Video Scripts high quality desserts for 30 years until a couple of bad

business decisions sent the company into bankruptcy. So . . .

do you want to lose your business and all of your money?
Great, send me an email, and we can talk about how you
can get started!
Third, do you want a family life? Do you want to be able to
Unit 1 recognize your own children in a crowd? Good luck with
that. The fact is that many entrepreneurs end up divorced.
VIDEO TRACK 1.1  5:33 min The story of Tony, a software and media entrepreneur,
Part 1, Page 6, Exercise E, Listen for Main Ideas is not unusual. Tony admits that he put his wife through
eight years of suffering while he created and tried to sell a
PODCAST HOST  Welcome to today’s podcast of Business Talk. television show. With two young children and no idea where
These days, it seems to me that everyone is starting or the next paycheck would come from, Tony’s wife gave him
thinking about starting their own business. Just last week, a choice: the TV show or her. He chose the TV show. She
I got hundreds of emails from 20-somethings (most of chose divorce. Do you really want to make that choice?
them living in their parents’ basements) asking for advice
on how to become the next Mark Zuckerberg. Now in OK, so if you’ve listened to all of this and are still interested
case you’ve been living in your parents’ basement for too in starting your own business, great! Now go back and listen
long and don’t get out much, Mark Zuckerberg is the guy again, once a day for seven days. Got it? Seven days—the
who started Facebook at the age of 24. He’s now an old same number of days a week you will be working if you start
guy—in his 30’s—and his wealth is estimated at more your own business. Oh, and make sure you listen at 4:00 AM.
than 30 billion dollars. Why? That’s the time you will either be getting up to start
your 20-hour workday, or going to bed after you’ve worked
I’ve been doing this show for a lot of years, but I have never
20 hours straight. If at the end of the seven days, you are still
seen anything like this before. It’s really striking. In the past,
interested in starting your own business, congratulations.
most middle-class kids would graduate from college, find a
You just might be the next Mark Zuckerberg . . . and yes, I’ll
job, collect a paycheck, settle down and get married, buy a
answer your email.
house, and have some kids—usually in that order.
That’s it for today’s podcast. Tomorrow, I’ll be interviewing . . .
In those days, maybe ten people a week would contact me
to get my advice about starting their own businesses. But
nowadays, with a difficult job market, rapid technological
VIDEO TRACK 1.2  6:16 min
change, news all over the media about the so-called Part 2, Page 16, Exercise F, Watch for Main Ideas
“overnight success” of entrepreneurs like Mark Zuckerberg, I dedicated the past two years to understanding how people
and television shows like Shark Tank—where people try to achieve their dreams. When we think about the dreams
sell their ideas to investors with the money to help them start we have, and the dent we want to leave in the universe, it
their own businesses—everybody thinks that they are going is striking to see how big of an overlap there is between
to become the next Bill Gates. the dreams that we have and projects that never happen.
And that brings me to today’s podcast. My purpose? It’s (Laughter) So I’m here to talk to you today about five ways
simple. My inbox is full. I want to stop, or at least slow down, how not to follow your dreams.
the traffic of email from all of you who think you would make One: Believe in overnight success. You know the story,
great business owners. So here goes. Warning: This is not a right? The tech guy built a mobile app and sold it very fast
reality TV show. It is just plain reality. Oh, and as always, you for a lot of money. You know, the story may seem real, but
can check out our website for some additional information I bet it’s incomplete. If you go investigate further, the guy
about today’s podcast. has done 30 apps before and he has done a Master’s on
First, running a business is hard work. Really hard work. the topic, a Ph.D. He has been working on the topic for
100 hours a week of hard work.—At least. Seven-days a 20 years.
week of hard work. No kidding. Just ask Robert. Robert This is really interesting, I myself have a story in Brazil that
is a French chef who owns a café serving breakfast and people think is an overnight success. I come from a humble
lunch. He also makes food for parties and special events. family, and two weeks before the deadline to apply to
Every day, he gets up at 2:00 or 3:00 AM and drives to MIT, I started the application process. And, voila! I got in.
the restaurant. He usually doesn’t get home until 4:00 PM, People may think it’s an overnight success, but that only
unless he has a large party or special event. On those days, worked because for the 17 years prior to that, I took life and
he might not get home until 10 PM or later. The next day, he education seriously. Your overnight success story is always
gets up and does it all over again. The only day the shop is a result of everything you’ve done in your life through that
closed is on Sundays, but even then Robert usually spends moment.
hours at the shop catching up on paperwork or getting ready
Two: Believe someone else has the answers for you.
for the week to come. In other words, he works constantly.
Constantly, people want to help out, right? All sorts of
His advice to would-be small business owners? Do not fool
people: your family, your friends, your business partners,
yourself. The freedom of being your own boss might sound
they all have opinions on which path you should take: “And
great, but say goodbye to free time.
let me tell you, go through this pipe.” But whenever you
Second, most business owners never get rich. In fact, about go inside, there are other ways you have to pick as well.
one third of businesses fail within one year, and about half And you need to make those decisions yourself. No one
fail within five years. And even businesses that have done else has the perfect answers for your life. And you need to
great for years can suddenly fail. Don’t believe me? Just keep picking those decisions, right? The pipes are infinite
ask Gail Horvath. She and her husband started a company and you’re going to bump your head, and it’s a part of the
in San Francisco called Just Desserts. They made and sold process.

