, if I take this same string and I rub it without the cup, what you would expect to hear, what I anticipate happening, you just don't hear much. You kind of hear it, but it doesn't have that amplification because what's happening with the bottom of this cup is as I vibrate it, it pushes all the air molecules that are up against the bottom of this cup. It pushes them out and they bonk into other air molecules, and they keep bonking until it hits your eardrum, and it registers those movements of molecules bumping into your eardrum. And we call that sound. And if it's a high frequency, that means the bumping happens more frequently. So if it's a high frequency, a high pitch, that's just like the bumping happening faster,

 

(33:08):

Faster.

 

(33:09):

If it's a low frequency, the bumping is happening less frequently. We call that a low frequency.

 

Mel Robbins (33:14):

So does this also explain why my kid, Oakley showed me this, if you need a speaker and you don't have one, you can stick your phone in a cup and play it in a cup and then the cup amplifies it.

 

Mark Rober (33:27):

That's exactly it. That's right. Whoa. It concentrates the air molecules all pushing together in the same direction to eventually hit your ear. So just simple little demos like that where it's like, I could have tried to explain that with words, but if you can viscerally get your hands on it, and it's not a complicated thing, it's not a complicated set. Those are the moments where I think you create more aha moments.

 

Mel Robbins (33:55):

So how would you recommend that the person who's listening or watching right now apply the fun and the curiosity toward their own goals in life?

 

Mark Rober (34:07):

Curiosity is actually, and creativity and curiosity, that's a muscle that can be developed. I do think some people are just born more naturally curious and probably born a little bit more naturally creative, but there's a huge middle ground. The research shows this. We've worked a lot with Dr. Adam Green from Georgetown, and you can actually measure your brain if you measure the alpha brainwaves, that's highly correlated to creative problem solving, creative thinking. So you can measure this with an EKG, and what he found was that it's a muscle.

 

Mel Robbins (34:45):

Creativity is a muscle,

 

Mark Rober (34:46):

Yes. The more time you spend in that space, the more comfortable you are with it, the more quickly your brain goes to that spot. So it's kind of like this idea of a mind frame of just viewing the world through a lens of curiosity. Viewing the world through a lens of like, huh, why is that the best words to hear in science aren't like Eureka, I discovered it. The best words that lead to the most scientific breakthrough is like, huh, I wonder why that happened. It starts with an observation. You're like, that was unexpected