We asked Engineering junior Tal Raviv, creator of the celebrated College House videos for prospective students and holder of the Guinness Book of World Record's title for the largest ball of packing tape, ¨Qu‚ tal?
Did you take last semester off? Tal Raviv: I took a year off to study creativity, to learn how to think, to do a lot of things that a typical chemical engineering undergrad wouldn't find himself doing.
How do you learn how to think? TR: I looked at examples to see what different things had in common. What does military strategy have in common with cooking have in common with musical composition? There's a lot in common, and these are things I wanted to know before I continued to study in college.
Did you learn how to think? TR: Yes. A lot better. I learned that the whole trick is to think inside the box. Thinking outside the box is of course the goal, but if you sit down with a blank pad and a pen, it's exactly the opposite of what you want to do. The trick to really thinking of a good idea is about constraining yourself inside a sort of context. Like, okay, for these five seconds I'm going to concentrate on this Styrofoam cup. How can this Styrofoam cup play any possible role? If you have a riddle and you're stuck, and someone gives you a clue and says here's the first hint, it involves grass - you really take that hint seriously. You really focus and think, "What does the grass have to do with it?" So my point is, give yourself fake hints. Take yourself seriously for a short time. Think in a lot of little boxes.
Was there a crisis that inspired this year off? TR: I was the kid that got the 97 and was still disappointed. I was really frustrated that I couldn't figure how the person who came up with algebra came up with it. And I didn't feel I had the right to use it unless I was confident that if I was in his position I could come up with it also. I felt like I should have gotten a 60 or something.
What do you do when you're not studying thinking? TR: This past semester I started doing funny things on campus with a bunch of friends. We need more of a sense of humor and not to take ourselves so seriously. So the "Protest Against Activism" [featured in the DP 10/5/06] was part of that. We had a rape whistle choir on Locust Walk. You know how they have three notes? We figured out how to play the whistles. My friend who's a music minor arranged Looney Tunes, the Final Countdown and Vivaldi's Spring.
Tell us about the Facebook group, CTFWDG. TR: We have this thing called Capture The Flag With Dart Guns. I think the idea for it started freshman year when I used to walk around DRL and think, "This would make a great Goldeneye level."
If you had a talent what would it be? TR: Salsa dancing.
