[Script Info]
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[Events]
Format: Layer, Start, End, Style, Name, MarginL, MarginR, MarginV, Effect, Text
Dialogue: 0,0:00:00.00,0:00:04.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,There's currently over a thousand TEDTalks on the TED website.
Dialogue: 0,0:00:04.00,0:00:07.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,And I guess many of you here
Dialogue: 0,0:00:07.00,0:00:09.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,think that this is quite fantastic --
Dialogue: 0,0:00:09.00,0:00:11.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,except for me. I don't agree with this.
Dialogue: 0,0:00:11.00,0:00:13.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,I think we have a situation here.
Dialogue: 0,0:00:13.00,0:00:16.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Because if you think about it, 1,000 TEDTalks,
Dialogue: 0,0:00:16.00,0:00:19.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,that's over 1,000 ideas worth spreading.
Dialogue: 0,0:00:19.00,0:00:21.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,How on earth
Dialogue: 0,0:00:21.00,0:00:23.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,are you going to spread a thousand ideas?
Dialogue: 0,0:00:23.00,0:00:25.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Even if you just try to get all of those ideas into your head
Dialogue: 0,0:00:25.00,0:00:27.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,by watching all those thousand TED videos,
Dialogue: 0,0:00:27.00,0:00:30.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,it would actually currently take you
Dialogue: 0,0:00:30.00,0:00:32.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,over 250 hours to do so.
Dialogue: 0,0:00:32.00,0:00:34.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,And I did a little calculation of this.
Dialogue: 0,0:00:34.00,0:00:37.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,The damage to the economy for each one who does this
Dialogue: 0,0:00:37.00,0:00:39.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,is around $15,000.
Dialogue: 0,0:00:39.00,0:00:42.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,So having seen this danger to the economy,
Dialogue: 0,0:00:42.00,0:00:45.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,I thought, we need to find a solution to this problem.
Dialogue: 0,0:00:45.00,0:00:47.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Here's my approach to it all.
Dialogue: 0,0:00:47.00,0:00:49.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,If you look at the current situation,
Dialogue: 0,0:00:49.00,0:00:51.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,you have a thousand TEDTalks.
Dialogue: 0,0:00:51.00,0:00:53.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Each of those TEDTalks has an average length
Dialogue: 0,0:00:53.00,0:00:55.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,of about 2,300 words.
Dialogue: 0,0:00:55.00,0:00:57.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Now take this together
Dialogue: 0,0:00:57.00,0:01:00.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and you end up with 2.3 million words of TEDTalks,
Dialogue: 0,0:01:00.00,0:01:03.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,which is about three Bibles-worth of content.
Dialogue: 0,0:01:03.00,0:01:05.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,The obvious question here is,
Dialogue: 0,0:01:05.00,0:01:08.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,does a TEDTalk really need 2,300 words?
Dialogue: 0,0:01:08.00,0:01:10.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Isn't there something shorter?
Dialogue: 0,0:01:10.00,0:01:12.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,I mean, if you have an idea worth spreading,
Dialogue: 0,0:01:12.00,0:01:14.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,surely you can put it into something shorter
Dialogue: 0,0:01:14.00,0:01:16.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,than 2,300 words.
Dialogue: 0,0:01:16.00,0:01:18.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,The only question is, how short can you get?
Dialogue: 0,0:01:18.00,0:01:20.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,What's the minimum amount of words
Dialogue: 0,0:01:20.00,0:01:22.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,you would need to do a TEDTalk?
Dialogue: 0,0:01:22.00,0:01:24.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,While I was pondering this question,
Dialogue: 0,0:01:24.00,0:01:27.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,I came across this urban legend about Ernest Hemingway,
Dialogue: 0,0:01:27.00,0:01:30.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,who allegedly said that these six words here:
Dialogue: 0,0:01:30.00,0:01:33.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,"For sale: baby shoes, never worn,"
Dialogue: 0,0:01:33.00,0:01:36.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,were the best novel he had ever written.
Dialogue: 0,0:01:36.00,0:01:38.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,And I also encountered a project called Six-Word Memoirs
Dialogue: 0,0:01:38.00,0:01:40.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,where people were asked,
Dialogue: 0,0:01:40.00,0:01:43.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,take your whole life and please sum this up into six words, such as these here:
Dialogue: 0,0:01:43.00,0:01:45.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,"Found true love, married someone else."