74 VIDEO SCRIPTS

55523_video.indd 74 31/10/16 11:00 AM

 Three, and it’s very subtle but very important: Decide to Segment 1
settle when growth is guaranteed. So when your life is I dedicated the past two years to understanding how people
going great, you have put together a great team, and you achieve their dreams. When we think about the dreams
have growing revenue, and everything is set—time to settle. we have, and the dent we want to leave in the universe, it
When I launched my first book, I worked really, really hard is striking to see how big of an overlap there is between
to distribute it everywhere in Brazil. With that, over three the dreams that we have and projects that never happen.
million people downloaded it, over 50,000 people bought (Laughter) So I’m here to talk to you today about five ways
physical copies. When I wrote a sequel, some impact was how not to follow your dreams.
guaranteed. Even if I did little, sales would be okay. But
okay is never okay. When you’re growing towards a peak, One: Believe in overnight success. You know the story,
you need to work harder than ever and find yourself another right? The tech guy built a mobile app and sold it very fast
peak. Right? Maybe if I did little, a couple hundred thousand for a lot of money. You know, the story may seem real, but
people would read it, and that’s great already. But if I work I bet it’s incomplete. If you go investigate further, the guy
harder than ever, I can bring this number up to millions. has done 30 apps before and he has done a Master’s on
That’s why I decided, with my new book, to go to every the topic, a Ph.D. He has been working on the topic for
single state of Brazil. And I can already see a higher peak. 20 years.
There’s no time to settle down. This is really interesting, I myself have a story in Brazil that
Fourth tip, and that’s really important: Believe the fault is people think is an overnight success. I come from a humble
someone else’s. I constantly see people saying, “Yes, I had family, and two weeks before the deadline to apply to
this great idea, but no investor had the vision to invest.” “Oh, MIT, I started the application process. And, voila! I got in.
I created this great product, but you know the market is so People may think it’s an overnight success, but that only
bad, the sales didn’t go well.” Or, “I can’t find good talent; worked because for the 17 years prior to that, I took life and
my team is so below expectations.” If you have dreams, it’s education seriously. Your overnight success story is always
your responsibility to make them happen. Yes, it may be a result of everything you’ve done in your life through that
hard to find talent. Yes, the market may be bad. But if no moment.
one invested in your idea, if no one bought your product, for
sure, there is something there that is your fault. (Laughter) Segment 2
Definitely. You need to get your dreams and make them Two: Believe someone else has the answers for you.
happen. And no one achieved their goals alone. But if you Constantly, people want to help out, right? All sorts of
didn’t make them happen, it’s your fault and no one else’s. people: your family, your friends, your business partners,
Be responsible for your dreams. they all have opinions on which path you should take: “And
let me tell you, go through this pipe.” But whenever you
And one last tip, and this one is really important as well: go inside, there are other ways you have to pick as well.
Believe that the only things that matter are the dreams And you need to make those decisions yourself. No one
themselves. Once I saw an ad, and it was a lot of friends, else has the perfect answers for your life. And you need to
they were going up a mountain, it was a very high mountain, keep picking those decisions, right? The pipes are infinite
and it was a lot of work. You could see that they were and you’re going to bump your head, and it’s a part of the
sweating and this was tough. And they were going up, and process.
they finally made it to the peak. Of course, they decided to
celebrate, right? I’m going to celebrate, so, “Yes! We made Segment 3
it, we’re at the top!” Two seconds later, one looks at the Three, and it’s very subtle but very important: Decide to
other and says, “Okay, let’s go down.” (Laughter) settle when growth is guaranteed. So when your life is
Life is never about the goals themselves. Life is about the going great, you have put together a great team, and you
journey. Yes, you should enjoy the goals themselves, but have growing revenue, and everything is set—time to settle.
people think that you have dreams, and whenever you get When I launched my first book, I worked really, really hard
to reaching one of those dreams, it’s a magical place where to distribute it everywhere in Brazil. With that, over three
happiness will be all around. But achieving a dream is a million people downloaded it, over 50,000 people bought
momentary sensation, and your life is not. The only way to physical copies. When I wrote a sequel, some impact was
really achieve all of your dreams is to fully enjoy every step guaranteed. Even if I did little, sales would be okay. But
of your journey. That’s the best way. okay is never okay. When you’re growing towards a peak,
And your journey is simple—it’s made of steps. Some steps you need to work harder than ever and find yourself another
will be right on. Sometimes you will trip. If it’s right on, peak. Right? Maybe if I did little, a couple hundred thousand
celebrate, because some people wait a lot to celebrate. And people would read it, and that’s great already. But if I work
if you tripped, turn that into something to learn. If every step harder than ever, I can bring this number up to millions.
becomes something to learn or something to celebrate, you That’s why I decided, with my new book, to go to every
will for sure enjoy the journey. single state of Brazil. And I can already see a higher peak.
There’s no time to settle down.
So, five tips: Believe in overnight success, believe someone
else has the answers for you, believe that when growth is Segment 4
guaranteed, you should settle down, believe the fault is Fourth tip, and that’s really important: Believe the fault is
someone else’s, and believe that only the goals themselves someone else’s. I constantly see people saying, “Yes, I had
matter. Believe me, if you do that, you will destroy your this great idea, but no investor had the vision to invest.” “Oh,
dreams. (Laughter) I created this great product, but you know the market is so
Thank you. bad, the sales didn’t go well.” Or, “I can’t find good talent;
my team is so below expectations.” If you have dreams, it’s
VIDEO TRACK 1.3  6:34 min your responsibility to make them happen. Yes, it may be
hard to find talent. Yes, the market may be bad. But if no
Page 16, Exercise G, Watch for Details

