Shadowing Practice: 2 Engineers vs Minecraft Redstone - Learn English Speaking with Video

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392 sentences

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I have a job.

Sorry for the jump scare, but it's true.

Just this year I had graduated from college with a degree in electrical and computer engineering, and now I'm a software engineer.

But despite this, I've never tried Minecraft Redstone.

Which is weird, right?

Redstone seems pretty similar to like actual engineering, so how hard could it be for someone like myself to actually learn it completely from scratch?

And to make this more fun, I invited my fellow engineering friend and challenged us both to make the 3x3 Redstone Piston door,

which is the most iconic redstone contraption of all time.

But there's a twist.

We were going to do it without any experience, any tutorials, and pretty much no previous knowledge.

Now at first I thought despite this limitation it would be kind of simple.

It's literally only nine blocks.

But in order to actually complete

it we would have to learn some of the most important redstone mechanics in the entire game.

Not that we knew that at the time unfortunately for us.

How was the door this far?

I don't get it.

And since we knew very little about redstone we decided to start at the very beginning.

Clicking on random lights like a caveman.

Oh I did it.

Is it just a lamp?

But after all

that we got to work conveniently enough anthony already knew how to make a clock not

that we really knew how it worked what the there's no

power to it though we then moved on to the 2x2 piston door

which allowed us to understand how piston mechanics worked so then

if i do this maybe does it do both it does okay we also accidentally discovered how

if you don't insert the redstone line directly into the piston it just straight up doesn't work

and then if i do

that what either way it was finally time to start the 3x3 piston door what you came here to watch

and our first step was figuring how we were actually going to power all nine of the blocks of the door.

I mean, we can do the staircase strat probably, right?

Oh, wait, no, but how do you send it to the bottom one?

Because this won't work, right?

What?

Wait, how?

I didn't think this was going to work.

Now, this was really confusing to us,

so we ran a couple of experiments to see maybe if there was a pattern of some sort we had missed.

What?

So as long as you power the top one, all following ones get powered.

But this doesn't work.

Why?

Why does this not work?

What's the rule?

Okay, so this works, this works, that works, but this doesn't work.

So after we somehow managed to power the sides of the door, or at least we thought we had finished it at the time,

it was now time for the hardest part of the door, the freaking middle block.

It's the only one you can't directly attach a piston to,

which means you have to move one of the other blocks away before you can even interact with it.

And since we didn't really know how to do that, our first solution just was to use an observer.

Why an observer?

Good question.

We didn't know either.

In fact, we didn't even know how it worked.

The only thing I understand about observers is they like observe a signal

and send one when it when it does when something updates.

Now, fortunately, I have made sugar cane farms in the past, so I went to him and just built one hoping it helped me understand things

and then just power it oh whoops yeah okay

so it's sending a signal like look whatever updates

it sends a signal ah i don't know wait i don't know how this bottom part works

but i've that i just guess can the obs is the observer powering that maybe

yeah yeah okay so you actually don't need any of this and all you need is this system and it powers it.

In fact, does this work even if you do this?

No. Redstone passes through the block, and then it powers it.

We kind of got distracted at this point, and we proceeded to completely forget about observers for about an hour.

Not that we weren't productive, though.

Instead, we decided to learn about how piston collisions work instead.

Because if you do this and this, and you power this on, it doesn't pull the bottom one.

Okay, see?

So like, even though this is a sticky piston, unless the sticky piston is powered, the stickiness doesn't matter.

This ended up being really useful to us since we can now chain pistons one after the other

and it gave us a potential solution into removing one of the blocks out of the way.

But what wasn't as useful was my embarrassing attempt at trying to understand how slime blocks worked.

I'm pretty sure that these two mo - Okay, I'm just wrong.

What the fuck?

I thought if you have slime, they connect together. Was I just wrong?

Could it be honey?

No, that also doesn't move them together.

I don't get what honey and like slime does.

What's the difference between the two anyways?

Like it doesn't do anything.

So with me not ever realizing I was using slime blocks wrong

and just thinking they were pointless we decided to just not use slime at all whatsoever in our first design

and decided to just try a new method i came up with instead okay

so we're gonna move this then we'll move this right

we have like three inputs basically for us right one of these three from here

you do pull this one then you pull this one then you pull this one and you pull this one again

That's the sequence to pulling one of them.

So then maybe if you chain it like this, and you have a fourth one,

and then you have one at the back that's going to pull this one away.