Dialogue: 0,0:01:45.00,0:01:48.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Or "Living in existential vacuum; it sucks."
Dialogue: 0,0:01:48.00,0:01:50.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,I actually like that one.
Dialogue: 0,0:01:50.00,0:01:53.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,So if a novel can be put into six words
Dialogue: 0,0:01:53.00,0:01:56.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and a whole memoir can be put into six words,
Dialogue: 0,0:01:56.00,0:01:59.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,you don't need more than six words for a TEDTalk.
Dialogue: 0,0:01:59.00,0:02:01.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,We could have been done by lunch here.
Dialogue: 0,0:02:01.00,0:02:04.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,I mean ...
Dialogue: 0,0:02:04.00,0:02:06.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,And if you did this for all thousand TEDTalks,
Dialogue: 0,0:02:06.00,0:02:09.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,you would get from 2.3 million words down to 6,000.
Dialogue: 0,0:02:09.00,0:02:11.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,So I thought this was quite worthwhile.
Dialogue: 0,0:02:11.00,0:02:13.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,So I started asking all my friends,
Dialogue: 0,0:02:13.00,0:02:16.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,please take your favorite TEDTalk and put that into six words.
Dialogue: 0,0:02:16.00,0:02:18.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,So here are some of the results that I received. I think they're quite nice.
Dialogue: 0,0:02:18.00,0:02:20.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,For example, Dan Pink's talk on motivation,
Dialogue: 0,0:02:20.00,0:02:22.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,which was pretty good if you haven't seen it:
Dialogue: 0,0:02:22.00,0:02:24.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,"Drop carrot. Drop stick. Bring meaning."
Dialogue: 0,0:02:24.00,0:02:27.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,It's what he's basically talking about in those 18 and a half minutes.
Dialogue: 0,0:02:27.00,0:02:29.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Or some even included references to the speakers,
Dialogue: 0,0:02:29.00,0:02:31.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,such as Nathan Myhrvold's speaking style,
Dialogue: 0,0:02:31.00,0:02:33.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,or the one of Tim Ferriss,
Dialogue: 0,0:02:33.00,0:02:36.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,which might be considered a bit strenuous at times.
Dialogue: 0,0:02:36.00,0:02:39.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,The challenge here is, if I try to systematically do this,
Dialogue: 0,0:02:39.00,0:02:41.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,I would probably end up with a lot of summaries,
Dialogue: 0,0:02:41.00,0:02:43.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,but not with many friends in the end.
Dialogue: 0,0:02:43.00,0:02:45.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,So I had to find a different method,
Dialogue: 0,0:02:45.00,0:02:47.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,preferably involving total strangers.
Dialogue: 0,0:02:47.00,0:02:50.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,And luckily there's a website for that called Mechanical Turk,
Dialogue: 0,0:02:50.00,0:02:52.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,which is a website where you can post tasks
Dialogue: 0,0:02:52.00,0:02:54.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,that you don't want to do yourself,
Dialogue: 0,0:02:54.00,0:02:57.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,such as "Please summarize this text for me in six words."
Dialogue: 0,0:02:57.00,0:03:00.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,And I didn't allow any low-cost countries to work on this,
Dialogue: 0,0:03:00.00,0:03:04.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,but I found out I could get a six-word summary for just 10 cents,
Dialogue: 0,0:03:04.00,0:03:06.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,which I think is a pretty good price.
Dialogue: 0,0:03:06.00,0:03:08.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Even then, unfortunately,
Dialogue: 0,0:03:08.00,0:03:11.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,it's not possible to summarize each TEDTalk individually.
Dialogue: 0,0:03:11.00,0:03:13.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Because if you do the math, you have a thousand TEDTalks,
Dialogue: 0,0:03:13.00,0:03:15.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,the pay 10 cents each;
Dialogue: 0,0:03:15.00,0:03:18.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,you have to do more than one summary for each of those talks,
Dialogue: 0,0:03:18.00,0:03:21.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,because some of them will probably be, or are, really bad.
Dialogue: 0,0:03:21.00,0:03:24.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,So I would end up paying hundreds of dollars.
Dialogue: 0,0:03:24.00,0:03:26.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,So I thought of a different way
Dialogue: 0,0:03:26.00,0:03:29.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,by thinking, well, the talks revolve around certain themes.
