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What I think Adam describes is *context* . Once you have tried something you now have a common context with someone who has expertise in said subject. Without that experience, their really is no common context with which to share experience/information.
The best advice I've ever received in life (especially when it comes to asking for advice from a mentor or boss) is; If you have a problem, before asking the question have a solution (or educated guess) to propose with it, even if you pretty sure it's wrong. It'll shows you've put some thought into your problem and you're not just wasting the other persons time or trying to off load the problem onto them.
So many times I’ve gone through this process, and through the process discovered the answer myself before even getting to the point of asking the person!
I mentor several junior engineers at work. I never turn anyone away, but if someone comes to me before doing their own homework, we work on that first. We work on troubleshooting skills - normally with their current question as the example. I refrain from giving them the answer directly, I want them to figure it out. This assumes we have the luxury of time to do this, which I like to bake into my estimates.
@@beefchicken Also common with programming and many other fields. Before asking the question, one should produce the minimum example reproducing the issue, the process of making it often shows where the problem is.
I apologize if this sounds disrespectful to your other accomplishments but these are imo the most valuable things you do. You are an excellent conduit of life lessons. Listening to you it is no surprise that you have acheived what you have. I especially appreciate your work advice for new people. Anyhow, keep at it. I'll watch.
Adam is an amazing teacher, and honestly, I agree, as much as I love and am amazed by a great many things he's created and done, being a phenomenal educator is definitely his greatest strength. Tbh even on MythBusters, he always really shined when he was helping other people think about and understand things.
"That's a question that is so broad it's unanswerable." That's such a great way to phrase it! I teach college film history courses and often struggle with this kind of thing with my students. (To the point where I've put the phrase "'I'm confused' is not a question" in at least one syllabus.) I always want to help students who come to me with questions but a lot of the time I have to tell them basically the same thing - tell me exactly what it is you want to know more about. Only then can I help you.
This seems to be something younger people are all struggling with. Either they don't ask any questions and then later look for answers online (where they can find lots of dubious info) or they ask questions so general, it's like they did a google search and are expecting to now sift through mountains of info for the explanation that makes the most sense to them. Asking good questions is definitely a skill (there is certainly a big difference between good interviewers and bad ones) and it needs to be practiced to have a basic level ability to do so.
Unfortunately, this is seemingly a barrier to entry for a lot of people. We really need to be teaching young students how to ask questions productively. Even here on RUclips I'll post an essay-length response to someone who posted a similar length comment, and maybe even go back and forth a few times when someone wanders into the thread and asks "what do you mean" (lack of capitalization and punctuation verbatim). Or worse, "?" (though that one I reply every time with "? @ ?").
I did some teaching for a while - a different sort altogether but... With your approach you've described, aren't you potentially communicating, "if, after my teaching, you have so little understanding that you don't even know what questions to ask, that's your problem and don't bother me about it?" I'm just imagining a completely lost student who now feels like they can't approach the teacher because they don't know something. To me, if students are confused, the teacher has failed, haven't they? I think learning to ask good questions is an important skill if you want to do well but, if you don't know anything, you can't know what questions to ask, can you? Apart from very broad questions like "what is x" or, "what are you talking about?" I think a scenario where you are the teacher, being paid for by the student, is different from a mentor/mentee scenario where the mentor has no obligation or agreement to teach. I assume you're a good teacher. I just wanted to put this to you for your thoughts... What do you think?
Hello Mr. Adam , i just would like to simply say that , Thank you sir for giving me wonderfull childhood memories . You always be a special place in my heart sir . I hope you to have healthy life and to your loved ones .
I love how accommodating you are for your fans and will always give a well rounded answer, even if some of the questions must get very repetitive at times. I once cold called a somewhat famous software engineer for advice, and expected he would just tell me to get lost. Instead I had an hour long conversation and he cheerfully answered every question I had.
Having been in the industry 35 years ive learned that engaging with people starting out not only builds future professionals but also allows me to pay forward the mentoring i got from so many when i started. Im always happy to share knowledge because so much of what i learned at the beginning was knowledge from others that i then built on . This is how we pass on the craft to the next generation thus enduring the test of time. So much knowledge has been lost by those who refused to pass on what they learned.
Alie Ward is outstanding when it comes to getting the best out of her guests. She always asks the questions that get the information listeners need to understand a subject they didn't even know existed when the podcast started.
One of the things I learned as a mentee (as a writer), when I have a question for my mentor, I open an email and write the question out, if I've answered my own question by the time I get to the end, I probably don't need to bug them. But sometimes it's good to get their perspective. In writing, this is a version of "try it first." Great advice! Thanks, Adam!
"Listening to people talk about things they're passionate about is one of my favorite things" is why I even follow this channel. Everyone who presents anything is a consummate nerd in their respective field. Everyone seems to love what they do and it comes through.
(On cleaning as you cook...) When I and my three siblings were young, on Sundays, my Dad would go to church early and my Mom would take us kids to church at the next mass. While we were in church my Dad would cook breakfast for the whole family and there wouldn't be a single dirty dish or utensil in the kitchen when he was done. It was like a magic trick. A loving magic trick. That went on for years. How priceless is that memory?!
Sabine Hossenfelder (SIC) is one of the sciencey people i actually like to listen to. She is the first person EVER to actually make sense when talking greenhouse gas and why too much CO2 is bad. She was clear and concise, and didn't talk down or dumb it down. She just presented the facts, and why some CO2 in the atmosphere is essential, and why too much is bad.
When you have someone who might be willing to answer your questions, putting in effort is the most important part. Your question needs to show that you tried to figure it out on your own first and hit a VERY SPECIFIC dead end. My favorite questions are the ones that quote or reference specific sections of something I wrote and ask meaningful questions about it that show the person tried to understand it on their own.
