[Script Info]
Title: 
[Events]
Format: Layer, Start, End, Style, Name, MarginL, MarginR, MarginV, Effect, Text
Dialogue: 0,0:00:00.21,0:00:04.37,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,There's currently over a thousand\NTED Talks on the TED website.
Dialogue: 0,0:00:04.39,0:00:09.39,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,And I guess many of you here\Nthink that this is quite fantastic,
Dialogue: 0,0:00:09.41,0:00:11.29,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,except for me, I don't agree with this.
Dialogue: 0,0:00:11.31,0:00:12.90,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,I think we have a situation here.
Dialogue: 0,0:00:12.92,0:00:16.29,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Because if you think about it,\N1,000 TED Talks,
Dialogue: 0,0:00:16.40,0:00:19.83,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,that's over 1,000 ideas worth spreading.
Dialogue: 0,0:00:19.85,0:00:23.44,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,How on earth are you going\Nto spread a thousand ideas?
Dialogue: 0,0:00:23.47,0:00:26.33,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Even if you just try\Nto get all of those ideas into your head
Dialogue: 0,0:00:26.36,0:00:28.38,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,by watching all those thousand TED videos,
Dialogue: 0,0:00:28.40,0:00:32.14,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,it would actually currently take you\Nover 250 hours to do so.
Dialogue: 0,0:00:32.56,0:00:35.13,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,And I did a little calculation of this.
Dialogue: 0,0:00:35.15,0:00:39.31,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,The damage to the economy for each one\Nwho does this is around $15,000.
Dialogue: 0,0:00:39.68,0:00:43.21,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,So having seen this danger to the economy,
Dialogue: 0,0:00:43.24,0:00:46.34,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,I thought, we need to find\Na solution to this problem.
Dialogue: 0,0:00:46.36,0:00:48.12,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Here's my approach to it all.
Dialogue: 0,0:00:48.15,0:00:51.35,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,If you look at the current situation,\Nyou have a thousand TED Talks.
Dialogue: 0,0:00:51.38,0:00:56.25,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Each of those TED Talks has\Nan average length of about 2,300 words.
Dialogue: 0,0:00:56.28,0:01:00.98,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Now take this together, and you end up\Nwith 2.3 million words of TED Talks,
Dialogue: 0,0:01:00.100,0:01:03.68,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,which is about\Nthree Bibles-worth of content.
Dialogue: 0,0:01:03.71,0:01:04.71,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,(Laughter)
Dialogue: 0,0:01:04.73,0:01:09.19,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,The obvious question here is,\Ndoes a TED Talk really need 2,300 words?
Dialogue: 0,0:01:09.21,0:01:10.68,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Isn't there something shorter?
Dialogue: 0,0:01:10.70,0:01:12.78,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,I mean, if you have\Nan idea worth spreading,
Dialogue: 0,0:01:12.81,0:01:16.26,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,surely you can put it\Ninto something shorter than 2,300 words.
Dialogue: 0,0:01:16.29,0:01:18.98,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,The only question is,\Nhow short can you get?
Dialogue: 0,0:01:19.01,0:01:22.30,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,What's the minimum amount of words\Nyou would need to do a TED Talk?
Dialogue: 0,0:01:22.94,0:01:24.67,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,While I was pondering this question,
Dialogue: 0,0:01:24.69,0:01:27.89,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,I came across this urban legend\Nabout Ernest Hemingway,
Dialogue: 0,0:01:27.91,0:01:30.98,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,who allegedly said\Nthat these six words here:
Dialogue: 0,0:01:31.01,0:01:33.86,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,"For sale: baby shoes, never worn,"
Dialogue: 0,0:01:33.88,0:01:36.22,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,were the best novel he had ever written.
Dialogue: 0,0:01:36.62,0:01:39.25,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,And I also encountered a project\Ncalled Six-Word Memoirs
Dialogue: 0,0:01:39.27,0:01:41.39,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,where people were asked,\Ntake your whole life
Dialogue: 0,0:01:41.42,0:01:44.15,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and please sum this up\Ninto six words, such as these here:
Dialogue: 0,0:01:44.18,0:01:46.19,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,"Found true love, married someone else."
Dialogue: 0,0:01:46.21,0:01:48.59,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Or "Living in existential\Nvacuum; it sucks."
Dialogue: 0,0:01:48.61,0:01:49.98,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,I actually like that one.