VIDEO SCRIPTS 75

55523_video.indd 75 31/10/16 11:00 AM

 one invested in your idea, if no one bought your product, for VIDEO TRACK 1.5  3:02 min
sure, there is something there that is your fault. (Laughter) Page 17, Exercise J, Expand Your Vocabulary
Definitely. You need to get your dreams and make them
happen. And no one achieved their goals alone. But if you “So when your life is going great, you have put together a
didn’t make them happen, it’s your fault and no one else’s. great team, and you have growing revenue, and everything
Be responsible for your dreams. is set—time to settle.”
And one last tip, and this one is really important as well: 1. What does is set mean?
Believe that the only things that matter are the dreams a. your life is over
themselves. Once I saw an ad, and it was a lot of friends, b. your work is done
they were going up a mountain, it was a very high mountain, c. you begin working
and it was a lot of work. You could see that they were “Oh, I created this great product, but you know the market
sweating and this was tough. And they were going up, and is so bad, the sales didn’t go well.”
they finally made it to the peak. Of course, they decided to
celebrate, right? I’m going to celebrate, so, “Yes! We made 2. What does the market mean?
it, we’re at the top!” Two seconds later, one looks at the a. a place to sell products or services
other and says, “Okay, let’s go down.” (Laughter) b. business for a particular product
Life is never about the goals themselves. Life is about the c. the marketing department
journey. Yes, you should enjoy the goals themselves, but “I can’t find good talent; my team is so below expectations.”
people think that you have dreams, and whenever you get 3. What does good talent mean?
to reaching one of those dreams, it’s a magical place where a. entrepreneurs
happiness will be all around. But achieving a dream is a b. performers, such as actors or singers
momentary sensation, and your life is not. The only way to
c. qualified employees
really achieve all of your dreams is to fully enjoy every step
of your journey. That’s the best way. “And they were going up, and they finally made it to the
peak.”
And your journey is simple—it’s made of steps. Some steps
will be right on. Sometimes you will trip. If it’s right on, 4. What does make it mean?
celebrate, because some people wait a lot to celebrate. And a. create something valuable
if you tripped, turn that into something to learn. If every step b. find something unexpected
becomes something to learn or something to celebrate, you c. succeed in doing something difficult
will for sure enjoy the journey. “Some steps will be right on. Sometimes you will trip. If
So, five tips: Believe in overnight success, believe someone it’s right on, celebrate, because some people wait a lot to
else has the answers for you, believe that when growth is celebrate. And if you tripped, turn that into something to
guaranteed, you should settle down, believe the fault is learn.”
someone else’s, and believe that only the goals themselves 5. What does turn into mean?
matter. Believe me, if you do that, you will destroy your a. change one thing to another thing
dreams. (Laughter) b. change your mind
Thank you. c. go in the opposite direction
“If every step becomes something to learn or something to
VIDEO TRACK 1.4  1:48 min celebrate, you will for sure enjoy the journey.”
Page 17, Exercise H, Identify Examples 6. What does for sure mean?
I dedicated the past two years to understanding how people a. always
achieve their dreams. When we think about the dreams b. definitely
we have, and the dent we want to leave in the universe, it c. especially
is striking to see how big of an overlap there is between
the dreams that we have and projects that never happen. VIDEO TRACK 1.6  1:10 min
(Laughter) So I’m here to talk to you today about five ways Page 19, Presentation Skill: Pause Effectively
how not to follow your dreams.
Believe the fault is someone else’s. I constantly see people
One: Believe in overnight success. You know the story, saying, “Yes, I had this great idea, but no investor had the
right? The tech guy built a mobile app and sold it very fast vision to invest.”
for a lot of money. You know, the story may seem real, but
I bet it’s incomplete. If you go investigate further, the guy I constantly see people saying, “Yes, I had this great idea,
has done 30 apps before and he has done a Master’s on the but no investor had the vision to invest.” “Oh, I created
topic, a Ph.D. He has been working on the topic for this great product, but you know the market is so bad, the
20 years. sales didn’t go well.” Or, “I can’t find good talent; my team
is so below expectations.” If you have dreams, it’s your
This is really interesting, I myself have a story in Brazil that responsibility to make them happen.
people think is an overnight success. I come from a humble
family, and two weeks before the deadline to apply to Be responsible for your dreams.
MIT, I started the application process. And, voila! I got in. And one last tip, and this one is really important as well:
People may think it’s an overnight success, but that only Believe that the only things that matter are the dreams
worked because for the 17 years prior to that, I took life and themselves.
education seriously. Your overnight success story is always
a result of everything you’ve done in your life through that
moment.

76 VIDEO SCRIPTS

55523_video.indd 76 31/10/16 11:00 AM

 VIDEO TRACK 1.7  1:02 min Thus, people often use emoji and emoticons to replace
Page 20, Exercise C the written word. And that brings us to our discussion
topic for today: How are emoticons and emoji affecting
And one last tip, and this one is really important as well: communication?
Believe that the only things that matter are the dreams
themselves. Once I saw an ad, and it was a lot of friends, Some say that this use of pictures is a sign that we are
they were going up a mountain, it was a very high mountain, losing the ability to communicate complex ideas. They
and it was a lot of work, you could see that they were point out that our ancestors used pictures to communicate
sweating and this was tough, and they were going up, and thousands of years ago, before the invention of writing.
they finally made it to the peak, and of course, they decided From this point of view, then, emoji and emoticons are like
to celebrate, right? I’m going to celebrate, so, “Yes! We pictures scratched on rocks, and are a step backward to an
made it, we’re at the top!” Two seconds later, one looks at earlier time, before the invention of writing.
each other and says, “Okay, let’s go down.” Life is never But there are also strong supporters of emoji and emoticons.
about the goals themselves. Life is about the journey. They argue that rather than taking something away from
written language, emoji and emoticons improve it. How?
They compare emoji and emoticons to facial expressions,
such as raising your eyebrows, and gestures, such as
Unit 2 shrugging your shoulders. They believe that emoji and
emoticons add meaning to the written word or even change
VIDEO TRACK 1.8  4:49 min a word’s meaning completely. Thus, they argue, emoji and
emoticons are a step forward.
Part 1, Page 27, Exercise E, Listen for Main Ideas
Still other people argue that texting, instant messaging,
PODCAST HOST  Good afternoon, and welcome to and tweeting are not really written language at all—they are
Communicating in the 21st Century. Our topic today is much closer to oral conversation. Abbreviations such as
how using emoticons and emoji in texting, tweeting, and the letter “u” for the pronoun “you” are similar to the natural
instant messaging is affecting the way we communicate. reductions of informal speech, for instance “gonna” for “be
Go to our website if you’d like to see some of what I’m going to.”
going to describe.
First, let’s make sure everyone understands the terms So, what do you think? Are emoji and emoticons like word-
emoticon and emoji. The word emoticon is a combination of eating locusts that will end up killing the written word? Or are
two words: emotion and icon. An icon is a type of symbol, they more like honeybees that pollinate our writing and allow
such as a drawing of a heart broken into two pieces to mean us to grow our ideas and spread them over large distances?
heartbroken. To join the conversation, call, text or tweet us at . . .