My mind immediately went to Ollogies and I'm so happy you gave Allie Ward a shoutout. Watching you nerd out as you dive into projects on your channel gives me the same kind of satisfaction.
Absolute +1 for the Ologies podcast. I used to commute from LA county to San Diego 4 days a week on average and Dad-Ward definitely helped make the time fly by. As someone who doesn’t give out unsolicited recommendations, Ologies is the exception.
I just gotta say, Adam, you've been a driving force behind my love for science and its practical applications for pretty much my entire life. I grew up watching Mythbusters, your advice and life experiences have been incredibly helpful, and your videos have been instrumental in my fledgling expeditions into prop making. You're a man I respect beyond words, I really don't know how to express it better.
I cannot begin to describe how helpful it is to be specific with questions. I help out on a math forums from time to time and I once got asked “tell me everything about trigonometry.” I appreciate the enthusiasm, but I don’t know how to turn that into a motivated lesson. In a similar vein, one of my pet peeves when seeking assistance is asking to ask. Just saying “Are there any experts on X?” or “I have a question” without elaborating on what problem actually needs solving. If you’ve got a question, please, make sure to actually ask the question.
The "not even wrong" question bit is SO real. It's such a plague on Reddit that I can't even browse the photography or video-related subs anymore to answer questions or contribute to discussion without getting worked up and frustrated. I LOVE getting asked about gear and technique and everything else when I'm working-just today I spent a good 10 minutes talking to a customer about what camera I use and why I love it so much and where they might want to go in their own equipment-buying journey to accomplish a specific thing. Hell, I've written entire articles on the minutiae of tracking and panning photography. But when someone asks something like "What is a good camera to buy?" or "How do I edit photos?" I'm just left shouting at the screen because it really shows that the person has so little to go on that, as you say, their question isn't "even" wrong, and even if it was answered in some fashion, they would have no frame of reference with which to interpret and apply that answer. Not only that, but they couldn't even be bothered to google "best camera for [insert activity]" or "photo editing tutorial" to get a sense of the absolute basic, foundational facets of the topic, and it really comes off as lazy more than anything else.
I'm a little surprised to hear that you're a cooking man. Although I guess it does make sense in retrospective, since cooking has a lot in common with the other crafts you usually talk about. I am too. I feel like it's one of the best, most universally helpful things a person can learn. A skill that boosts mental health, physical health, saves money and is also very relaxing, as long as you approach it with the right mindset. I can't even eat pizza in a restaurant any longer, since no pizza I can buy compares to the pizza I make at home. And I so agree about time estimates. I think chicken leg quarters are one of the most underappreciated cooking ingredients on the planet, and I'm convinced it's largely due to the time estimates given in recipes, which are never even close to being long enough for them to reach the point where they're at their best (overcooked but not burned).
I used to run an animatronics forum and would get questions like "What is a good servo?" -which is unanswerable without knowing application specifics. I had to shut the forum down because it basically turned into me staying up all night trying to help people with their projects, to the point where I was essentially doing a large percentage of the work for them.
David Morgan and all things leather, Australian hats and coats, whips, hat bands, books, etc.!!!!!! Yes, when you want advanced resources and examples of whips, please check them out!! Great episode Adam!! Your philosophical meanderings are so useful!!
excelent advice about questions and not just for makers and heroes. When I was leading a team of IT engineers often they would come to me with a problem and as the lead, I needed to make decisions and discuss solutions. it was always a better approach to arrive having explored solutions and able to describe failures and even suboptimal successes. Then the event was a conversation, even a sounding board session, rather than a request for a brain dump. the animatronic question is just that "Hey offload your brain into my ear"
Oh the onions. Lies lies lies those recipes tell us about them. You want a great caramelized onion, you are in for a 20 min run at minimum (and can go up to 30-40.) This is a process that cannot be rushed. Thank you for pointing it out.
little bit of oil, low heat, after 20 minutes add a splash of water and a pinch of salt, continue to go for another 20 minutes. Add a bit of butter if you'd like to add to the sweetness, and let run for at least another 20 minutes. My exec chef days, I would run carmies for hours.
One of the things I loved about Good Eats that I think is an invaluable part of learning to cook is that Alton would inform the viewer _how to tell_ when something is done instead of giving cook times. Estimates are useful in knowing roughly how long something will take (especially if you need to do other things at the same time), but they're never going to be exact, so the most important thing is knowing how to tell when a process is finished. Sometimes that's visual, sometimes it's a specific consistency, and sometimes it's measuring temperature, but it's almost never simply "wait five minutes".
@@blindleader42 Yeah? He did talk about cooking onions though, and that time estimates in recipes are usually garbage. Bringing up the absurdly short amount of time most recipes tell you it takes to caramelize an onion is perfectly on topic?
Right on Adam. At my shop, the rule was, Try three things before you bring me the problem. In other words, try to solve the problem yourself, but I'm here for you if you get stuck. Increasingly, and as an aside, my hero's are younger and younger. This ads to the pressure in weird ways. Love your channel.
My favourite, passionate science communicators - Bonnie Bassler - she came up with the term 'Bacterial Esperanto'. John Hawks, Jeremy DeSilva & Lee Berger, Steve Churchill all paleo-anthropologists. All are great mentors for young students & scientists.
Wow - Carl Sagan! Me too. We had an assignment in 7th grade to write a letter to someone famous we admired. This was contemporary to the Cosmos series and I wrote to Dr. Sagan. He wrote a very kind and encouraging response. Fast forward to the timeframe shortly after he died. I was on a plane returning from Europe through Paris and happened to be seated next to one of his students who had presented a paper…maybe 10 years ago. Without being a pest I got a short version of his paper talk…what a cool thing.
