So we are really excited today to bring in two of our favorite AOC team members, Suzanne and Erin, who help us both inside and out of the program deliver an amazing experience for all of our boot camp participants, and particularly really focusing on improvisational comedy. And over the years, the boot camp has evolved and changed quite a bit in large part due to your help in really making Thursday and Saturday shine for the guys. So we're going to dig in to what we mean by improvisational comedy, because it can sound a little intimidating, especially for those of us who don't think we have a good sense of humor, and talk about the lessons that we can take from improvisational comedy and how they play such a big role in every part of our life, not just those moments where we're on stage. And of course, we're going to share the silly story of us meeting for the first time and and the amazing pitch that Johnny gave about the art of charm that made you guys jump at the opportunity to work with us. Well, and before we get to all that, I guess we'll just have you all introduce yourselves. I'm Erin. And I'm Suzanne. I didn't go where I was supposed to go. I didn't either. I didn't. That is improvisational. Very good at improv. I don't know what to say. So to give the audience a little more color to what we mean by improvisational comedy, how would you to define improv? So I mean, first and foremost, it's just not having a plan. Improv is just, you know, going in with no plan and flying by the seat of your pants. No script, no directors, no. Literally, the only thing is maybe one word suggestion from the audience. So it's being comfortable with not knowing what you're going to do or say, you know, just even hearing about that sounds, I'm sure, for a lot of people, and even for myself, thinking about it, terrifying, being on stage, everyone looking at you and you have no plan as a performing artist myself. I dread the idea of getting on stage without a plan. And I'm for any of my ventures being on stage. I'm so well rehearsed to so that I can feel confident and feel good about getting on stage. Well, there's definitely obviously a preparedness element, obviously, like we train together. And I think just like with anything you prep for a presentation, but you don't know what's going to happen a lot of the times. And so I think a lot of times the greatest thing about improv is just getting comfortable in that uncomfortability factor. Yeah, I mean, I know a lot of guys will say, oh, my gosh, I could never get up on stage and do that. And it's like, well, yeah, but I also wouldn't go give a presentation at your job or I couldn't just play guitar because I haven't done it before. So you feel that way just because you haven't done it before. And the more you do it like anything you can. The unknown is always really awkward. But once you start to kind of pick it apart, it starts to become less scary. Well, I'm sure the audience is going to well, we'll tell the audience how y'all got involved and why we wanted to bring an improv into the classroom. But I would like to get a little background of how you both had found your way into improv. Do you want to go first, Susan? Yeah, I will. I will do this. So I basically trained classically and improv was not in my thought at all. And about 10 years ago, I wanted to take a commercial class. And the woman who ran the program was like, well, you have to take improv to be good at commercials. And I was like, OK, fine. I'm not really like comedy is not necessarily my thing. When you said you trained classically, what does that mean? Oh, so just theater major, you know, Shakespeare, dramatic acting, all the great classic plays. And now we're going to do improv. Yeah. And I was like, I this is not me. I mean, I'm a little weird and I have, you know, can be funny, but I'm not a pro. And so I walked into this class being terrified and being completely like, I don't think I can do this because I like to have a plan. And this is totally not my alley. And so I had my comedy mentor, Donovan Scott, who really like taught me to just be OK with flying by the seat of my pants. Anyway, so I got into comedy that way. And I said had resistance all along the way. I was like, no, this is not it. I can't. But I kept, for some reason, yes, ending life a little bit.  And comedy has kind of been the forefront a little bit and met Aaron because of it. So yeah. Yes. And one of the tenants that we're speaking about in a little while. Yeah. Yeah. And I I had dabbled in it here and there. And then now it was about eight years ago. I lived in Singapore for a year and some of the people I was working with at the theme park at Universal Studios were like, let's just start a little like improv practice group. And I was like, oh, that sounds terrifying. So of course, when I feel that way, I'm usually like, I have to push myself to do it now because especially in the theme park, when you're doing the same thing over and over and over again, it's nice to just do something where you're free and play. And I just fell in love with it and came back to LA after Singapore and kept doing it. I trained at UCB and then kind of fell into this group that with Susanne. And that's when we started improvising together. Yeah, about like eight years ago. And much like the question that I asked Susanne about being classically trained, what did you have previously that put you into performing arts and then which ultimately led you into. Yeah, improv. I started dancing at a very young age and then got interested in theater when I was about 11 years old. And then as soon as I was on stage and made people laugh for the first time, like, then it was over. That was all I wanted to do was make people laugh. But I also trained classically like in college and everything. And so to all of a sudden do something where it's like, your suggestion is hot dog. And now you have to just do whatever when you're like, I do Edward Albee plays like Pulitzer Prize winning plays. But yeah, so it's actually really freeing once you let go. Do you feel a lot of people in the performing arts sort of look at improv as like the weird wacky little cousin that no one wants to deal with or at least that's the way it seemed for for you all.  I mean, it's made fun of on every show. Like the office made fun of Michael Scott doing it like all all forms because bad improv can be really like just like nails down the top board. But but it is really like a great exercise for anything. I also feel like nowadays it's a little it's seen a little more is cool because there's I mean, not the SNL hasn't ever been big, but there's just a lot of more sketch comedy shows and shows like the office in Parks and Recs and where improv is a huge part. So I think it is seen as a little cooler, but maybe a pot in the theater world. It might not have been seen. I have no idea. Yeah, I'm not part of whatever club. I well, I could definitely see what the popularity of those shows and people wanting to get involved and understand what it's a take to get there. And of course, the improv road is can be a long journey. And and like much like a lot of things we talk about in self development is something that you're never going to be a pro you only get better personally as you go through that journey. Yeah, you can get better and then still have this huge fall back. Like you're like, oh, I'm used to being on stage now and not getting nervous or anything like that. And then we said a year or so ago, we did a huge sketch show, which actually you guys went to on the Comedy Central stage. And right before the show, I had this internal meltdown. And I was like, I can't do this. I can't go out. I don't know what I'm doing. And I looked at Aaron, who I thought might have been having the same internal meltdown. But we just didn't acknowledge it. We're like, let's just go do it. And then about a minute into the show, we were good. And after the show, Aaron's like, I almost left. Yeah, I was like, I was like, I'm standing backstage. And I was like, the back door is only like 20 feet away. I think I might just walk right out the back door and just not come back. And I think that's what's remarkable for everyone listening is that even if you've been doing something for 10 years and you've trained and you've gone through all these opportunities to perform, there's still going to be those moments where you feel like I'm not good enough. I'm not enough. This isn't going to work. So the goal is not to turn the other way and go, oh, everything I do is killer. The goal is to find those moments, push through. And as you said, within minutes, it dissolves. It's anxiety. It comes and goes. And that's one of the main reasons that we really brought you guys into the program to help us out, help our clients working through their own anxieties, especially around their humor. And listeners of the show, back when it was the Pickup podcast, and it was geared solely towards attracting the opposite sex and flirting with women, we talked a lot about this idea of banter and how important a sense of humor is to break the ice and get some attraction going. And we launched a few episodes around banter specifically, and we got a lot of pushback. I can't say those things. I'm not funny. You guys are funny.  That's you. It doesn't work for me. And that's what's been so amazing about having improv in the course is that everyone has a different sense of humor, and there's no right or wrong sense of humor. It's finding your own voice and allowing it to come through in those moments where you feel a little awkward, a little anxious. And I'd love to just share the story of how we met, because it's funny that we're on opposite sides of the table because we actually had opposite perspectives of how it went. Yes. Pushwork spouts now on the show. So you and I have talked about doing improv for a few years. We had done it in New York, and it pushed our buttons. So we had a large group of support staff then. There was 15 on the team, and we had someone classically trained come in and do a little team-building exercise with everyone. And half of us loved it, half of us hated it.  There's something here. It's challenging, and it allows you to push on areas where you're probably not pushing. And let's be honest, the reason it struck half of the room in such a certain way was an indicator that this is something that needs to be implemented in the class, because it is going to places, pushing people in places where they're uncomfortable. And I think that was where we had looked at each other like, aha. Right. There's something here. There's something here. And so we had been talking about it, and we didn't really have room to do it. But we wanted to at least kick around the idea and see. And with video work in the course, and what we do with video work is we start the week where you're going to practice your approach, meaning working on that first impression. How do you strike up a conversation with a stranger? And then how do you showcase that sense of humor? And we would talk about humor and how important it is, but we struggled to get it out of our clients and get them moving and showcasing that sense of humor. And we would often get to Friday or Saturday and finally break through and get little cracks of humor from the guys. So this was an ongoing struggle for our guys in class. And we really realized there's got to be more to this than just video work that can really pull out the sense of humor and really work on it. So that's when we started talking about improv and one of our guys. Well, the other thing is we specifically wanted it to be taught by girls. We wanted to have some female, feminine energy in the room with classes at that time. Well, the company at that time was predominantly all meld. Which is funny, because now it's 85% women in the company. And we get emails, since Johnny and I have been doing the show over the last couple of months, emails every single show. Where are the women? Why are there not women on the show? Why is it just you too, Jabroni, guy talk? We want to hear some women. So we brought you on to satisfy our listeners. We listen, we read the emails. If it's hate, send it to Johnny at the art of charm. If it's love, send it to AJ so our egos can handle it. You let us out of our cages.  