Tim Pool and YouTube

Today I got a thumbnail on the screen: Tim Pool´s latest. It sounded interesting (something about YouTube) but when I clicked on it the whole YT page went blank and there was nothing!
....????
What was this? I got curious and I watched another film with Tim Pool with the title There is No Future for ME Here.

Tim tells us about his difficulties in making his channel bigger. He is travelling much and needs the money that he can get from ads, but the YT logarithms seem to be working against him.
He has got 163 tn subscribers and this video is, after one day, shown more than 20.000 times. Isn´t that something to be satisfied with?

Hi Tim, maybe you should travel less and spend less money? Maybe a reporter that is flying all over the world has to be backed up by a company with money?

I like Tim because he is bright, intelligent, honest and also clever in making films. But good criticism is not of much value for a person who wants to get better / bigger.

He says that many stopped looking at his films. 

Yes, I also did. But I like him, so why did I? 

I think it was when all his thumbnails started to look the same. Almost the same photo of him and the texts look the same. I have to read them slowly to notice the difference between the films. There is no picture and no word that catches my attention more than the other ones. 

In a month he has made 30 new films - which one should I choose? Whichever I take I will still miss the other 29 ones, so...I avoid the problem by going somewhere else.

It is similar to buying tooth-paste. There are so many so I skip the whole idea and I do not buy any. All of them are different, but none stands out. Impossible to select one.
Of course it is good to have a personal style that is well recognized by people, but...? Which Coca Cola bottle should I choose if they all look the same but have different content? If I have to pick up every bottle and read the text it becomes too difficult.
It doesn´t matter if the mobile phones have a good brand if there are 30 different models in the same color and the differences are written somewhere.

Tim says that YT promotes people who make one film every day.

Really? Why? I do not understand that. I do not want to "follow" a person who makes a new film every day. It is too much. One good thing every week would be fine! The same day every week.

The old style is to listen to the Daily News on the radio / TV every day. But these news just quickly report the most important or dramatic happenings of the last day. Bang! Boom! And maybe you prepare some coffee and sandwiches while the TV is going bla-bla-bla-mumbo-jumbo in the background. You will still hear if the WW3 has broken out or not. So you know if you can go to bed calmly or if you have to escape to the caves in the mountains. To satisfy your survival instincts it is enough to catch the headlines and check other peoples´reactions. That is to be done on an everyday basis.

The film I looked at now is 24 minutes long! Even if I like Tim I cannot look at him for half an hour every day. He is not the only one I like. There are maybe 50 persons / channels on YT that I like. Imagine that every one makes a film of 30 minutes a day!!!! That makes 25 hours a day watching YT. It is not realistic! 

If Tim every day just made a quick summary of the hottest news on the planet....in around 5 - 10 minutes then maybe I would look at it. And then maybe another film with a short but clear analyse of the most interesting event, the one that dominates the day. If there is any.
If a truck has run into a crowd it is a dominating event and so it is when a Russian spy has been poisoned. Or a gas attack. Zuckerberg in the Senate´s hearing was also something special. It is possible to make a good, short analyse of such an event without having to fly to another country spending money on tickets and hotels.

It was quite heavy to listen to Zuckerberg in the Senate for so many hours just to be able to pick up the essentials. It also takes much time to try to find out what is really behind the Skripal case. It also can be difficult to know what channel to look at to be able to understand if there was a gas attack or not. I wouldn´t mind if someone else collected the most important links and presented them for me because it takes time to search for them.. A person who likes to be neutral can present both sides, with links to both sides. Maybe Tim and some friend could develop some News Agency, covering different topics...

It is of no use to fly to Syria because you cannot interview Assad anyway. Others have already done it. And there is of no use to fly to Salisbury and try to interview Yulia Skripal because they have hidden her somewhere. What people on the streets of Salisbury think is not interesting. They do not think more or better than we do.

Another thing is the language.