Hey Adam! I just rewatched mythbusters episode 119, “exploding bumpers.” During the episode you interviewed an Oakland Firefighter who had her leg broken by an exploding bumper. I believe her name is Jennifer Schmid. She was still on crutches when you interviewed her. Any idea how she’s doing now? Was she able to return to firefighting duties? PS: love your channel. Love these bits of advice and love hearing about your philosophies. Edited for typo.
I get this all the time as I'm a mycologist. People cold message me saying "Can you tell me how to grow mushrooms". LOL forget about ever getting a response.
There are lots of people who's accomplishments I will forever remain in awe of. However I am very careful when it comes to making heroes out of them for one will almost always be disappointed. Even if I were to perceive their actions as good, that doesn't mean that is their intent.
I also cook from weight rather than volume, including liquids. I initially learned this from baking bread and the baker's percentage, but expanded weighing liquids because I can achieve higher accuracy and precision. E.g. I can be more precise with 946 grams of water than approximately four cups of water where I have to deal with meniscus and motion. I don't always need this precision with what I am cooking/baking, but I still enjoy the practice. It also makes scaling up and down much easier.
Only asking for advice on things you've actually tried to do is a really important thing for professionals and makers to keep in mind. It's hard to really absorb and appreciate good advice or mentorship if you don't have the context of at least some relevant struggle and failure.
I do graphic art and 3D animation, and a bit of physical modeling as well but mostly digital. It's my hobby and passion, not my career. (I choose it to be that way.) and this rings very true. My main tool for 3D work is Blender. If you contact me and ask "How do I use Blender, I want to make a spaceship" or whatever I'll send you a link to Blender Guru's donut tutorial. I've actually done that a few times. If someone asks "How do I correct this mesh error" Then I can start to help. It's funny because when I was starting out, I was that guy asking the wrong questions, or at least questions that where WAY to broad and there where a few people who I still respect very much, but they where the people I looked up to as superior modelers back then and they helped me out. I took any advice they gave me or just gave in general to heart. Now I'm firmly in the middle of all of them. Maybe even the upper-middle. I'm still not the best by a mile and never will be, but I've gotten better than some of the people I once looked to for inspiration, advice, and information. It also took me around a decade, sometimes spending many hours a day to get to that point, but it happened. What really feels strange is when they ask you for advice. That still doesn't properly compute for me. I can't explain it. Imposter syndrome I reckon.
Would you share the cardamom cake recipe? We have been searching for one for years to replicate one we had years ago. Thanks for the reference to Ologies too. GREAT podcast.
Yay for Carl Sagan! He's tops on my list of personal heroes for how much he got me to love astronomy and other sciences. And so true about false cooking times. Not too long ago I made something that said on the package "ready in 3 minutes" or something like that, but that didn't include the 20+ minutes of preparation before that few extra minutes of adding the boxed product. It's like they're trying to get people to buy their crap who think every minute of their day is precious so the shorter they make the cooking times the more people will buy their crap.
There are other sorts of questions to ask people you respect than specific problem solving - guidance and trajectory advice is often more important in a world where youtube and other tutorials exist for the nitty gritty. Questions like "I have this decision to make, thoughts?". The need to do your legwork before asking still applies though.
I think aside from yourself one of my favorites to watch regarding scientific expertise is Clint from Clint's Reptiles on RUclips. The man is so entertaining and enthusiastic. He's so not afraid to be a tad ludicrous when talking about things like the relationships of various animals and their ancestral connections. You can't evolve out of a clade...
This February I chose to not meet my hero, Adam, in Vancouver at the Cosplay thing he was at attending. I have zero cosplay interest, but have many similar interests with Adam. I could afford the ticket and the extra $75 usd to meet and maybe photo with Adam but at felt this interaction would not go well and I would end up feeling like cattle being routed through a brander line. The fear of the old saying “never meet your hero’s for they shall be sure to disappoint” rings very loud for me as I have experienced it at times; likely my own fault for putting people on pedestals to find out in reality, they are just normal humans . I ordered Adam’s book instead of going and have been reading it before bedtime. Surprised how stressed and torn I was between going and not going. I would prefer to meet over a coffee and I just bs for a bit on the topics we cross over on vs a signed 5x12 and a handshake.
People who can't figure out enough to even fail on their own were always frustrating hires in high tech. You need to be able to generate actionable problems to solve before you ask someone else for help in solving them. I had my kids read "The Defining Decade", and something the author made a great point about is to not ask for help via open-ended questions. Don't ask someone "What major should I take in college?" It's such a big question, and requires very close familiarity with the questioner to answer. And if you answer wrong, you're possibly screwing up someone's future! But _do_ ask "What did you major in in college?" or "What majors do people hire at your work?" or "Does major involve a lot of math?" These are specific questions that are easy to start answering. The only caveat is that in a conversational setting, asking someone an open-ended question about themselves is often a good approach - just don't ask them open-ended questions about yourself!
Adam mentioning Ted Leo & the Pharmacists wasn't on my bingo list. Love it. Mentioning Carl Sagan was more to be expected, he was an amazing man. A personal hero of mine.
When I've cooked something enough times, I start disregarding more and more of the instructions, including cooking times, because I cook it better. Like, I haven't looked at instructions for ravioli, ramen, or oatmeal in years. Like, when cooking ramen, I put in the amount of water that looks right for whatever size of pan I'm using, drop the ramen brick in when it's boiling enough, then stir and poke it until it feels like it's cooked enough, long enough for it to have no toughness to it, but not so long that it starts breaking down.