It was a delicious meal. So we wanted, yes, we wanted to bring in some, we wanted girls to teach that class. We felt that there was enough meld to test us around and toxic masculinity to run around the place. So let's lighten it up. And let's be honest, a lot of us as men struggle with showcasing that sense of humor around women, right? It's a lot easier to joke around guys and kind of play on the same fratty humor that you had in high school. But around women, how do I showcase that sense of humor and come off as charming, come off as interesting? Well, the plus is just way away the negatives. And of course, we're... I'm sure they want to hear the negatives, Johnny. Share that after show. It's been so long, couldn't even think of it. So we asked a buddy of ours, Justin Foster, a brilliant comedian in his own right here in Los Angeles, if he knew any girls who had taught improv. And it just so happens, he's like, I do. I know just the girls. I know just the girls. And he had put me in touch with Aaron, who I had contacted. And I had set up a meeting with her and you did not go. You were like, you can handle it. Go ahead and talk to her. And I was like, yeah, I got this, no problem. I got it all worked out. And I had met Aaron at the 101 diner. I'm Franklin and I pitched her this idea. And she seemed, at least to me, because I have a great lens for positivity. I was like, very positive, very excited. I was like, yeah, she's gonna get back to me in a couple of days. I think it went well. Totally nailed and pitched. Yeah, you came back all excited. Yeah, absolutely. And I was like, great. We're gonna start doing improv. We got some help on video work. Yes, yes. It's funny that you say this now because we find out that Aaron's classically trained actress. So she did a very good job of persuading you in the moment that she was sold. Well, yeah, well, the whole thing was to present this in a way that was wholesome and constructive. And I thought I did wonders. And she was like, yeah, no, I saw right through that. Yeah, I was like, oh, this guy seems like he thinks he's slick. Okay, so what you're really telling me is that you have this thing where you have guys come from all over, learning how to manipulate women. No thanks. How did you get that from my wonderful pitch? I feel like it's probably also just baggage from the, we didn't know anything about this. Right, yeah. And at that time, I feel like is when I had first started hearing about pickup artist stuff and the game and all of this. So I was like, oh, that, when I looked, I think I Googled after we met and just looked things up and I was like, oh no, I don't want to be a part of anything that just helps women be manipulated. Like I can't live with myself doing that. So yeah, I was just like, no thanks. So we had went, what, a year? And at the time, we were still having some difficulty finding regular video work girls because of we had some actresses and they had a lot of things going on. We were doing it on a shoestring budget. And very often there would be other shoots that would come up that would pay more than AOC. So we were losing. But I was determined to rope Erin it because we wanted the improv so bad. And I was like, there's gotta be a way. I'm just gonna table this for now but we're gonna come back to it. And it had been about a year and we had talked, was like, okay, well let's give Erin another ring and see where she's at now. So Erin said, I'm in one condition and she came back with, I'm teaching my own section in class. It's going to be improv only and I want nothing to do with your video work. And we said, well, we can't afford that. Thank you. Thank you for the offer to teach in our class. Like Erin had such confidence, she's like, you know what? I'm getting my own day and I'm taking over. We're like, wait, what? This is our program. So that's not gonna work. But we stayed in touch. And how did you come to the conclusion to check out the video work section? Well, when Johnny reached back out and I did like in the meeting, I did like Johnny. I thought he was cool. I was just like, this isn't, I don't wanna be a part of this whole global thing. So when he reached back out and asked about video work, I was like, okay, this guy seems nice enough. He's also like Justin vouches for him. Justin's a great guy. So I was like, all right, can I just at least see what this is? So then I came in and watched video work and was just like, oh my gosh. And this is back when it was, you know, apartment in off of Hollywood. And it was just like in the small living room there. And I came in and observed and I was just like, oh my God, this would be such a helpful tool for so many people to really just get to practice and then see yourself on camera.  Like any kind of, you know, when you're training to see yourself on camera and then be able to see the things that you're doing right and things you're not doing right, it's eye opening.  Actually, I'm really interested in this. And what's so funny is, you know, we took Dale Carnegie high impact presentation training and they filmed us giving talks in front of the room. And going into that training course, I was like, I got this, I've done so much public speaking. I've been on stages, nothing to worry about here. I get up, I get my first talk and I'm just expecting the proctor to be like A plus that was amazing standing ovation. She's like, well here, let's go in the other room and look at the video. I'm thinking, we don't need to look at the video. I nailed it. And then I saw myself on video and I was floored that that was the presentation. That's what I was doing with my hands. That's where my nervous energy was going. That's how poorly I was making eye contact and all these little nuances that internally I certainly wasn't feeling. And I had this vision of how I was on stage and that was not what I was seeing on camera. But then the flip side of doing it a few times, I started to see the improvement and felt really empowered and it became exciting. So the video work was an important section of class that we added probably about seven and a half years ago based on a friend's suggestion from what he was doing in his programs. And then we added a second component so that the guys got to see their growth for themselves. On top of that, video work does pull out these moments where we lose our train of thought, we lose the words. And those are the moments where improvisational comedy really come in when you lose the script because everyone goes into the conversation mapping out, I'm gonna say this, predictably they're gonna say that and then I can say this and this is when I'm gonna hit them with that one liner. And inevitably, the art of charm, the art is the part where you can't memorize these lines, you can't anticipate someone else's response because oftentimes that's not what they're gonna say. So in these moments, we're seeing this on camera of our guys get a little frozen, get a little nervous about it to now adding improv in between the second video section and we'll speak to some of the transformations you guys have seen. It's been remarkable how Friday's been an entirely different video experience allowing the guys the opportunity to break out of their shell. What I'd love to know from you guys now that you've been through the other side and Erin, we've talked to your husband about this as well, it's not, that's the one thing that I love about the art of charm most is it's not just us going in saying do this, do that, do this. It truly is both of us and the clients going in and learning. And we're constantly learning even as we're up in front of the room teaching new ways to present ideas, new ways to formulate ideas. And I know your husband spoke a lot to this Erin, is there anything that you guys have learned from working with the clients over the last five, six years that you've taken away from video work? Absolutely, I mean, I feel like I always went into an interaction thinking I'm the awkward one, I'm the nervous one, the other person.  And through doing video work on the other side of it I'm like, oh, everyone feels like they're the awkward weird one. And kind of how great and freeing that is to be like, it's just awkward to talk to someone new no matter how, even if you play it off as if like, I am so awesome at this.  And I'm like, I remember the first few weeks doing video work, I was so nervous doing video work as the person there that's supposed to be like, oh yes, I'm so comfortable talking to everyone. But it's like, it's not, it's helped me in social interactions immensely just changing that framework of like, oh, everyone feels a little awkward talking to new people and that's fine. Yeah, that definitely for me was one seeing that everyone feels awkward but actually, which I feel like I learned a lot was committing to your body position. Like the, which I'm sure AJ can actually probably explain it better but what I'll say is that I was finding in circumstances of whether it's interactions personally or networking circumstances that I was feeling very stressed about like this pressure to have to like talk all the time. And then I'm doing video work and I'm watching you guys say like, no, you have to stand in neutral body position and not positive because it feels like too much pressure. And I was like, that's why. Oh my gosh. And I started kind of just in certain aspects when I'd go out, like let me just see if I could just stand next to the person and it would just take so much pressure off for me. So I feel like there's been a lot that I've learned and I'm sure Erin can attest to it too of just like from the program. Like even though I know we're here teaching the improv stuff, it's like, we're still learning from you guys too and it's just, it's really great. I wish I had this earlier. I wish. I think all of us would say that. What I'd like to know is so Erin started doing the video work and then she had roped you into the song. Like, so I would love to hear this, how this conversation went. Cause I'm sure you had to probably have heard about it a few weeks before she's like, so I'd like to bring you into this whole thing. So I'd like to hear that conversation. I wish it was this grand hilarious story, but it's like, honestly, by the time Erin had vouched for you guys and she had had such a twist, a 180 in how she felt about the program that when she came to tell me about it, she was so filled with, she was like, you gotta come, you'll come see it, you'll see how it goes. It's so amazing. I wish I had had this. And so basically I was just more excited to see what it was about. And I came and mirrored, shadowed her doing video work and I was like, this is so great. And the guys were so great and everyone was so positive and everything you guys were coaching about I wanted to be a part of it because if I can be at all, a small change in how someone sees themselves, that's amazing to me. Did she tell you about our first meeting? Did you hear about that? Do you know, I feel like I didn't hear about that until we were all talking one time at dinner. And I was like, I didn't know that at all. Erin's a great friend hiding pertinent information from you. She was like, I'm here to