Dialogue: 0,0:01:50.69,0:01:53.09,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,So if a novel can be put into six words
Dialogue: 0,0:01:53.11,0:01:56.59,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and a whole memoir can be put\Ninto six words,
Dialogue: 0,0:01:56.72,0:01:59.64,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,you don't need\Nmore than six words for a TED Talk.
Dialogue: 0,0:01:59.66,0:02:02.88,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,We could have been done by lunch here.
Dialogue: 0,0:02:02.90,0:02:04.39,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,(Laughter)
Dialogue: 0,0:02:04.41,0:02:06.62,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,And if you did this\Nfor all thousand TED Talks,
Dialogue: 0,0:02:06.65,0:02:09.97,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,you would get from 2.3 million\Nwords down to 6,000.
Dialogue: 0,0:02:09.100,0:02:11.87,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,So I thought this was quite worthwhile.
Dialogue: 0,0:02:11.90,0:02:13.65,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,So I started asking all my friends,
Dialogue: 0,0:02:13.68,0:02:16.68,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,please take your favorite TED Talk\Nand put that into six words.
Dialogue: 0,0:02:16.70,0:02:18.94,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,So here are some of the results\Nthat I received.
Dialogue: 0,0:02:18.97,0:02:20.32,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,I think they're quite nice.
Dialogue: 0,0:02:20.34,0:02:23.44,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,For example, Dan Pink's talk\Non motivation, which was pretty good,
Dialogue: 0,0:02:23.46,0:02:26.57,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,if you haven't seen it:\N"Drop carrot. Drop stick. Bring meaning."
Dialogue: 0,0:02:26.59,0:02:29.46,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,It's what he's basically talking about\Nin those 18,5 minutes.
Dialogue: 0,0:02:29.49,0:02:31.78,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Or some even included references\Nto the speakers,
Dialogue: 0,0:02:31.81,0:02:35.01,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,such as Nathan Myhrvold's speaking style,\Nor the one of Tim Ferriss,
Dialogue: 0,0:02:35.04,0:02:37.44,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,which might be considered\Na bit strenuous at times.
Dialogue: 0,0:02:37.47,0:02:40.19,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,The challenge here is,\Nif I try to systematically do this,
Dialogue: 0,0:02:40.21,0:02:42.54,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,I would probably end up\Nwith a lot of summaries,
Dialogue: 0,0:02:42.56,0:02:44.33,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,but not with many friends in the end.
Dialogue: 0,0:02:44.36,0:02:47.85,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,So I had to find a different method,\Npreferably involving total strangers.
Dialogue: 0,0:02:47.88,0:02:51.21,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,And luckily, there's a website for that,\Ncalled Mechanical Turk,
Dialogue: 0,0:02:51.24,0:02:53.40,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,which is a website\Nwhere you can post tasks
Dialogue: 0,0:02:53.43,0:02:55.12,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,that you don't want to do yourself,
Dialogue: 0,0:02:55.14,0:02:58.15,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,such as "Please summarize this text\Nfor me in six words."
Dialogue: 0,0:02:58.17,0:03:01.01,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,And I didn't allow any low-cost\Ncountries to work on this,
Dialogue: 0,0:03:01.03,0:03:04.73,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,but I found out I could get\Na six-word summary for just 10 cents,
Dialogue: 0,0:03:04.76,0:03:07.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,which I think is a pretty good price.
Dialogue: 0,0:03:07.02,0:03:08.72,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Even then, unfortunately,
Dialogue: 0,0:03:08.75,0:03:11.59,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,it's not possible to summarize\Neach TED Talk individually.
Dialogue: 0,0:03:11.62,0:03:14.37,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Because if you do the math,\Nyou have a thousand TED Talks,
Dialogue: 0,0:03:14.40,0:03:15.56,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,you pay 10 cents each;
Dialogue: 0,0:03:15.59,0:03:18.53,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,you have to do more than one summary\Nfor each of those talks,
Dialogue: 0,0:03:18.56,0:03:21.34,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,because some of them will probably\Nbe, or are, really bad.
Dialogue: 0,0:03:21.37,0:03:24.18,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,So I would end up paying\Nhundreds of dollars.
Dialogue: 0,0:03:24.20,0:03:25.98,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,So I thought of a different way,
Dialogue: 0,0:03:26.00,0:03:29.37,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,by thinking, well, the talks\Nrevolve around certain themes.
Dialogue: 0,0:03:29.40,0:03:34.06,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,So what if I don't let people summarize\Nindividual TED Talks to six words,
Dialogue: 0,0:03:34.08,0:03:36.10,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,but give them 10 TED Talks\Nat the same time
Dialogue: 0,0:03:36.12,0:03:38.74,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and say, "Please do a six-word\Nsummary for that one."
