Philip Zimbardo: The Secret Powers of Time (Animated)

Real life is less forgiving than video games. Video games are 100% forgiving. If you fail a video game level, you just reset and get to try again as if nothing at all happened. You lose NOTHING except for the time spent trying to pass the level.

In real life there are often serious consequences for failing. Try being fired because you didn't work hard enough, or you just happened to get unlucky and fail, and then see how forgiving life is to you. You'll have trouble finding a new job, cause people won't want to hire someone who flunked their past job. School is a bit more forgiving, but still, your grades determine what college you get into, and ultimately what job you'll get, and whether you'll be a McDonald's lifer who can barely feed themselves or a successful and rich professional.

The real world is VERY unforgiving when it comes to career related failures.

He's right about one thing, the educational system in the United States is stale, and techno-phobic.

Furthermore, the whole organization of the classroom is wrong, and the students are increasingly unable to tolerate it. They leave the 21st century and enter a 1950s style, top down authority mill.

I run a very relaxed classroom, and still feel stifled by the student's understanding of my power over them.

"You pass or fail us," one of my students pointed out, "so your opinion is the only one that matters."

This makes an open exchange of ideas, and honest debate over controversial opinions, virtually impossible.

I think online education is the only viable option for the future. We have to meet our students on their turf, speak their language, and communicate in their way--social networking, IMs, texts. It's the only way to reach them.

But that's just my humble opinion.

Charles Bivona
The Active Voice

Interesting although it contains far too many flaws and generalizations.

It’s not the first attempt to put people in boxes, it’s a 'nice' and 'clean' idea but it doesn’t work. We are far too complex.

It also reflects a lot of Zimbr's prejudices from his Judaeo-Christian background: present thinking equals empty Hedonism. Why not present positive equals Humanism, modern Epicureanism or Buddhism (Buddhist 'now' and 'here' concept), and present negative equals consumerism, materialism?

Hardly. As an atheist of sorts (I think the whole god/gods/no gods folderol is a waste of time, who cares?) I can assure you that I despise advertising and refuse to buy any product advertised on television. I use generics. I seldom watch television anyway and never when I lived in the US. I have found through personal experience that religious people, including atheists, are far more gullible and liable to self gratification. After all, god (or the gods) will forgive you no matter what you do, so long as drop a shekel or two in the collection plate.

That's extremely patronizing. You think you could go from illiterate to writing essays in a couple months? Ok, try that with a foreign language. Besides, what would be the negatives of teaching a child if the child is having fun learning?

There is one problem I have with this talk, it is that he is categorizing. People too often are easy to tossing names. Life is not so simple. But I'm not saying that what was said was useless.

Simply stated, how we view and spend time equates to what we value according to Zimbardo.

Personally, I suscribe to the statement by Gandhi that there is more to life than increasing its speed.

One however has only limited timeframes in which to accomplish anything; that is, there are deadlines for everything. How I attempt to live with time is to always be one with it so that I am not late to accomplish the things most meaningful to me. Being late can have disastrous effects. For example, I learned too late about the permanent injuries done to me from my parents' negligence because I was taught they were always to be trusted, even when they made injurious statements. Zimbardo speaks about past negative, yet I perceive it as a negative past. Although I know one cannot change the past, and therefore it is useless to dwell upon, this does not mean the past has no effect. My past's effects are negative, and thus regret is inevitable.

My permanent injuries have caused me to be unable to physically endure stress over any length of time, among other things. It could be thus said that I am present-oriented because I attempt to control my pain, however I do not see it as being hedonistic but as a matter of survival. I pursue pleasure only as an offset to the pain I endure, otherwise the pain will destroy me at a faster rate. My parents' actions have ruined me to a great physical extent, however I will not as much as it is possible add to their ruination of me. They are wrong, and I work everyday to prove so.

The injuries I suffer at the hands of my parents, whether it be physical due to their negligence or mental due to their lies, has made and continues to make it impossible to be future-oriented because one must be in control of oneself in order to reasonably control one's future. While I now control the mental because I know the truth, I have not been and will never be able to control the physical. That is not to say that I make no sacrifices, only that they have limited meaning because I am disabled, and people are defined by how they employ themselves.

Ultimately people attempt to define the world around them because it provides familiarity, and therefore comfort. Zimbardo is attempting to define it through time-consciousness. His construct is meant to apply to the most people possible, as it is with all scientists. It however suffers from a reductionist tendency that overlooks deeper, relevant matters that defy simple classification.

Who ever said work had to be meaningless?

Indulging is ok, as long as you don't force others to pay for it.

You're right, (generalisation) is proven with statistics. Often it is bad but with the right approach, methods and big numbers you can relatively be safe in doing it while making decisions.

This is a conclusion from the elaboration of data. If you read Zimb's papers you will be able to better appreciate the context and his methods which he applies, not to mention their important shortfalls. The issue is always the same, the people you generally observe publicly fall into homogeneous geodemographical and behavioral typesets – which gives rise to many challenges.

Nothing's perfect. That’s why we’re here! ;-)

In the real world one eventually pays for their mistakes. For a video game you can just simply press "reset" - just like in playing music - there are no limits beside your time you dedicate to it. So there is a considerable difference. And lastly: Last time my character was shot in a video game I didn't actually die. Have a go at combat in a real war.

There are many socio-economic data and much evidence of strong correlations that make it quite convincing. Verifying this would require disabling many game consoles, really not something feasible or acceptable by the general public. Let me know if you find evidence that disproves it though, I would be interested.

Again, these are statistics from observable phenomenon. They don't state "everybody" - read the research papers! You use data to improve decision making and process, not make them perfect.

It seems like you're taking things a little too seriously.

Honestly, it'd be more productive to cut 10 000 hours out of grade school than skip the 10 000 hours of video gaming. Every single useful think I learned in grade 1 through 9, I could have learnt in my spare time in a couple of months. It is a cruel waste of time we put our kids through until they reach high school and college.

Indulging in present-hedonism is the pay-off for persisting with future-positive oriented hard work. All work and no play is a meaningless and empty life.

This talk had a lot of problems with it. Sweeping generalizations, historical inaccuracies, faulty analogies, and unsupportable conclusions. But hey, the idea sounds nice, right?

Let's not validate the poorly-constructed, though well-intentioned, premises put forth by the speaker by paying the clip any more attention.

and a couple nit picks...

Real world doesn't forgive failure? I guess I might as well kill myself after I flunk a quiz, misplay a piano sonata, or run a red light.

And your evidence to support such a preposterous, stereotyping hypothesis is....? Did you say you were a teacher?

Becuase all atheists believe and act identically; just like all christians, muslims, and jews have totally compatible sects.

If the book is anything like the talk, I would recommend you not waste your time.