Episode 3 – Levels of Nerd-ness

Show Notes:  Intro (0:00-0:19) Fleshman Family Birthday Celebrations (0:19-22:36) Food Fight Dunk Tank Obstacle Course Jedi Training Home Demolition?!? Weird Al’s UHF: Stanley Spadowski’s Clubhouse Levels of Nerd-ness (22:36-28:17) The nerd secret handshake: W00t Level 1: Console gamers Level 2: *serious* Board gamers Level 3: Role-Playing Games (RPGs) Level 4: LARP? Russia’s morning commute (28:71-42:03) British word of the day (42:03-44:10) “push the boat out” (American: splurge) Informal – British Be lavish in one’s spending or celebrations.  Ben & Josh’s Book Club – Mistborn: The Final Empire, book 1 of the Mistborn series by Brandon Sanderson (44:10-1:51:50) Subversion of expectations Kelsior is good at this from the start and Vin learns quickly (not the usual way for this sort of thing) Character focus – self-discovery & transformation theme throughout the series The characters feel like real people Vin’s central conflict is learning to trust people Hard vs. Soft Magic Systems “There’s always another secret” Sanderson’s 3 laws of magic Sanderson’s First Law – An author’s ability to solve conflict with magic in a satisfying way is DIRECTLY PROPORTIONAL to how well the reader understands said magic.[1] Sanderson’s Second Law – Weaknesses (also Limits and Costs) are more interesting than powers[2] Sanderson’s Third Law – Expand on what you have already, before you add something new. If you change one thing, you change the world.[3] “New ideas are like new tastes…the older you are, the harder they are to stomach.” -Menace “Do you stop loving someone just because they betray you? I don’t think so. That’s what makes the betrayal hurt so much.” -Kelsior “What is belief if you can’t continue it after failure?” -Sayzid Kelsier’s 11: George Clooney as Kelsier Matt Damon as Vin Julia Roberts as Elend Venture Brad Pitt as Sazed Andy Garcia as The Lord Ruler For next time… (1:51:50-1:52:53) Ripped from the headlines story that actually happened to Ben Book club discussion for next time: Scarcity: Why having too little means so much by economist Sendhil Mullainathan and psychologist Eldar Shafir