Don't Step in the Poop » Video

How To Be A Bullshit Artist

Carlon — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 13:13:56 +0000

Don’t Step in the Poop presents….

A major educational presentation on how to be a bullshit artist. This presentation is not just about bullshitting–no, siree. This is about attaining a level of bullshit artistry that will allow any wannabe get-rich-quick schemer to rake in the cash. So take 5 minutes, sit back, grab some popcorn, and enjoy…..

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Keep Your Goals to Yourself!

Carlon — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 05:17:48 +0000

An interesting thing those pesky scientists do is challenge conventioanl wisdom. I found this TED talk by Derek Sivers that challenges the conventional wisdom if telling people your goals so they can hold you accountable. In my personal experience, I learned that I had a better chance of getting something done by keeping my mouth shut. I quit smoking that way! It felt much better announcing that I had quit rather than telling people I was going to quit. Now, at least science has something to say on the matter. Here’s the video..take the 3 minutes or so and think about keeping your next goal a big secret!

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Should You Be Taking Economic Advice from Motivational Speakers?

Carlon — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 05:24:39 +0000

First my show fails, next up--the economy!

I thought Tony Robbins was a motivational speaker. But lo and behold I realized that he is now an expert on the economy. I watched a startling video he made warning of economic disaster up ahead.

He says a whole lot of things about it. And he really got me thinking about something really hard: why am I listening to Tony Robbins talk about the economy?

But listen I did.

Here’s how I break down his warning:

You, see I’ve got this friend. And I can’t tell you who he is, but trust me–he exists because I say he exists. And he’s really really smart with money. And he, not me, thinks the economy is going to collapse. Oh course, I’m not an expert on the economy. But this one time at band camp..I mean in March….I tweeted about the economy doing bad. And I was right that week! And the thing is I hardly ever tweet, just go to my twitter page and you’ll see that I tweet less than 100 times a day! Anyway, so when I’m, I mean my friend, is wrong don’t blame me. So, look for a bunch of stuff with the economy and then make up your own mind because I wouldn’t want to be held responsible if I’m wrong. Well, gotta go. These economic times are so tough that I’m flying to Fiji.

That’s about it in a nutshell. Of course, Tony isn’t as hilarious as I am. But for fairness, you can watch his videos on this page. I hate to even link to them, but hey I’m fair.

But here’s the bigger point: when did anyone start taking economic advice from motivational speakers? I mean the only advice they ever give is for you to get out your credit cards and buy their stuff. YES! YES! YES!

Who knows? Tony might be right about the economy. I know there’s a larger and larger amount of people out there predicting economic collapse. It’s kind of a popular thing to do right now. And it’s a growing niche of potential customers.

Where does Tony stand?

I have no idea. But if he comes out with a new product that caters to the economic disaster niche (e.g. How to protect Your Unlimited power in the Bad Economy)…just know you heard it here first.

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The Douche

Carlon — Thu, 19 Aug 2010 01:16:29 +0000

What’s funny is that there really are people like this around. But a real douche would not have done the folowing:

1. Admitted their true background

D-bags always lie about where they’re from and go on about the “adversity” they suffered.

2. Admitted their true motivation

In the video, The Douche admits he wants to have sex with middle-aged women. A real douche never says that. For example, d-bags who sell get-rich-quick stuff say they do it out of the kindness of their hearts–not to make money. What bull!

The fact that Dylan McDermott is doing this is AWESOME. I am hoping he will play the role of Sham Scammerschmidt in the DSP movie, “The Age of The Secret: People Live Forever and Everyone Wins the Lottery”

The Douche from Dylan McDermott

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The Danger of Science Denial

Carlon — Wed, 18 Aug 2010 02:12:14 +0000

After I blogged about my problems with the “health” side of self-help, I came across an excellent video by Michael Specter. He talks about the dangers in denying science. He expresses views similar to mine in that modern medicine (vaccines, etc) have saved lives and provide a higher quality of life. I like the way he differentiates between not liking something (Pharmacutical companies, the patent system, etc) and attacking the science itself (vaccines don’t work, etc.). Most people who disagree with the science use the former (the fears or dislike of something) to attack the latter.

Personally, I think a lot of these “debates” are manufactured in the marketing room. Call me cynical but isn’t a little odd that people who push these “debates” are the same people who stand to make money from “alternative” treatments? Heck, the guy that went on trying to link autism and the MMR vaccine? Guess what? He just happneed to have his own “safe” vaccine ready. Of course, before that, he was trying to link the MMR vaccine to Chron’s disease. It kills people? But it makes for great TV.

A couple of things I liked from the video:

1. Some things are not up for debate: vaccines save lives, genetically-engineered food can feed billions of people and most food we have now is “naturally” genetically-engineered.

2. People who don’t like Big Pharma instead jump in to the arms of Big Placebo. A classic line!

Watch this and enjoy.

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Penn and Teller are Full of Bullshit

Carlon — Wed, 11 Aug 2010 10:47:01 +0000

I’m a HUGE fan of Penn and Teller. Love their magic act. And I love their show Bullshit. But I watched an episode the other day that made me think that on this occasion they were full of bullshit.

It was a show they did on Feng Sui. Now, for full disclosure, I have no strong feelings about Feng Sui. I have studied Chinese philosophy, but really don’t care much about Feng Sui one way or the other (though I do like modern-style interior decorating that maximizes space with few pieces of furniture…is that Feng Sui-lite? Anyway…).

What bothered me about the show was the way they went about “proving” that Feng Sui was bullshit.

They got 3 Feng Sui “consultants” to look at a house and then all 3 of them gave different opinions about how things should be arranged for maximum effect.