sell you on this and I'm not going to tell you about the stuff that happened before. I didn't. I don't think I really told many people about it because I was just like, oh, I want to see what this is first. And then I was like, ah, no, no, no. So I was just moved on from it because I was like, oh, if we are going to do improv there because I did think that it was like just for the improv part. So I love that it was like this thing of like, wait, you're trying to sell us on improv. I think it was just. We, to the point about the video work and why it's so important in class and why we wanted to bring in professional improv trainers, instructors is because it really is a moment for these guys to practice in a controlled environment and get feedback where we're going to go out but there's a lot of other variables we can't control while we're out. On top of that, we have guys through the program from all walks of life. We have military guys. We have guys who are married. We have guys who are divorced. Then we have young guys who actually want to learn how to be better with women. So with that, you know, not every approach is this dating scenario where you're a girl in a bar and we got a hit on you. You guys have the ability in the moment to change roles and very quickly drop into, oh, this is a networking. This is a conference. This is a simple event. This is an opportunity for me to chat with you in the grocery store. So that allowed more flexibility for the video work which we didn't really have previously when we were just relying on some models and actresses here in LA. And that's been amazing for the guys to be able to get those minutes and moments to practice. Well, I also want to say to Aaron's and Suzanne's credit, like, you know, the people that we've had previously helping us out, they just, I don't think they never got the big picture. I mean, for them, it was just a paid gig, right? And Aaron, to her credit, saw the whole picture, right? And Susan, you just mentioned as well, was like, well, if I can be a part of this change, well, how wonderful is that? You know, this is something that these people are gonna remember probably for the rest of their lives. And it was for you two, and Dion as well, who saw the full picture. And, you know, we had been talking like, not only that, but for probably the first outside people who really got what we were trying to do, which allowed us to feel much better about what we're doing and lean into it more like, actually, people do get this. Right, and for us, one of the big limiting beliefs or sticking points that a lot of our clients have going in is that, and this kind of comes back to the PUA stuff you're talking about, the only way to get her attention is to be negative, is to cut her down, is to knock her down a peg. And what I've found that's been so amazing from you guys coaching in class is your ability to roll with the punch, but stand firm, that that's not gonna work, and give the feedback so they know that, listen, yeah, you may have read that online, you may have saw some guy do it on the street in a video, but real self-respecting women are not gonna take those behaviors. And giving the guys an opportunity to work through those toxic mindsets, those toxic viewpoints in class, they can come out the other side and know, oh, I just have to showcase some sense of humor, I don't have to take shots at her to be this cocky, funny, amazing guy, I can actually elevate everyone and have a laugh in the process. And I know we've had those moments, right, where I'm holding the camera and the guys get a little nervous and they unleash something that I'm like, I hope you didn't mean to say that, and I can see your reaction, but it's been very helpful to work through these things in that classroom setting. And I do wanna give a little sneak announcement for the women that are listening, we are going to be launching a women's program, Suzanne and Erin are active in the development of that, so yes, you too will get an opportunity to get some video work and some improv comedy coaching later this year. So we'll announce that date in a bit, but I know we get a lot of feedback. Yes, we do. The audience is about 60, 40 right now, 60% men, 40% female, and it does feel like we've left the women behind, but we're hiring women, we're bringing women on the team, and we're growing to start working with women. Now, why are we even talking about improv? Why is this so important outside of just the boot camp? So the reason we're talking about it today is it's something new, it's something challenging, and that's what we're huge proponents of here at AOC. So even if you don't take a boot camp, check out an improv class in your hometown, and to your point, it is growing in popularity. There are schools popping up all over and some of our guys are even impressed. Wow, there's improv in Des Moines, I can't believe it, right? Kinda think of it as coastal, but not any longer. Second thing is, now you get to challenge some of these limiting beliefs, right? Our guys in boot camp have the limiting beliefs that you have to be negative to succeed. Improv's gonna challenge a lot of those limiting beliefs about what you're capable of, what you're made of on stage, and what you think is funny. Well, just last week, when I was going around the room to get introductions, one of our clients that week, Steve, he was like, I'm not funny. I'm boring. I was flat out immediately, and I started laughing because I knew what was about to hit him that week. And I think a lot of people get it in their mind where to be funny, they have to have these comedic lines or the witty one-liners, and if that eludes them, then they're like, well, I'm boring. And the actuality, why improv is so good, and you guys can expand on this, which is when the guys see it on the syllabus, they start to get nervous because they're like, oh no. But the thing about it is the answers of humor are gonna be in the other person, and it's also gonna be in allowing these situations to build and allow your quirkiness and your uniqueness as a human being deal with this situation. And if you're able to laugh about it, so can everyone else in the room. And so it's about getting comfortable with those situations, but also it's not about being witty, it's about listening. And adding too, right? Good improv is not one person on stage commanding all the attention. It's a team environment, where in order for the sketch to play out, everyone needs to have an opportunity to play along and join in. And I'd love to hear from you, Suzanne. Improv, right? Now you're giving me the look that I see in class. Yeah. I'm like, oh no, what? Were there any limiting beliefs that you had going into improv that you had to work through? It sounds like in the beginning, right? You had that same sense of like, I'm not funny, this isn't something I should be working on. Yeah, I definitely, like, I'd always been silly growing up. And I thought that there was a difference between, oh, I can be silly with my friends and being a funny comedian or something like that. So when I first started improv, which I was very resistant to, I will keep saying I was resistant to, I feel like I was resistant to even just a couple years ago. I was like, I guess I'm an improviser now. But I very much am a little bit of a control freak. I like to make sure things go as planned and that can hurt me a little bit. So in improv, I always, this is a story that I think describes it perfectly. We were six weeks in to my first class and my teacher had said, was explaining how to do a game. And he said, does anyone have any questions? And I started to raise my hand and he said, except you, Suzanne, put your hand down. Just do it, just stop trying to get it perfect. Because while I am not necessarily a perfectionist in everything in life, I can be about certain things and it can hinder my growth because I don't do it because it's not perfect. So I wasn't playing the games in my head perfectly. So I wasn't having fun and I wasn't doing it right. And as soon as he said that to me, I had this moment of like, oh my gosh, he's totally right. I need to stop being so worried about getting it perfect. And from then on, I started to have more fun and in turn be better and get better responses from my classmates and start to enjoy it more. And kind of since then, I've just always been a little bit more like, even in life, I'm not gonna plan how this is gonna go. I'm gonna prepare, but I'm not gonna plan. And it's been a lot easier for me. So I feel like it's leaked into my personal life too. And I know the one thing that I love about improv and one of the main reasons we really cheer our clients on after the program to take improv is the camaraderie you build in that safe space where you're failing together, it's a challenging activity, it doesn't matter what level you're at, one or year 10, it's still going to challenge you. There are gonna be moments where you don't think on your feet, but you gotta stay in there, you're on stage, you can't just exit stage left, right? If people are watching you. And then the friendships that come out of it. And when I was in college, my ex-girlfriend had joined an improv troupe and it became her entire social circle and then I got a chance to hang out with everyone in that group. And they were the most fun, loving, amazing, supportive friends that you could ask for. And I know we've had an opportunity to see all of your friends in your troupe and the relationships that you've built through improv, which has been another huge win for our clients to experience. What was it like for you, Erin, taking your first improv class, walking into the unknown? Oh gosh, I mean, I feel like I had, Suzanne and I are pretty similar in that we like to have everything planned, we're controlled, I mean, literally just the other day with something with Artichoke, I told Johnny, I was like, wait, I need another week so I plan everything out, I have to practice it a few times and then once I do it, I'm totally fine and the anxiety goes, but... I was quite taken aback by your panic. I was like, really?  