Then you have to do the orientation again, where you do this, and you do this, and then you do this, and you pull this one,

then you pull this one, then you pull this one and you pull this one

and you pull this one and you pull this one and then it's away.

Now

that we knew how to at least get the middle block out of the way

it was now about figuring out how to power all of those levers using you know actual redstone.

Our first solution involved using a clock but quickly realized that's completely useless

so then we moved on to observers again and despite our previous testing we still didn't really know how they worked.

100

So it was back to experimentation once again event handler

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or some that's the best way i can describe

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it why did this update twice this this updated twice oh it's because of the civil line what

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wait why is that that's not supposed to happen do you need the observers though like

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because like technically speaking you have like a branching path followed by delays

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and then this is state two right here do this

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and then that happens after

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so then you have sequential logic wait

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then why was he giving us like over here oh i get it okay

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so the observer detects any change in value this naturally this thing is going to extend

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and unextend right yeah but look what happens here

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this thing turns on and off very quickly

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so how many it detected two variations of value and on and then an off signal.

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So that's why this thing's running twice is because it's receiving both an on and off output.

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Whereas this, it's only going to detect an on and then it powers off when it's on.

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So I think we can probably do this, but the question then becomes like, okay, so we know how to do all this,

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but like, how do we actually connect it all up?

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Now, as you probably saw in the clip, observers were really confusing to us.

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So we decided to just completely scrap any use of observer.

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Surely that's not going to be an issue in the future, right?

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Surely we don't actually need them for anything.

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Now we had finally kind of come up with a design at this point.

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It was finally time to start sequencing and building out the door itself.

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I'm just going to for now hardwire it.

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Okay.

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So that's how, so this line is going to only power this one.

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So this is state one, that's state one done.

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We then want to power this one right here.

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Oh, like this.

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it's gonna go here then i'll add a delay and then it's gonna go into here

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okay so that didn't work okay slight confession here setting up the timing

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and everything took us at least two hours and i wasn't 100 sure

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if i wanted to include it on the video

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because it was kind of boring but

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if you are interested in seeing the entire thing i've included the vod in the link in my description

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if you want to see us torture ourselves for the full duration completely uncut

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and unedited but

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if your attention span is fried like mine

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then here's the basic summary of what happened

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now at first the main issue

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they were having was sending the piston at the right time look at this there you go

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you just needed it to be longer

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and the biggest issue was sometimes we would have to power

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the same piston multiple times at different intervals during the sequence this became kind of problematic

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because there's only really two to three inputs max

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that you can put on a piston without it powering a bunch of other stuff

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and we just got a whole bunch of issues with it

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as well from it just straight up not working to it just looping throughout the entire circuit

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and basically creating a clock oh wait how did we it was it was all just a complete mess

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this is the most fucking this is going to be the most disgusting redstone of all time

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but it's fine we just kind of mindlessly started trying things is there a way to send a directional

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like a one -way uh thing so the power goes here oh okay i messed this up hold on that's why

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okay now try

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yes well okay no now that's not good yeah it kind of got

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so bad that we just didn't know what was going on at all

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and we just opted to completely start fresh anyways

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this is what the design of door number two looked like by the time

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we were done with it trust me building this thing was way worse so So...

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Let's get into it.

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This is going to go.

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This will travel.

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And it will do the last subtraction.

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Got it.

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Yes!

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I finished one small fucking fraction of it.

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Okay, here.

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Observe.

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Get it?

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All right, watch.

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It's like 90 % done.

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Right?

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So then it fills it.

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It goes, it pushes it in.

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And then it retracts.

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Wait.

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There's a problem.

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So we have finished...

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putting it all together.

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That's done.

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I just realized everything I was just doing was for fucking nothing.

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That's right.

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My dumbass forgot you got to open and close the door.

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So there was going to be a whole nother step that we would have to do.

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And unfortunately for us, this wasn't even the biggest mistake I was about to make.

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So this all, this red line, is the off - Okay, offline.

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So what we could do is just make it like really freaking long.

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And just make it like hella delayed.

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so that like you have ample time to like go through bang bang

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what uh okay so this will push it this is gonna go there this is going to go

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and loop through then this is going to be sent up and around where this will now hit

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and the thing dies because it's a one -way comparator.

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Now at this point I still didn't really understand how comparators worked

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so I was just trying a bunch of random stuff and none of it really seemed to be working.