I live in Sweden and I would think that most people here cannot follow what Tim says because he talks too fast. Americans understand it but I suppose that Tim wants to attract people also in other countries. Even if I understand most of it I cannot make one second of reflection on a sentence, because then I miss the next sentence and I have to stop the film and go back. Often I also have to look up some words in Google Translate. To be able to do that I must hear the words clearly.
In this film he mentioned ”Schadenfreude”. If you do not understand German there is no chance to be able to catch that word.
So the 30 minutes become 40 minutes and the listening becomes an active work. Not for Americans but for people who do not have English as a mother tongue. To be actively working on listening to something requires that the speech is about something highly, highly interesting! And the listener must have a chance to contemplate, at least some seconds, on every major statement while listening, without having to stop the film.

Psychology (maybe it was Jung) says that you remember something if it is connected to an emotion. So if you put emotions into certain sentences those sentences will be better heard and better remembered. And... not too fast! An emotion has to have at least one second (or two) to be able to be created. If you put two different emotions into two different, opposite statements - then you will still be neutral.
Instead of putting nothing on the opposite sides of a scale you can put a stone on each side and the scale still remains balanced (horisontal). Maybe let it swing up and down on both sides, creating a little drama that catches attention.

Tim! If you do not travel so much you will save money and you will be able to work more on the background and adding pictures and so... Now I felt that I got distracted from seeing the same plastic slides in the park over and over again.
But one thing that is frustrating is when a person simultaneously speaks and shows a text. Many other people do that and I cannot focus on reading and listening at the same time.

Tim! If you stay home more and calm down you will get time to look at all those films that are about ”how to increase viewers” and ”how to speak” and so on. I do not know which ones are the best, I have just seen that they exist. I´m looking around now.

Listen to this guy, he has a good, moderate speed so it is possible to digest what he says while listening. I think he makes a one second pause after each sentence so I don´t have to stop the film to be able to catch what he says. 

Think Fast, Talk Smart.

But, on the other hand... if someone talks too slowly I will start thinking about something else and drift away and then I will also miss what has been said.

Here is a guy who is talking about how to talk in front of a camera. When we listen to a speach only 7 % is the words, 38 % is the tone of the voice and 55 % is the body language.

Speak to Camera - 3 Keys

This lady in the next video has a nice balance of speed, intonation and body language.

How Simplification is the Key to Change

So how is it with Tim?

Words. Too many too fast. At least for non-American people.
Tone. Kind of almost the same tone all the time.
Body language. Almost nothing.
The length of the video. Too long.
Layout. A little monotonous.
Camera. Tim is absolutely not camera shy, which can be a big problem for other people so most of the films about speaking that I find are about "How to overcome your fear". Tim is very clever in talking spontaneously, which for others can be very hard to learn. This is a big advantage as it is important.
So the other problems seem like ”something that could be quickly learned”. Just some lessons in ”speaking psychology”. There are films and courses... So many interesting things are waiting just around the corner.
Not to mention all the videos about "How to do... on YT"

He says that he gets stopped, but that is strange as he doesn´t have any controversal opinion. But... might be true anyway?

Tim speaks fast and it can be because he has so much to say and he has to squeeze all of it into a film of 25 minutes. Maybe the whole thing can be said slowly in 10-15 minutes (with some editing in advance.)
Professional radio-TV-speakers only use high speed when they talk about something really fast and dramatic, like some ongoing accident, maybe a street fight, or... ice-hockey ... football.... Long analytical thoughts are usually not presented in rally speed because people cannot follow it.

Maybe Tim also has a high speed because he thinks that he has to perform more and more, better and better and faster and faster. Maybe the solution is to calm down a bit.

It is very interesting to get a problem because it can open up the door to new insights!

When I listened to Tim I started to think about the problem that he presents and then I just began writing down anything that popped up in my mind.

But YT´s algorithm is something that I cannot even speculate about. 

That is for the "technical guys".

PS There is nobody that I look at every day at YouTube. Not even every week. There are people that I like that I do not even look at every month. Because periodically I have different interests.

How to turn the Talking Stick into a useful tool.

Medicine Pipe Illustration by Viveca Lammers

A Talking Stick is almost a so called Medicine Item with the difference that it is for communication with people instead of spirits.

A Medicine Item should be wrapped i red and then packed in something else and put aside. It is personal and should not be handled by other people. It can even be a secret tool that other people should not even know about. According to Swiftdeer it is protected by the red color.
Apart from that story the red color has another effect: it wakes you up. It gives the brain a signal that something has to be attended to or noticed, so you get a little bit more energy and focus. Magical ceremonies always have ingredients that can shift your consciousness in various ways.

