PoP 131 | World Champion Speed Record Super Mario Bros. Brad M. aka Darbian

Meet the World Champion of Super Mario Bros. Darbian

On April 15, 2016, Darbian beat his previous world record for Super Mario Bro. completing it in 4:57.26. At the time of our interview (a week prior to the new world record), he told us all about what he learned about life from already setting the record twice.

In 2016, Brad aka Darbian completed Super Mario Brothers in 4:57.427 and improvement on the previous record of 4:57.69. In 2014, he beat the world record by waiting for 1.5 seconds instead of moving forward, which took advantage of a glitch in the system where he could skip part of the celebration walk after the level. This has everything to do with business. 

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PoP Culture Meet Brad M. aka Darbian

Here’s a link to Darbian’s Twitch Channel.


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Podcast Transcription

Pop 131 | World Champion Speed Record Super Mario Bros. Brad M. Aka Darbian

[0:00] Music.

[0:08] This is the practice of the practice podcast with joe sanok session number one thirty one.

[0:14] Music.

[0:27] Practice and the practice podcast i’m go sandbox in two days we have a very special guest that i will introduce in just a second.
But thanks brighter vision for being one of our sponsors provision makes amazing websites brightervision.com/joe,
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[1:15] Ball me there been incidents where people like look up personal information and try to there around and yeah and incidents for streamers event soccer teams call them just so the person can see what it looks like on the camera site i try not to release that,
the only five years.
I’m a soft engineer my name is bread you might know me as story and from twitch i have the world record in super mario brothers.

[1:42] On january fourteen two thousand sixteen.
Brad beat super mario brothers to get the world record did in four minutes and fifty seven point four two seven seconds.
Was the world record he does old world record as well.
We didn’t start that prior to twenty thirteen which is when i got in the speed earning i’d seen speed runs on you tube where it was just here’s some gameplay of somebody been a really quickly in a during a whole bunch of things that,
um look really weird so i just thought it was.
Yeah i could watch those videos and it will be cool to see a game that being really quickly faster than you ever thought,
possible but i didn’t understand what was going on i didn’t know if this person is playing on on a bad in your later using cheat codes are.
Or some special controller to do certain things on it just seemed really cryptic to me like i was looking at the final result but i have no idea.
What was above the process to get to that point.
And in january of twenty thirteen somebody link me to a livestream of an event called awesome games done quick.
Which is like the biggest speed running event in the manual the manual on my marathon is it’s the biggest beating of in home.
In terms of the community and i watch the stream.
What was fascinating for brad was that these videos that he had watched that he didn’t know if they were real.

[3:15] He’s are real people with real council’s doing actual real life.
Speed and after awesome games done quick way i set out to buy the proper equipment so that i could stream and i got though that my any us from the basement and.
Dusted off and got my game going in bottle crt tv and um.
I saw lots of the night practice game whole lot and you later on my computer because i could make save stating practice single segments over and over again until i was comfortable with that.
Where’s on council that really isn’t time fishing because you’re analyzing the games over you can’t really replay level over and over and over again very easily.

[4:01] Some bread linearly plays the game over and over and not the whole game.
He goes through not just one level over and over but actual sections until his muscle memory is so deep.
That he’s able to play without really even thinking about it without even having to pay attention anymore.

[4:26] Interesting so you could play just a certain section overnight in and save it yet add me later on on a computer allows for the.
That is just i as a kid thinking about those section that i just can’t master how hopeful that would ban you guys little ten year old playing super mario brothers and.
Darn hammer brothers it exactly does actually hardware to allow that to be done on council to which.
It’s a it’s basically a special cartridge and you put games onto an sd card can you make se states as the play the game so you can make is a state like at the beginning of every single level and then if you wanna stay on upper.
Practice the specific level i can’t slow that’s a stating right there.
I’m technology’s come a really long way in terms of supporting these letter cons isn’t and hansen’s that can be made to them.

[5:27] What i find really interesting about the world champion for super mario brothers is that it all started as something fun something social something that he is just excited about spending his time doing instead of watching tv or movies.

[5:42] At the time i wasn’t really going i was just kind of doing it for fun at the time and learning i wasn’t concerned with where i placed an order that don’t even know.
From where i did place at that time i was just doing races online with people for fun home and actually is a system for.
For singing up starting at the same time and in doing races of these games and streaming live and you can talk to the person that a reason again so it’s kind of it was kind of a social thing for me at when i first got into it.