Emoticons express both feelings and ideas in online VIDEO TRACK 1.9  6:36 min
communication.
Part 2, Page 35, Exercise E, Watch for Main Ideas
As far as we know, a computer scientist named Scott
I’m a lexicographer. I make dictionaries. And my job as a
Fahlman invented the first emoticon in 1982. You’re
lexicographer is to try to put all the words possible into the
probably familiar with it—it’s a smiling face on its side. So,
dictionary. My job is not to decide what a word is; that is
as you can see from this early example, emoticons are
your job.
simple pictures made from punctuation or other non-letter
symbols. Everybody who speaks English decides together what’s
a word and what’s not a word. Every language is just a
Emoji, on the other hand, are small, cartoon-like pictures of
group of people who agree to understand each other. Now,
just about anything—from a doghouse to a watermelon. The
sometimes when people are trying to decide whether a word
word emoji is a Japanese word and is similar to a compound
is good or bad, they don’t really have a good reason. So
word in English—that is, a combination of two words to
they say something like, “Because grammar!” (Laughter) I
make one word, such as basketball or sunlight. The first
don’t actually really care about grammar too much—don’t
character is e-, which means picture, and the second one is
tell anybody.
-moji, which means character.
But the word “grammar,” actually, there are two kinds of
Why the Japanese word? Because the first emoji were
grammar. There’s the kind of grammar that kind of lives inside
invented in Japan. At the end of the 1990s, a Japanese
your brain, and if you’re a native speaker of a language or a
mobile network wanted to attract more teenage customers.
good speaker of a language, it’s the unconscious rules that
So an employee, Shigetaka Kurita and his team invented
you follow when you speak that language. And this is what
176 characters and made them available for use in instant
you learn when you learn a language as a child. And here’s an
messages. These playful characters, or emoji, became
example: This is a wug, right? It’s a wug. Now there is another
immediately popular with the Japanese, who, at least
one. There are two of these. There are two . . . Audience:
according to author Motoko Tamamuro, often feel more
Wugs. Erin McKean: Exactly! You know how to make the plural
comfortable using indirect ways to get their ideas across,
of wug. That rule lives in your brain. You never had to be taught
especially when sharing their feelings.
this rule, you just understand it. This is an experiment that was
It seems that the desire to express our feelings through invented by a professor at [Boston College] named Jean Berko
pictures is universal, however, because emoji quickly spread Gleason back in 1958. So we’ve been talking about this for a
all over the world. long time.
But emoji and emoticons can express much more than Now, these kinds of natural rules that exist in your brain,
feelings. There are emoji animals, plants, weather and food, they’re not like traffic laws, they’re more like laws of nature.
among many others. We can put them together to make an And nobody has to remind you to obey a law of nature,
emoji “sentence.” And a lot of emoticons are much more right? When you leave the house in the morning, your mom
complex than just a smiling face.
VIDEO SCRIPTS 77

