Tinkering, Laughter and Long hair

The “King of Random” is dead and I’m sad about it—even though I’d never heard his name until yesterday.

Grant Thompson was the creator of the Youtube channel titled The King of Random and he made “videos dedicated to exploring life through all kinds of hacks, experiments and random weekend projects.”

  A look at his offerings shows that he lived up to the ‘random' claim. He has a variety of videos including how to: make thunder claps, turn coal into diamonds using peanut butter, and light a fire with a water bottle (this last one is filed under survival techniques if you’re interested)

  “There is excitement found in discovering the unknown, so join us and let’s build something great together,” says the description of the channel.

  I’m not sure that building was always the goal but discovering the unknown was. In 2017, in an interview on Mediakix, he said that “I just started tinkering and learning how the world works…” Over time he built up a following and he said he realized he was meeting a need.

 But what need, exactly, was he meeting?
 Primarily, the appeal of just tinkering…. Do you know the definition of tinkering?

 To attempt to repair or improve something in a casual way, often to no useful effect.

 Tinkering is, at its heart, playtime. It involves puttering around with everyday objects and  and exploring what can be done with them. For some, if it involves fire or explosions (as some of Thompson’s did)  but for others its just fooling around with a piece of wood and some wire. Doing something with your hands, building, tinkering… can be therapeutic.

 But I think the attraction to his channel went beyond tinkering.

 His ideas had a sense of ridiculousness, and his Youtube channel provided a droll comedy for his watchers. It reminded me of something similar.

The Ig Nobel Prize.

 The Ig honors achievements that make people LAUGH and then THINK. According to the website, “The prizes are intended to celebrate the unusual, honor the imaginative — and spur people’s interest in science, medicine, and technology.”

 They have an annual ceremony (Sept 12 if you’re interested) and the awards are presented at a Harvard auditorium by, you guessed it, genuine Nobel Laureates. 

To help you understand what I'm talking about, the 2018 awards went to scientists who explored:

-whether roller coasters could hasten the passage of kidney stones.

-whether a wine expert could reliably identify, by smell, the presence of a single fly in a glass of wine.

-the degree to which human saliva is a good cleaning agent.

I’ve signed up to watch the awards online.
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  As a bonus, during my research I discovered that I may be a candidate for the Luxuriant Flowing Hair Club for Scientists. My hair has gotten longer out of pure laziness but now I discover, it may open new doors for me. The LFHCfS is for scientists that have, or believe they have, luxuriant flowing hair. Stay tuned. ​

“You can't deny laughter; when it comes, it plops down in your favorite chair and stays as long as it wants.” Stephen King