Dialogue: 0,0:03:29.00,0:03:31.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,So what if I don't let people summarize
Dialogue: 0,0:03:31.00,0:03:33.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,individual TEDTalks to six words,
Dialogue: 0,0:03:33.00,0:03:35.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,but give them 10 TEDTalks at the same time
Dialogue: 0,0:03:35.00,0:03:38.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and say, "Please do a six-word summary for that one."
Dialogue: 0,0:03:38.00,0:03:40.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,I would cut my costs by 90 percent.
Dialogue: 0,0:03:40.00,0:03:43.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,So for $60,
Dialogue: 0,0:03:43.00,0:03:45.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,I could summarize a thousand TEDTalks
Dialogue: 0,0:03:45.00,0:03:47.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,into just 600 summaries,
Dialogue: 0,0:03:47.00,0:03:49.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,which would actually be quite nice.
Dialogue: 0,0:03:49.00,0:03:51.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Now some of you might actually right now be thinking,
Dialogue: 0,0:03:51.00,0:03:54.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,It's downright crazy to have 10 TEDTalks summarized into just six words.
Dialogue: 0,0:03:54.00,0:03:56.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,But it's actually not,
Dialogue: 0,0:03:56.00,0:03:59.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,because there's an example by statistics professor, Hans Rosling.
Dialogue: 0,0:03:59.00,0:04:01.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,I guess many of you have seen one or more of his talks.
Dialogue: 0,0:04:01.00,0:04:03.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,He's got eight talks online,
Dialogue: 0,0:04:03.00,0:04:06.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and those talks can basically be summed up into just four words,
Dialogue: 0,0:04:06.00,0:04:08.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,because that's all he's basically showing us,
Dialogue: 0,0:04:08.00,0:04:10.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,our intuition is really bad.
Dialogue: 0,0:04:10.00,0:04:12.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,He always proves us wrong.
Dialogue: 0,0:04:12.00,0:04:15.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,So people on the Internet, some didn't do so well.
Dialogue: 0,0:04:15.00,0:04:17.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,I mean, when I asked them to summarize the 10 TEDTalks at the same time,
Dialogue: 0,0:04:17.00,0:04:19.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,some took the easy route out.
Dialogue: 0,0:04:19.00,0:04:22.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,They just had some general comment.
Dialogue: 0,0:04:22.00,0:04:25.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,There were others, and I found this quite cheeky.
Dialogue: 0,0:04:25.00,0:04:27.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,They used their six words to talk back to me
Dialogue: 0,0:04:27.00,0:04:31.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and ask me if I'd been too much on Google lately.
Dialogue: 0,0:04:31.00,0:04:34.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,And finally also, I never understood this,
Dialogue: 0,0:04:34.00,0:04:37.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,some people really came up with their own version of the truth.
Dialogue: 0,0:04:37.00,0:04:40.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,I don't know any TEDTalk that contains this.
Dialogue: 0,0:04:40.00,0:04:42.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,But, oh well. In the end, however,
Dialogue: 0,0:04:42.00,0:04:44.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and this is really amazing,
Dialogue: 0,0:04:44.00,0:04:46.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,for each of those 10 TEDTalk clusters that I submitted,
Dialogue: 0,0:04:46.00,0:04:48.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,I actually received meaningful summaries.
Dialogue: 0,0:04:48.00,0:04:50.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Here are some of my favorites.
Dialogue: 0,0:04:50.00,0:04:52.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,For example, for all the TEDTalks around food,
Dialogue: 0,0:04:52.00,0:04:54.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,someone summed this up into: "Food shaping body, brains and environment,"
Dialogue: 0,0:04:54.00,0:04:56.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,which I think is pretty good.
Dialogue: 0,0:04:56.00,0:04:58.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Or happiness: "Striving toward happiness =
Dialogue: 0,0:04:58.00,0:05:00.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,moving toward unhappiness."
Dialogue: 0,0:05:00.00,0:05:02.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,So here I was.
Dialogue: 0,0:05:02.00,0:05:04.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,I had started out with a thousand TEDTalks
Dialogue: 0,0:05:04.00,0:05:07.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and I had 600 six-word summaries for those.
Dialogue: 0,0:05:07.00,0:05:09.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Actually it sounded nice in the beginning,
Dialogue: 0,0:05:09.00,0:05:11.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,but when you look at 600 summaries, it's quite a lot.
Dialogue: 0,0:05:11.00,0:05:13.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,It's a huge list.
