As I sat in a barely empty Garneau Theatre I realized that this documentary was more of a vanity project meant to satiate his fans. It’s only interesting if you are already initiated with his brand of humour. Ultimately, the story of “Can’t Stop” is that Conan literally “can’t stop” performing and he’ll drag anyone willing to listen. There were moments of hilarity but they were overshadowed by long hauls of inanity. But you gotta give it to him for persisting in the face of a 45 million “set back”.
I like the apprenticeship model. I have four beorhtrs and seen how learning works in their lives. My 2nd brother went through an apprenticeship on fixing cars. By the time he was eighteen he was a mechanic, early twenties master mechanic, and now he owns his own business. My first brother couldn’t read, but has an excellent memory (he has extreme dyslexia). He became an officer in the Merchant Marines by going through their program (taking the tests) and having someone else read to him and tell him the concepts. He had already been involved as a boiler tech apprentice never went to school.My third brother has a talent with languages. He now speaks Brazilian Portuguese, Spanish, and of course his own language pretty fluently. You drop him anywhere and he learns the language quickly. Of course, once again he was in Brazil the first time as a missionary. His companion was Brazilian and spent hours correcting my brother’s speech. Because of that experience he can quickly dissect and understand most Romance languages.My fourth brother knew computers (my dad was an electronics tech in the Navy and passed info to him) well before he got his degrees in economics and accounting. In his company he is the computer guy because even though he is good at accounting his talents and skills are better with building better computer systems than playing with number systems.Also, learning did not come easily for me. I start out slower than anyone else in the class. I go home and read, read aloud, and look for more info. If I am learning something I need to know it to the roots before I start to pick up what other students get naturally from the material. Once I get the roots then I am unstoppable. I did that with electronics, reading, biology and a lot of other subjects.My talent with writing (natural genius?) was the only skill I had that started from elementary school. But, without a teacher and/or mentor, my writing has taken the long road. I found it hard to write stories after learning the essay from really well. I do have a theory about why we start slow. If we didn’t have a period to overcome, then learning would be too easy and we would data-dump the info we need for later in life. I have seen people who memorize and then dump they look smart for a time, but not for the long-haul.