Dialogue: 0,0:03:38.77,0:03:40.93,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,I would cut my costs by 90 percent.
Dialogue: 0,0:03:40.96,0:03:43.48,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,So for $60,
Dialogue: 0,0:03:43.51,0:03:47.50,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,I could summarize a thousand TED Talks\Ninto just 600 summaries,
Dialogue: 0,0:03:47.52,0:03:49.52,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,which would actually be quite nice.
Dialogue: 0,0:03:49.55,0:03:51.84,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Some of you might actually\Nright now be thinking,
Dialogue: 0,0:03:51.86,0:03:55.36,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,it's downright crazy to have 10 TED Talks\Nsummarized into just six words.
Dialogue: 0,0:03:55.38,0:03:56.66,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,But it's actually not,
Dialogue: 0,0:03:56.69,0:03:59.82,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,because there's an example\Nby statistics professor Hans Rosling.
Dialogue: 0,0:03:59.84,0:04:02.43,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,I guess many of you have seen\None or more of his talks.
Dialogue: 0,0:04:02.45,0:04:03.79,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,He's got eight talks online,
Dialogue: 0,0:04:03.81,0:04:06.53,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and those can basically be summed up\Ninto just four words,
Dialogue: 0,0:04:06.55,0:04:10.80,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,because that's all he's basically\Nshowing us, our intuition is really bad.
Dialogue: 0,0:04:11.18,0:04:12.55,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,He always proves us wrong.
Dialogue: 0,0:04:12.57,0:04:15.13,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,So people on the Internet,\Nsome didn't do so well.
Dialogue: 0,0:04:15.16,0:04:18.55,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,And when I asked them to summarize\Nthe 10 TED Talks at the same time,
Dialogue: 0,0:04:18.57,0:04:20.05,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,some took the easy route out.
Dialogue: 0,0:04:20.08,0:04:22.40,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,They just had some general comment.
Dialogue: 0,0:04:22.51,0:04:25.55,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,There were others --\Nand I found this quite cheeky --
Dialogue: 0,0:04:25.57,0:04:27.98,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,They used their six words\Nto talk back to me
Dialogue: 0,0:04:28.01,0:04:30.32,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and ask me if I'd been too much\Non Google lately.
Dialogue: 0,0:04:30.34,0:04:31.50,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,(Laughter)
Dialogue: 0,0:04:31.52,0:04:34.62,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,And finally also, I never understood this,
Dialogue: 0,0:04:34.64,0:04:37.77,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,some people really came up\Nwith their own version of the truth.
Dialogue: 0,0:04:37.80,0:04:40.61,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,I don't know any TED Talk\Nthat contains this.
Dialogue: 0,0:04:40.63,0:04:42.18,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,But, oh well.
Dialogue: 0,0:04:42.20,0:04:44.54,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,In the end, however,\Nand this is really amazing,
Dialogue: 0,0:04:44.56,0:04:47.40,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,for each of those 10 TED Talk\Nclusters that I submitted,
Dialogue: 0,0:04:47.43,0:04:49.39,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,I actually received meaningful summaries.
Dialogue: 0,0:04:49.42,0:04:50.86,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Here are some of my favorites.
Dialogue: 0,0:04:50.88,0:04:53.16,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,For example, for the TED Talks about food,
Dialogue: 0,0:04:53.19,0:04:56.64,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,someone summed this up into: "Food shaping\Nbody, brains and environment,"
Dialogue: 0,0:04:56.67,0:04:58.06,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,which I think is pretty good.
Dialogue: 0,0:04:58.08,0:05:01.37,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Or happiness: "Striving toward happiness =\Nmoving toward unhappiness."
Dialogue: 0,0:05:01.40,0:05:02.55,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,So here I was.
Dialogue: 0,0:05:02.57,0:05:04.58,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,I had started out\Nwith a thousand TED Talks
Dialogue: 0,0:05:04.61,0:05:07.33,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and I had 600 six-word\Nsummaries for those.
Dialogue: 0,0:05:08.03,0:05:10.03,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Actually, it sounded nice\Nin the beginning,
Dialogue: 0,0:05:10.06,0:05:13.46,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,but when you look at 600 summaries,\Nit's quite a lot, it's a huge list.
Dialogue: 0,0:05:13.48,0:05:14.49,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,(Laughter)
Dialogue: 0,0:05:14.52,0:05:17.58,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,So I thought, I probably have\Nto take this one step further here
Dialogue: 0,0:05:17.60,0:05:21.23,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and create summaries of the summaries,\Nand this is exactly what I did.