55523_video.indd 77 31/10/16 11:00 AM

 doesn’t say, “Hey, honey, I think it’s going to be cold, take Aeronautics and Space Administration becomes NASA. And
a hoodie, don’t forget to obey the law of gravity.” Nobody of course you can do this with anything, OMG!
says this. Now, there are other rules that are more about Why should you make words? You should make words
manners than they are about nature. So you can think of a because every word is a chance to express your idea and
word as like a hat. Once you know how hats work, nobody get your meaning across. And new words grab people’s
has to tell you, “Don’t wear hats on your feet.” What they attention. They get people to focus on what you’re saying
have to tell you is, “Can you wear hats inside? Who gets to and that gives you a better chance to get your meaning
wear a hat? What are the kinds of hats you get to wear?” across. And a lot of people on this stage today have said,
Right? Those are more of the second kind of grammar, “In the future, you can do this, you can help with this, you
which linguists often call usage, as opposed to grammar. can help us explore, you can help us invent.” You can make
Now, sometimes people use this kind of rules-based a new word right now. English has no age limit. Go ahead,
grammar to discourage people from making up words. start making words today, send them to me, and I will put
And I think that is, well, stupid. So, for example, people are them in my online dictionary, Wordnik. Thank you so much.
always telling you, “Be creative, make new music, do art, (Applause)
invent things, science and technology.” But when it comes
to words, they’re like, “Don’t! No. Creativity stops right here, VIDEO TRACK 1.10  2:44 min
whippersnappers. Give it a rest.” (Laughter) But that makes Page 35, Exercise F, Watch for Details
no sense to me. Words are great. We should have more of
them. I want you to make as many new words as possible. Segment 1
And I’m going to tell you six ways that you can use to make I’m a lexicographer. I make dictionaries. And my job as a
new words in English. lexicographer is to try to put all the words possible into the
The first way is the simplest way. Basically, steal them from dictionary. My job is not to decide what a word is; that is
other languages. [“Go rob other people”] (Laughter) Linguists your job.
call this borrowing, but we never give the words back, so I’m Everybody who speaks English decides together what’s
just going to be honest and call it stealing. We usually take a word and what’s not a word. Every language is just a
words for things that we like, like delicious food. We took group of people who agree to understand each other. Now,
“kumquat” from Chinese, we took “caramel” from French. sometimes when people are trying to decide whether a word
We also take words for cool things like “ninja,” right? We is good or bad, they don’t really have a good reason. So
took that from Japanese, which is kind of a cool trick they say something like, “Because grammar!” (Laughter) I
because ninjas are hard to steal from. (Laughter) don’t actually really care about grammar too much—don’t
So another way that you can make words in English is tell anybody.
by squishing two other English words together. This is But the word “grammar,” actually, there are two kinds of
called compounding. Words in English are like LEGO: grammar. There’s the kind of grammar that kind of lives
If you use enough force, you can put any two of them inside your brain, and if you’re a native speaker of a language
together. (Laughter) We do this all the time in English: or a good speaker of a language, it’s the unconscious rules
Words like “heartbroken,” “bookworm,” “sandcastle” all are that you follow when you speak that language. And this is
compounds. So go ahead and make words like “duckface,” what you learn when you learn a language as a child. And
just don’t make duckface. (Laughter) here’s an example: This is a wug, right? It’s a wug. Now
Another way that you can make words in English is kind there is another one. There are two of these. There are two
of like compounding, but instead you use so much force . . . Audience: Wugs. Erin McKean: Exactly! You know how
when you squish the words together that some parts fall to make the plural of wug. That rule lives in your brain. You
off. So these are blend words, like “brunch” is a blend of never had to be taught this rule, you just understand it. This
“breakfast” and “lunch.” “Motel” is a blend of “motor” and is an experiment that was invented by a professor at [Boston
“hotel.” Who here knew that “motel” was a blend word? College] named Jean Berko Gleason back in 1958. So we’ve
Yeah, that word is so old in English that lots of people been talking about this for a long time.
don’t know that there are parts missing. “Edutainment” Now, these kinds of natural rules that exist in your brain,
is a blend of “education” and “entertainment.” And of they’re not like traffic laws, they’re more like laws of nature.
course, “electrocute” is a blend of “electric” and “execute.” And nobody has to remind you to obey a law of nature,
(Laughter) right? When you leave the house in the morning, your mom
You can also make words by changing how they operate. doesn’t say, “Hey, honey, I think it’s going to be cold, take
This is called functional shift. You take a word that acts as a hoodie, don’t forget to obey the law of gravity.” Nobody
one part of speech, and you change it into another part of says this. Now, there are other rules that are more about
speech. Okay, who here knew that “friend” hasn’t always manners than they are about nature. So you can think of a
been a verb? “Friend” used to be noun and then we verbed word as like a hat. Once you know how hats work, nobody
it. Almost any word in English can be verbed. You can also has to tell you, “Don’t wear hats on your feet.” What they
take adjectives and make them into nouns. “Commercial” have to tell you is, “Can you wear hats inside? Who gets to
used to be an adjective and now it’s a noun. And of course, wear a hat? What are the kinds of hats you get to wear?”
you can “green” things. Right? Those are more of the second kind of grammar,
which linguists often call usage, as opposed to grammar.
Another way to make words in English is back-formation.
You can take a word and you can kind of squish it down a VIDEO TRACK 1.11  3:44 min
little bit. So for example, in English we had the word “editor”
before we had the word “edit.” “Edit” was formed from Page 36, Exercise G, Watch for Details
“editor.” Segment 2
Another way to make words in English is to take the first Now, sometimes people use this kind of rules-based
letters of something and squish them together. So National grammar to discourage people from making up words.

78 VIDEO SCRIPTS

55523_video.indd 78 31/10/16 11:00 AM

 And I think that is, well, stupid. So, for example, people are dictionary. My job is not to decide what a word is; that is
always telling you, “Be creative, make new music, do art, your job.
invent things, science and technology.” But when it comes
to words, they’re like, “Don’t! No. Creativity stops right here, Segment 2
whippersnappers. Give it a rest.” (Laughter) But that makes There’s the kind of grammar that kind of lives inside your
no sense to me. Words are great. We should have more of brain, and if you’re a native speaker of a language or a good
them. I want you to make as many new words as possible. speaker of a language, it’s the unconscious rules that you
And I’m going to tell you six ways that you can use to make follow when you speak that language. And this is what you
new words in English. learn when you learn a language as a child.

