0:00:00.879,0:00:04.951
Joseph Keller used to jog[br]around the Stanford campus,

0:00:04.975,0:00:09.692
and he was struck by all the women[br]jogging there as well.

0:00:09.716,0:00:13.305
Why did their ponytails swing[br]from side to side like that?

0:00:13.867,0:00:17.005
Being a mathematician,[br]he set out to understand why.

0:00:17.029,0:00:18.180
(Laughter)

0:00:18.204,0:00:20.510
Professor Keller was curious[br]about many things:

0:00:20.534,0:00:22.501
why teapots dribble

0:00:22.525,0:00:24.355
or how earthworms wriggle.

0:00:24.847,0:00:27.895
Until a few months ago,[br]I hadn't heard of Joseph Keller.

0:00:28.581,0:00:31.433
I read about him in the New York Times,

0:00:31.457,0:00:32.889
in the obituaries.

0:00:32.913,0:00:36.685
The Times had half a page[br]of editorial dedicated to him,

0:00:36.709,0:00:40.631
which you can imagine is premium space[br]for a newspaper of their stature.

0:00:41.368,0:00:43.710
I read the obituaries almost every day.

0:00:44.690,0:00:47.712
My wife understandably thinks[br]I'm rather morbid

0:00:47.736,0:00:52.136
to begin my day with scrambled eggs[br]and a "Let's see who died today."

0:00:52.160,0:00:53.310
(Laughter)

0:00:54.025,0:00:55.317
But if you think about it,

0:00:55.341,0:00:58.754
the front page of the newspaper[br]is usually bad news,

0:00:58.778,0:01:00.753
and [cues] man's failures.

0:01:00.777,0:01:03.443
An instance where bad news[br][cues] accomplishment

0:01:03.467,0:01:06.702
is at the end of the paper,[br]in the obituaries.

0:01:07.405,0:01:08.769
In my day job,

0:01:08.793,0:01:11.269
I run a company that focuses[br]on future insights

0:01:11.293,0:01:13.713
that marketers can derive[br]from past data --

0:01:13.737,0:01:16.681
a kind of rearview-mirror analysis.

0:01:17.092,0:01:18.247
And we began to think:

0:01:18.271,0:01:23.389
What if we held a rearview mirror[br]to obituaries from The New York Times?

0:01:24.514,0:01:27.982
Were there lessons on how you could get[br]your obituary featured --

0:01:28.006,0:01:29.983
even if you aren't around to enjoy it?

0:01:30.007,0:01:31.491
(Laughter)

0:01:31.515,0:01:34.143
Would this go better with scrambled eggs?

0:01:34.167,0:01:35.317
(Laughter)

0:01:36.163,0:01:39.161
And so, we looked at the data.

0:01:39.869,0:01:44.363
2,000 editorial, non-paid obituaries

0:01:44.387,0:01:48.029
over a 20-month period[br]between 2015 and 2016.

0:01:48.053,0:01:52.877
What did these 2,000 deaths --[br]rather, lives -- teach us?

0:01:52.901,0:01:54.934
Well, first we looked at words.

0:01:54.958,0:01:56.719
This here is an obituary headline.

0:01:56.743,0:01:59.039
This one is of the amazing Lee Kuan Yew.

0:01:59.063,0:02:01.585
If you remove the beginning and the end,

0:02:01.609,0:02:04.943
you're left with a beautifully[br]worded descriptor

0:02:04.967,0:02:09.642
that tries to, in just a few words,[br]capture an achievement or a lifetime.

0:02:09.666,0:02:11.827
Just looking at these is fascinating.

0:02:12.301,0:02:15.596
Here are a few famous ones,[br]people who died in the last two years.

0:02:15.620,0:02:16.939
Try and guess who they are.

0:02:16.963,0:02:18.403
[An Artist who Defied Genre]

0:02:18.427,0:02:19.612
That's Prince.

0:02:20.497,0:02:22.334
[Titan of Boxing and the 20th Century]

0:02:22.358,0:02:23.518
Oh, yes.

0:02:23.542,0:02:24.766
[Muhammed Ali]

0:02:24.790,0:02:26.336
[Groundbreaking Architect]

0:02:26.360,0:02:27.611
Zaha Hadid.

0:02:28.843,0:02:30.591
So we took these descriptors

0:02:30.615,0:02:33.139
and did what's called[br]natural language processing,

0:02:33.163,0:02:34.934
where you feed these into a program,

0:02:34.958,0:02:36.823
it throws out the superfluous words --

0:02:36.847,0:02:41.070
"the," "and," -- the kind of words[br]you can mime easily in "Charades," --

0:02:41.094,0:02:43.287
and leaves you with the most[br]significant words.

0:02:43.311,0:02:45.132
And we did it not just for these four,

0:02:45.156,0:02:47.675
but for all 2,000 descriptors.

0:02:47.699,0:02:49.442
And this is what it looks like.

0:02:51.004,0:02:55.831
Film, theatre, music, dance[br]and of course, art, are huge.

0:02:56.485,0:02:58.431
Over 40 percent.