Dialogue: 0,0:05:21.25,0:05:24.52,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,So I took the 600 summaries that I had,\Nput them into nine groups
Dialogue: 0,0:05:24.55,0:05:28.43,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,according to the ratings that the talks\Nhad originally received on TED.com
Dialogue: 0,0:05:28.46,0:05:31.34,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and asked people to do summaries of those.
Dialogue: 0,0:05:31.78,0:05:33.75,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Again, there were some misunderstandings.
Dialogue: 0,0:05:33.78,0:05:36.74,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,For example, when I had a cluster\Nof all the "Beautiful" talks,
Dialogue: 0,0:05:36.76,0:05:39.98,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,someone thought I was just trying\Nto find the ultimate pick-up line.
Dialogue: 0,0:05:40.01,0:05:42.18,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,But in the end, amazingly,
Dialogue: 0,0:05:42.21,0:05:43.79,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,again, people were able to do it.
Dialogue: 0,0:05:43.81,0:05:45.87,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,For example, all the courageous TED Talks:
Dialogue: 0,0:05:45.89,0:05:48.33,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,"People dying" or "People\Nsuffering" was also one,
Dialogue: 0,0:05:48.35,0:05:49.75,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,"with easy solutions around."
Dialogue: 0,0:05:49.78,0:05:52.26,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Or the recipe for the ultimate\Njaw-dropping TED Talk:
Dialogue: 0,0:05:52.28,0:05:54.82,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,"Flickr photos of intergalactic\Nclassical composer."
Dialogue: 0,0:05:54.84,0:05:57.20,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,I mean that's the essence of it all.
Dialogue: 0,0:05:57.71,0:06:02.68,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Now I had my nine groups, but, I mean,\Nit's already quite a reduction.
Dialogue: 0,0:06:02.71,0:06:06.14,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,But of course, once you are that far,\Nyou're not really satisfied.
Dialogue: 0,0:06:06.17,0:06:08.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,I wanted to go all the way,\Nall the way down the distillery,
Dialogue: 0,0:06:09.02,0:06:10.91,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,starting out with a thousand TED Talks.
Dialogue: 0,0:06:10.93,0:06:14.29,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,I wanted to have a thousand TED Talks\Nsummarized into just six words --
Dialogue: 0,0:06:14.32,0:06:17.80,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,which would be a 99.9997 percent\Nreduction in content.
Dialogue: 0,0:06:17.82,0:06:21.46,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,And I would only pay $99.50 --
Dialogue: 0,0:06:21.48,0:06:23.63,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,so stay even below $100 for it.
Dialogue: 0,0:06:24.61,0:06:26.30,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,So I had 50 overall summaries done.
Dialogue: 0,0:06:26.33,0:06:27.74,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,This time I paid 25 cents
Dialogue: 0,0:06:27.76,0:06:29.86,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,because I thought the task\Nwas a bit harder.
Dialogue: 0,0:06:29.89,0:06:33.32,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,And unfortunately,\Nwhen I first received the answers --
Dialogue: 0,0:06:33.34,0:06:36.56,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and here, you'll see six of the answers --\NI was a bit disappointed.
Dialogue: 0,0:06:36.58,0:06:39.80,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Because I think you'll agree,\Nthey all summarize some aspect of TED,
Dialogue: 0,0:06:39.83,0:06:41.75,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,but to me, they felt a bit bland,
Dialogue: 0,0:06:41.78,0:06:45.05,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,or they just had\Na certain aspect of TED in them.
Dialogue: 0,0:06:45.07,0:06:46.83,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,So I was almost ready to give up
Dialogue: 0,0:06:46.86,0:06:49.96,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,when one night, I played around\Nwith these sentences
Dialogue: 0,0:06:49.98,0:06:53.90,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and found out that there's actually\Na beautiful solution in here.
Dialogue: 0,0:06:53.93,0:06:56.29,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,So here it is,
Dialogue: 0,0:06:56.32,0:07:00.30,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,a crowd-sourced, six-word\Nsummary of a thousand TED Talks
Dialogue: 0,0:07:00.32,0:07:02.68,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,at the value of $99.50:
Dialogue: 0,0:07:03.53,0:07:06.17,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,"Why the worry? I'd rather wonder."
Dialogue: 0,0:07:06.20,0:07:07.46,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Thank you very much.
Dialogue: 0,0:07:07.48,0:07:13.47,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,(Applause)