Dialogue: 0,0:05:13.00,0:05:17.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,So I thought, I probably have to take this one step further here
Dialogue: 0,0:05:17.00,0:05:20.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and create summaries of the summaries -- and this is exactly what I did.
Dialogue: 0,0:05:20.00,0:05:22.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,So I took the 600 summaries that I had,
Dialogue: 0,0:05:22.00,0:05:24.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,put them into nine groups
Dialogue: 0,0:05:24.00,0:05:28.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,according to the ratings that the talks had originally received on TED.com
Dialogue: 0,0:05:28.00,0:05:31.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and asked people to do summaries of those.
Dialogue: 0,0:05:31.00,0:05:33.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Again, there were some misunderstandings.
Dialogue: 0,0:05:33.00,0:05:35.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,For example, when I had a cluster of all the beautiful talks,
Dialogue: 0,0:05:35.00,0:05:38.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,someone thought I was just trying to find the ultimate pick-up line.
Dialogue: 0,0:05:38.00,0:05:41.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,But in the end, amazingly,
Dialogue: 0,0:05:41.00,0:05:43.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,again, people were able to do it.
Dialogue: 0,0:05:43.00,0:05:45.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,For example, all the courageous TEDTalks:
Dialogue: 0,0:05:45.00,0:05:47.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,"People dying," or "People suffering," was also one,
Dialogue: 0,0:05:47.00,0:05:49.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,"with easy solutions around."
Dialogue: 0,0:05:49.00,0:05:51.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Or the recipe for the ultimate jaw-dropping TEDTalk:
Dialogue: 0,0:05:51.00,0:05:54.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,"Flickr photos of intergalactic classical composer."
Dialogue: 0,0:05:54.00,0:05:57.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,I mean that's the essence of it all.
Dialogue: 0,0:05:57.00,0:05:59.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Now I had my nine groups,
Dialogue: 0,0:05:59.00,0:06:02.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,but, I mean, it's already quite a reduction.
Dialogue: 0,0:06:02.00,0:06:05.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,But of course, once you are that far, you're not really satisfied.
Dialogue: 0,0:06:05.00,0:06:08.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,I wanted to go all the way, all the way down the distillery,
Dialogue: 0,0:06:08.00,0:06:10.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,starting out with a thousand TEDTalks.
Dialogue: 0,0:06:10.00,0:06:13.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,I wanted to have a thousand TEDTalks summarized into just six words --
Dialogue: 0,0:06:13.00,0:06:17.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,which would be a 99.9997 percent reduction in content.
Dialogue: 0,0:06:17.00,0:06:20.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,And I would only pay $99.50 --
Dialogue: 0,0:06:20.00,0:06:23.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,so stay even below a hundred dollars for it.
Dialogue: 0,0:06:23.00,0:06:25.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,So I had 50 overall summaries done.
Dialogue: 0,0:06:25.00,0:06:27.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,This time I paid 25 cents
Dialogue: 0,0:06:27.00,0:06:30.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,because I thought the task was a bit harder.
Dialogue: 0,0:06:30.00,0:06:32.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,And unfortunately when I first received the answers --
Dialogue: 0,0:06:32.00,0:06:34.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and here you'll see six of the answers --
Dialogue: 0,0:06:34.00,0:06:36.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,I was a bit disappointed.
Dialogue: 0,0:06:36.00,0:06:39.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Because I think you'll agree, they all summarize some aspect of TED,
Dialogue: 0,0:06:39.00,0:06:41.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,but to me they felt a bit bland,
Dialogue: 0,0:06:41.00,0:06:44.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,or they just had a certain aspect of TED in them.
Dialogue: 0,0:06:44.00,0:06:47.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,So I was almost ready to give up
Dialogue: 0,0:06:47.00,0:06:49.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,when one night I played around with these sentences
Dialogue: 0,0:06:49.00,0:06:53.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and found out that there's actually a beautiful solution in here.
Dialogue: 0,0:06:53.00,0:06:56.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,So here it is,
Dialogue: 0,0:06:56.00,0:07:00.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,a crowd-sourced, six-word summary of a thousand TEDTalks
Dialogue: 0,0:07:00.00,0:07:03.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,at the value of $99.50:
Dialogue: 0,0:07:03.00,0:07:05.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,"Why the worry? I'd rather wonder."
Dialogue: 0,0:07:05.00,0:07:07.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Thank you very much.
Dialogue: 0,0:07:07.00,0:07:12.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,(Applause)