Yeah, I mean, I just, like Suzanne is saying, I wanna be prepared, but then I can go from there, but I remember just being like, I mean, having always had a script really, when you always have a script and you can just memorize it, that's a safety net of I always have this to fall back on and when you have to throw the safety net away, like literally throw the parachute off and be like, I'm still gonna jump out of the plane. That's what it felt like and it felt, and I at first constantly judged every single thing I did in rehearsal, I would freeze and just be like, I don't have anything to say and like walk off and but in a way it's so good to push yourself to do that because then after you do that, you go, that really wasn't that bad and I could have just said something or I can just wait until I can think of something and you just constantly push yourself and then you can do it, like you really can. And these are principles that are important outside of the improv, right? Being prepared but not memorizing, putting in a little bit of work allows you that flexibility to improv in other areas and I know both of you have lessons where improv has played a big role in your success personally. I'd love to hear from you, Suzanne, how you took improv principles into your professional life because I know you've had a lot of success with these children's books, cats out of the bag. Yes. Oh no. They're up Barnes and Noble but I've been trying to hide it. Yeah, so I run a startup with my mom, it's a children's company and I write a lot of the books which is a whole other story about resistance at some point that I had towards that but we're in it now and part of the job is going to do live readings with the most vocal, honest audience of the world, children. Of course, yes. Children also who are probably kindergarten to third grade who have no filters. And you know, you plan a reading and you're like, I'm gonna read this book and I'm gonna read it without any stops and anything like that, that's not the case. Like there's always someone yelling at you and it's a lot of times positive but sometimes there was this little boy who I was reading the word vase and he's like, it's vase and then another time a girl is like, I like your shirt or like, what are you wearing? You never know what's gonna happen and I feel like if I hadn't have trained an improv I would be like panicking inside because I'd be like, it's disrupting the rhythm. What's happening? How do I react to this? Where now it's just like I'm able to interact and like acknowledge but also keep it on track. So, and children are, I love them so much but they're terrifying because they're so honest so it's just such a good, it's such a good thing to have like a tool in my belt. And that ability to withhold some of that emotion too, right, where it's not gonna be helpful and Johnny and I are often in the audience at your shows and we're losing it and we're wondering how are you on stage not losing it with these talented comedians cracking these amazing jokes. So a lot of it's being able to stay in character whether you're in front of kids or on stage. Yeah, and it's like you said being, I know that I can freak out inside and have an emotional like, but I also know from experience of video work when I was training that I don't look as terrified as I feel and because I know that, I'm able to just be like, okay, this is happening. Let's just push it aside and keep moving cause no one else is recognizing. And Erin, I know you've been on the other end of pitching and trying to win over an audience in a different way. Yeah, so I mean now it's about four or five years ago I had my first pitch meeting first, a script that my husband and I wrote together and I really didn't even know what a pitch meeting was like what are they gonna, so I like my prepared self, I like planned out, we talked about like Mark is like, well, we'll just go in and I'm like, no, we need to know what's gonna happen the entire first season of the show. And I'm not even thinking of like pitching other shows which now I know obviously I would be prepared to pitch all this other stuff. So we go in and the meeting's going pretty well but I'm nervous and I'm hiding it and then they were like, so yeah, I bet you've planned out the first season of what the show would be. What about like the second and third? Like what would that be? And I was like, what? I planned out exactly what I want to say for this whole first season thing. Why aren't you asking about that? But I was just like, oh, we've thought about that too. And I just like tap dancing in my head. It's like I'm doing a little time step just tap dancing and making this stuff up. And after the meeting, Mark was like, did we talk about that? Did we talk about the second and third season? I was like, no, but we had to say something and a lot of times in those pitch meetings, they're not looking for the perfect answer. They're looking for, are you confident in what you're doing? Would you be able to handle when you are in these meetings or you're in a writer's room and they're saying, okay, pitch me some more ideas? Like can you just pull something out of your butt? You know, that's interesting. For myself, seeing it in music, it's like, okay, well, so you have a great set. Do you have any material for another record? What do you have going on? And I like the idea of whether or not you do that you're confident that you could put something together because you have all the time in the world to grow up and put this first set together. You have all the time in the world to put this first season together of the show. But what happens then? Yeah, exactly. You guys always say in video work too, when you're comfortable and confident, you make the other person feel comfortable and confident. So that's all this is. Like all this is being in situations where you're able to feel comfortable and then you're like in business situations, you're letting the other person know, I can handle this. And we are all about dispelling myths here on AOC. Perfectionism, procrastination myth was a big one, got a lot of downloads, a lot of feedback. The myth that I wanna dispel today is improv is not about being funny. And this is where a lot of us get hung up. It's like what we've seen from improv sorta runs the gamut either. The best stuff, whose line is it anyway, which is really intimidating, or some of the worst stuff, like the Michael Scott stuff from the office that we were talking about, right? But the middle ground is really where the magic happens because it's about being present and this mentality, yes and.  So what does yes and mean to you, Suzanne? Oh, yes and means to me, accepting. So hearing the information, which is, that could be hard if you're not listening. So listening to the information and then adding onto it, adding a statement, adding something onto it to make the conversation or the scene go forward, so moving forward. Do you have anything to add to that? Yeah, no, I was just gonna say it's, yes. And that's where people get tripped up, right? Because this idea of it, I have to be funny, actually takes from the scene, takes from the moment and robs your partner of an opportunity to have fun too. So this idea of coming up there with witty one-liners and trying to kill the crowd with humor actually works against you on stage in improv because your teammates, your participants can't get engaged in the scenario and it often falls flat, which is what we see in class time and time again where the guys are waiting for that one moment. I'm gonna unleash this witty one-liner. I haven't worked up for years. I was a show airing in Suzanne, just how funny I am. And they deliver it and it falls flat because it doesn't actually move the improv act forward. Yeah, I was gonna say, we play this game called These Are Five Things and we're like, we give a category and you just shout out the first five things that come to mind and every time we have to be like, don't try to say the wrong thing to be funny because I promise it won't be funny but if you really say the first thing that comes to your mind it almost always is really funny because it's like, what, where did that come from?  I don't know why hot dog is my heart today. I'm gonna say hot dog because that's gonna be funny and it just isn't when you try to plan instead of just being genuine and being present. Well, and the reason why it's not funny is because you're not listening. It's funny, I watch it all the time on stage the person rev up to plan for that joke and they don't understand why it doesn't get a laugh and that's because the whole audience knows you're not listening to what the other person is saying. Of course. One of the rules which in improv is don't try to be funny, play the scene, be truthful, listen to what the person is saying and comedy can come out of that. Well, the other thing that we see in video work is the guys who are so well prepared they just try to steam over the, the answers they don't want or weren't expecting they just try to roll through me. They steam roll over the weather, whoever's doing the improv and so they'll blurt out for 90 seconds this whole thing that they have worked out and of course they watch it back on video and they're aghast because they're like, I just wasn't able to cooperate or add anything and then the whole thing is about, especially being on stage is it's allowing everyone to be part of this and to work together and so upon gaining some interest is allowing the other person to feel that they're a part of this meeting for the first time rather than you steam rolling over the other person. Well, it's also, that's assuming a lot of responsibility and that's what we say on Thursday in the bootcamp too is that it's not your responsibility to make this conversation go perfectly and to be like in control. Your responsibility is to listen and give some statements and answers and it's like, it takes two and I think that's where the guys sometimes feel stressed is cause they're like, I gotta make this right and it's like, it's not all in your hands. Take that stress off yourself. Yeah, I like to think of the humor and conversation as the seasoning, the salt and pepper. It's not the meat and potatoes and when you think back to the conversations that you've had, the funny moments don't really stand out. You just remember having fun. So the funny words don't stand out and when we get so hung up on the words and we try to come back with that one liner it falls flat in class. It also falls flat in conversation and we've been on the side of that where someone's just talking at you they're not giving you an opportunity to disclose anything and at the end of the conversation you're like, I don't really like that person. I want nothing to do with them. So improv works that conversation muscle really well allowing you to yeah, be silly, but also listen. Well, and what you were talking about earlier with the negging thing that that's why that doesn't work for high quality women because if you come up and you're just negative and just say something rude, it's like, it's just like an improv. If you come up in the scene and go like, no, that's not what's happening. You shut everything down, nothing can move forward whereas something you can still tease and play once you've set up some good rapport and go like, oh, no, I'm sorry, we're getting into war. So that's sort of being negative but you're putting it in the context of like, we're in this together and we're having fun. You've established the fun first, like it's a safe place. So when you are being silly or challenging it's not in a negative way, it's in a fun way. And what I love about the mindset that works so well as guys get into Friday and later in the weekend is those moments where things don't work out tend to be really fun and improv. Where things don't go your way, it tends to be really funny. And we at Johnny and I always laugh because some of the quietest shy guys going into improv will often have the funniest, most memorable moments because they have an opportunity to actually just blurt out what's on their mind instead of holding back, searching for the perfect thing and what they find very often is that first thing is the funniest. That first thing is typically the one thing that's coming from a genuine place, has some vulnerability and allows other people to engage versus the scripted mindset where you're searching for the perfect thing, it's not there and then you're struggling. I know we have a really funny story that took place on a dance floor. Yeah, sure. So one of the guys, I mean, gosh this was like probably a year or two ago now.   But we talk about an improv, like commit to your positive attitude, let things roll off of your back and really commit to what you're there for which is to have a good time. And he was like, I felt fine. He just like called out to her like, well, I guess you don't like dancing, whatever, have a good night. And kept dancing with the guys and then he said later. Yeah, he said later that he had noticed she was crying to a friend. She was having a terrible night.  It had nothing to do with him. And so he realized like, oh, I kept my positive energy and I didn't need to take on that negativity.  Well, it's easy to get knocked around emotionally and want to fall down that trail.  