http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/2h5c7p/i_am_walter_obrien_the_inspiration_behind_the_cbs/

In regards to Ebola, I agree that we shouldn’t panic, but like you said, we need to cauterize this open wound at the source. If we don’t deal with it aggressively and quickly, it’s exponential nature could be catastrophic. In fact, I just saw something the other day where Nassim Taleb was echoing the exact same sentiment:

http://www.businessinsider.com/nassim-taleb-heres-what-people-dont-understand-about-ebola-2014-10

Also, I’m glad you liked the show!

Enjoyed the live show, looking forward to a full report of the summit.

I hope you all had an awesome remainder of the summit. Hope there will be one next year 😉

Didn’t seem that rare to me at that time… Out of 15 guys in my class, 5 were over 6’3”, one was 6’8”. Those two ‘small’ ones had a lot to prove 🙂

One of those jumpers was kind of born-that-way freak of nature, fast as lightning, playing basketball from dawn till dusk without slowing down. The other one was not so born as much as he was stubborn and determined to finish what he started. I bet his willpower alone increased his jump height by couple of inches 🙂

Thanks for showing those videos! Progress is obvious.

You’ve probably read thousands of pages on jumping theory by now, but one thing I’ll mention is that you should start doing running vertical jumps. That kind of jump can take you higher than any standing jump and is a special skill that takes lots of training to perform efficiently.

Anyway… Thanks to you, I’ve started jumping like a lunatic outside my house every morning trying to touch roofbeams. Wife asked: “What gave you that idea?”. Me: “Jason from Techzing.” 😀

Good luck man !

“Couple of guys from my high school were around and below 5’11” and could dunk it almost effortlessly”

Wow, that’s amazing. I’ve literally played basketball with/against thousands of players over the past 30 years and I could probably count on one hand the number of guys I’ve run into who were under 6′ foot and could “dunk effortlessly”. Okay, maybe it was more than that because I’ve seen my share of incredible athletes, but it’s rare enough that when I’ve seen it, my reaction has generally been like “holy shit, that’s amazing!” 😉

Anyway, my measured reach is exactly 91 inches, which means I’m 29 inches from even touching the rim. If I timed my jump perfectly, I’d probably need to jump 37 inches to dunk, but to dunk effortlessly (or even just consistently) it would likely need be more like 40 inches. Looking at the most recent NBA combine stats, that would theoretically put my max vertical near the top end of the very top NBA prospects:

http://www.nbadraft.net/nba-draft-combine-athleticism-test-results-1

Basically, what I’m saying is this. As challenging as this goal sounds (and I’m guessing it sounds borderline ridiculous), multiply that difficulty rating by at least 10 or more and you might be getting close to the reality of it.

To give you an idea, here’s my initial jump test from July 18th – and yes, I know it’s pathetic ;):

http://youtu.be/z4BmvtJgkwg

And here’s my second jump test from Aug 6th, which is a pretty solid improvement for just a 19-day period – if I do say so myself. 😉 Basically, all I was doing (about twice per week) was standing pause jumps (4×5), squats (3×5 to parallel) and deadlifts (3×8).

http://youtu.be/TlWQmq2B6Hs

Unfortunately, I tore my left hamstring later that day, which took me out of training for 6 weeks and then I started this vertical jump workout for a month that turned out to be ineffective, so I’m just now a few weeks back into training and trying to regain what I lost, which was everything I had previously gained. Based on a jump test I did a few days ago, I think I’m just about back to where I was on Aug 6th. While that’s kind of depressing, I’m pretty confident that with my new training regimen I should start hitting new PRs in the coming weeks. Stay tuned! 😉

@”Vintage terminal app”: There is rather cool retro terminal project over here: https://github.com/Swordfish90/cool-retro-term

@Jason: thanks for recommending “Cracked” podcast, after listening to one episode I know there’s awesome week of podcast listening while commuting in front of me, thanks to you 🙂

Also, I admire your goal of dunking basketball… And believe you can do it. Mostly from personal experience. Couple of guys from my high school were around and bellow 5’11” and could dunk it almost effortlessly… With regular and proper training who knows, thumbs up Jason!

ps. I’m 6’4” so I don’t know what’s all the fuss about 😉

I’ve been thinking of getting the quarterly subscriptions as they would make nice coffee table reading material 🙂

Speaking of comparisons, I think of Steve almost like a kind of ancient Kung Fu master or sage from the Middle Ages, while I’m more like Dewey Finn from School of Rock. Just ask Sandy, she’ll tell you. 😉

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6UV_5HvpmgY

Here’s a video about Steve, which should give you an idea:

http://www.paideiaschool.org/about_us/sigur.aspx

Essentially what I’m saying is that “you people” should go to the next summit if you get the chance. I’m here to say that whatever concerns you might have, dismiss them. You’ll have a great time.

I immediately thought back to all the times Jason has mentioned the large influence that Steve Sigur (math teacher) had on him. I have a feeling you are channeling that spirit, consciously or not 🙂