I made some pattè last night out of General Chow Chicken, nine eggs, and burger special sauce, maybe an ounce and a half. Used my Cuisine-art 9cup food proc
Time estimates for cooking, baking and assembling things always help me feel slow and inadequate so now I just ignore them for the BS they are (but I do take things slow, I know :). Also hate how precious people get with recipes like they came down the mountain from on-high. You did not cure cancer you just made cinnamon rolls. The dough tells you what it needs by it's feel. May the force be with us all!
for that Maillard to get nice and golden the onions need at least 40 mins on a medium heat. hotter and you're risking a burn but if you stay at the stove and work the onions maybe you can get them golden-ish in 25 minutes? anything less is kinda saying: 'slightly un-raw your onion'
Don't have heroes. Admire attributes of others if you want, but when you make someone your "hero", you set yourself up for disappointment in the future and then also have to deal with the dissonance when your hero is wrong. You are setting unrealistic expectations of that person. People are all flawed. If you admire aspects rather than make the person as a whole your hero, then you can compartmentalize better and not be so devastated later.
One on coworker of car and hot-rod designer Chip Foose get hired by Chip because when they started discussion about building car fiberglass body parts.
The mentee question/answer reminds me of Star Treck 4 when McCoy asks Spock about his impresions on death. Spock answers that he can not have this discussion without a common frame of reference.
Hey Adam. Hope all is well in your universe. Have you ever considered having an apprentice. I think a young mind in your field would have a chance of a lifetime learning under your tutelage.
I dont have any living hero's. My father was my hero. What he accomplished and company he made, with only a 9th grade education. Back then, you had to quit school and get a job to help the family. Asking questions. 90% of the time you will get some ones opinion.
As someone who had a pretty famous musician (I won't say who but I will say he knew the Beatles personally during the height of their popularity) take his family to spend a week at my parent's place when I was growing up, just treat them like a normal human being. I know that might be difficult because a lot of people tend to treat celebrities like a crush where you're working to get their attention and attempt to impress them, but that rarely ends well. 😂
Never develop a love for your “hero”, they are human just like yourself. Having a mentor is a different thing though as long as you’re not worshipping them.
I've talked to many "famous" people, trick is to treat them like everyone else coz they're human, don't ask them stuff, help them, help everyone and suddenly you're the one everyone wants to know 😂
Question for anyone reading this: If you were to meet one of your childhood heroes (particularly a Ghostbuster), what would you ask/tell him? (considering that there's no time to waste)
It's become a often repeated line that interested people are interesting, or that listening to someone talk passionately can make anything interesting. I disagree strongly. Rather, it's the opposite. Someone disinterested can make anything boring.
I'm pretty sure recipe writers have no sense of time or scale. Not, you don't want 1 inch cubes of sweet potato and beets, unless you want the insides raw when everything else is shrivelled up, and it definitely won't take you 10 minutes of prep to time to peel ant cut up 3 cups of vegetables, prep your pans, measure out the seasoning for your protein, cut it up, and then distribute it evenly.
Surprised you didn't vocalize the connection between mise en place and knolling! These are simply one-in-same to me, just with food instead of model parts!
re, What not to ask your hero. Find out what they are interested about. Locally we had a guy who had been a well know national football player. He would go out and socialize at the pub. If you tried to talk to him about football, you would be told to go away. If you want to chat to him about greyhound racing (what interested him), he could spend hours with you
Ologies: www.alieward.com/ologies
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What I think Adam describes is *context* . Once you have tried something you now have a common context with someone who has expertise in said subject. Without that experience, their really is no common context with which to share experience/information.
The interview with Alie Ward on Tested was what turned me to Oologies, and I am so glad for it.
Definitely don't find your hero's phone number and call them on a whim. Less than recommended.
Okay but where's that recipe for cardamom cake? You can't drop that reference then keep it to yourself!
The best advice I've ever received in life (especially when it comes to asking for advice from a mentor or boss) is; If you have a problem, before asking the question have a solution (or educated guess) to propose with it, even if you pretty sure it's wrong. It'll shows you've put some thought into your problem and you're not just wasting the other persons time or trying to off load the problem onto them.
A colleague refers to this as the Dead Cat Theory.
Don’t bring me a dead cat. Bring me a dead cat and a shovel.
We can talk about the shovel.
So many times I’ve gone through this process, and through the process discovered the answer myself before even getting to the point of asking the person!
@@jeffreysulik3311 lmao! Love that name
I mentor several junior engineers at work. I never turn anyone away, but if someone comes to me before doing their own homework, we work on that first. We work on troubleshooting skills - normally with their current question as the example. I refrain from giving them the answer directly, I want them to figure it out. This assumes we have the luxury of time to do this, which I like to bake into my estimates.
@@beefchicken Also common with programming and many other fields. Before asking the question, one should produce the minimum example reproducing the issue, the process of making it often shows where the problem is.
I apologize if this sounds disrespectful to your other accomplishments but these are imo the most valuable things you do. You are an excellent conduit of life lessons. Listening to you it is no surprise that you have acheived what you have. I especially appreciate your work advice for new people. Anyhow, keep at it. I'll watch.
Adam is an amazing teacher, and honestly, I agree, as much as I love and am amazed by a great many things he's created and done, being a phenomenal educator is definitely his greatest strength. Tbh even on MythBusters, he always really shined when he was helping other people think about and understand things.
"That's a question that is so broad it's unanswerable." That's such a great way to phrase it! I teach college film history courses and often struggle with this kind of thing with my students. (To the point where I've put the phrase "'I'm confused' is not a question" in at least one syllabus.) I always want to help students who come to me with questions but a lot of the time I have to tell them basically the same thing - tell me exactly what it is you want to know more about. Only then can I help you.