It's just a wonderful, it's a wonderful message. And improv takes the air out of failing. You're going to fail together as a group and some of those failures are gonna be the most memorable, funny things.  People will forget that. I would love to hear just one failure on stage. I know you guys have laughed at a few of them. Erin, you're laughing the most here, what? Yes, I mean, this just happened. Like this is the thing, it doesn't matter. I mean, I've been performing since I was 11 years old, which is obviously not that long ago, but this just happened a couple of weeks ago. Me and my friends do this sketch that we've been doing for a long time. We really like it. And we get asked to do it different places. And my friend was like, yeah, this place we're gonna do it. And of course, because she always gets good gigs. I'm like, yeah, I show up and it's a church. And it's like five people in the audience, I think most of them are the ones that are gonna be performing later. Everyone who gets up on stage is like, so I didn't know this was a church or that there was comedy being done in this show. So already it's like, oh, great. So we're gonna get up here and do this really silly sketch that's all set to music. There's music is the only thing, there's no lines. It's all choreographed or whatever. And then they're like, we don't have a sound system. So they're like, can we play it on someone's iPhone and we'll just hold a microphone up to it? Well, I'm not that tech savvy. I did not realize you have to put some setting on your phone so your phone doesn't just turn off like, you know, fall asleep for a minute, 60 seconds. So 60 seconds into our scene, the music just shuts off. And so we're standing like by an altar in a church.  So I have to run off to the side of the stage, put my thumb on the phone. 60 seconds later. And so on and so forth. And I was just literally even at one point I like whispered to my friend next to me, like, should we just, can we just call it a night? Like let's just walk on stage. And, but we didn't, we trucked through. And then afterwards, like these sweet, sweet people that were in the audience were like, that was really great. I'm like, no, this makes me feel even worse. Just be like, yeah, that was, I'm sorry that happened. Yeah, it was a nightmare. And you could laugh about it. Yeah.  We talked about this in the perfectionism episode. If you haven't listened to it, double back and check out perfectionism. I know some of our listeners struggle with exactly what you were saying, Susanne, of like, well, I don't even wanna do it because I know it's not gonna be perfect. But working through that in improv, supportive environment, great group of people. So I'd love to wrap today for the listeners who maybe can't make it out to an artichoke boot camp. Although obviously we all agree it's a wise investment. If you can't make it out to the boot camp but you're interested in improv, where do you get started? I know a lot of our guys ask you guys as well, what are the best classes to take? How do I throw myself in? This sounds exciting. Well, A, Google is your friend because I think like we were saying, it's more popular now, almost in any city there is an improv class that you can take. And the best way to do it is just don't hesitate and throw yourself in and understand that you're gonna feel embarrassed.  There's gonna be a million negative feelings you have about yourself and that's amazing because what you're trying to learn is how to push through that. So look up your local improv place even if it's at a university or something. And I suggest taking it, I taught improv before this and most of my students were not actors. They were in sales and marketing or coming out of the military. And so I definitely suggest it. I wanted to add to that. I know a lot of our guys are very into self development and a lot of them do mixed martial arts or BJJ.  And you get used to it. And then of course it's very addicting. And so much in the same light, improv is you're going to get on stage and it's going to be awkward and you're going to fail but it's going to be addictive and you're going to continue to go for that. And getting your ass kicked or going on stage and maybe things not working out so well it becomes part of the process and you get used to it and then you can own it where those mistakes become growth. Yeah, you're also going to have a lot of wins and they're going to feel amazing. You're going to feel so good that you got this win despite falling a million times before. Yeah, and it's not on stage every single class, right? What we're talking about here is group activity. Everyone in class is failing. You're running through some games that allow you to think on your feet more, be witty in those moments where, hey, there's a lot of pressure on you, some eyeballs. And then at the end, you get to go hang out with a great group of people who are fun loving, don't take themselves too seriously into Johnny's point are probably into self development. And it's never too late to start.  And I know Ted, CFO locally here in LA, never in a million years on Tuesday would have imagined he'd be taking improv, signed up for improv and now he's blogging about his personal journey. Griffin, another guy locally who came in in his shell, very nervous about just walking up and talking to someone and now we got to see him on stage. And I want to say, I know he had done just a couple, but he's new to that whole thing and so were a lot of the people that he was worried with. And we went to his show and it was hilarious. It was funny. Yeah, it was great. So you don't need to be 10 years in to have fun on stage either. This is not something that you have to become an expert in but it really tests you. It pushes you in ways that maybe you haven't been pushed before. You don't have to be a performer at all. Some of the most funny scenes, like literally boot camp last week, there were some incredible scenes that Aaron and I were laughing hysterically and that's from people who probably took one improv workshop, the current one. They were taking it out. So yeah, you definitely don't have to be in it forever. Well, thank you for joining us today and giving the listeners a little bit of a sneak peek behind what goes on at boot camp. I know we get a lot of questions about that. Yes, we also have women working with us. So thank you for proving that point. Check is in the mail, guys. So we appreciate it. Is there anything that you all would like to plug while you're here? Yeah, where can our listeners find some of your improv? Or the children's books. Yeah, we'll go to Mutasia first. Oh, okay, yeah. So my company is Mutasia, M-U-T-A-S-I-A and you can find it at Mutasia.com and learn all about the books that I write. Yes, they're amazing. So our home was iOS, which sadly, as many people might know, just closed, so we're looking for a new home. But if you go to either one of Suzanne and I's website, we always put our show schedule up and we have sketches there as well. So susancutsocus.com or erinmaroski.com. Erin is, I'm now paying her, because she's like, here, go to Suzanne's website. You'll enjoy it. Thank you. Thank you very much.


At the end of the last video, we were left with the question of how to use a for loop if we didn't know in advance how many times we would be repeating that loop. The answer to that question is the range function, which effectively produces a list of integers. Here's a program that uses the simplest form of range. For I, in range 5, print I. In this case, my loop variable is just the single letter I rather than a word like counter. This is a convention among Python programmers. Common loop variables will be letters like I, J, K, or N. When we get to the discussion of lists, we'll see why this is a reasonable choice. Let's run the program and see what it produces. We see that it produces the numbers 0, 1, 2, 3, and 4. That means we did loop through 5 times. So range 5 is the same as if we had typed the list 0, 1, 2, 3, 4. When you have a simple range, the loop variable starts at 0 and goes up to, but not including, the number you specified. Why start with 0? Because if you're doing calculations with the loop variable, those calculations are almost always easier when you start at 0 than when you start at 1. Trust me on this. This simple form of range is exactly what we need to solve the problem of allowing the user to specify the number of sides they want for a polygon. Let me move the shell down a bit here and clear it out. Here's a program with the turtle initialization already done for us. I'll ask the user for the number of sides they want for the polygon. N sides is assigned the int of input of how many sides. And I'll also ask how long they want each side to be. Side length refers to the int of input of how many pixels per side. And then I need to calculate the angle that I'm going to turn when drawing the polygon. And that angle is assigned 360 divided by the number of sides. Now I'm ready for the loop. This time I'm going to use a more descriptive loop counter for side in range and sides. I'm going to go forward the specified length. And this time I'm going to turn right by the angle that we've calculated. Let's run the program and see how it works. Let's say I want a five-sided polygon at 100 pixels per side and I get a large pentagon. Let's run it again and say I want 12 sides of length 37. And I get a 12-sided figure. Let's give it one more run and say I want a six-sided figure with 120 pixels per side.  So the program is working just great. The next version of the range function comes in handy when you need to have a starting point other than zero. This will solve the problem of displaying the table of numbers in their cubes, where we let the user specify the beginning and ending number. Here's what this form of range looks like in the shell. For I in range 5, 9, print I. In this version of range, you specify the beginning and ending number. This example is the equivalent of writing the list 5, 6, 7, and 8. As with the simple range, the numbers that it produces go up to but not including the ending number. Here's the start of our program that does the table of cubes. Here's the start of the program that displays the numbers in their cubes. First, let's ask the user for the starting and ending numbers they want. Start refers to the int of input of starting number. And finish is assigned the int of input of ending number. Once I have the starting and ending number, I can print my heading. And then I can say for I in range start to finish plus 1. I have to add 1 because I want the finish number to be included. And remember, range goes up to but not including the number I specified. And now I do my formatted print to 6 space numbers, integers. And I fill in those formats with I and I cubed. Let's clear the shell and run the program. My starting number will be, let's say 21, ending number 26. And there's the cubes of the numbers 21 through 26. Run it again. My starting number, let's say, is 45 through 56. And there are the cubes of the numbers 45 through 56. There's a third version of range that lets you specify the starting number, ending number, and step size between numbers. I'll show you that here in the shell. I can say for I in range 2 to 11 in steps of 3, print I. And this is prints 2, then 2 plus 3, which is 5, then steps 3 further, which is 8. 3 further would be 11, but remember I never include the final number, so this prints out 2, 5, and 8. I don't have a good example of a program that uses this version of range, but I do want you to know about it so that you can use it if you ever do need it. And that's range, the function that effectively produces lists of integers that you can use in a for loop when you don't know in advance how many times you need to loop.


