Talks

Important life lessons everyone should master: 1. Rob Bell said it best "...being kind is a better way to live." 2. Though the proverb "cleanliness is next to Godliness" does not actually appear in the Bible, Jesus still wants you to suds after using the potty. 3. There's more than one way to pick a lock. I'm going to assume that in your 30-give-or-take-a-few-ish years you've mastered lessons 1 and 2.  In five mintues I will show you how using a Coke can to pick a lock can change your life without sending you to the pokey.    

Did you know that 14% of Oklahoma’s adult population can’t read with enough proficiency to even fill out a job application? Further, studies have found a positive connection between literacy and a multitude of socio-economic issues, including poor health, crime, and poverty. Although it sounds unbelievable, it’s projected that our country loses $60 billion a year in lost productivity as a result of American illiteracy. The Oklahoma City Metro Literacy Coalition is committed to 100% literacy through 100% community engagement; our goal is to bring literacy to the entire Oklahoma City community, to ensure that we have a competitive workforce and a confident citizenry.

A few years ago, I came to know, firsthand, the three questions everyone asks themselves when they are dying:  1) Did I live enough?  2) Did I love enough?  3) Did I live a life that mattered?  At that time, while laying in my hospital bed, my answer was "no" to all three.  I made a decision that if I lived through my ordeal, I was going to find out how to live so that the next time I faced death all of my answers would be, "hell yes!"  Several years later, I've found out exactly how to live life so that next time the answers to those questions will be a resounding yes.  In this talk, I share with you exactly what I learned.   

What does it really mean to be a dad and why should you care?  My story begins as a child growing up without a father due to his death at an early age. A fatherless boy grows up with many challenges and mine included being overweight and very shy. Later in life, there was a fear of becoming a dad myself and this fear went away the moment I held my own son. Little did I know that just nine months later I would be fighting for my life after feeling a lump under my arm and experiencing life with stage IV cancer.  Now 13 years later I have learned much about what it takes to be a good father and how to break the cycle of bad parenting. Hear my story and perhaps you too can help another man become this best dad he can.  

You suffer from the Dunning-Kruger Effect.  Didn't know that?  Don't worry (too much), everyone suffers from it.  You see it when others do, but never when you do.  In this entertaining talk, find out just how big your mental blind spots are and why you'll never be able to see them.  You might begin to question your most deeply held beliefs and might find out the most intelligent answer you can give to any question is "I don't know".

A brief desrciption as to what a hackspace is. What ohmspace is. What our goals are and how people can help if they want.

That's right. Stop trying to be a hero. Just like good intentions... the world is littered with heroes -- famous people wealthy people, normal people like you and me -- who have tried to end global poverty and hunger.   More than $2.5 trillion has been spent by the West on foreign aid over the the last five decades.  And yet, more than 1 billion people are still living without access to clean water. Half the world is living on less than $2 a day and without access to adequate sanitation. About 2 billion are living without electricity.  Are you kidding me? I got tired of being asked to save the world.  And I decided it was time to not even bother trying.  It's time you did the same.  Let's stop saving the world today.  We have much better things to do with our time and money.