This seems to be something younger people are all struggling with. Either they don't ask any questions and then later look for answers online (where they can find lots of dubious info) or they ask questions so general, it's like they did a google search and are expecting to now sift through mountains of info for the explanation that makes the most sense to them.
Asking good questions is definitely a skill (there is certainly a big difference between good interviewers and bad ones) and it needs to be practiced to have a basic level ability to do so.
Unfortunately, this is seemingly a barrier to entry for a lot of people. We really need to be teaching young students how to ask questions productively. Even here on RUclips I'll post an essay-length response to someone who posted a similar length comment, and maybe even go back and forth a few times when someone wanders into the thread and asks "what do you mean" (lack of capitalization and punctuation verbatim). Or worse, "?" (though that one I reply every time with "? @ ?").
I did some teaching for a while - a different sort altogether but...
With your approach you've described, aren't you potentially communicating, "if, after my teaching, you have so little understanding that you don't even know what questions to ask, that's your problem and don't bother me about it?"
I'm just imagining a completely lost student who now feels like they can't approach the teacher because they don't know something.
To me, if students are confused, the teacher has failed, haven't they? I think learning to ask good questions is an important skill if you want to do well but, if you don't know anything, you can't know what questions to ask, can you? Apart from very broad questions like "what is x" or, "what are you talking about?"
I think a scenario where you are the teacher, being paid for by the student, is different from a mentor/mentee scenario where the mentor has no obligation or agreement to teach.
I assume you're a good teacher. I just wanted to put this to you for your thoughts... What do you think?
@@xcheesyindianx I'm confused...
Hello Mr. Adam , i just would like to simply say that , Thank you sir for giving me wonderfull childhood memories . You always be a special place in my heart sir . I hope you to have healthy life and to your loved ones .
I love how accommodating you are for your fans and will always give a well rounded answer, even if some of the questions must get very repetitive at times. I once cold called a somewhat famous software engineer for advice, and expected he would just tell me to get lost. Instead I had an hour long conversation and he cheerfully answered every question I had.
Wait who
Having been in the industry 35 years ive learned that engaging with people starting out not only builds future professionals but also allows me to pay forward the mentoring i got from so many when i started. Im always happy to share knowledge because so much of what i learned at the beginning was knowledge from others that i then built on . This is how we pass on the craft to the next generation thus enduring the test of time. So
much knowledge has been lost by those who refused to pass on what they learned.
Alie Ward is outstanding when it comes to getting the best out of her guests. She always asks the questions that get the information listeners need to understand a subject they didn't even know existed when the podcast started.
One of the things I learned as a mentee (as a writer), when I have a question for my mentor, I open an email and write the question out, if I've answered my own question by the time I get to the end, I probably don't need to bug them. But sometimes it's good to get their perspective.
In writing, this is a version of "try it first." Great advice! Thanks, Adam!
First ask the rubber ducky, then you'll have solved it or come up with a better one to ask the mentor. 👍
"Listening to people talk about things they're passionate about is one of my favorite things" is why I even follow this channel. Everyone who presents anything is a consummate nerd in their respective field. Everyone seems to love what they do and it comes through.
(On cleaning as you cook...) When I and my three siblings were young, on Sundays, my Dad would go to church early and my Mom would take us kids to church at the next mass. While we were in church my Dad would cook breakfast for the whole family and there wouldn't be a single dirty dish or utensil in the kitchen when he was done. It was like a magic trick. A loving magic trick. That went on for years. How priceless is that memory?!
Sabine Hossenfelder (SIC) is one of the sciencey people i actually like to listen to. She is the first person EVER to actually make sense when talking greenhouse gas and why too much CO2 is bad. She was clear and concise, and didn't talk down or dumb it down. She just presented the facts, and why some CO2 in the atmosphere is essential, and why too much is bad.
When you have someone who might be willing to answer your questions, putting in effort is the most important part. Your question needs to show that you tried to figure it out on your own first and hit a VERY SPECIFIC dead end. My favorite questions are the ones that quote or reference specific sections of something I wrote and ask meaningful questions about it that show the person tried to understand it on their own.
Nice to hear a shoutout to The -Ologies Podcast! I've been enjoying that podcast for years; wonderfully done and always fascinating!
The Tested account hearted a bot that stole your comment. 😅
My mind immediately went to Ollogies and I'm so happy you gave Allie Ward a shoutout. Watching you nerd out as you dive into projects on your channel gives me the same kind of satisfaction.
Absolute +1 for the Ologies podcast. I used to commute from LA county to San Diego 4 days a week on average and Dad-Ward definitely helped make the time fly by. As someone who doesn’t give out unsolicited recommendations, Ologies is the exception.
I just gotta say, Adam, you've been a driving force behind my love for science and its practical applications for pretty much my entire life.
I grew up watching Mythbusters, your advice and life experiences have been incredibly helpful, and your videos have been instrumental in my fledgling expeditions into prop making.
You're a man I respect beyond words, I really don't know how to express it better.
I cannot begin to describe how helpful it is to be specific with questions.
I help out on a math forums from time to time and I once got asked “tell me everything about trigonometry.” I appreciate the enthusiasm, but I don’t know how to turn that into a motivated lesson.
In a similar vein, one of my pet peeves when seeking assistance is asking to ask. Just saying “Are there any experts on X?” or “I have a question” without elaborating on what problem actually needs solving. If you’ve got a question, please, make sure to actually ask the question.
Seeing the state of your workshop gives me more confidence in the state of mine! Cheers Adam.