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But somehow my inability to work with a comparator led me to a new discovery.

194

So basically you do this, do that, that, the power back on and so then it won't continue again.

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But then how do I repower it?

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Because this would become like only a one -time thing then, wouldn't it?

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Yeah.

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That's the issue I'm running into down here.

199

Because I need these pistons to be activated all the time.

200

Then I need them to shut off so when these pistons go on...

201

Oh yeah, we need to flip the logic, don't we?

202

Yeah, and I'm not sure how to do that.

203

Do you know how to turn off a redstone?

204

torch i don't think you can i'm pretty sure you can i've seen it i've seen it done before

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i don't know what the i did something check this out

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i think you short circuited it what did that do

207

Oh, I did it.

208

I figured out not gates.

209

Not gates are going to be very useful in a little bit,

210

but not gates also unfortunately made me realize the big mistake I had mentioned earlier in the video.

211

I just realized the entire door is in backwards logic, though.

212

All of the shit I just made is in backwards logic.

213

Because the door would be closed first, we would open it, and then we would close it.

214

But instead I have made it so it closes first and then it opens.

215

Oh yeah.

216

Dude.

217

Yep, that's right.

218

Your door closes and then stays open.

219

Isn't that an amazing design?

220

This is peak engineering right here.

221

That's what I can say.

222

But yeah, it was unfortunately time to rebuild the entire thing once more.

223

So door number three, here we come.

224

Okay.

225

Dude, I'm gonna cry.

226

Like, I can't believe I just messed that up so badly.

227

Now, even though I was the one to discover, the weird torch mechanic antony was actually the one

228

that put it to use this is always going to be pop

229

then whenever you send another signal it it just switches it so from here it goes to this way

230

right okay so what are you using

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that for basically this path will be the doors are going to be closed right

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they're going to be closed always and then

233

when i press the button right they're going to open up now actually the clutch king oh

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but one small thing we shouldn't have the redstone on the floor

235

but we'll fix

236

that that's fine yeah for now we'll fix

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it up yeah bam oh nice oh that's clean yes okay

238

now we get to do the fun part

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now we were kind of traumatized from our last attempt at figuring out the middle block

240

we decided to re -attempt using slime just to do something different

241

but the question is will i actually learn how to use

242

it this time wait why did this not grab

243

it this time though maybe i need like different ones no

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it's not grabbing it oh wait were you grabbing no no you gotta grab the slime

245

and the slime grabs the iron blocks oh i see yes I finally learned how to use slime correctly.

246

It only took me four hours to realize you placed the slime on the piston, not the blocks, the slime.

247

Wow.

248

Mind -blowing stuff we're learning here.

249

Everyone's saying good job, Skizzle, for not being that dumb four hours later into this project.

250

And what was even better about this is the slime plus

251

the rest of the torch stuff literally ended up just making it so we can redesign the entire system from scratch.

252

And nicely enough, it was far more simple.

253

Our new plan involved just lifting up the entire middle column

254

since it was all going to be connected by slime

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and we would just chain a bunch of pistons to raise the entire thing up all at once

256

and then it would just drop it once you're through.

257

So now it was going to be easy.

258

Oh, nothing went wrong.

259

Yeah.

260

Okay.

261

I lied it was still kind of hard we don't know what we're doing like I said

262

but what was nice is at this point

263

we just needed to do a double pull to fully lift up the door okay

264

I got step one working look at this bang

265

but everything we had tried up to this point just kept on failing

266

I don't even think it's picking up the first one at all the second one's picking up

267

or the the last one is picking up the second one.

268

The second one is picking up the first one.

269

We decided to simplify our solution even further by removing the bottom block from the slime contraption

270

and just powering it the same way we did with the sides of the door instead.

271

Now I say this, but there was still one really big issue left to solve.

272

Wait, it didn't re -extend?

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Now we had put ourselves in a weird position here.

274

We needed the bottom one to extend, then the top one to extend,

275

then the bottom one to re -extend once again before the top one un -extend.

276

What ends up happening is if this gets extended before this, this doesn't engage at all.

277

In other words, the entire sequence breaks.

278

So it's just a timing issue.

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Yeah, so I need your help figuring out that timing.

280

If that's confusing, I don't blame you.

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It was confusing us too.