[6:17] So tell me a bit about what was going on maybe outside of the speed run world so you’re gonna building the skills that and then you’re going to work are you thinking.
Can’t wait to get back in practice or liked how did the interact with your world outside and nintendo i certainly would think about it outside of of actually playing but.
I mean i have a full-time job and it’s that’s my main responsibility so it’s all covered skipped work to do it or anything but um dr outside of you have a pretty normal is not boring life ago i go to work at eight.
Buy my groceries come home and.
Um you’re do my chores and then maybe play some in the evening share it i don’t watch any tv or movies i guess.
Which i guess isn’t normal or average so you can just take the time that the average person spending and i choose to spend time speed running.
So then when you search a get faster what were some other elements hope your faster super my brothers it’s really speed running is really about repetition and consistency it’s doing the same thing.
Over and over and over again until you just did everything right arm the others there’s numerous tricky parts of any,
any speed run and it’s generally you’re going to screw something up along the way nobody ever gets the perfect on but.
Yo if you know how do everything you practice you do it over and over and over and eventually.

[7:48] Things are to come together more and more often and your time will get lower and lower in some cases you might start doing more and more difficult tricks that you actually didn’t plan on trying for instance.
So when you but what was your first time i’m getting super my brothers when did you first set the world record i first set the world record in october of twenty fifteen i think it is october eighteenth.
And what did you do different than but other people the head set world records before you so supermarket brothers is a very optimized game so there’s not really.
You’re not gonna find any real big chunks of time to save over a previous record holder on in my case i didn’t actually do anything that the previous record holder didn’t do.
They just made one tiny mistake and one tiny part of the final level and i avoid that mistake and it was really the only thing when i say mistake i’m talking about something that might of cost.
Yo maybe a tenth of a second did not even really tenth of a second i’m only improve the record by.

[9:00] Sixty six thousand dollars i can i think with really interesting about brad.
And are e-mails back and forth and are put our messages back and forth and planning this is that he made it very clear that he didn’t do anything new.
He just learned from what people did practiced it enough to do it better than anyone have done it before.
It wasn’t that he discovered the bullet bill glitch it wasn’t that he discovered how to do it he just had the muscle memory to be able to beat super mario brothers with the fastest time.

[9:40] So when you saw that final time us to just been deleted well the thing is that when you finish their new direction do you can detect if you be.
From yosemite milliseconds faster slower than the previous person i actually thought that i blew it at the end cuz i made a tiny mistake.
But we with super my brothers we have a way to.
But the previous record holder actually found a way to accurately time in a run down to the individual freedom rendered from any us.

[10:14] They’re your kind world record.
I was as well i watched it a few times is it levels sevenths you were you penis and the steps for a little bit longer than people typically wouldn’t and that’s level a to meet you,
it and i put that will actually the exact same way i did my previous record it’s and i love were doing what we refer to as the bullet though clutch.
So tell me about the bullet building actually for people that haven’t seen that before now so what is it so that this one contains a lot of.
A lot of kinda weird quirky tricks that save time that are obvious until you hear the explanation but.
And the case of the boat which what normally happens when ma real pizza level is he’ll jump on the flagpole.
He’ll right to the bottom and then he’ll get off and on what to the castle in and the timer counts down to give these points and when the timer reaches zero than the next level of very that’s how everybody.
Knows the game um with what’s actually happening there.
Is when marya gets off the flagpole and walks to the castle the game doesn’t check to see if mars at the castle to start the timer count down.
And is immediately touching the block is such thing about the fight dissidents the game thinks he’s rd reach the castle so it immediately starts the timer count on its gets the whole animation of the flag coming down tomorrow walking to the castle.
And that’s that’s where the times it comes from.

[11:46] As i reflect on what it means to you speed up our businesses.
It’s interesting how the world’s fastest super mario brothers completion happened.
With almost the same structure is what it takes to grow business he repeats sections that he wasn’t professional at over and over he.
Dinner first for fine and then when it says pick up some momentum started taking it more seriously.
He really respected that repetition and consistency needed to happen over and over and over message but consistency is.

[12:28] Any weight off of glitches and hacks that were previously known to just a small group of people.
Maybe abroad and tender community but it’s not something that the average nineteen eighties nintendo player knew about.

[12:44] The online gaming community calls brad’s run nearly perfect if not perfect.

[12:52] So i’m trying to improve it very hard but.
I haven’t been able to as of as of today so what’s the thing has to improve on your run to get a faster time so.
If you recall when i originally got the record i said that i the previous record holder made a tiny little mistake in and the final level of the game that i avoided not talk for stop the record.
Come in my current record it i did level for dash to a slightly faster way than my previous run.
So i was ahead of my time going into the final again but then i made kind of the same mistake that the previous record holder made,
make that four which touching the ground in the swimming section in that slowed me down.
Enough to cover on imperfect but not enough to get.
Cost me getting the record so i went into the level-headed and i made a mistake but it didn’t cost me enough to prevent you from improving my record but it does make their own imperfect so.
This guy is kinda blemish like it’s the if somebody were to tell me that a new record happened today.
I would know how every single level look.
Up until maybe halfway through the final level of the game like that sell precise as i don’t need to see the first four minutes of their own because it can only played on one way to really.