The "not even wrong" question bit is SO real. It's such a plague on Reddit that I can't even browse the photography or video-related subs anymore to answer questions or contribute to discussion without getting worked up and frustrated. I LOVE getting asked about gear and technique and everything else when I'm working-just today I spent a good 10 minutes talking to a customer about what camera I use and why I love it so much and where they might want to go in their own equipment-buying journey to accomplish a specific thing. Hell, I've written entire articles on the minutiae of tracking and panning photography. But when someone asks something like "What is a good camera to buy?" or "How do I edit photos?" I'm just left shouting at the screen because it really shows that the person has so little to go on that, as you say, their question isn't "even" wrong, and even if it was answered in some fashion, they would have no frame of reference with which to interpret and apply that answer. Not only that, but they couldn't even be bothered to google "best camera for [insert activity]" or "photo editing tutorial" to get a sense of the absolute basic, foundational facets of the topic, and it really comes off as lazy more than anything else.
Absolutely love Ologies. Agree with the recommendation 100%. Thanks for the new content!
I'm a little surprised to hear that you're a cooking man. Although I guess it does make sense in retrospective, since cooking has a lot in common with the other crafts you usually talk about. I am too. I feel like it's one of the best, most universally helpful things a person can learn. A skill that boosts mental health, physical health, saves money and is also very relaxing, as long as you approach it with the right mindset. I can't even eat pizza in a restaurant any longer, since no pizza I can buy compares to the pizza I make at home.
And I so agree about time estimates. I think chicken leg quarters are one of the most underappreciated cooking ingredients on the planet, and I'm convinced it's largely due to the time estimates given in recipes, which are never even close to being long enough for them to reach the point where they're at their best (overcooked but not burned).
I used to run an animatronics forum and would get questions like "What is a good servo?" -which is unanswerable without knowing application specifics. I had to shut the forum down because it basically turned into me staying up all night trying to help people with their projects, to the point where I was essentially doing a large percentage of the work for them.
David Morgan and all things leather, Australian hats and coats, whips, hat bands, books, etc.!!!!!!
Yes, when you want advanced resources and examples of whips, please check them out!!
Great episode Adam!!
Your philosophical meanderings are so useful!!
I agree with Christy (sp?).. always appreciated Adams passion... I'm not a maker, but people who create and love doing so... awesome
It was me :) And Adam is such a great passionate person to listen to!
excelent advice about questions and not just for makers and heroes. When I was leading a team of IT engineers often they would come to me with a problem and as the lead, I needed to make decisions and discuss solutions. it was always a better approach to arrive having explored solutions and able to describe failures and even suboptimal successes. Then the event was a conversation, even a sounding board session, rather than a request for a brain dump. the animatronic question is just that "Hey offload your brain into my ear"
Oh the onions. Lies lies lies those recipes tell us about them. You want a great caramelized onion, you are in for a 20 min run at minimum (and can go up to 30-40.)
This is a process that cannot be rushed. Thank you for pointing it out.
little bit of oil, low heat, after 20 minutes add a splash of water and a pinch of salt, continue to go for another 20 minutes. Add a bit of butter if you'd like to add to the sweetness, and let run for at least another 20 minutes.
My exec chef days, I would run carmies for hours.
One of the things I loved about Good Eats that I think is an invaluable part of learning to cook is that Alton would inform the viewer _how to tell_ when something is done instead of giving cook times. Estimates are useful in knowing roughly how long something will take (especially if you need to do other things at the same time), but they're never going to be exact, so the most important thing is knowing how to tell when a process is finished. Sometimes that's visual, sometimes it's a specific consistency, and sometimes it's measuring temperature, but it's almost never simply "wait five minutes".
I worked in restaurant kitchens for 7+ years and I've never made caramelized onions in less than a few hours.
Adam said absolutely nothing about caramelized onions.
@@blindleader42 Yeah? He did talk about cooking onions though, and that time estimates in recipes are usually garbage. Bringing up the absurdly short amount of time most recipes tell you it takes to caramelize an onion is perfectly on topic?
Right on Adam. At my shop, the rule was, Try three things before you bring me the problem. In other words, try to solve the problem yourself, but I'm here for you if you get stuck. Increasingly, and as an aside, my hero's are younger and younger. This ads to the pressure in weird ways. Love your channel.
My favourite, passionate science communicators - Bonnie Bassler - she came up with the term 'Bacterial Esperanto'.
John Hawks, Jeremy DeSilva & Lee Berger, Steve Churchill all paleo-anthropologists.
All are great mentors for young students & scientists.
Thanks for the intel on Ologies! I needed a new binge as I go about my OTR work. ❤️
Wow - Carl Sagan! Me too. We had an assignment in 7th grade to write a letter to someone famous we admired. This was contemporary to the Cosmos series and I wrote to Dr. Sagan. He wrote a very kind and encouraging response. Fast forward to the timeframe shortly after he died. I was on a plane returning from Europe through Paris and happened to be seated next to one of his students who had presented a paper…maybe 10 years ago. Without being a pest I got a short version of his paper talk…what a cool thing.
I have no sense of time, so for him to say that about recipes...including about the onions, is actually a relief to me lol
James Burke is back?! He's awesome! Carl Sagan is my hero too. Incredible man who contributed a great deal to changing how I looked on the world.
I love Connections! Amazing that they are doing a new series.
Hey Adam! I just rewatched mythbusters episode 119, “exploding bumpers.” During the episode you interviewed an Oakland Firefighter who had her leg broken by an exploding bumper. I believe her name is Jennifer Schmid. She was still on crutches when you interviewed her. Any idea how she’s doing now? Was she able to return to firefighting duties?
PS: love your channel. Love these bits of advice and love hearing about your philosophies.
Edited for typo.
