Learn why compliments are so embarrassing, and how you can take them better; how you can help astronomers design a new Arecibo Message to send to extraterrestrials; and how you can learn anything in four steps with the Feynman Technique. In this podcast, Cody Gough and Ashley Hamer discuss the following stories from Curiosity.com to help you get smarter and learn something new in just a few minutes: Why Are Compliments So Embarrassing? — https://curiosity.im/2EcrmiV A New Arecibo Message to Extraterrestrials Needs Your Suggestions — https://curiosity.im/2EeoTEC Learn Anything in Four Steps With the Feynman Technique — https://curiosity.im/2EbxfNz If you love our show and you're interested in hearing full-length interviews, then please consider supporting us on Patreon. You'll get exclusive episodes and access to our archives as soon as you become a Patron! https://www.patreon.com/curiositydotcom Learn about these topics and more on Curiosity.com, and download our 5-star app for Android and iOS. Then, join the conversation on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Plus: Amazon smart speaker users, enable our Alexa Flash Briefing to learn something new in just a few minutes every day!
Learn why compliments are so embarrassing, and how you can take them better; how you can help astronomers design a new Arecibo Message to send to extraterrestrials; and how you can learn anything in four steps with the Feynman Technique.
In this podcast, Cody Gough and Ashley Hamer discuss the following stories from Curiosity.com to help you get smarter and learn something new in just a few minutes:
If you love our show and you're interested in hearing full-length interviews, then please consider supporting us on Patreon. You'll get exclusive episodes and access to our archives as soon as you become a Patron! https://www.patreon.com/curiositydotcom
Learn about these topics and more on Curiosity.com, and download our 5-star app for Android and iOS. Then, join the conversation on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Plus: Amazon smart speaker users, enable our Alexa Flash Briefing to learn something new in just a few minutes every day!
Full episode transcript here: https://curiosity-daily-4e53644e.simplecast.com/episodes/how-to-take-a-compliment-learn-anything-in-four-steps-and-design-a-new-arecibo-message
[MUSIC PLAYING] CODY GOUGH: Hi. We've got three stories from curiosity.com to help you get smarter in just a few minutes. I'm Cody Gough.
ASHLEY HAMER: And I'm Ashley Hamer. Today you'll learn why compliments are so embarrassing and how you can take them better, how you can help astronomers with a project to send a message to extraterrestrials, and how you can learn anything in four steps with the Feynman Technique.
CODY GOUGH: Would satisfy some curiosity.
ASHLEY HAMER: Getting a compliment is supposed to feel good. So why do nearly 70% of people associate positive recognition with embarrassment and discomfort?
CODY GOUGH: It is hard to take a compliment.
ASHLEY HAMER: Yeah. Research has a few ideas. So first of all, a compliment causes a strange wrinkle in the fabric of social interaction. In general, we're socialized to not say positive things about ourselves and to not openly disagree with people. That can make a compliment uncomfortable.
If you accept it, you're violating that first rule of not saying anything positive about yourself. And if you deny it, then you violate that second rule of not disagreeing with people. There's also a social benefit of acting humble in response to a compliment.
In many ways, being embarrassed is actually the acceptable response. The discomfort you feel might be caused by your unconscious knowledge that you're supposed to feel that way. You might even internalize the belief that the person is being disingenuous, and that can add another level of discomfort. It might even cause your imposter syndrome to flare up. After all, if your classmates or coworkers are complimenting the thing that you're insecure about, isn't that evidence that you're in over your head?
CODY GOUGH: So if I'm like, you're an awesome managing editor, and I think you do a really good job with our articles in our website, and you're not 100,000% confident that you're really awesome at that, then you're going to start to totally lose it.
ASHLEY HAMER: Um, see, I immediately start discounting everything you say. That's how my brain works.
CODY GOUGH: Wow. Yeah, that's powerful.
ASHLEY HAMER: [CHUCKLES] Yeah.
CODY GOUGH: And it's because we're like socially expected to feel that way. That's so weird.
ASHLEY HAMER: Yeah. And there's another element of public praise that's uncomfortable besides the praise part, the public part. When somebody gives you a compliment, they're not just saying you did a good job, they're also saying that they've been watching you. Even if they approve of what you've done, you might flashback to the part of your process you wish they hadn't seen, or maybe you start worrying about what happens when they're watching in the future and things don't go so well.
Anyway, you're not alone in your compliment anxiety. And there is something you can try to make it less embarrassing. Mainly, it's important to realize that a compliment is just as much about the giver as it is about the receiver.
When someone gives you a compliment, they're giving their feedback on how your actions affected them. They're not asking you if you agree with that feedback. They're just giving it. Try accepting it like you might accept a gift, meaning don't throw it back in their face.
And if you feel up to it, then amplify the positive effects by asking exactly what they liked about your work. You can do it. We believe in you. I mean, after all, you're really good-looking. You have great taste in podcasts. And you're really smart and funny. And I just really like that top you're wearing right now.