[14:27] Do you have dreams about area.
Actually i don’t i do think about it usually off all finished playing before bedtime and i’ll go to sleep so it’ll still be fresh on my mind but i hardly enough i don’t dream about how they whenever i get into like.
No that wasn’t in the birds for a while it.
Play no one ever has had down time i would have to claim reimbursement that and how do this with too much.

[14:56] Yeah that surprises me that i don’t know i’m andrew about other things but i think really hard about but not this for some reason.

[15:07] I have started to take a closer look at how long things take me in her life since i got in the speaker and because.
And speed on you look at every little thing that you’re doing and try to see if it can be done faster and your constantly evaluating or something okay i got this time i got the storm do you can see if you getting more consistent are getting worse or better.
So in real life i have seen have caught myself.
Looking at my common tasks like leaving work or shopping or cooking or cleaning and seeing how long it takes me on any given time and then.
You may be trying to find ways to improve their streamline that process so.
It’s kind of funny that i’m about speed earning real life something that is funny you say that cuz i got maybe ms,
i’d rather hard is this a parking garage right next to my office and there’s three different ways that you can come to my office.
The word um is one set of steps and then walk outside you go down that same set of steps and walk through the parking garage and then how would we get on a completely different set it stops.
And one day i was like you know what i’m gonna count how many steps from the exact same parking spot it is to that door like you are trying to walk about the same number of stamps and i realize that he save two steps away a certain direction.
Yeah that’s milliseconds over the lifetime of working in this building like that could be an extra couple hours of time snow that’s exactly right from a lot of time somebody finds a new strategy to be of particular level or.
Or part of the game and people don’t know which is faster.

[16:38] It actually takes a lot of work to determine which is actually plus you gotta go in on the computer makes records of both time them both and.
It’s not a trivial thing so once you have your answer then than its obvious you should be doing whatever way happens to be fast so in your life which groceries or chores and what kind of.
Wake up speed runs of life if you notice or discovered just.

[17:06] I might catch myself trying to plan out the path will take to the grocery store for instance i know what i need to know where it is and this,
more so having the most optimal path or maybe not getting distracted by other things during the in and out as quick as possible.
Oh i thought i don’t speed when driving to work until that.

[17:29] Not without risk there no email but just by being you when i come home maybe i’ll be more disciplined if i need to exercise and cook and eat i will you lay around and you read some articles on the.
You read some article on the internet or watch a stream or something i try to just do painting being get everything done yet sizzle that really can a visualizing planning out before you do something its impact.
Will be ready.

[17:56] Music.

[18:04] There’s another guy that discovered this as well named gary and gary was running real estate company that kept growing.
Can you go into the office earlier this d later and you were super tired despite knowing that he really just wanted for flip flops to work.

[18:23] He felt like he knew what he was suppose to do what i should be doing and then at some point his business stop growing.

[18:31] It’s a working with a business coach they told him that there’s fourteen people in his organization he need to replace until he replaced those people.
And gave new faces and took things off of his plate he was never going to be more efficient.
So gary keller continued to refine what he was doing and he kept asking himself what’s the one thing that if i do this it’s gonna make everything else easier.
So sorry to visualize what it was that he needed to do his book the one thing he wrote with papa’s on he says in the end.
Putting together a life of extraordinary results simply comes down to getting the most out of what you do when what you do matters.
He continues.
What’s everyone has the same amount of time and yet some or more than others we can then say that it’s how we use our time that determines the money we make.
I think i was already a patient person and you have to be patient to speed on because of hungry doing the same thing over and over again sometimes thousands.
In my case tens of thousands of times by in the q that’s possible to be impatient speeder but i will i promise a become more patient even after doing all of this it’s i don’t.

[19:52] It’s more like a necessity i just had to become more patient really.
I wonder how much it has to do with the mindfulness and being fully present cuz when your speed running you can only be thinking about with your day or what you’re gonna do tomorrow if you have to be in the game right that moment.

[20:11] And that assumption right there in my question was actually wrong.
Because what over and over were finding in neuroscience and white.
Experts that are at the very top of their field whether it’s michael phelps whether it’s.
Someone listing speed running and gets the world record for the fastest completion of my brothers is that they actually are thinking the art mindful in that moment because the have it has taken over.
In the power of habit we see the charles do he talks about michael phelps.
And does what he says if you were to ask michael what’s going on in his head before competition he would say he’s not really thinking about anything he’s just following the program.
And that’s not right its more like his habits of taking over when the race arrives he’s more than halfway through his plan and he’s been victorious at every step.
All the stretches went like you planned to warm up laps for just like you visualized his headphones are playing exactly what you expected.
The actual race is just another step in a pattern that started earlier that day and it’s been nothing but victories winning is a natural extension.