Penn says, “Hey if Feng Sui is a science then they should all give us the same answer.”

They don’t. In fact, they all give different answers.

So, Feng Sui is bullshit, right?

Let’s back up a bit.

Let’s take the subject of criticism and change it. Let’s say I want to prove that Western medicine is bullshit.

So, I go into 3 different doctors’ offices for a pain in my stomach, and then I get 3 different diagnoses. Hey, I thought this was “science”. Shouldn’t I get the same diagnosis from all 3 doctors? So, I conclude that Western medicine is bullshit!

Does that sound familiar?

Well, it should. A lot of people who advocate “alternative medicine” use this argument all the time. “ Those doctors couldn’t figure out what was wrong with me, so I’m going to sun energy and positive thoughts to stop cancer.”

And it’s bullshit.

Just like your Feng Sui episode.

Come on, guys. What’s up with that?

Uh-oh. I hear it now. Penn Jillette in that voice of his is saying

“Oh yeah, blog boy? You think you’re so great. Then how would you show that Feng Sui was bullshit!”

Well, Penn I’m glad you asked. Now, I’m a blogger, so I’d just write some sarcastic post called ,”Man Moves Couch; Wins Lottery–Feng Sui in Action. Baby!”

Now, if I were on TV…

I would have found some Feng Sui “mater.” Then, I’d take him to the home of some dirt poor out of work guy. Then have him re-arrange the poor guy’s house to bring him more “wealth” and then check back later to see how much more money the guy made as a result! I’m willing to bet the guy wold still be poor, and the “master” would be left there saying something lame like it “needs more time” or that the guy “disrupted the qi when he took a crap facing the wrong direction.”

Here’s the deal: the Feng Sui people claim you get all sorts of financial benefits from re-arranging furniture. So, make them turn around someone’s fortune by re-arranging their furniture! If it’s true, the guy’ll win the lottery or something.

After watching the show, I think it’s just as probable that the Feng Sui “consultants” were charlatans who took an online course and decided to rake in the cash as Feng Sui gurus (wonder what other field I’ve seen that in…ahem, internet marketing, ahem)!

Watching a Feng Sui “master” try to explain why the poor guy isn’t wealthier even though he re-arranged his furniture would have been more effective and a little more honest than just having Penn rant about what bullshit Feng Sui is. Heck, it would have been way more fun, just like when I get comments from “affirmations people” that affirmations don’t work for others because “they’re not doing it right”. Watching them try to explain the “right way” is highly entertaining.

I usually love “Bullshit”. But this one was lame.

Watch for yourself. Tell me what you think

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Michael Shermer on Strange Beliefs

Carlon — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 13:51:31 +0000

Here’s a cool TED talk Michael Shermer did on strange beliefs.

It was worth it just to watch the backwards Led Zeppelin and a more “scientific” version of Katie Melua’s 9 Million Bicycles in Beijing. It cracked me up! And it shows you a good way to deal with nitpicky scientists!

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Smile or Die!

Carlon — Thu, 05 Aug 2010 07:13:06 +0000

A great animated video of a talk by Barbara Ehrenreich talking about mandatory positive thinking. The guys at RSanimate are talented indeed! Thanks also goes out to Michel Fortin for tweeting me this link.

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What is Your El Guapo?

Carlon — Fri, 25 Jun 2010 02:12:36 +0000

What is your El Guapo?

What is the one thing you need to face?

Overweight?

Lack of education?

Shyness?

Or could your El Guapo be a big dangerous guy who wants to kill you?

Your DSP lesson for the day: watch out for those self-help schemers who use inspirational stories and metaphors that compare REAL problems to small nuisances.

Sooner or later, they’ll have you believing that everything you do is wrong, and you’ll end up paying some self-help schemer to help you solve a problem that’s not really a problem…when you need to be watching out for the dangerous guy who’s trying to kill you (it’s a metaphor).

Enjoy the video where the great Steve Martin inspires the villagers to face their own El Guapo below:

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Have You Been Bright-Sided?

Carlon — Thu, 27 May 2010 03:21:17 +0000

An interesting interview from Barbara Ehrenriech.

I loved her book Bright-sided that deals with the culture of positive thinking. For those of you who do not know her work, I think this interview will be a good introduction.

Some key points that I wanted to expand on:

1. The empathy deficit

She is right on about this. I think we live in a culture where we don’t want to hear about other people’s problems. The thing most self-helpers tell you is that everything is your responsibility. You are 100% responsible for your life. Sounds great, in theory. But what are the consequences?

Everything is your fault. And if someone is complaining, it’s their own damn fault. Life doesn’t work that way. That’s why I think self-help is really more about selfishness. Hasn’t anyone heard that you improve yourself by helping others?

I guess that one wasn’t a best-seller.

2. Finance companies: positive thinking causes the optimism bias.

I’m not sure how much I agree with this idea of the financial debacles being a product of the “positive thinking” movement. However, as I’ve worked in companies where I’ve seen firsthand how people who point out problems are deemed “negative.”

In one job I had, someone told me to stop being so “negative” when I said that the project would fail under current conditions. Everyone agreed that I was indeed negative and politely told me to shut up about my concerns. The project failed. They still think I’m negative. (And I’m an optimist!).

3. Positivity is not the same as happiness

I love this part. She doesn’t go into it in this interview. But I think people who are honestly looking to lead a happier life get duped into thinking that you cannot be happy if you have negative thoughts.

Negative thinking does not cause unhappiness. I’ve seen my optimism get the better of me and lead to bad results and good results.

It’s the way it works.

Those are some things I took from this short video. I’ll probably review the whole book at a later time. But let this be an introduction.

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