Comments by "Mat Broomfield" (@matbroomfield) on "Veritasium" channel.

  1. It's not simply about risk, but about a bird in the hand. For many people, no matter how high the potential gain at 50/50 odds, on a single toss, the fact is, you sacrifice money with a known usefulness to you, for Schrödinger's money that may or may not have utilty to you in the future. To see this more clearly, consider that you are starving, and you are gambling a single small meal you have against two meals. It's not just about POTENTIAL gain, but the significance of the loss.
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  2. "Pain is an effective teacher, but nobody wants to go to his classes" People will work harder to avoid pain or negativity in the short term, but in the longer term, they will develop coping strategies such as blame shifting, avoidance,  and excuse making to explain poor behaviour. Furthermore, it has been shown that actual reward (such as money) works primarily for repetitive, or non intellectual tasks, whereas emotional reward in the sense of personal satisfaction or accomplishment is more effective for intellectual or problem solving tasks. The individual psyche of the participants must also be factored in. So, whilst regression to the mean is a noteworthy mathematical concept to consider, there are of course, important psychological factors that produce great changes in performance.
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  3. This is why we should view Facebook's hand wringing over the Cambridge Analytica thing with complete scorn. When they themselves are running an advertising scam, what moral authority would they have to complain about other companies' misuse?
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  4. This is nonsenseical to me.  The apparent weight has no effect on the actual weight, yet you were barely able to lift the weight before, even using an optimal grip. There was nothing apparent about that. This wasn't simply a matter of asymmetrical torque on your hand - there was a demonstrably greater force on your forearm AND biceps. I could see the bicep strain. This seems to be nothing to do with torque, as you explained it.
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  5. 17:16 "I use their crates with my son" - shows two sons. A lifetime of son insecurity born right there! ;-)
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  6. I would instinctively mistrust any pony-tail wearing adult male in a shop like that. So your video has at least provided evidence to justify that suspicion.
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  7. I think the lesson is, "The planet doesn't need man, and it will quickly wipe out any trace that we were there if left unattended." I find that reassuring.
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  8.  @dx-ek4vr Oh really? Well spotted.
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  9.  @IPostSwords Niiice. Well that told me! :D
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  10. I just keep hearing Thunderf00t debunking another project. This guy's aspirations sound as far fetched as Musk's failures, and the fact that he unironically cites Tesla is a serious concern.
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  11. Right now, there are fossil fuel CEOs destroying the entire planet for profit. The wealthy are a cancer on this planet, and the greatest enemies of mankind. Midgely's death by strangulation was far better than he deserved.
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  12. I thought that at first, but then I realised that we just had a president AND cabinet with zero expertise in the job, and people can educate themselves way beyond their initial education if they have the desire.
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  13.  @jimmyzhao9748  they desserve each other
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  14. Learned helplessness is a global epidemic, which has exploded since social media, and the rise of social justice warriors. It seems like a huge number of people would sooner get sympathy for things that they don't suffer from, than actually take responsibility for their lives. However, there is also a culture that punishes unauthorised innovation and problem solving. Nobody ever got fired for asking their superior's advice. The rewards for working without assistance were trivial, and the costs of getting it wrong, potentially high. You could waste valuable hours solving a problem yourself, or put your ego to the side and ask for help. I completely understand why you asked for help.
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  15. There's an EXCELLENT objective reason for counting up rather than down on the scale. 100 may have represented the number of sub divisions to boiling point, but so far as he knew, even though he was delineating the range from freezing to boiling point, there was no upper limit to temperature, so you would have to prefix an almost infinite number of temperatures by the word "minus" or "negative".
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  16. Jeez, if scientists can't even instantly answer this question that has an ultra easy empirical test, why the hell should we believe them when they tell us about about inferred events millions of light years away and billions of years ago?
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  17. 18aidanme Not greedy - it wasn't about greed, it was about the point at which the potential loss becomes acceptable compared to the gain. And even with 100  tries, there is still a CHANCE, that you could lose them all, no matter how tiny, which of course is the whole point of this video. People are more risk averse than gain focussed. Probably because we are all rightly taught to suspect the con.
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  18. Calico Jack Exactly, and the whole point is, the greater the cost in losing, regardless of the benefits, the greater the incentive there is to avoid the risk.
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  19. As  touching as it was heart-breaking. Now tell me again about this God of love in whose image we are all born...
