Monday, July 19, 2010

He Beat Me To It!



Personally, I'm not that impressed with the math - as there're limited opportunities in school, work, and beyond for *rapid computation* to be utilized profitably. Heck I competed at the highest levels in national math competitions and I can assure you that even us Olympic mathletes had ZERO need for or advantage in such multiplication and division short-cuts.

BUT, this next clip, if it's in fact not embellished, really caught my attention as something more widely applicable:



I watched the informercial this morning for at least ten minutes and the only price I could see was $14.95. I was thinking that he priced his *system* too low AND I figured I'd have to get up and order it just out of pure curiosity.

Except that on his site the total price was more clearly advertised. $14.95 was only the 2-week trial price, kept longer than that and Brainetics will cost you a cool $149.99. I'm not curious enough for to pay full freight! (I assume it's already on BitTorrent...)

Anyway, that's a much more deserving price, IMO, for what's advertised and the educational demands of uneducated parents.

I predict he'll sell 1 million *math and memory systems* and net himself probably $100 million - and that's why I was somewhat miffed to see this mathematical financial genius on my color television early this morning - even if I know well that I could never in good conscience indulge in such rank infomercial hucksterism.

Of course, to all you parents out there rationalizing the $150 versus the promises of the Brainetics...

Realize that it is likely designed and geared to merely improving academic performance in a profoundly sub-optimal learning system - the age-segregated, curriculum-bound, reality-divorced, 30-on-1 mind prison known as conventional *school*. We'll see how fast and how excitedly those kids raise their hands when they graduate to working for large corporations!

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