Is Ben Finegold as big a jerk as he seems in his videos?

https://youtu.be/w7a2wGaez1g

I was watching some St. Louis Chess Club videos but every one that Finegold does he is constantly ridiculing and mocking the audience.  Extremely off putting.  Does he just have a poor sense of humor or is this his personality?  Yasser's videos on the other hand are top notch, he is kind, informative, and pleasant.

I thought Finegold was pretty funny. The humor was appropriate for his audience of 8 year olds.

YES EVEN BIGGER!!!!!!

Eh..  I don't think you have to belittle your audience to get their attention.  The fact that it was a bunch of children makes it more disturbing.  Take a look at Yasser's lectures.  He engages the kids fully without putting them down.

And for the record I think Garry looks awesome in my avatar photo.  The 1,000 meter stare, a chess player gets it when he's been in seen too many knight forks.

Couldn't you have raised questions about Finegold's methods without resorting to name calling?

Were you trying to be funny? Or were you perhaps exaggerating to make a point?

I think you owe Mr. Finegold an apology... and a hug. There, now don't you feel better?

notmtwain wrote:

JerryKasporav wrote:

Eh..  I don't think you have to belittle your audience to get their attention.  The fact that it was a bunch of children makes it more disturbing.  Take a look at Yasser's lectures.  He engages the kids fully without putting them down.

Couldn't you have raised questions about Finegold's methods without resorting to name calling?

Were you trying to be funny? Or were you perhaps exaggerating to make a point?

I think you owe Mr. Finegold an apology... and a hug. There, now don't you feel better?

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Well, no I couldn't because I wasn't questioning his methods, I'm asking if he's a jerk because he comes off as one in his videos. I have never met him nor do I know much about him.

Now if teaching my advance kids,none of which are here, would have a rule, what is it? Little kid "Always make the same mistake twice!"  lol, classic stuff.

I was off put by some of his humor at first, but if you watch enough of his stuff you see he makes fun of himself as well, also, pretty much everything. I don't know him personally but he reminds me of a lot of funny people I've known who I don't think are bad, just trying to find humor in things.

I'm not familiar with the word 'jerk' 

I've never met him, but I love his lectures on Youtube. 

I got to see 44 seconds of the video in post one. "your puny brains" might be funny to a predominantly nerd audience. it looks like he was not raised very well as a child. Tarzan had a lucky throw of the dice in comparison.

I like his stream-of-consciousness rambling – with tasty berries to be uncovered along the way.

And he ain't no jerk.

On the other hand, I find some of the teachers a bit patronizing, slow and dull.

It's all about what teaching style you prefer.

I love Finegold :)

Everyone who's in there knows the way Finegold conducts lectures.  If they didn't like it, they wouldn't be there.

Finegold has some of the most well rated lectures on the page. I find many if his jokes to be hilarious even when repeated. The students love him.

He's one of those people you either get or you don't.  And I don't mean "understand" when I say "get."  It's a type of humor that works for you or doesn't.  If it does, he's anywhere from enjoyable to very entertaining.  If it doesn't he's anywhere from abrasive to abohorrent.

Personally, I enjoy him.

his motto is "if I throw enough crap at my audience, some of it'll stick".

I just watched throught that video....it is true that (especially at the start) he was a little too mocking, so much so that perhaps it was in poor taste.

But, his actual lesson was pretty well composed.  I think he tries too hard to be funny, and if he toned it down a bit, it would be better....

His lessons on chess.com have much less of that condescending attitude, I think. 

He's a good guy