282

Now, Anthony had come up with potential solution which looked absolutely crazy

283

so you're gonna see this for example is gonna be one right it's gonna turn on

284

and it's gonna shut off

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and then it'll turn back on again i didn't get the timing right

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but that's how you know it's gonna work so power's on right

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and then boom one of the pistons activates boom

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and then it shuts off boom

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and then there's gonna be grace period back on boom

290

and then it'll shut off again

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but i gotta stop the loop after the second one I just gotta make these regulators longer.

292

And it only got worse from there.

293

What is this?

294

What is this?

295

I turned around for a second.

296

What happened?

297

I don't even know how this thing even works.

298

And so I'm terrified because we haven't tested it even once.

299

It works.

300

If it doesn't work, it's a timing thing.

301

Shall I press the button?

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Yeah.

303

Did that even do anything?

304

Okay, it's going, it's going, it's going, it's going, it's going.

305

Um, I don't think any of the timing stuff happened.

306

No, it's still going, it's still going.

307

The door already opened and closed.

308

Every new addition to it just made it more of a mess, and we were starting to get more and more desperate.

309

No, no, it was just too long, it was just too long.

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Because I was expecting it to be a lot longer, like the door.

311

Oh my god.

312

No, bro.

313

I don't think we need a lot of beats.

314

Well, it's because you were the one that was like, it's going to be so long.

315

This was probably going to last like a minute or two.

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And then when did I say that?

317

Why are we putting this shit on me?

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Why are we putting this shit on me?

319

Oh my god.

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No, there just has to be an easier fucking way, man.

321

Look, look, look.

322

Wait, there is an easier way.

323

At this point, I was pretty lost with what Anthony was doing

324

if the random decorations that popped up on the build weren't the sign of that.

325

Instead of continuing to just being a chud watching him,

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I decided I would just start my own attempt at solving the final timing issue to pull the middle column up.

327

Why does this not work?

328

Now, I just started trying all sorts of things at this point.

329

I was pretty desperate from observers to trying to like depower a redstone torch for whatever reason.

330

It was just throwing stuff at the wall and hoping it worked.

331

But who knows, maybe just mindlessly trying random things may just work.

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And I kind of got it working.

333

And then it freezes and then you press it again and it freezes.

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Not anymore, I guess.

335

What?

336

What?

337

What?

338

What happened?

339

Um, perhaps server will work? Did that work?

340

Did that work?

341

Did that just work?

342

Did that just work? Did that just work? Did that just work?

343

Did that just work?

344

Did that just work? Did that just work?

345

oh because there's a change wait we're

346

so dumb right yes wait wait no no because you're right the observer

347

when we were diagnosed uh i was like i was remembering the double hit thing back there

348

and i was like oh maybe we can use

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that like dude that's that oh my god

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because then it completely bypasses stupid

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that i was trying to oh my god i thought

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it does it it goes yeah like technically the timing is still god awful

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but like at least it works you know yeah the observer is your you are wires

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and then the the this guy yeah i'm gonna be

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so honest i barely understand how this thing works i think

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it's fair to say we got very lucky

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we randomly decided to do observers got confused by it five hours ago

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and then i just was like you know what might as well try it

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and somehow it works we take those that's that's engineering for you i guess

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but now comes the easy part it was just setting up the rest of the sides of the doors

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that we already knew how to make from a while ago i thought we were going to do the ground

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dude i do not do it do you care

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and it was finally time to do our final test to see

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if our three by three piston door actually fully worked i'm going to truth yeah Do the honors.

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I'll be the one to walk.

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Oh my god.

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That's beautiful.

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We did it.

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Oh my god.

370

Dude.

371

We did it.

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Ignore all of this.

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Whatever the hell you created.

374

Whatever the hell I made.

375

Oh my god.

376

Dude, there's a fucking llama on your shit doing like spins on it.

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I can barely reach the button.

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Go fast.

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Alright, we're in.

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No!

381

No!

382

Now, four by four.

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I don't think so.

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I mean, I was gonna have us do flying machines, and I was gonna have us make like a farm.

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So maybe we can do that as like engineers versus

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Minecraft redstone too.

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if this video does well, so that's up to you guys.

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But yeah, um...

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This is - this is - I don't know how long the footage is gonna be, or like the final video will be,

390

but this is gonna - this was like a six hour record.

391

I thought this was gonna be 30 minutes!

392

Alright, we can call for today.

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119 sentences

Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson

This speaking lesson is built on the video “2 Engineers vs Minecraft Redstone”. This video has 392 sentences and 3955 words to shadow. The speech runs for 23:36. The speaker talks at a natural 168 words per minute, close to everyday conversation. 86% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English; the rest is worth studying before you start.

