Mark Rober, a YouTube star and former NASA engineer coined the phenomenon of 'The Super Mario Effect' which is a data-backed mindset for life gamification that impacts the ways one helpfully tricks their minds into learning just about anything.

The gamification of learning

Rober conducted a test where 50,000 of his followers were given a puzzle to solve with one group being penalized for failed attempts and the other moving ahead with the original amount of points, regardless of any failures. <ol><li>The success rate of the penalized group resulted in around 52% </li><li>whereas the non-penalized group's success rate reached 68%. </li></ol>The results also showed that the non-penalized group made more than twice as many attempts to solve the puzzle as compared to the penalized group.

The weight of fake and meaningless internet points

<ul><li>The trick to learning more and having more success is finding the right way to frame the learning process in your mind. </li><li>The people who do not see failure in a negative light are more likely to stay on the path of success because they keep trying. </li></ul>To avoid failure, one must not concern themselves with failure itself, at all.

The uselessness of negativity in failures

Toddlers constantly try new things, unconcerned with failure. When they learn to walk, they don't think about how dumb they might look if they fall and the parents wouldn't punish them if they waren't successful either. The focus is always on the end goal, and the wins are always celebrated.As a result of constantly failing and trying at new things during that phase of their lives, they discover so many more new capabilities within themselves, and this learning arc doesn't come close to any other time in their lives.

Re-learning the Toddler's version of trial and error

When it comes to games like Super Mario Bros,no one ever picks up the controller for the first time and then after jumping into a pit thinks, "I am so ashamed; that was such a failure," and then never want to try it again. They think, "I've got to remember there's a pit there; next time, I'm going to come out with a little more speed and jump a bit later." The focus and the obsession is about beating the game, not how dumb you might look if you get hit by a sliding green shell.

To obsess about the task, not the wins or losses

<ul><li>This concept of life gamification is more than just about having a positive attitude or never giving up, because instead of implying that you're enduring against your true desire to quit, you end up framing a challenge or a learning process in a way that you'll actually want to do it.</li><li>It allows you to feel natural about ignoring the failures and trying repeatedly, in the same way a toddler will want to get up and try and walk again or in the same way you want to keep playing Super Mario Bros. Nobody is forcing the toddlers, or you, to continue.</li></ul>

Reframe the challenges

<ul><li>As a direct result of that attitude of learning and not being focused on the failures, we are able to learn a lot in order to win, in a very short amount of time. </li><li>This is the Super Mario Effect: By shifting your focus to the princess and treating your life's challenges like video games, you can trick your brain and actually learn more and see more success.</li></ul>

It's all about rescuing princess Peach from the evil Bowser

When 50,000 of Mark Rober's 3 million YouTube subscribers participated in a basic coding challenge, the data all pointed to what Rober has dubbed the Super Mario Effect. The YouTube star and former NASA engineer describes how this data-backed mindset for life gamification has stuck with him along his journey, and how it impacts the ways he helps (or tricks) his viewers into learning science, engineering, and design. Mark Rober has made a career out of engineering, entertainment, and education. After completing degrees in mechanical engineering from Brigham Young University and the University of Southern California, Rober joined NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in 2004. In his nine years as a NASA engineer, seven of which were on the Mars rover Curiosity team, Rober worked on both the Descent Stage (the jet pack that lowered the Rover to the surface) and some hardware on the Rover top deck for collecting samples. In 2011, Rober’s iPad-based Halloween costume helped launch both his creative costume company, Digital Dudz, and his YouTube channel, which now boasts 3 million subscribers and 400 million views. His videos focus on creative ideas and science- and engineering-based pranks and activities. Rober is a regular guest on "Jimmy Kimmel Live!". Today, he does research and development work for a large technology company in Northern California, where he lives with his wife and son. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at https://www.ted.com/tedx

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The Super Mario Effect - Tricking Your Brain into Learning More | Mark Rober | TEDxPenn

Jennifer David