As the Talking Stick is not used in this way you can wrap it in any color, if you wish to take it with you when you travel. But take a material that you really like and that gives a good impression. Maybe with some embroidery. And notice the symbolism of the different colors! The red is still OK because it is a symbol for the heart.
But a Talking Stick session can begin with a situation where two people disagree about something so they are already upset and excited so they don´t need to get more awake from having a red blanket in front of them. They are already overstimulated and have to calm down. That is the situation, which is described in the old Legend about the Talking Stick.

When we are home, and especially if the family has many children, there can always pop up a situation where one person agrees to something that he/she doesn´t like to agree with. Or two persons having different opinions about something. Often one person wins and the other one gets silent but remains irritated for a while.
We believe that we forget all these irritations, but even if we do not remember what happened our subconscious mind remembers the feeling of irritation and it also remembers who the other person was (who caused the irritation). If that happens many times it will build up something deep inside, like the small water drops slowly filling a big glas.
An unfinished talk is the same as an unfinished action, which is called karma. It is an action that is still going on because it is waiting to get a chance to be finished. Such little pieces of karma can be called emotional hang-ups and they can create trouble in other situations.

Traditional Communication Tool: The Talking Stick

-- I looked at a film with someone who suggested that the Talking Stick should always be hanging on the wall in a way that also a small child could reach it. That was a good idea, wasn´t it?

-- Yes, but we don´t have such problems, because we listen to our children, so we don´t need any Talking Stick.

-- Yeah...OK... but in case that there would be a little conflict? It can always happen, you know....

-- Well, yes, in that case we could use it.

That was a little example from reality.

It sounds good, but what would happen if A and B ended up in a conflict and then B suddenly takes up a Talking Stick and says that now A has to use it. Probably A will refuse. If you are in a conflict with someone (even if it is just about a piece of bread) the last thing you want to do is to obey this person! So the Talking Stick method will not work if you suddenly and unexpectedly present your stick to someone who is already irritated. That person will rather get a feeling that your stick is a weapon that you now want to use to win the fight.

A Talking Stick is not a magical object that works in it´s own way and solves all our problems by itself! It is like any other tool: you cannot use it well if you have not learned how to use it and also trained on it. It is good to have it in a conflict situation, but only if all the participants are used to it. So we should not start using it for the first time when a conflict is already active, because then the stick will just be associated with negative conflicts, the negative side of perceiving the world in different ways.

It would be better to train on it by having a little Talking Circle once a week. Without conflicts! Just for the purpose of learning and getting used to it. In such a circle everyone can tell the others about what has happened during the week, what was fun and what was not and why it was not etc.. with focus on the emotional effects of this and that. Then... in time... the stick will become a tool that can be used also in conflicts.
There is a reason why certain ceremonies are repeated every day in so many cultures.

Teaching world leaders to listen.

The Talking Stick is a symbol for communication that is based on listening. It is also a physical, beautiful object that makes the whole thing much more fun and easy because you can see with your eyes who is supposed to talk and who should listen. We live in the age of communication and there is a lot of talking going on, but how much do we listen? And how much do we listen to ourselves?

Some people teach children to use the Talking Stick and there are also people who teach the art of listening to world leaders. William Ury is such a person, a world-famous negotiation expert, and he is working with the big leaders in the world, helping them to handle serious conflicts. He has worked as a negotiation adviser and mediator in conflicts in the Middle East, the Balkans, the former Soviet Union, Indonesia, Yugoslavia, Chechnya, and Venezuela among other countries. He does not present a painted stick with pearls and feathers to the directors and presidents, but he uses other tactics to invoke ”the spirit of listening” and he is here telling about a meeting with Ugo Chavez where the whole aggressive attitude of the president got changed in just half an hour because William silently just listened to him. 

If you study the behaviour of successful negotiators you find that they listen far more than they talk, he says. Negotiation is to try to change someone else´s mind, but how can you do that if you do not know where the other person´s mind is? Listening is the key! It builds rapport and trust.

Real listening is tuning in to the other person´s wavelength and listening from that person´s frame of reference. We listen to the feelings, emotions and needs that are behind the words, what that person really needs or wants.