I get this all the time as I'm a mycologist. People cold message me saying "Can you tell me how to grow mushrooms". LOL forget about ever getting a response.
History too, don't just get a degree in history, may as well carry on working
Soooo... how do you? 😊
its like asking a chemist/phasmacist how to make meth or something like that
It depends on the mushrooms you want to grow. When I was in my 20’s I grew mushrooms all the time, I’m still seeing strange colors.😳
@@Cat-n6n2x I'm not going to say anything about breaking bad...
+1 thumbs up for “successful failure.” Too many (especially young) do not understand that “failure” is part of any successful process.
There are lots of people who's accomplishments I will forever remain in awe of. However I am very careful when it comes to making heroes out of them for one will almost always be disappointed. Even if I were to perceive their actions as good, that doesn't mean that is their intent.
I also cook from weight rather than volume, including liquids. I initially learned this from baking bread and the baker's percentage, but expanded weighing liquids because I can achieve higher accuracy and precision. E.g. I can be more precise with 946 grams of water than approximately four cups of water where I have to deal with meniscus and motion. I don't always need this precision with what I am cooking/baking, but I still enjoy the practice. It also makes scaling up and down much easier.
Ologies just made my auto-download podcast list... and that is a very exclusive list!
Only asking for advice on things you've actually tried to do is a really important thing for professionals and makers to keep in mind. It's hard to really absorb and appreciate good advice or mentorship if you don't have the context of at least some relevant struggle and failure.
You are definitely a real world hero just for lots of people me included
I do graphic art and 3D animation, and a bit of physical modeling as well but mostly digital. It's my hobby and passion, not my career. (I choose it to be that way.) and this rings very true. My main tool for 3D work is Blender. If you contact me and ask "How do I use Blender, I want to make a spaceship" or whatever I'll send you a link to Blender Guru's donut tutorial. I've actually done that a few times.
If someone asks "How do I correct this mesh error"
Then I can start to help.
It's funny because when I was starting out, I was that guy asking the wrong questions, or at least questions that where WAY to broad and there where a few people who I still respect very much, but they where the people I looked up to as superior modelers back then and they helped me out. I took any advice they gave me or just gave in general to heart.
Now I'm firmly in the middle of all of them. Maybe even the upper-middle. I'm still not the best by a mile and never will be, but I've gotten better than some of the people I once looked to for inspiration, advice, and information. It also took me around a decade, sometimes spending many hours a day to get to that point, but it happened. What really feels strange is when they ask you for advice. That still doesn't properly compute for me. I can't explain it. Imposter syndrome I reckon.
Would you share the cardamom cake recipe? We have been searching for one for years to replicate one we had years ago. Thanks for the reference to Ologies too. GREAT podcast.
So many great pearls recently. Keep it up Adam.
Yay for Carl Sagan! He's tops on my list of personal heroes for how much he got me to love astronomy and other sciences. And so true about false cooking times. Not too long ago I made something that said on the package "ready in 3 minutes" or something like that, but that didn't include the 20+ minutes of preparation before that few extra minutes of adding the boxed product. It's like they're trying to get people to buy their crap who think every minute of their day is precious so the shorter they make the cooking times the more people will buy their crap.
There are other sorts of questions to ask people you respect than specific problem solving - guidance and trajectory advice is often more important in a world where youtube and other tutorials exist for the nitty gritty. Questions like "I have this decision to make, thoughts?".
The need to do your legwork before asking still applies though.
I think aside from yourself one of my favorites to watch regarding scientific expertise is Clint from Clint's Reptiles on RUclips. The man is so entertaining and enthusiastic. He's so not afraid to be a tad ludicrous when talking about things like the relationships of various animals and their ancestral connections. You can't evolve out of a clade...
This February I chose to not meet my hero, Adam, in Vancouver at the Cosplay thing he was at attending. I have zero cosplay interest, but have many similar interests with Adam. I could afford the ticket and the extra $75 usd to meet and maybe photo with Adam but at felt this interaction would not go well and I would end up feeling like cattle being routed through a brander line. The fear of the old saying “never meet your hero’s for they shall be sure to disappoint” rings very loud for me as I have experienced it at times; likely my own fault for putting people on pedestals to find out in reality, they are just normal humans . I ordered Adam’s book instead of going and have been reading it before bedtime. Surprised how stressed and torn I was between going and not going. I would prefer to meet over a coffee and I just bs for a bit on the topics we cross over on vs a signed 5x12 and a handshake.
I sincerely hope that you have read the book "contact" since it is different, and a lot better than the movie.
People who can't figure out enough to even fail on their own were always frustrating hires in high tech. You need to be able to generate actionable problems to solve before you ask someone else for help in solving them.
I had my kids read "The Defining Decade", and something the author made a great point about is to not ask for help via open-ended questions. Don't ask someone "What major should I take in college?" It's such a big question, and requires very close familiarity with the questioner to answer. And if you answer wrong, you're possibly screwing up someone's future! But _do_ ask "What did you major in in college?" or "What majors do people hire at your work?" or "Does major involve a lot of math?" These are specific questions that are easy to start answering. The only caveat is that in a conversational setting, asking someone an open-ended question about themselves is often a good approach - just don't ask them open-ended questions about yourself!
Adam mentioning Ted Leo & the Pharmacists wasn't on my bingo list. Love it. Mentioning Carl Sagan was more to be expected, he was an amazing man. A personal hero of mine.
Love ologies! I recommend the bryology episode
When I've cooked something enough times, I start disregarding more and more of the instructions, including cooking times, because I cook it better. Like, I haven't looked at instructions for ravioli, ramen, or oatmeal in years. Like, when cooking ramen, I put in the amount of water that looks right for whatever size of pan I'm using, drop the ramen brick in when it's boiling enough, then stir and poke it until it feels like it's cooked enough, long enough for it to have no toughness to it, but not so long that it starts breaking down.