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  20. Hmm, it would be better with vampires...
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  21. Neither you nor Mythbusters are doing science - you are simply repeating known results - as you say, telling the story. In essence, you are reading the last page of the book. You don't need to repeat the entire thing.
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  22. Hannah Elisabeth You make some very interesting points Hannah, but I think even your more nuanced view misses a key component, namely that there is often a transition from intrinsic to extrinsic motivation - more than a transition; a journey as one matures. Accurate feedback is useful only to one who has intrinsic motivation, but the challenge is in creating sufficient momentum extrinsically, that the student develops the desire to take responsibility for his own progress.
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  23. Bumbleness Supreme Brady I have no experience regarding your comments here, but if they are accurate, the reveal a disastrous flaw in our justice system, which frankly, I've long suspected. Have you seen research or information that supports your position?
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  24. You're interested in steel smelting? ;-)
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  25.  @universaltoons But you don't have any content. Why would your parents buy you a camera when you haven't shown any aptitude for film making?
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  26. An infinite universe can expand into itself? How does that make any sense?
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  27. Great, so he's contributing to the surveillance state. Cheers.
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  28. You might as well have been speaking Martian for all I understood that.
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  29. It's an inspirational story and dependent family are incredibly important, but if you have burned all your bridges to spend time with them, and severed your ties with the area of your degree, then what will you fall back on when your kids don't need you around all the time?
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  30. I'm gonna die laughing if the image is polka dots with an advert for galactic McDonalds! Great props BTW! Worthy of an Event Horizon demo of wormhole creation, albeit minus the sexy lady!
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  31. I have doubts about the premise because it suggests that no matter how hard you work, luck is the greatest determinant in your success in life. Hard work, a good plan, strong self belief and persistence above all, will overcome most day to day hurdles, and it's only at the extremes of the performance graph where the butterfly wing effect of luck makes a difference. It's like looking at a steroid fuelled world class power lifter and suggesting that he would be nothing without 'roids. No - he still had to put in immense amount of work, and whilst he may not have reached the same heights, he was always going to be an exceptional lifter.
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  32. Nope. Nonsense.
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  33. Air travel may be very safe, but when it goes wrong, there's literally nothing I can do about it, and my chances of survival are almost zero. Also, my life is completely in the hands of other people. Also Boeing. That's why I fly as little as possible.
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  34. To quote Ian Dury "There ain't half been some clever b*stards"
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  35. Laminar flow appeals to the kind of people who like to concrete over a field, or replace a river with a canal - filthy control freaks who have to bend everything to to their will! ;-)
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  36. Why did mathematicians ever BELIEVE that everything was provable?
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  37. I love that the chip is far less power hungry. Given the power shortages in Europe and parts of America right now, that seems like a benefit, but it's high time we solved this planet's power problems. We are surrounded by limitless low-cost power, yet still the fossil fuel industry retards the investment and commitment to these sources. We shouldn't HAVE to consider the power cost any more.
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  38. And one of them earns millions from his youtube videos and goads the other into a horrible bet that is much more significant to him.
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  39.  @TruthTortoise81  According to this video, Derek suggested the bet.
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  40. Goading him into a $10,000 bet was far from tactful.
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  41. How embarrassing. Of course, it's not absolute relativity - especially when it comes to stars and moons.
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  42. The final problem - reproduction.
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  43. Imagine floating there, knowing for absolute certain that you were going to drown. Such a stupid endeavour.
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  44. Point of note, not ALL formulations of cyanoacrylate have the same strength. Some have the insane strength shown here, but others are MUCH weaker in the same conditions, and can easily be broken apart. Test before trusting to anything critical.
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  45. And in China, there are millions of companies working tirelesslyy to make sure things are NOT what we think they are.
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  46. "Democracy is two wolves and a sheep deciding what to have for dinner." I favour authoritarian fascism, but only I get to make decisions. Everyone else is an idiot.
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  47. OMG, Satan's bubbles! ;-)
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  48. It's not a philosophy question, so why should their opinion matter?
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  49. "Disagreements are not problems" unless you goad a college professor into betting $10,000 on a disagreement, then accept the money and make a video embarrassing him. That's kind of shitty actually.
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  50. Laminar flow appeals to the kind of people who like to concrete over a field, or replace a river with a canal - filthy control freaks who have to bend everything to to their will! :D
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