Mark Rober coins the Super Mario Effect as: Focusing on the Princess and not on the pits, to stick with a task and learn more.
Mark includes a plethera of interesting projects he’s made such as a giant super soaker, giant nerf gun, (apparently oversized fun guns are a hit with as an uncle!), and an auto-bullseye-dartboard. Each failed attempt had stung but the focus on the end goal was what kept the drive going. He learned from each trial that didn’t work. Just like falling into a pit in Super Mario, it’s unlikely your thinking would be, “well that sucks, I don’t want to fail again, I quit.” It’s more likely, “ok that is a really wide jump, I’ll need to do a running jump next time to clear it.”
At the core of the message, it is about removing the fear of failure and refocusing on the desired goal through learning from setbacks.
When I made the engagement ring for my now wife(oops, spoilers), it was a long and difficult process. After much research and discussions with the then fiance, I had decided on a bezel setting with a flat 2.0mm band made from 935 Argentium Silver – oh and matching bands as well. Obviously it’s a big project so we’ll focus just on the bands and my selection of 935 Argentium Silver.
The standard sterling silver is 925 which signifies it’s alloy composite of 92.5% silver and the remaining amount mainly being copper. 100% silver is actually too soft and will dent and bend too easily for jewelry wear. Although the addition of copper hardens it, there are small side effects such as light tarnishing overtime that will need to be cleaned. And the biggest technical aspect is that it is no longer fusible and joints must be soldered. While this may be a small detail to some, I insisted on using the fusing technique to make the rings truly one solid piece all the way around.
Soldering for those who are unfamiliar is a connecting two pieces of metal with a lower melting point allow in between that acts as a chemical glue. Fusing a joint on the other hand is literally melting the two ends together. Argentium silver at 93.5% silver replaces much of that copper with germanium making it 7 times more tarnish resistant and for me more importantly, fusible again, just like 100% silver.
For anyone who has ever worked with melting metal, the window between solid and liquid metal is very very small. Leaving the flame on the piece for just a fraction of a second too long, the metal liquefies and turns into a glob.
With each attempt at forming the band, it was hours of manually sawing a new strip of silver to the right size, forming the shape by hammering and annealing in between.
Attempt after attempt, I had a collection of melted deformed carcasses of failed silver bands. Other times, when reshaping the band, the joint would split open showing that the fuse wasn’t correctly done.
With each failure, I learned to watch for the color of the heated metal and the slight movements of the quickly liquefying silver before it completely melts.
Yes, each failed attempt hurt because it was hours and $ lost. But my eyes were on the ultimate goal – I knew what I wanted. The correctly fused bands was my Princess and no amounts of falling into melted pits was going to stop my.