[21:26] So when high achievers like michael phelps or brad am complete the world record for nintendo or for swimming.
It’s because habit upon habit has been piled on where they don’t even have to think about making the right decision and that’s what freeze them up.
To move on to better things and what happens a lot of the times that muscle memory kinda takes over in my case you nothing in there in those speed on is really.
Challenging hard until worldfore dash to so i kind of zone out before than just because i’ve done everything so many times there’s really no time to gain or lose their.
So frequently be playing the game and not remember how my last attempt even and what you know just happened a minute or two ago.
We get some i don’t think it spits to.
It’s too burdensome on the mind to really focus on hundred percent at all times so i kind of zone out on.
Your ball is important times nine i lock down when you i’m actually really good run.
Reminds me of when michael phelps won the gold and there’s a story from the power of habit that talks about how,
michael phelps was about to get me was it called in china i have to look at the exact number whatever they like final laundry but his goggles filled up with water,
and he knew the strokes so well that he basically did it blind and still got the gold that like.

[23:00] When you’ve done something like initially of like super hard and you have to put in the hours and go back and you know do that one section over and over and over but then at some point it becomes,
such muscle memory and such a habit that and you can bring strum your grocery list later in the first four level split them.
I don’t know man had a lot of work to do it blindfolded that they can the whole new category as the runners now,
so i just thinking if fruit for the everyday person you can a shared some things i apply a.
Even after i just be driving that you know thinking about your life visualizing are there any other things that,
the average person could learn from your speed running thompson world record i guess i would say that.

[23:46] That alison spader what whatever you think you’re doing in the most optimal way.
Is really just the most optimal way currently known but almost anything,
and spinning we find the strangest times aids and where does the places sometimes where we assume that we are doing something perfectly all this time and someone has an idea where or a different way of.
Of doing it but ends up being faster so.
I forgot we learned to never say that any particular strategy or any particular game is ever perfect,
because i’m always gonna leave by somebody new coming in and figuring something out that nobody ever thought of instance.

[24:29] Wow well brad aka darby in the world record holder for super mario brothers thanks so much for hanging out with us in the practice of the practice podcast things are.

[24:41] Music.

[25:05] What i find so fascinating about people that are such high achievers in one specific area is that when i ask them what it took.
They usually just say just keep going soft in business we think about all these formulas and methods and approaches and all that’s good.
But sometimes it’s the great hard working producing habits over and over and over and over that helps you to grow your business to help suit that helps you just continue to thrive.

[25:38] So whether it’s rob bell when you’re talking after the show said just follow your curiosity just keep doing it.

[25:47] Creating content that makes you interested and speaking will follow.
Or if it’s bread with getting the world record for super mario brothers or jonas alright who has this network it is open network tv show.

[26:05] So many of the messages follow what you’re passionate about and keep doing it is not an easy way to do it.
I think it’s important for us to listen to you it’s important pressed here because so frequently want the shortcut and there are short cuts are my,
at that speed things up we can learn from the past and improved in the past inbred was talking about how he didn’t do anything new.
But someone’s gonna come along either discover something or do even more efficiently than he’s done it when that happens it’s gonna open up a new method.
So when you feel like there is nothing new to say when you feel like there is nothing there that you can do this man hasn’t done that’s probably true.
No instrument like you know instead of your perspective in your world.

[26:52] Music.

[27:16] Today’s show is made possible through greater vision who makes amazing websites for counselors head over brightervision.com/joe.
Thank you so much for listening today and letting us in two years and into your brain we want to thank all the musicians that joined us today as well.
Silence is sexy shower gel ski oliver here dot sweet play builder and then again.

[27:41] In this podcast is designed upright vacuum thirty of information entered the subject matter covered is the with the understanding that needed to host with a publisher is running legal hunting clinical professional information.
If you are a professional you should find one.

[27:56] I frequently learned to never say that any particular strategy for any particular game is ever perfect because i’m always bored annoyed by somebody new coming in and figuring something out that no but it every.

[28:08] Music.

[28:25] Hey if you’re still listening i’m so glad you join me for this really unique podcast today with darian aka brad,
and i just wanna thank you from the bottom of my heart for being a loyal listener i know so many of you listen on a regular basis,
when to let you know that i’m becoming to a bunch of cities this summer and this fall,
hey i’m a be in california can we ask for their carolina denver kind plan something in seattle.
And would love for you to come join me at one of the events that i’m hosting or co hosting the head over to practiceofthepractice.com just click on the speaking tab you can see all the drop down stair places them in to be,
or just let me know if you wanna book me to speak somewhere in yorktown would love to meet you in person and your just awesome have a good one.

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