You should try solar cooking with some of the Gosun solar ovens. It’s pretty fun.
WHOA! Wait wait wait… there is a new Connections? Is it out? Is it on the way? OMG
Should totally do a cooking series, I do legit the same thing with cleaning while cooking so I don't have dishes at the end
I made some pattè last night out of General Chow Chicken, nine eggs, and burger special sauce, maybe an ounce and a half. Used my Cuisine-art 9cup food proc
Great video sir 😊
Carl Sagan sorely missed, totally got me into space physics 💜😊 TYFS
Could you share that cake recipe? Super curious now.
I wonder what Adams favorite Crock Pot meal is? Mine has got to be White Chicken Chilli.
Never outshine the master.
The joy I felt when scrolling back to 2017 on the Spotify ologies page 😁😁😁
Time estimates for cooking, baking and assembling things always help me feel slow and inadequate so now I just ignore them for the BS they are (but I do take things slow, I know :). Also hate how precious people get with recipes like they came down the mountain from on-high. You did not cure cancer you just made cinnamon rolls. The dough tells you what it needs by it's feel. May the force be with us all!
And it works the other way around as well because without any context of the problem at hand it is really hard to guide you in any meaningful way
What's this about Connections? I loved that show!
Wait… there is a new Connections series!?
Something ive learned recently is "do your own research before asking a question"
i.e. dont go to a master looking for boiler plate information!
for that Maillard to get nice and golden the onions need at least 40 mins on a medium heat. hotter and you're risking a burn but if you stay at the stove and work the onions maybe you can get them golden-ish in 25 minutes? anything less is kinda saying: 'slightly un-raw your onion'
Finding out that Tandy, the electronics shop, started out as a leather place was pretty surprising to me.
WOW, Best advice for me
Richard Feynman is another science speaker I could listen to forever.
Can you share the cake recipe?
So, very curious, would you(r friend the magician) be willing to share this cardamom cake recipe with us?
Love the Speedy!
Don't have heroes. Admire attributes of others if you want, but when you make someone your "hero", you set yourself up for disappointment in the future and then also have to deal with the dissonance when your hero is wrong. You are setting unrealistic expectations of that person. People are all flawed. If you admire aspects rather than make the person as a whole your hero, then you can compartmentalize better and not be so devastated later.
Solid.
One on coworker of car and hot-rod designer Chip Foose get hired by Chip because when they started discussion about building car fiberglass body parts.
alie ward and ologies yesss!!!
The mentee question/answer reminds me of Star Treck 4 when McCoy asks Spock about his impresions on death. Spock answers that he can not have this discussion without a common frame of reference.
Hey Adam. Hope all is well in your universe. Have you ever considered having an apprentice. I think a young mind in your field would have a chance of a lifetime learning under your tutelage.
I dont have any living hero's. My father was my hero. What he accomplished and company he made, with only a 9th grade education. Back then, you had to quit school and get a job to help the family. Asking questions. 90% of the time you will get some ones opinion.
As someone who had a pretty famous musician (I won't say who but I will say he knew the Beatles personally during the height of their popularity) take his family to spend a week at my parent's place when I was growing up, just treat them like a normal human being. I know that might be difficult because a lot of people tend to treat celebrities like a crush where you're working to get their attention and attempt to impress them, but that rarely ends well. 😂
Never develop a love for your “hero”, they are human just like yourself. Having a mentor is a different thing though as long as you’re not worshipping them.
LOVE ALLIE WARD!!!! (Hope I spelled her name correctly)
I've talked to many "famous" people, trick is to treat them like everyone else coz they're human, don't ask them stuff, help them, help everyone and suddenly you're the one everyone wants to know 😂
Question for anyone reading this: If you were to meet one of your childhood heroes (particularly a Ghostbuster), what would you ask/tell him? (considering that there's no time to waste)
RPF member gets an explanation after of years of waiting for reply. Lol!
We miss you Carl.
Mise en place is just First Order Retrievability for the kitchen.
It's become a often repeated line that interested people are interesting, or that listening to someone talk passionately can make anything interesting.
I disagree strongly. Rather, it's the opposite. Someone disinterested can make anything boring.
I'm pretty sure recipe writers have no sense of time or scale. Not, you don't want 1 inch cubes of sweet potato and beets, unless you want the insides raw when everything else is shrivelled up, and it definitely won't take you 10 minutes of prep to time to peel ant cut up 3 cups of vegetables, prep your pans, measure out the seasoning for your protein, cut it up, and then distribute it evenly.
Surprised you didn't vocalize the connection between mise en place and knolling! These are simply one-in-same to me, just with food instead of model parts!
Was this episode on before, am I imagining things?
If you caught the live stream live, then you’d have seen this before. It is an excerpt from a live stream that is otherwise members only.
@@tested Ah thanks, love this channel, and great to see the new collab with Bobby Fingers too!
Quagmire would have to teach a class to tell us how a plane works, he won't tell us for free because it takes too much time.
Why is there a humerus hanging with all your hammers? The only thing that comes to mind is 2001.
I'm almost certain that's the joke.
Ask your hero whatever you want just be prepared to be disappointed
One of my heroes became my ultimate anti-hero when he said, "Screw your freedom".
re, What not to ask your hero. Find out what they are interested about. Locally we had a guy who had been a well know national football player. He would go out and socialize at the pub. If you tried to talk to him about football, you would be told to go away. If you want to chat to him about greyhound racing (what interested him), he could spend hours with you