This past weekend my son introduced my father-in-law to his favorite YouTuber- Mark Rober. My father-in-law is not an internet-savvy guy and had never heard of the epic backyard squirrel obstacle courses. And he had never heard of elephant toothpaste. My Mom was eager to tell him all about her favorite Mark Rober prank- the porch pirate-deterring glitter bombs. And as he watched, thanks to Mark Rober, he (and all of you too) got a great laugh and learned something simultaneously.
That’s Mark’s central goal in life- to entertain while teaching. With his new subscription-based engineering box, Crunch Labs, Mark Rober is getting real-life engineering projects into the hands of kids nationwide.
We home-school, so Crunch Labs has been part of our curriculum from the first moment I heard about it. And it’s been delightful to see my son jump in feet first and create and learn with their epic kits.
Growing up Mark Rober
But how did Mark Rober get to this place? As a kid, he was a bit spacey. And like Einstein, he didn’t speak until the age of 3 or 4. But when he was given a standardized test in third grade he scored off the charts, surprising everyone. I know when my little brother took a while to talk, we were pretty sure he was a bit slow. But we were wrong, and clearly, those who thought the same of Mark Rober were too.
He started inventing things before he was even out of school. He made a set of goggles to wear when cutting onions, and now that I know that I wish I had thought of it too.
In the LDS faith, we believe we lived before we came here. And that a lot of our talents are quite possibly skills we worked on in the preexistence or the life before this one. I can imagine Mark Rober was a creative genius even up in heaven. His wit and creativity have helped him teach would-be boring concepts in new ways that often have his audience laughing. That is a divine gift in my opinion.
A Sense of Humor
Mark Rober likes to keep things light, always finding the humor in life. It is a philosophy shared by President Gordon B Hinkley, the prophet and president of the LDS church from 1995 to 2008. President Hinkley showed me that God has a great sense of humor. And that you can be deeply spiritual and yet still see the lighter side of life. I love that Mark Rober subscribes to the same school of thought.
Mark Rober grew up in Brea California as the youngest of three kids. He earned a mechanical engineering degree from BYU and a master’s from the University of Southern California. He landed his dream job right out of college at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Labs (JPL), or “Disneyland for engineers” as Mark says. He worked on the Curiosity Rover which is currently on Mars. He was at JPL for 9 years with many impressive achievements under his belt.
Then in 2011, he came up with a viral Halloween costume that changed the course of his life. The costume had 2 iPads, one in front and one in back, that made it look like he had a hole through his stomach. The video with the costume went viral, with 1.5 million views in one day.
He went Viral
The viral Halloween costume led Mark Rober to create a company called Digital Dudz that brought in $250K in its first three weeks. And in 2013 he sold the company to Morphsuits, which still uses his tech in their costumes. He secretly worked for Apple working on their self-driving cars. He even has his name on a patent I found that is designed to help those who get car sick. How cool is that?
Soon Mark was taking his pranking skills to a new level, making glitter bombs to deter package thieves. He even tackled international scamming rings, sending their headquarters an epic glitter bomb. With the help of authorities, and other YouTubers, he shut down the scammer’s offices and saw 15 executives arrested for their roles in the scam.
He’s a Do-Gooder
We all connect with righting wrongs in the world, and getting back at those who steal from us. So Mark’s videos have been intensely popular. But did you know that Mark’s Christian LDS values were a catalyst for his efforts to stop these ner-do-wells? (Think about the 10 commandments.)
His appreciation for God’s creations has led to his involvement with Team Trees and Team Seas with Mr Beast. Team Trees planted 20 million trees. Team Seas is actively removing trash from the oceans, reducing the size of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, and making the world a cleaner and better place to live.
Now Mark Rober has thrown his creativity into Crunch Labs, a fantastic engineering subscription service that teaches kids (and their parents) about engineering in creative ways. I love how there are video instructions for each project. And I can only imagine how much work must go into these well-executed designs for them to release a new one each month.
Intelligence
Doctrine & Covenants 93:36 reads “The Glory of God is intelligence.” And Mark Rober lives his life following that motto. He loves pranks, but he also loves to make learning fun. His intelligence has made our home school more fun. And his versatile videos entertain millions daily. My favorite thing he has done recently was to give the commencement speech at MIT. I’m especially proud of him because he hates public speaking and overcame a lot of anxiety to do it.
Because he likes to keep it light, he declined my invitation for an interview. Not everyone is used to spilling their guts on the page like I am. But a simple review of Mark’s work will show you his true values. He loves his family and is successfully becoming his nephew’s favorite uncle. He is an amazing father and has taught the world what it is like for an autistic kid who can’t tune out the world. I love the video he made about his autistic son so much that I have shared it with my friends and family. It helped me better understand what my autistic son goes through.
And Mark Rober is continuing to show all of us that life is meant to be lively. And the world doesn’t have to be a heavy place. Thank you Mark for all you are teaching us, and for the example of light and goodness that you are in the world.
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