>> Well, when we first started talking about the MOOC, you might remember, Jack,
we met for lunch.
And I already had a zillion items on my plate,
many more than I could do in the time that I had.
And now, all of a sudden, you are bringing this additional,
very large idea into my head.
I thought, oh, where am I gonna find the time, to fit in that extra idea.
Well, I went home, and I spoke with my wife, Stephanie, about it, and I'm telling
her about the idea, and how I can't possibly fit another thing in my schedule.
And she looks at me and
she says Daryl, this sounds like what you've been wanting to do.
And it dawned on me that that was the case.
So we started talking in the days after that.
Got more involved, I opened up a little bit of time to work on the MOOC, and
push some other things aside.
And that just energized me even more to work on it.
For the time that I had, so it opened up more time and more time.
And it seemed like the more I worked on it,
the more time that I kept opening up on that MOOC.
It just energized me.
>> And I can see the passion rising- >> Yep.
>> in you to do this, to make it happen.
And Katherine, What was your experience?
>> Well I think it's similar that energy, what energizes you,
is a very important thing in making decisions and evaluating ideas.
Sometimes I break down that energy a little bit.
So I kind of think about categories.
In particular,
Freud came up with a way of thinking about making choices in terms of three things.
He says sometimes you choose the things you need.
Sometimes you choose the things that you like, or prefer.
And sometimes you choose things because you feel that you ought to do them.
You feel a sense of obligation.
So a quick example, before the MOOC.
I need to eat, right?
I need to eat every day, so
if I get an invitation to go to my mother in law's house, she's an awesome cook,
then I think I need to eat and boy that's a great place to go.
When I get to her house,
there are certain things that she makes that I like better than others.
So for example she makes this amazing cake at Easter, she only makes it at Easter,
it's just, it's phenomenal.
But sometimes she has pickled herring.
Well I'm not a big fan of pickled herring but I love this cake,
so I like one better than the other, so I choose which one to eat.
But I also feel a sense of obligation.
I love my family, and I feel responsibility to them.
And I feel a sense of obligation to honor and
respect my mother in law- [CROSSTALK] and to show my love.
>> So these are almost like values or virtues within yourself.
>> Yes.
And so those obligations then sometimes, maybe I'll choose to eat something on
the table that isn't my favorite, because she spent extra time on it.
And I want her to feel appreciated, so
with the MOOC, I think it touched all three.
It was something that I need, this camaraderie,
this intellectual stimulation, is something that I need.
I like the topic.
It's one of my favorite subjects in the world, and
I feel a sense of obligation to share it with as many people as possible.
So in a way it touched all three of those.
>> What you're saying reminds me of a book that I read.
It's called the Pumpkin Plan.
And it's about how do you grow these large, prize winning pumpkins.
And I used to grow these when I was a kid actually.
Not as big as big probably as some of the prize winners today.
>> [LAUGH] >> But the author had several key steps.
He said the first step is to get good seeds, and good pumpkin seeds for
these award winning pumpkins can cost $2000 each.
So it takes a lot of work to get the right seeds.
The second thing is to thin them.
And it's what we're talking about right now, evaluating them and thinning them.
If you have too many ideas, you can't find the slack time, the extra time,
to invest in what you're doing, so you need to thin those pumpkins out.
And the third piece that the author discussed was to nurture those plants, to
fertilize them, to water, to really pour energy into them and get them to grow.
Then he didn't mention this, but
the last step was to make sure you eat your piece of pumpkin pie.
>> [LAUGH] That's right.
>> Darrell, that was a great metaphor for what the MOOCs all about.
You plant, you thin, you grow, you fertilize.
In the end you have a great product.
Dr. Kathryn W. JablokowAssociate Professor
Dr. Darrell VelegolDistinguished Professor of Chemical Engineering
Dr. Jack V. MatsonProfessor Emeritus
Elizabeth KisenwetherAssistant Professor
John BellantiDr.
Dr. Armend Tahirsylaj