CODY GOUGH: [CHUCKLES] You assume that our listeners wear clothes when--
ASHLEY HAMER: [LAUGHS]
CODY GOUGH: You might think the idea of talking to aliens is completely ridiculous since we've never found extraterrestrial life. But you've got to realize that actual scientists are working on actual projects in the event that we do make contact with other-worldly life. This is a thing that's happening.
One of those projects is called the Arecibo message. And a coalition of astronomers could use your help updating it. If you had the chance to talk to an extraterrestrial, what would you want to say? What would you want to say, Ashley? Would you be like, this is what Tchaikovsky wrote. Or would you be like, we're violent. Please blow up our planet.
ASHLEY HAMER: Man, I don't know. I wouldn't want to tell them anything. I just want to find out about them.
CODY GOUGH: If you were the human race and you went to a party with a bunch of aliens, what would you be when they're like, hey, what keeps you busy?
ASHLEY HAMER: Oh, I'd be like, yo, you ever heard of tacos?
CODY GOUGH: [CHUCKLES]
ASHLEY HAMER: They're amazing. Let me show you what tacos are.
CODY GOUGH: Excellent answer. I would just challenge them to a game of Smash Bros. Ultimate.
ASHLEY HAMER: See, that's great.
CODY GOUGH: Just to give me an excuse to finally be able to play. Anyway, it's neither here nor there. Well, this project regarding aliens comes from the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico, which is finally recovering from Hurricane Maria from 2017. The Arecibo message goes all the way back to November 1974. It was designed with the astronomer Dr. Frank Drake--
ASHLEY HAMER: Not Francis Drake.
CODY GOUGH: --along with help from Dr. Carl Sagan and the observatory staff. Scientists beamed a message to space from Arecibo in the general direction of a star cluster called M13. And it was the most powerful broadcast ever beamed into deep space at the time. The message was simple but powerful because it revealed the basics about humans-- where we live, the solar system, the elements of DNA, which make up our bodies, what we look like via an image of a human, and what we use to send the message, so it was a graphic of the radio telescope.
The world has changed quite a bit since 1974 though. That's why the Arecibo Observatory wants to send out a new message. Astronomers would like to have the new message ready in time for the original message's 45th anniversary in 2019 to show those aliens how much we've changed or stayed the same in the last half century. There's a whole Arecibo challenge website that aims to engage K-16 students from all over the world in space-related topics, promoting global collaboration and enhancing critical thinking and self-awareness. That website has been set up to help you, if you're a K-16 student, start thinking about what message you want to send to the stars.
It won't be easy though. In order to craft your message, you'll need to form a team and solve a number of puzzles and questions. Part one of the challenge will be released on December 16. You can find the challenge on the Arecibo Observatory's website-- that's A-R-E-C-I-B-O-- at areciboobservatory.org.
ASHLEY HAMER: Just don't include too many compliments in the Arecibo message. We don't want to make the aliens feel embarrassed. Little known fact, our most popular article of all time is about the Feynman Technique. And you can use it to learn pretty much anything. We touched on it during a full episode of the Curiosity podcast in early 2018. But today you'll get a recap so you can learn anything in four simple steps.
CODY GOUGH: I've got my pen and paper out to take notes. Is that one of the steps?
ASHLEY HAMER: It sure is.
CODY GOUGH: Sweet. [CHUCKLES] One down, three to go.
ASHLEY HAMER: So the Feynman Technique is a mental model that was coined by Nobel Prize winning physicist Richard Feynman. He was so good at explaining dense scientific topics that people actually called him the great explainer. No matter the concept, Feynman believed that if you couldn't reduce it to a lesson a college freshman could understand, you didn't really understand it yourself.
When Feynman was a student at Princeton, he had a four-step process he used to understand everything he learned, and you can do it too. First, pick a topic you want to understand and write down everything you know about it on a notebook page. As you study, add every new thing you learn to that page.
Next, pretend to teach your topic to a classroom. The simpler your explanation, the better. Once you hit gaps in your knowledge, go back to the books and revisit the harder concepts until you can explain them. Finally, connect the facts you know to analogies you're familiar with to help strengthen your understanding. And that's it.
The Feynman Technique is perfect for learning a new idea, understanding an existing idea better, remembering an idea, or studying for a test. We weren't kidding when we said it was good for anything. So one more time to recap. First, pick a topic you want to understand and start studying it. Second, pretend to teach your topic to a classroom. Third, go back to the books when you get stuck. And last but not least, simplify and use analogies. Now you've just got to figure out what you want to use this technique to learn.
CODY GOUGH: Sounds to me like we should include the Feynman Technique in our next Arecibo message.
ASHLEY HAMER: I think so.
CODY GOUGH: Read about today's stories and more on curiosity.com.
ASHLEY HAMER: Join us again tomorrow with the award-winning Curiosity Daily and learn something new in just a few minutes. I'm Ashley Hamer.
CODY GOUGH: And I'm Cody Gough.
ASHLEY HAMER: Stay curious.
NARRATOR: On the Westwood One Podcast Network.
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