Segment 3 Segment 3
The first way is the simplest way. Basically, steal them from So another way that you can make words in English is
other languages. [“Go rob other people”] (Laughter) Linguists by squishing two other English words together. This is
call this borrowing, but we never give the words back, so I’m called compounding. Words in English are like LEGO:
just going to be honest and call it stealing. We usually take If you use enough force, you can put any two of them
words for things that we like, like delicious food. We took together. (Laughter) We do this all the time in English:
“kumquat” from Chinese, we took “caramel” from French. Words like “heartbroken,” “bookworm,” “sandcastle” all are
We also take words for cool things like “ninja,” right? We compounds. So go ahead and make words like “duckface,”
took that from Japanese, which is kind of a cool trick just don’t make duckface. (Laughter)
because ninjas are hard to steal from. (Laughter) Segment 4
So another way that you can make words in English is Another way that you can make words in English is kind
by squishing two other English words together. This is of like compounding, but instead you use so much force
called compounding. Words in English are like LEGO: when you squish the words together that some parts fall
If you use enough force, you can put any two of them off. So these are blend words, like “brunch” is a blend of
together. (Laughter) We do this all the time in English: “breakfast” and “lunch.” “Motel” is a blend of “motor” and
Words like “heartbroken,” “bookworm,” “sandcastle” all are “hotel.”
compounds. So go ahead and make words like “duckface,”
just don’t make duckface. (Laughter) VIDEO TRACK 1.13  2:47 min
Another way that you can make words in English is kind Page 37, Exercise J, Expand Your Vocabulary
of like compounding, but instead you use so much force
“Now, these kinds of natural rules that exist in your brain,
when you squish the words together that some parts fall
they’re not like traffic laws, they’re more like laws of nature.
off. So these are blend words, like “brunch” is a blend of
And nobody has to remind you to obey a law of nature,
“breakfast” and “lunch.” “Motel” is a blend of “motor” and
right? Those are more of the second kind of grammar, which
“hotel.” Who here knew that “motel” was a blend word?
linguists often call usage, as opposed to grammar.”
Yeah, that word is so old in English that lots of people
don’t know that there are parts missing. “Edutainment” 1. What are laws of nature?
is a blend of “education” and “entertainment.” And of a. a set of laws that people must follow or they will be
course, “electrocute” is a blend of “electric” and “execute.” punished
(Laughter) b. a set of rules that most people choose to follow,
You can also make words by changing how they operate. although they do not have to
This is called functional shift. You take a word that acts as c. a set of scientific rules, such as the law of gravity, that
one part of speech, and you change it into another part of govern the natural world
speech. Okay, who here knew that “friend” hasn’t always 2. What does as opposed to mean?
been a verb? “Friend” used to be noun and then we verbed a. a little bit like
it. Almost any word in English can be verbed. You can also b. different from
take adjectives and make them into nouns. “Commercial” c. against
used to be an adjective and now it’s a noun. And of course,
“So, for example, people are always telling you, “Be
you can “green” things.
creative, make new music, do art, invent things, science
Another way to make words in English is back-formation. and technology.” But when it comes to words, they’re like,
You can take a word and you can kind of squish it down a “Don’t! No. Creativity stops right here, whippersnappers.
little bit. So for example, in English we had the word “editor” Give it a rest.” But that makes no sense to me. Words are
before we had the word “edit.” “Edit” was formed from great. We should have more of them.”
“editor.”
3. What does give it a rest mean?
Another way to make words in English is to take the first a. give up; quit doing something
letters of something and squish them together. So National b. be creative
Aeronautics and Space Administration becomes NASA. And c. take a break
of course you can do this with anything, OMG!
4. What does makes no sense mean?
VIDEO TRACK 1.12  2:32 min a. has no answer
b. is impossible
Page 36, Exercise H, Listen for Explanations of Words and
Terms c. is not logical
“You can make a new word right now. English has no age
Segment 1 limit. Go ahead, start making words today, send them to
I’m a lexicographer. I make dictionaries. And my job as a me, and I will put them in my online dictionary, Wordnik.”
lexicographer is to try to put all the words possible into the

VIDEO SCRIPTS 79

55523_video.indd 79 31/10/16 11:00 AM

 5. What does go ahead mean? brains are very small, people assumed that they were not
a. get started very smart. Well, this assumption has been disproven. In
b. go faster fact, scientists are learning more about bird intelligence
c. go in front every day. And ravens are among the most intelligent.
But are they trainable? According to Emily Corey, a
graduate student at the University of Arizona, the answer
is “absolutely!” She believes ravens would make excellent
Unit 3 search and rescue animals. Why? First, because of their
intelligence; second, because of their ability to form close
relationships with humans; third, because of their excellent
VIDEO TRACK 1.14  4:42 min eyesight; and finally, because they can cover large distances
Part 1, Page 46, Exercise E, Listen for Main Ideas quickly. But how can even a trained bird rescue someone?
PROFESSOR  Today we’re going to talk about animal heroes— Here’s one idea: ravens wearing geospatial locaters could
that is, animals that help save human lives. Let’s start find people lost in the wilderness. First, the raven would fly
with man’s best friend, the dog. Dogs have been used over the area where the person was last seen. After locating
for search and rescue since at least the 17th century, the person, the raven would return to its human partner, who
when they helped rescue lost and injured travelers in the would use the data from the locater to send rescuers to the
Western Alps. site.
Monks from the St. Bernard Hospice and Monastery, While Corey’s research is just getting started, she warns
located in the 49-mile St. Bernard Pass between Switzerland us not to underestimate the raven. Who knows? It could
and Italy, kept a breed of dog with an excellent sense of become the next hero of the animal kingdom.
direction. Due to their sense of direction, the dogs were
OK, I’ll stop there to leave time for questions . . .
very helpful in the heavy snowstorms that were common
in the area. However, the monks soon discovered that the
dogs had another, equally valuable skill. They were able to VIDEO TRACK 1.15  8:35 min
find people buried under the snow by avalanches. How? By Part 2, Page 55, Exercise F, Watch for Main Ideas
using their sense of smell, estimated to be 10,000–100,000 Over a million people are killed each year in disasters. Two
times stronger than ours. Over the next 200 years, dogs and a half million people will be permanently disabled or
rescued more than 2,000 people in the St. Bernard Pass. displaced, and the communities will take 20 to 30 years to
Today, as you probably know, dogs are among the first recover and billions of economic losses.
responders to disasters. Search and rescue dogs are If you can reduce the initial response by one day, you can
specially trained to find survivors buried in the rubble after a reduce the overall recovery by a thousand days, or three
disaster. years. See how that works? If the initial responders can get
Due to innovative technology, search and rescue dogs in, save lives, mitigate whatever flooding danger there is,
are becoming even more effective. The Fido Vest is one that means the other groups can get in to restore the water,
example. the roads, the electricity, which means then the construction
people, the insurance agents, all of them can get in to
It has sensors on it that dogs can be trained to activate. How rebuild the houses, which then means you can restore the
does it work? Well, imagine a plane crash in a mountainous economy, and maybe even make it better and more resilient
area without roads. A dog wearing a Fido Vest is sent out to to the next disaster. A major insurance company told me
find survivors. When the dog finds a survivor, he activates a that if they can get a homeowner’s claim processed one day
global positioning system, or GPS, on the vest. The sensor earlier, it’ll make a difference of six months in that person
sends the location to his human partner, who then sends getting their home repaired.
help to the site. Although the vest is still being tested, in the
future it could lower the cost and improve the success of And that’s why I do disaster robotics—because robots can
search and rescue missions in difficult to access areas. make a disaster go away faster.
OK, now let’s move on to an unusual animal hero: the rat. These are the UAVs. These are two types of UAVs: a
Rats are used not in search and rescue, but rather to prevent rotorcraft, or hummingbird; a fixed-wing, a hawk. And
deaths in areas devastated by war. they’re used extensively since 2005—Hurricane Katrina. Let
me show you how this hummingbird, this rotorcraft, works.
During wartime, soldiers often bury small bombs Fantastic for structural engineers. Being able to see damage
underground. These bombs, called landmines, explode from angles you can’t get from binoculars on the ground or
when stepped on. When a war is over, it is very difficult to from a satellite image, or anything flying at a higher angle.
remove all of the landmines. That’s why years after a war, But it’s not just structural engineers and insurance people
people continue to be killed. who need this. You’ve got things like this fixed-wing, this
The solution? Rats. Like dogs, rats have an extraordinary hawk. Now, this hawk can be used for geospatial surveys.
sense of smell. They can be trained to scratch at the ground That’s where you’re pulling imagery together and getting
when they smell TNT, the explosive chemical used in most 3D reconstruction.
landmines. And they are fast: in 20 minutes, one rat can We used both of these at the Oso mudslides up in
search an area that would take a human searcher up to four Washington State, because the big problem was geospatial
days. The rats can also do it safely because, unlike humans, and hydrological understanding of the disaster—not the
they do not weigh enough to set off the mines. After the search and rescue. The search and rescue teams had it
rats indicate the exact locations of the mines, their human under control and knew what they were doing. The bigger
partners can safely explode them. problem was that river and mudslide might wipe them out
The final animal we will talk about today is the raven. Do and flood the responders. And not only was it challenging to
you know the expression “bird brain”? It’s used to refer to the responders and property damage, it’s also putting at risk
someone who’s done something stupid. Because birds’ the future of salmon fishing along that part of Washington
80 VIDEO SCRIPTS

