MythBusters Co-Host Adam Savage on Obsession | Hacker News Reader

MythBusters Co-Host Adam Savage on Obsession

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60 pointsdcurtis23 comments

Note the unique presentation style - story with flashing images. It's surprisingly appealing. Even simple slides like "Anyway." that stay for just a second or two keep the viewer from getting distracted.

The whole "less words more pictures" philosophy has become really popular lately, and it seems this has taken it to a new level.

Bonus points for style and execution.

Eventually, media and computers are going to change our language from a verbal one to one where instantly synthesized sounds and images will directly portray many of the ideas we now communicate using word abstractions.

I'm not the originator of this idea. David Brin had uplifted dolphins doing this in his books. Since they could "see" through echolocation, dolphins could synthesize "images" for each other by mimicking what would be the return reflections of imagined objects and directly beam them into each other's heads.

It will take many advances in interfaces, but we will eventually get there. Already, cameraphones and video cameras and media are starting to effect the way we communicate about the past.

It's great, but I think I'm going to be pretty sick of it by the time I've seen the tenth presentation on web programming that's been done in the same style.

When you have 50 pictures in a presentation about web programming, about half of them tend to fall into the lolcat category. Of course that grows old quickly.

But in a presentation about the dodo every picture is both relevant and interesting. The 60th picture is as engaging as the 3rd.

In other words, with web programming pictures are used because text is boring and the presenter wants the audience to know he doesn't work at IBM.

Incidentally, most presentations that I've seen that have contained lolcats have been by people who do "work at IBM". I've used a lolcat once or twice, but I stopped after I noticed that :)

Apparently it is now cool to use the word "fuck" a lot, since the corporate types seem to have trouble emulating this. Even that is getting old now, forcing speakers to be even more obscene. My favorite example was a friend describing mod_perl during a talk -- "When all you have is a nailgun, everything looks like the Messiah". I am not sure what was funnier, that remark, or the horrified look on people's faces.

Either way, it was better than a lolcat.

That was kind of what I was getting at...soon, we're going to be seeing lots of picture-filled presentations on AJAX, where every other slide is a profanity. ;-)

It's the planned spontaneity that makes the "Anyway." slide work. His setup and delivery of this line is so enthusiastic, natural, sincere that it couldn't be planned... yet there's the slide. Cute theatrical technique.

Here's an idea: treat the slides like a ventriloquist's dummy, so that they counter your argument, mock you, undermine you. You could have a conversation. You'd need theatrical skills to pull this off.

Please reply to this comment if you try this out!

> treat the slides like a ventriloquist's dummy, so that they counter your argument, mock you, undermine you.

This is an awesome idea. Stephen Colbert does this a little bit. But having a conversation would be great.

The Word segments: http://www.hulu.com/watch/47154/the-colbert-report-the-word-...

thanks, but Hulu says "not available in your country" :(

oddly enough, the colbert report's own site is happy to share it worldwide: http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/21198...

It's a similar idea, but the charm of it really coming from the speaker (as in a ventriloquist's dummy) is missing.

Adam's wife must be a very understanding woman.

Actually, his "obsession" has been life long so she must have known what she was getting into (or perhaps its even why she was attracted to him). :-)

He gave a very similar talk at this year Maker's Faire in the Bay Area. On display, they had quite of few his prop recreations he's made since he was a teenager (e.g. Indiana Jones whip). His attention to detail is simply awe inspiring.

Earlier there was a thread on here about what you'd want to do if you scored big with your startup.

That video's pretty much my answer.

Wow. I find that when I start projects I have his sort of obsessiveness but as the project continues I start to loose it.

Oh ADD you've cursed me.

These are the type of projects that are picked up and dropped repeatedly. And as such, they are years in the undertaking.

I'd go so far as to say an ADD-type personality (the kind who is always in the midst of a million projects, but completing none) is the most likely candidate for pursuing these type of projects. It might not even be something you realize until years in-

I believe that's called Nerd ADD (even if you're a geek).

And that is why MythBusters is my favorite show on TV. This has to be the most awesome presentation I've seen all month, great job.

This is really fascinating and reminds me a lot of the feeling I get sometimes when I code something.

The moment of enlightenment is his last sentence: "Achieving the end of the exercise was never the point of the exercise."

In our quick-fix society, there is something to be learned from living in the moment, and from journeys made for the sake of journeying.

Adam Savage is a very funny guy, and a true geek. That didn't come across for me on mythbusters.

"You can only clean up a messy room by picking up one thing at a time, you can't think about the totality."

I enjoy MythBusters, but this video impressed me more than anything I've seen from them on that show. I know it'd probably be too much for most audiences, but I'm more interested in how they build most of the stuff they use than what they do with it.

Simply put: that was awesome

I concur.

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