In this video let's try to summarize the unit quadratic equations for class 10th. So we'll begin our journey by developing a basic understanding of what do we actually mean by these equations. And once we know what they are then we'll talk in terms of finding the solutions for these equations. And since we are talking about finding the solutions we'll see what do we mean by roots or zeros of a quadratic. And once we know what do we mean by roots or zeros then we'll see what are the different methods to solve these quadratic equations. In other words what are the different methods to find these roots or zeros. So we'll focus on three different methods factorization, completing square and the famous quadratic formula. And even out of these three we'll focus mostly on factorization and the quadratic formula because every time whenever you want to solve a quadratic equation we'll almost every time use the factorization method or the quadratic formula. And once we know how these methods work let's talk a little bit more about the roots or zeros. Basically how can we find their nature. How can we say whether the roots are real or unreal even without finding them. And once we have finally talked about the nature of roots then we'll spend a little bit of time on understanding the word problems related to quadratic equations. So this is how the entire journey would look like. And let's start now. So here you can see all the topics that we would be discussing in this video and you can also see their timelines. So in case you are clear with any of the topics for example let's say that you already know what do we mean by quadratic polynomials and quadratic equations. So you can directly jump to roots and zeros at the mentioned timeline. So let's start with our first topic of what do we mean by a quadratic polynomial and a quadratic equation. So a polynomial of degree two would be a quadratic polynomial. For example let's say four x square plus six x plus one. The degree of this polynomial is two hence this would be a quadratic polynomial. Let's take another example let's say that we have negative five m square plus nine. For this polynomial the degree is still two so this would be a quadratic polynomial. Even monomials can be quadratic for example negative of four by three y square. For this monomial the degree is two hence this would be quadratic. Now when you equate a quadratic polynomial to another quadratic polynomial or maybe a constant value or maybe a linear polynomial then you get a quadratic equation. For example let's say that we have seven y square plus two y plus eight equal to zero. So this would be a quadratic equation because even for this equation the degree is still two. Let's take another example for example let's say that we have 32x square equal to nine. This time we equated this quadratic polynomial to a constant value. Hence the degree of this equation is still two so this would be a quadratic equation. So now once we know what they are let's see what do we mean by standard form of a quadratic equation. So when you write all the terms of the quadratic polynomial on one side and equate that to zero and the terms are written in such a fashion that the powers of x are in decreasing order and here you can see that a is the coefficient of x square, b is the coefficient of x and c is the constant value the term without any x. So whenever you write a quadratic equation in this form it is said to be written in the standard form and also make sure that your coefficient of x square that is a is not equal to zero because the moment a would be equal to zero this equation would turn into a linear equation which we do not want. Now let's move on to the second topic of what do we mean by roots or zeros of a quadratic. The value of x for which the value of the quadratic polynomial is equal to zero is called the zero of the quadratic polynomial. Let me explain what this means let's take an example let's say that we have x square plus 2x plus 1. Now what value of x should I substitute here such that the value of this entire polynomial is equal to zero. Now it is given x equals to negative one would satisfy this condition and hence x equals to negative one would be the zero of this quadratic polynomial. Now what's the difference between zero and root? If we have a quadratic polynomial we call it a zero and if we have a quadratic equation we call it a root. Basically both mean the same thing. In other words for a quadratic equation you can also think of roots as the solutions for this equation. What all are the values of x that would satisfy this given equation? Those values of x would be known as the roots of this given quadratic equation. Now once we know what roots are let's see how can we actually find the roots? How can we actually solve this quadratic equation? Let's start with factorization method to solve a given quadratic equation. In other words let's see how we can factorize a given quadratic equation to get to the roots of the equation. So whenever you need to factorize always look out for these four things. These steps here would help you in factorizing given quadratic equation. Look for any common factors in the terms of the equation. Sometimes rearranging the terms can also help in factorization. Then we have splitting the middle term and we'll see how do we do this and sometimes using identities can also help in factorization. Let's look at them one by one to have a better clarity of what we are trying to do. So first of all we would like to start with pulling out any common factor from the given terms of the quadratic equation. For example in this case we can see that a is the common factor in all these three terms. So what we can do in order to simplify this equation further is that we can pull out one a from all these three terms. So what we would have here is a times a square x square plus 2x plus of 1 equal to 0. Now we can further think about factorizing this simplified quadratic equation but pulling out a made this clearer to factorize this further. Sometimes rearranging the terms can also help in factorization. For example in this case let's see what do we have here. We can write this as x square plus 2a plus of 2 times x plus of a times x is equal to 0. Now we can say that first two terms from the first two terms there is no common factor that we can pull out. In the last two terms we had x is the common factor but that would not lead us to factorizing this given polynomial. So what we can do let's do one thing. Let's try to combine first term and the third term and pull out any common factor and similarly let's try to combine second term with a fourth term and try to pull out any common factor. So we can write this as x square plus 2x plus of 2a plus ax equal to 0. From the first two terms here we can pull out x as the common factor so this would give us x times x plus 2 and from the last two terms we can pull out a as the common factor. So this would again give us x plus 2 equal to 0. Now we can see that we have x plus 2 as the common factor so we can pull that out. So this would finally give us x plus 2 times x plus a equal to 0 which is the factorized form of this given quadratic equation. Now let's talk about splitting the middle term. So this is one of the most common and heavily used methods for factorization. What do we do in this? Basically we try to find two numbers such that their product is equal to this constant value the term without x. The product should be equal to 12 and their sum should be equal to coefficient of x that is negative 7. Now the key to find these numbers is to think in terms of the factors of 12. For example here if we take 3 and 4 we know that their product would be equal to 12 but 3 plus 4 would give us 7 but what we need here is negative 7. So instead of 3 and 4 we can take negative 3 and negative 4 because negative 3 times negative 4 is still equal to 12 and negative 3 plus negative 4 would give us a negative 7 as our answer. So now once we have these two values we'll try to split the middle term in terms of negative 3 and negative 4 that is we can write this middle term as x square minus 3x minus 4x plus of 12 equal to 0 and now from the first two terms we'll try to pull out any common factor. So here we can see we have x as the common factor so this would give us x times x minus 3 and from the last two terms we can see that we have negative 4 as the common factor so we can pull that out. So we can have same x minus 3 as the common factor again so negative 4 when pulled out from last two terms would give us x minus 3 equal to 0. Now since x minus 3 is the common factor we can pull that out. So this would finally give us x minus 3 times x minus 4 equal to 0 which is again the factorized form of this given quadratic equation and from here we can easily find the roots because if this thing is equal to 0 either x minus 3 is equal to 0 or x minus 4 is equal to 0 so from here we can say that x is either equal to 3 or 4. Sometimes even basic identities could help in factorization for example in this case if we look at the first three terms carefully it is of the form a plus b whole square.  Now if a square x square is our first term we can write this as ax whole square and if this is our b square we can write this as 4 whole square and now we need 2ab which would be equal to 2 times ax times 4 which is actually equal to 8ax so first three terms we can write it as ax plus of 4 whole square. So we used this identity a plus b whole square to factorize the first three terms of this expression and now we have minus of b square equal to 0 now this is again of the form of difference of two squares that is something like something like a square minus b square which is equal to a plus b times a minus b so this we can further factorize as ax plus 4 ax plus 4 plus of b plus of b times ax plus 4 ax plus 4 minus of b minus of b equal to 0. So now we have factorized this given quadratic equation and from here we can find the roots and the values of x that would satisfy this. This is how we try to do factorization by following the four key steps that we just discussed. Now let's quickly see how we can use completing square method to find the roots of a quadratic equation. Since we don't use this method very often to find the roots we mostly use factorization and quadratic formula. I'll just leave an example here for you to understand how this method works and if you want to know more about this method you can definitely go ahead and watch the lesson based on completing square method in the unit quadratic equations. As of now let's move on to quadratic formula. So quadratic formula gives us a direct expression to find the roots of a standard quadratic equation. So it's important to change the equation in standard form to apply quadratic formula to get the roots. For example let's say that the equation is ax square plus bx plus c equal to 0 as per quadratic formula its roots would be given as negative b plus of square root of b square minus 4ac divided by 2a and negative b minus of square root of b square minus 4ac divided by 2a. The quantity inside the square root that is b square minus 4ac excluding the square root the quantity inside this is also known as discriminant and we later see how we can find the nature of roots based on this discriminant value. As of now this is the quadratic formula and I'm not a big fan to suggest you to remember such formulas but this is kind of really important because many times when you are not able to factorize the given quadratic equation or sometimes when you feel the need to check whether your roots are correct or not you can directly use this quadratic formula to find the roots. The only thing that you need to worry before applying a quadratic formula is that change the equation in standard form and do the correct substitutions. Now let's see an example based on quadratic formula. So let's say that we have this quadratic equation in standard form 1x square minus of 7x plus of 12 equal to 0. This coefficient of x square would be our a coefficient of x negative 7 would be b and the constant value here positive 12 would act as c. On doing the correct substitution of a b and c in the formula negative of b that is negative of negative 7 plus or minus square root of b square that is negative 7 square minus of 4 times a that is 1 times c that is positive 12 divided by 2 times a and a in this case would again be 1 2 times 1 would give us the values of roots that is 4 and 3. So this may involve heavy calculations at times but you would finally get your roots. You can also use quadratic formula to directly find the sum and product of roots. So basically when you will add both these values the final value that you would get is negative b divided by a that is negative of coefficient of x divided by coefficient of x square and this would directly give you the sum of roots and similarly when you'll multiply them the value that you would get is c by a the constant term here divided by coefficient of x square. So c by a would directly give you the product of roots without even calculating them. So this is helpful for questions in which they directly ask you to find sum and product of roots. For example in the previous slide we saw the roots of the quadratic equation x square minus 7x plus 12 equal to 0 equal to 0 and we saw that the roots are 3 and 4. So what would be the sum of roots in this case? Negative b by a that is negative of coefficient of x that is 7 divided by coefficient