55523_video.indd 80 31/10/16 11:00 AM

 State. So they needed to understand what was going on. your railroad transportation engineers, have been trained
In seven hours, from going from Arlington, driving from on whatever UAV that particular county happens to
the Incident Command Post to the site, flying the UAVs, have? Probably, like, none. So we’re using these kinds of
processing the data, driving back to Arlington command interfaces to allow people to use the robots without knowing
post—seven hours. We gave them in seven hours data what robot they’re using, or even if they’re using a robot or
that they could take only two to three days to get any other not. What the robots give you, what they give the experts, is
way—and at higher resolution. It’s a game changer. data.
And don’t just think about the UAVs. I mean, they are The problem becomes: who gets what data when? One
sexy—but remember, 80 percent of the world’s population thing to do is to ship all the information to everybody and let
lives by water, and that means our critical infrastructure is them sort it out. Well, the problem with that is it overwhelms
underwater—the parts that we can’t get to, like the bridges the networks, and worse yet, it overwhelms the cognitive
and things like that. And that’s why we have unmanned abilities of each of the people trying to get that one nugget
marine vehicles, one type of which you’ve already met, of information they need to make the decision that’s going to
which is SARbot, a square dolphin. It goes underwater and make the difference. So we need to think about those kinds
uses sonar. Well, why are marine vehicles so important and of challenges. So it’s the data.
why are they very, very important? They get overlooked. At the World Trade Center, going back to the World Trade
Think about the Japanese tsunami—400 miles of coastland Center, we tried to solve that problem by just recording the
totally devastated, twice the amount of coastland data from Bujold only when she was deep in the rubble,
devastated by Hurricane Katrina in the United States. You’re because that’s what the USAR team said they wanted. What
talking about your bridges, your pipelines, your ports— we didn’t know at the time was that the civil engineers would
wiped out. And if you don’t have a port, you don’t have a have loved, needed the data if we recorded the box beams,
way to get in enough relief supplies to support a population. the serial numbers, the locations, as we went into the rubble.
That was a huge problem at the Haiti earthquake. So we We lost valuable data. So the challenge is getting all the data
need marine vehicles. and getting it to the right people.
Now, let’s look at a viewpoint from the SARbot of what So really, “disaster robotics” is a misnomer. It’s not about
they were seeing. We were working on a fishing port. We the robots. It’s about the data.
were able to reopen that fishing port, using her sonar, in
four hours. That fishing port was told it was going to be six (Applause)
months before they could get a manual team of divers in, So my challenge to you: the next time you hear about a
and it was going to take the divers two weeks. They were disaster, look for the robots. They may be underground, they
going to miss the fall fishing season, which was the major may be underwater, they may be in the sky, but they should
economy for that part, which is kind of like their Cape Cod. be there. Look for the robots, because robots are coming to
UMVs, very important. the rescue.
But you know, all the robots I’ve shown you have been
small, and that’s because robots don’t do things that people VIDEO TRACK 1.16  3:16 min
do. They go places people can’t go. And a great example Page 56, Exercise G
of that is Bujold. Unmanned ground vehicles are particularly
small, so Bujold— Segment 1 (repeated)
(Laughter) Over a million people are killed each year in disasters. Two
and a half million people will be permanently disabled or
Say hello to Bujold. displaced, and the communities will take 20 to 30 years to
(Laughter) recover and billions of economic losses.
Bujold was used extensively at the World Trade Center Segment 2 (repeated)
to go through Towers 1, 2 and 3. You’re climbing into the
If you can reduce the initial response by one day, you can
rubble, rappelling down, going deep in spaces. And just to
reduce the overall recovery by a thousand days, or three
see the World Trade Center from Bujold’s viewpoint, look
years. See how that works? If the initial responders can get
at this. You’re talking about a disaster where you can’t fit a
in, save lives, mitigate whatever flooding danger there is,
person or a dog—and it’s on fire. The only hope of getting
that means the other groups can get in to restore the water,
to a survivor way in the basement, you have to go through
the roads, the electricity, which means then the construction
things that are on fire. It was so hot, on one of the robots,
people, the insurance agents, all of them can get in to
the tracks began to melt and come off. Robots don’t replace
rebuild the houses, which then means you can restore the
people or dogs, or hummingbirds or hawks or dolphins.
economy, and maybe even make it better and more resilient
They do things new. They assist the responders, the experts,
to the next disaster. A major insurance company told me
in new and innovative ways.
that if they can get a homeowner’s claim processed one day
The biggest problem is not making the robots smaller, earlier, it’ll make a difference of six months in that person
though. It’s not making them more heat-resistant. It’s not getting their home repaired.
making more sensors. The biggest problem is the data, the
And that’s why I do disaster robotics—because robots can
informatics, because these people need to get the right data
make a disaster go away faster
at the right time.
So wouldn’t it be great if we could have experts immediately VIDEO TRACK 1.17  7:28 min
access the robots without having to waste any time of Page 57, Exercise J, Watch for Details
driving to the site and that, so whoever’s there, use their
robots over the Internet. Well, let’s think about that. Let’s These are the UAVs. These are two types of UAVs: a
think about a chemical train derailment in a rural county. rotorcraft, or hummingbird; a fixed-wing, a hawk. And
What are the odds that the experts, your chemical engineer, they’re used extensively since 2005—Hurricane Katrina. Let

