Rober: Reframing failure like a video game accelerates skill acquisition
Mark Rober · CrunchLabs: Mark Rober · Apr 15, 2024 · at 25:16
Mark Rober, former NASA engineer and founder of CrunchLabs, describes his mental model for skill development and creative iteration to host Guy Raz.
0:00 / 0:19exact quote · 19.6s
720p mp4 · rendered on demand · StarZero watermark
“I talk about this being like the Super Mario effect where it's like, no one ever picks up a video game and falls in the first pit and is like, I'm so ashamed. I'm just not good at this. They're like, no, I remember there's a pit there. I need to come with a little more speed. I need to jump a little earlier, right? And as a result, you get really good at this thing in a very short amount of time. And guess what? It doesn't feel like learning.”
quote is from the automated transcript, cleaned for reading: filler sounds and stutters are removed, nothing is rephrased. names can be misheard (the analysis reads context, assessments check outside sources). how →
More from Mark Rober
Rober: Hiring large production teams alienates YouTubers and degrades content
“And this is a problem a lot of YouTubers do, where it's like, they see a little bit of success, so it's like, well, what's the playbook say? Ok, I need to hire a manager, and I need to hire five editors, and a video guy, and a script guy. And then you're left …”
YouTube channels suffer when pivoting from the original host to ensembles
“I feel like it's a downfall when they try and Totally pivot the channel and have eight different people on camera. People don't like it. And it's not what they subscribed for, right? It's not what they came for.”
Using ordinary household junk makes engineering content more relatable and resonant
“The more you're doing it with like, just junk you have lying around the house, the more it resonates with people. Cause it's like, ah, why didn't I think of that? That's so clever. I can actually do that.”
Apple bought out Rober's Morphsuits contract and initially banned YouTube videos
“I still had a year left in my contract with Morph Suits, so I interviewed at Apple. They liked me, so they bought me out of the contract. But one of the stipulations was like, you can't make YouTube videos anymore.”
Rober still writes every video himself and spends 60 hours editing
“Which is like, to this day, I still write all the videos and I spend probably 60 hours in the edits. And I'm never gonna give that up. Like, why would I? I'm happy to not make, make fewer videos and do what I love than to just be a guy who just, like, manages …”