of x square which is 1 in this case so 7 by 1 which is indeed true 3 plus 4 is 7 and what would be the product of roots c by a that is 12 divided by 1 which is again equal to 3 times 4 that is 12. By now we have seen how to solve a quadratic equation using these three methods how we can basically find the roots using the methods given here. Now let's try to focus on the nature of the roots. Let's see without even finding the roots how can we say whether the roots would be real or unreal. So this is the value of the roots that the quadratic formula gives us for the standard quadratic equation. This can be real if and only if the quantity inside the square root should be real and how can that be possible? If the quantity inside the square root is non-negative then this entire root would be real and if the quantity inside this root is negative then we'll see that the value of these roots would be unreal. So the major deciding factor for the roots to be real and unreal is the quantity inside the square root that is the discriminant. So if the value inside the square root b square minus 4ac is greater than 0 then the roots are perfect then they are real and they would be different we would get two different real values of the roots. If this quantity inside the square root is equal to 0 then we would still get real roots but they would be equal and the roots would be negative b divided by 2a. The only problem is if the quantity inside the square root is negative in that case the roots would not be real and hence we would get unreal roots. So without even actually calculating what the roots would be we can directly calculate the discriminant value to find whether the roots would be real or unreal. Let's look at some examples here. For the first equation here let's try to find the values of a, b and c. a is the coefficient of x square, b is the coefficient of x and c is the constant value. So for the first equation b square minus 4ac that is the discriminant would be equal to 3 square, 3 square minus 4 times a that is 4 again times c that is 2. So 9 minus of 32 less than 0 hence the roots would not be real. The roots would be unreal in this case. Let's take the second example. In this case b square would be 2 square minus 4 times a that is 1 times c that is negative 8, negative 8. So this would give us 4 plus of 32 which is greater than 0. Hence this is greater than 0. We would say that the roots are real and unequal. And last case here b square minus 4ac would be negative 2 whole square minus 4 times a that is 1 times c which is again 1. So 4 minus 4 is equal to 0 which is the second case. Roots would be real but equal. So we are done with the chapter now. We now have all the tools that we need to solve any equation based on quadratic equations. This part of the video is mostly dedicated towards how you can approach a word problem based on quadratic equation. So basically when you see a word problem always try to think in terms of these three steps. You need to use the given scenario to get the equation. You cannot directly see the equation given. You always need to use the given scenario given English statements to get to the mathematical equation. Give some name to the unknown and reread the question. So wherever there is the unknown whatever they are trying to tell you to find give it a name call it x call it y and then try to reread the question in terms of the variables x and y. And finally try to form equations using the variables and the relation given in the question. Let's look at some examples here. A two digit positive number is such that the product of its digits is 6. If 9 is added to the number the digits interchange their places. Find the number. So this is the unknown. We need to find the number. So how can we assume a two digit a two digit number? So basically we are talking about the digits at units and tens places. So let's say that the digits at tens places x and the digit at ones places y. So what would the number be? 10 times x number multiplied by its place value plus of one times y. So this would be our original number. Now let's reread the question. The product of its digits is 6 that is x and y. The product of x and y is 6. If 9 is added to the number the digits interchange their places. So 9 is added to this number that is 9 plus of 10 x plus y. What happened now? The digits interchanged their places. So instead of x we had y and instead of y we had x. So what would be the number look in this case? Digit multiplied by its place value that is 10 times y plus of one times x. So this would be the interchanged form of the initial number. So when 9 is added to the initial number this is what we get 10 y plus x. So we have two equations. From here we can write that y is 6 upon x and this value we can substitute in the second equation and finally simplify this to get the values of x and y. So this is how you should try reading the question. Try to assume the variables and try to reread the question until and unless you get to the equation and once you have the equation then it's mostly simplification. So yeah that's it we are done. We have revised the entire chapter quadratic equations and I think now you would be much clear and much comfortable with all the topics that we discussed in the video.


Okay, sounds good. Hey folks, so today we're going to cover how to build Edge Clouds. I'm going to use Thompson Fabric as an example simply because I'm most familiar with it, but the lessons you're going to learn are going to be applicable to any other technology that you choose for your networking. All right. So what does Edge really need? Edge needs service agility. In other words, ability to seamlessly deploy things in remote environments, ability to reinstall them and upgrade them and do so securely because the last thing you want to do is to do a truck roll just to reinstall something that's sitting underneath a pile of sweaters. So you also need to have operational efficiencies. You will have a very limited compute footprint on the Edge, so you cannot afford to have a Fed control plane occupying 11 servers anymore. You have to compress things down yet you cannot give up on the functionality such as monitoring security or anything else.  One of the primary things that needs to happen on the Edge is security. I think this has been brought home by multiple hacks from multiple companies, but the companies can no longer afford to have a distributed infrastructure that is not securing itself. You also need to have a consistent operating architecture simply because if you have too many things going on across your entire network, you won't be able to manage it long-term.  So you need to have a zero-touch architecture, you need to have the ability to do self-recovering other things. So fortunately, OpenStack and some of the networking SDN products can be shrunk to fit into that space. So I know this is a really busy slide that's showing the typical Edge deployment, which is mid-tier central office, right? So this is not quite the pile of sweaters I promised. This is more of a half-rack worth of gear. And at that point an OpenStack in an advanced SDN start making sense. Okay, so what does Tonstone Fabric do to enable such an Edge deployment? Well, the Tonstone Fabric shrunk its own control plane. So the typical Tonstone Fabric control plane has multiple Cassandra instances, habits on analytics, services, and everything else. It's fairly heavyweight. I believe we're somewhere between 20 and 50 containers for the entire Edge compute infrastructure. However, what the Tonstone Fabric project in 5.0 have done is create an ability to have a remote location which is treated as a pop that can operate with one or two containers or VMs as part of your infrastructure. This ties into a more central location where the advanced analytics and all of the rest of the control plane runs. So all you need to do to provide a couple of peering VMs at that central location and then you can fully utilize a converge control plane that can span across all of your Edge locations. Okay, so this is a little bit better picture that displays what's going on. So you have a couple of pops. The pops are running just V-Router. It was a gateway to get you out to the VLAN and then all you need is a couple of control elements that can bridge you to the rest of your contrail cluster and then you have a central UI, central analytics, central monitoring, central security policy administration and everything else at the cost of a very, very, very small footprint. Now, obviously, since Tonstone Fabric is an SDN provider, this doesn't quite finish the story because you have to select an open stack infrastructure on the Edge that will also have relatively minimal requirements. So maybe two server HA, if such as possible, or three servers at the most, but with ability to run meaningful workloads on the same servers as you have the control plane. So you still need to finish half of the story and you need to select the right open stack infrastructure that will deliver a minimal footprint while maximizing the usable compute capacity. So Intel had that technology, I believe now it's inherited by the Acreino project, so hopefully I'm hoping for them to succeed and get their stuff into some sort of production readiness shape in about a year. But I think both the canonical booth and the Red Hat booth are demonstrating some interesting Edge stuff and then Mirantis just released Kubernetes on the Edge, which is yet another spin on a potential Edge cloud. Okay, so let me give you a quick introduction to Tonstone Fabric for those of you who are not familiar what the project is all about. So Tonstone Fabric is a single SDN that bridges hybrid clouds, public clouds, private clouds. It also works across open stack Kubernetes and bare metal. So its control plane can be tied into the Neutron and CNI and can seamlessly bridge your Kubernetes to your VMware, to your open stack, to your bare metal environments. It could spin out to Kubernetes into the Amazon cloud and things like that. Right, so it's one SDN that wants to try to do to dominate the world and do everything on its own. It does succeed that. Some of the demos that you can see in some of the other Tonstone Fabric events, and does someone demonstrate those capabilities. Okay, so like I mentioned before, security is fairly important. This started in version four and advanced version five, and it's essentially an intent-based security management framework for Tonstone Fabric. So it's intent-based in a sense that you're going to define things on the basis of the applications. So that means that each application gets a security rule which will get interpreted correctly regardless of the context it runs in. Right, so it can run in dev mode, production mode, or any other mode. It'll still be a single rule that you have to define and maintain. You don't need to worry about the individual network endpoints. The framework will be capable of interpreting all of that. So this gives you ability to deploy essentially a distributed stateful L4 firewall across your entire network, including your public and private cloud. Oh, by the way, it can also do in the commercial version, not in the open-source version. It could do end-to-end encryption of your traffic if you so choose. And it actually does that in the commercial contrails version. When you go to the public cloud, it will encrypt your tunnel going from your data center into the public cloud. It assumes an untrusted infrastructure. So that provides you a very useful security stance. Now, with the service function changing, Tunnel Fabric can introduce ability to do more than L4. Right, you can do transparent IDS IPS, you can do L7. So I believe in the commercial version of the product Juniper has a CSRX that can serve as a very intelligent L7 firewall.  So this is how both the compact footprint and the additional security infrastructure that gives you uniform security policy management do provide basic service needs for the clouds. Obviously, you still need to find few other pieces, right? So you do need to select a distro which will give you a consistent edge deploy story. So ability to deploy and seamlessly upgrade, right? So this has been one of the biggest challenges in OpenStack. I think it's a problem that's partially solved and hopefully it'll be fully solved eventually. So you also need to still consider about how you're going to get your controller footprint on, let's say, a couple of cores from three servers and few gigabytes of RAM, right? So you still need to have a fairly compact OpenStack footprint in order to deliver edge. So there's various edge initiatives going on, right? So obviously OpenStack at the edge is one of them and this is an OpenStack summit, but if you're here as a user you should not ignore the several Kubernetes projects, including Kubernetes edge deployments that's going to be there. So at some point, both getting VMs and containers on your edge will be important and you should be paying attention to both. Okay, so this just gives you a picture of how the security policy can be transposed to multiple instances of the application running in the clouds. Obviously, you can also have an underlying policy that defines the difference between the security policy and production that's enforced underneath. That's not defined by the application owners. So that's it for my presentation and I'm open for questions. All right, thank you very much everybody. Have a wonderful day.