0:02:58.455,0:03:00.983
You have to wonder[br]why in so many societies

0:03:01.007,0:03:05.442
we insist that our kids pursue[br]engineering or medicine or business or law

0:03:05.466,0:03:07.053
to be construed as successful.

0:03:07.871,0:03:09.564
And while we're talking profession,

0:03:09.588,0:03:10.739
let's look at age --

0:03:10.763,0:03:13.273
the average age at which[br]they achieved things.

0:03:13.297,0:03:15.143
That number is 37.

0:03:16.274,0:03:19.930
What that means is,[br]you've got to wait 37 years ...

0:03:19.954,0:03:23.349
before your first significant achievement[br]that you're remembered for --

0:03:23.373,0:03:24.524
on average --

0:03:24.548,0:03:27.026
44 years later, when you[br]die at the age of 81 --

0:03:27.050,0:03:28.218
on average.

0:03:28.242,0:03:29.243
(Laughter)

0:03:29.267,0:03:30.951
Talk about having to be patient.

0:03:30.975,0:03:32.032
(Laughter)

0:03:32.056,0:03:34.145
Of course, it varies by profession.

0:03:34.566,0:03:35.759
If you're a sports star,

0:03:35.783,0:03:37.910
you'll probably hit[br]your stride in your 20s.

0:03:37.934,0:03:40.579
And if you're in your 40s like me,

0:03:40.603,0:03:42.594
you can join the fun world of politics.

0:03:42.618,0:03:43.674
(Laughter)

0:03:43.698,0:03:47.613
Politicians do their first and sometimes[br]only commendable act in their mid-40s.

0:03:47.637,0:03:48.894
(Laughter)

0:03:48.918,0:03:50.855
If you're wondering what "others" are,

0:03:50.879,0:03:52.355
here are some examples.

0:03:52.821,0:03:54.937
Isn't it fascinating, the things people do

0:03:54.961,0:03:56.843
and the things they're remembered for?

0:03:56.867,0:03:58.619
(Laughter)

0:04:00.136,0:04:01.980
Our curiosity was in overdrive,

0:04:02.004,0:04:05.792
and we desired to analyze[br]more than just a descriptor.

0:04:06.998,0:04:11.944
So, we ingested the entire[br]first paragraph of all 2,000 obituaries,

0:04:11.968,0:04:14.742
but we did this separately[br]for two groups of people:

0:04:14.766,0:04:17.543
people that are famous[br]and people that are not famous.

0:04:17.567,0:04:20.256
Famous people -- Prince,[br]Ali, Zaha Hadid --

0:04:20.280,0:04:24.515
people who are not famous[br]are people like Jocelyn Cooper,

0:04:24.539,0:04:25.693
Reverend Curry,

0:04:25.717,0:04:26.886
or Lorna Kelly.

0:04:26.910,0:04:30.098
I'm willing to bet you haven't heard[br]of most of their names.

0:04:30.122,0:04:33.934
Amazing people, fantastic achievements,[br]but they're not famous.

0:04:34.720,0:04:37.508
So what if we analyze[br]these two groups separately --

0:04:37.532,0:04:39.057
the famous and the non-famous?

0:04:39.081,0:04:40.500
What might that tell us?

0:04:40.524,0:04:41.764
Take a look.

0:04:44.556,0:04:46.025
Two things leap out at me.

0:04:46.569,0:04:47.739
First:

0:04:48.106,0:04:49.304
"John."

0:04:49.328,0:04:50.628
(Laughter)

0:04:51.914,0:04:55.302
Anyone here named John[br]should thank your parents --

0:04:55.326,0:04:56.655
(Laughter)

0:04:56.679,0:04:59.761
and remind your kids to cut out[br]your obituary when you're gone.

0:05:01.061,0:05:02.417
And second:

0:05:03.849,0:05:05.003
"help."

0:05:06.524,0:05:09.989
The uncovered, many lessons[br]from lives well-led,

0:05:10.013,0:05:12.849
and what those people immortalized[br]in print could teach us.

0:05:12.873,0:05:17.611
The exercise was a fascinating testament[br]to the kaleidoscope that is life,

0:05:17.635,0:05:20.350
and even more fascinating

0:05:20.374,0:05:23.442
was the fact that the overwhelming[br]majority of obituaries

0:05:23.466,0:05:26.464
featured people famous and non-famous,

0:05:26.488,0:05:28.921
who did seemingly extraordinary things.

0:05:29.574,0:05:32.684
They made a positive dent[br]in the fabric of life.

0:05:32.708,0:05:33.945
They helped.

0:05:34.772,0:05:37.363
So ask yourselves as you go[br]back to your daily lives:

0:05:37.387,0:05:40.307
How am I using my talents to help society?

0:05:40.331,0:05:43.304
Because the most powerful lesson here is,

0:05:43.328,0:05:47.664
if more people lived their lives[br]trying to be famous in death,

0:05:47.688,0:05:50.293
the world would be a much better place.

0:05:51.062,0:05:52.231
Thank you.

0:05:52.255,0:05:55.103
(Applause)