The power of listening | William Ury

He says that his dream is a ”listening revolution” that could turn this Age of Communication into an Age of True Communication.

He says:

Imagine a world where every child learns to listen at an early age! What if we taught listening in school? Imagine a world where parents learn to listen to their children! Imagine a world where leaders learn to listen to the people! What if we chose leaders based on their ability to listen and not just talk?

Teach children to use the Talking Stick!

The purpose of the Talking Stick is to teach us to listen to the person who is saying something and then even to listen to what is behind this talking. What feeling, what kind of experience is behind the words?

Children would love to make their own Talking Sticks,
using their own creativity and fantasy.

The main message that comes with the Talking Stick is not that we should get better in talking to make our point of view better explained. That method also exists and could be worth learning, but it is another story.

The purpose of the Talking Stick is to teach us to listen to the person who is saying something and then even to listen to what is behind this talking. What feeling, what kind of experience is behind the words? The Talking Person has to show the real need or wish that is behind the words.

In our western culture we are not really used to this way of listening and the Indian Talking Stick has come to us to teach us the two fundamental parts of a talk: to be authentic (to ”speak from your heart”) and to listen till you have fully understood the other person´s point of view.

The use of a stick is a good idea because when you have been in such a talking circle a couple of times you will remember the process and when you later get into a conflict with someone the idea of using the stick will pop up in your mind. Holding sucjh a stick will then remind you of sharing your experience and not just your opinion. If you have never been in such a circle the idea of this kind of conflict resolving will not come to your mind.

According to the Indian Medicine Wheel our thinking, our intellect is in the north, which is of the element wind, and emotions are in the south, the place of water. The basic is, according to Swiftdeer and others, to use the intellect mainly as a receiving station for information and the emotions mainly as a giving station. If we quickly give out what we feel, and if we are allowed to, negative feelings do not have the chance to build up till they become explosive and destructive.
It just means that for a communication to work well we have to listen (till we understand) and when we speak it is (especially in a conflict) good to explain the emotional experience that is connected to it.

The Talking Stick is a good way of learning both to express feelings and to listen to other people.

Everything that we have learned as small children becomes deeply roooted in our subconscious mind so it feels natural. Those who talk about ”creating peace on earth” could give a thought to the possibility to teach the use of the Talking Stick to all our small children. Those who had learned this skill would be able to solve some conflicts all by themselves, even at a low age.

Childrens´ Talking Circle with a Talking Stick

Talking Stick by Viveca Lammers on YouTube

Our communication

Talking Stick by Viveca Lammers

The Talking Stick helps us to talk about "hot topics" without losing temper. It can help to solve the tricky effects of Internet when they spread into reality.

When the physical borders fall we gather in mental groups, that are stronger and bigger than ever (with one group having members in the whole world), and affinity, fellowship and solidarity gets lost in the physical world but refound on the screen, where we find or create our new homeland. It is quite similar to the shamn´s way of creating a medicine wheel, a personal space where only certain spirits are allowed to enter while the other ones get blocked with magical formulas, similar to the blocking of an unwanted person on Facebook with the help of magical clicks that keep your circle safe. Read more...

Swiftdeer and the Talking Stick

The person who initiated the use of the Talking Stick in Europe was Harley Swiftdeer when he travelled around giving workshops to thousands of people in shamanism, ceremonies and magic, mainly assisted by his apprentice Batty Gold.  

Harley Swiftdeer in Stockholm 1985
teaching the Medicine Wheel

Swiftdeer was a tricky person with a strong presence and many called him a Heyoka, which is the trickster that often makes the opposite to what is expected from a spiritual teacher, deliberately
challenging peoples´ believes about who, how and what a teacher or a shaman should be. He was born precisely at full moon, which gives an interest in the fight and balance between oppositions, so he was also busy training and teaching martial arts.
He was a Gemini (astrological sign) and Geminis are ruled by Wind and Mercury, which is the god of communication and language skills. Read more about Swiftdeer!

Talking Stick "Heyoka Dance"

Talking Stick by Viveca Lammers

A Talking Stick is a beautifully decorated tool that is traditionally used by the Red Indians for communication.