Peace be upon you my dear brothers and sisters, my name is Muhammad Ali and today we will be looking at the virtue of teaching knowledge. We covered in a previous episode the merits of knowledge, its importance and that without it we are but an empty shell. We analysed traditions from the holy household, peace be upon them and presented to you the emphasis Islam places on it. Today we still in the same category of knowledge but we will be looking at the virtue of being a teacher and teaching knowledge to others. We acquire knowledge, we charge ourselves and carry it with us. What is the point of having it on our shoulders if we do not teach it to the world? We spoke of the pen and we mentioned that the pen is man's greatest instrument because it allows us to transcribe our knowledge from our intellect onto paper. Henceforth before even diving into the reports of the holy Progeny peace be upon them we can say that sharing knowledge falls under the category of rational obligation of an individual. The rational people will tell you that sharing knowledge falls under the category of rationality since what merit is there for an individual to carry knowledge and keep it to himself. From his knowledge can benefit public, take them from misguidance to guidance. Even then on Islamic world if a scholar in a particular field has researched and gained knowledge in his subject should he not share it with the world to benefit? From his research he may have cured diseases or helped save someone's life. Now that we have established from the rational point of view that it's not responsible to lock up useful knowledge. We will look at the reports from the holy Progeny peace be upon them. The first report informs us of the danger of not sharing knowledge. The holy prophet of Islam peace be upon him and his family said someone who possesses knowledge in a subject but concealed when he asked will be bridled with rain of fire. You see the consequences here of concealing knowledge if one possesses information to aid someone and improve his situation but he remains silent. He has committed a grave sin. Secondly let us conclude by looking at the report narrated from the holy messenger of Allah peace be upon him and his family he said verily what will continue to reach a believer after his death. From amongst his actions and good deeds are the knowledge which he taught and spread. This tradition is very important because it solves the question what is the benefit and reason for sharing knowledge. The holy prophet peace be upon him and his family informed us that the believer after he passed away is remembered by several characteristics and of these characteristics is the knowledge he spread and taught to others because this knowledge lives for centuries through narrators, preachers and books. Let us pray to Allah to grant us the opportunity to spread knowledge that we have so we may leave our stamp on the historical timeline.


I'm hanging out with Njugwish. Pwa sana mambu. Niko Fiti. Shwe we kwa jwe? Shwe we li kwa. Kama ni twe kofi ya wacha, ni sitole ya abel kofi ya. Shwe li kwa Fiti. Oroli ya bukutokam tu wa mengu shahasetunia abel. Na me shpefiga story Fiti. El kwa po ha? Uli enjoy. El kwa Fiti. I've enjoyed. Nika siti from one's omwishu. It's been a roller coaster of emotions. Kuna mali munafraia. Kuna mali maskiya. Iwa story omwishu ame pige li kwa deep, li thin manzi li kwa apa. So I think I've had a lot of fun. Nime kula, nime kunyua. Ya mani na ndatuku lala. Nime pige kwa story. Una jwe abel ni guka. Abel. Una where would you say? Si wukuka ndi wana pige engawa tu story. Ya, so I've had a date with my guka. Sasa ni kwa nda ni bani tulami. Una skia Fiti. You know guys actually I didn't expect to see you here. Kuja fana leto utayako, takapa otu ala ndrova. Mazinge kuja. Mazinge kuja abel anga liya. Anga ni kosa pangikua. Like how could he do that? So ni kwa wana. Let me come and support him. So data si asipate kiki. Una jwe asasa anga si hindi okupiga. Anga se maniju ABC. Bata na serious note and habits, device ways. Sinon mata tikatini dini ditawa. So ni kwa mese. Mika na puna anumari, ari ya kami tego, kama ire ga shagua, ari ya kata taus. So ni ni ni ni ni ni ni ni ni ni yetna Heqiza Jebusha ho j If some of the missiles, whatever is happening to them right now, I've said it this time in a game, it's not going to work. And the fact that my people came out, and tumboza kaisisi tumboza na tawo, so I took a edge, and I got out of town, came out, life in burying, wakakam, gina na matakum, and they filled up, and I got sell out.  So I think it's a win, and it's a lot of luck. Anyway, inzi kia chan chayaza. Never done gina za azali. And I think he's ripping from what he's been doing for the last, I think a lot of years, because it's not sita zia, ake sputida ngamia meanza kupiga sora, because if you listen to how Anatilianga story, it's a cocktail of a lot of things. It's a cocktail, and a lot of things put together. See, juhiyo sori bina jua, lakini bila naipiga zia zi piga.  So seeing people coming out to support, I think it's a beauty.  I experienced kwa fiti with mama. I experienced kwa fiti. Naili kwa jwa, basha ikwa kutulia. Naili kwa kutulia, duki ni ni. Ngatemanga kutulia ni bada. But it was amazing, so that was beautiful. I've never been there personally. And also they have a rich history. And I think I'm happier both of them. Because what Ben is doing is he's telling our stories in a khanori that you listen. He's like, for example, the last story environment figure you and she think, she tell Ali, it's a story that, but it never hit from that hand. So if that will happen also to our history, the real history of the country, stories of Walewat who died for this country and what not, in South Africa they have a lot of history. They sing, they talk of their heroes, they talk about Mandela. Everyone knows the story of Mandela by heart. So I think it's a beautiful place, but also with a beautiful history and also culture. And don't forget the headline. It's Kale. Meme, headline, range, banner. How is it? Yes, it's very good. Meme muleo na menea apelali miyambia. Of course apelali. Mata kutua tuyo. Chasai zi notch tuwa rich. Nisa wana nisa wana. But sasa waki kwa mananya na kapa. Nneji wana jichwa wacha wagi kwa. Tazili wana taku bebe wa vituzina kakabat. Wana ita bena. So... Why would you give her a go ahead? She works. Enaka fejaka. So I don't have a say in giving a go ahead. Sasa nime kukubali. Akilam do na fejaka. Sasa wana pagatili. But I'm really happy about her. Because a lot of friends will say kia ni kazi, fejaka kazi hadwa. So if you see what that means and also if someone out there will see them, if someone out there will see it, it's really possible to be able to do that. I think it's beautiful. And the fact that she brought it herself. I think for me, because it's another thing sasa ingikwa. Tasa mimi nika muduru. Tasa nianza tana kuwa. Kuwa ngaisha watu wakuni. But the fact that she did it herself and the immense work that she did. Both in front of the screen and behind the scene, there's a lot of work that also goes. She also does. So I think I'm happy for her. Matuwa siyanza isu mazana wana hansa. Waki yanzan tawa toleya presha kuwa kia ni.  Nani mimi buwana. Nani mimi nimutu wakwanda kefungori. Na chukuwa mboleya siji na pele kawabi. So here, here, when you are wawa na jitangoni jwa kuna buu, tiza tawa kwa buu. To li buu. But I think I will be lying if I say I have a dream. Because even when the question is how many years from now do you expect to see yourself? So it's the same thing. I didn't have a dream car. So every day is a dream. So mimi duna mka aga God dana sama twanda hache kwa handa sana. So naeza sama kusmufi keliya naeza sama atiismai dream car. Na kumbe milikwana faku get bigger. But kutana sama ah, kumbe milikwani handa zahidi ina. And how does it feel now to be a part of to how is the other boy of ours ako different from togi ama kwa je. It's a beautiful, I think it's a beautiful it's a beautiful thing. But it is blessings times two. I used to because it's a blessing times two and every morning when you wake up you have to have that reason why you wake up when you have to do whatever you need to do. So it's beautiful, it's a beautiful and of course kids are different. So kilan prena kwa very different from the other. Yeah. And of course you'd like to know the story of The and vision am itе All I knew is that I needed to do something because the idea of live events for me came from what oren I na come to know kwa like can we curate something to have a live experience It's a very special thing that only you can sort it the only way you know, so if I come and advice you, me ni manki na takasasa we elefa, and manze piawewa, and kwa ita, and nashiti, kwa se mainini ya kwa ikuwa. So I think for me it's just, kila mtuna maisha aki, again mambo ya wa tuwa willi na kwangumu ki dobu. Mambo ya wa tuwa willi, aii mambo, iyo ni umumu, na kuna gili ya ni umumu ki dobu, agina ni guys, but point is, it's, ni ni ni ni kwa willi muna wa, bide brimnaiti idi ya na. Thank you so much. Thank you so much, Yudush.