Key vocabulary in this video

15 words from the video worth learning, with pronunciation and meaning:

Word	Pronunciation	Meaning
observer noun	/əbˈzɝvɚ/	One who makes observations, monitors or takes notice.
extend verb	/ɛkˈstɛnd/	To increase in extent.
sequence noun	/ˈsiː.kwəns/	A set of things next to each other in a set order; a series.
boom verb	/bum/	To make a loud, hollow, resonant sound.
torch noun	/ˈtɔːtʃ/	A stick of wood or plant fibres twisted together, with one end soaked in a flammable substance such as resin or tallow and set on fire, which is held in the…
confuse verb	/kənˈfjuːz/	to puzzle, perplex, baffle, bewilder (somebody); to afflict by being complicated, contradictory, or otherwise difficult to understand
gate noun	/ˈɡeɪ̯t/	A doorlike structure outside a house.
clock noun	/klɑk/	A chronometer, an instrument that measures time, particularly the time of day.
delay noun	/dɪˈleɪ̯/	A period of time before an event occurs; the act of delaying; procrastination; lingering inactivity.
bang noun	/ˈbæŋ/	A sudden percussive noise.
loop noun	/luːp/	A length of thread, line or rope that is doubled over to make an opening.
detect verb	/dɪˈtɛkt/	To discover or find by careful search, examination, or probing.
mechanic noun	/mɪˈkænɪk/	Someone who builds or repairs machinery, a technician; now specifically, someone who works with and repairs the mechanical parts of a motor vehicle, aircraft…
circuit noun	/ˈsɝ.kɪt/	The act of moving or revolving around, or as in a circle or orbit; a revolution
solve verb	/sɒlv/	To find an answer or solution to a problem or question; to work out.

Phrasal verbs you will hear

Word	Pronunciation	Meaning
figure out verb		To come to understand; to discover or find a solution; to deduce.
pick up verb		To lift; to grasp and raise.
shut off verb		To stop or turn off by closing something, such as a valve.
come up with verb		To manage to produce, deliver, or present (something) by inventing, creating, thinking of, or obtaining it.
end up verb		To bring to a conclusion.
lift up verb		To elevate to a higher position.
set up verb	/ˌsɛt ˈʌp/	To make ready for use.
build out verb		To develop or expand (a system, structure, project, etc.).

Sentences worth repeating

Short, complete lines from the video that you can reuse in everyday conversation:

I didn't think this was going to work.
In fact, we didn't even know how it worked.
In fact, does this work even if you do this?
Do you know how to turn off a redstone?
Shall I press the button?

Grammar in this video

The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:

Structure	In the video
Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it	is powered · is fried · be sent
Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now	I've never tried · have made · i've included
Past continuous was/were + -ing — an action in progress at a moment in the past	was figuring · was using · was he giving
Superlatives the -est / the most … — the top or bottom of a group	the most iconic · the most important · the hardest

Pronunciation to watch

The speaker uses 103 contractions and reduced forms, such as don't, gonna, I'm. Say them the short way, as you hear them.

The “sh” and “zh” sounds: duration /dʒʊˈɹeɪ.ʃən/, variation /ˌvɛəɹiˈeɪʃn̩/, orientation /ˌɔː.ɹi.ənˈteɪ.ʃən/, fraction /ˈfɹæk.ʃən/, collision /kəˈlɪʒn̩/
Long words — get the stress right: technically /ˈtɛk.nɪˌkəl.i/, naturally /ˈnæt͡ʃ.(ə.)ɹə.li/, electrical /ɪˈlɛktɹɪkəl/, experiment /ɪkˈspɛɹ.ə.mənt/, accidentally /ˌæk.sɪˈdɛnt(ə)li/

How to practise with this video

Listen to the whole video once without speaking and note the words you do not know.
Start at 0.75× speed, shadow it sentence by sentence, then go back to normal speed once it feels easy.
Record yourself and compare with the original, paying attention to words like observer, extend, sequence.

What is the Shadowing Technique?

Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.

Shadowing technique: read the full step-by-step guide →

Shadowing Practice: 2 Engineers vs Minecraft Redstone - Learn English Speaking with Video

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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson

Key vocabulary in this video

Phrasal verbs you will hear

Sentences worth repeating

Grammar in this video

Pronunciation to watch

How to practise with this video

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