VIDEO SCRIPTS 81

55523_video.indd 81 31/10/16 11:00 AM

 me show you how this hummingbird, this rotorcraft, works. person or a dog—and it’s on fire. The only hope of getting
Fantastic for structural engineers. Being able to see damage to a survivor way in the basement, you have to go through
from angles you can’t get from binoculars on the ground or things that are on fire. It was so hot, on one of the robots,
from a satellite image, or anything flying at a higher angle. the tracks began to melt and come off. Robots don’t replace
But it’s not just structural engineers and insurance people people or dogs, or hummingbirds or hawks or dolphins.
who need this. You’ve got things like this fixed-wing, this They do things new. They assist the responders, the experts,
hawk. Now, this hawk can be used for geospatial surveys. in new and innovative ways.
That’s where you’re pulling imagery together and getting 3D The biggest problem is not making the robots smaller,
reconstruction. though. It’s not making them more heat-resistant. It’s not
We used both of these at the Oso mudslides up in making more sensors. The biggest problem is the data, the
Washington State, because the big problem was geospatial informatics, because these people need to get the right data
and hydrological understanding of the disaster—not the at the right time.
search and rescue. The search and rescue teams had it So wouldn’t it be great if we could have experts immediately
under control and knew what they were doing. The bigger access the robots without having to waste any time of
problem was that river and mudslide might wipe them out driving to the site and that, so whoever’s there, use their
and flood the responders. And not only was it challenging to robots over the Internet. Well, let’s think about that. Let’s
the responders and property damage, it’s also putting at risk think about a chemical train derailment in a rural county.
the future of salmon fishing along that part of Washington What are the odds that the experts, your chemical engineer,
State. So they needed to understand what was going on. your railroad transportation engineers, have been trained
In seven hours, from going from Arlington, driving from on whatever UAV that particular county happens to
the Incident Command Post to the site, flying the UAVs, have? Probably, like, none. So we’re using these kinds of
processing the data, driving back to Arlington command interfaces to allow people to use the robots without knowing
post—seven hours. We gave them in seven hours data what robot they’re using, or even if they’re using a robot or
that they could take only two to three days to get any other not. What the robots give you, what they give the experts, is
way—and at higher resolution. It’s a game changer. data.
And don’t just think about the UAVs. I mean, they are The problem becomes: who gets what data when? One
sexy—but remember, 80 percent of the world’s population thing to do is to ship all the information to everybody and let
lives by water, and that means our critical infrastructure is them sort it out. Well, the problem with that is it overwhelms
underwater—the parts that we can’t get to, like the bridges the networks, and worse yet, it overwhelms the cognitive
and things like that. And that’s why we have unmanned abilities of each of the people trying to get that one nugget
marine vehicles, one type of which you’ve already met, of information they need to make the decision that’s going to
which is SARbot, a square dolphin. It goes underwater and make the difference. So we need to think about those kinds
uses sonar. Well, why are marine vehicles so important and of challenges. So it’s the data.
why are they very, very important? They get overlooked.
Think about the Japanese tsunami—400 miles of coastland Going back to the World Trade Center, we tried to solve that
totally devastated, twice the amount of coastland problem by just recording the data from Bujold only when
devastated by Hurricane Katrina in the United States. You’re she was deep in the rubble, because that’s what the USAR
talking about your bridges, your pipelines, your ports— team said they wanted. What we didn’t know at the time
wiped out. And if you don’t have a port, you don’t have a was that the civil engineers would have loved, needed the
way to get in enough relief supplies to support a population. data if we recorded the box beams, the serial numbers, the
That was a huge problem at the Haiti earthquake. So we locations, as we went into the rubble. We lost valuable data.
need marine vehicles. So the challenge is getting all the data and getting it to the
right people.
Now, let’s look at a viewpoint from the SARbot of what
they were seeing. We were working on a fishing port. We So really, “disaster robotics” is a misnomer. It’s not about
were able to reopen that fishing port, using her sonar, in the robots. It’s about the data.
four hours. That fishing port was told it was going to be six (Applause)
months before they could get a manual team of divers in,
and it was going to take the divers two weeks. They were So my challenge to you: the next time you hear about a
going to miss the fall fishing season, which was the major disaster, look for the robots. They may be underground, they
economy for that part, which is kind of like their Cape Cod. may be underwater, they may be in the sky, but they should
UMVs, very important. be there. Look for the robots, because robots are coming to
the rescue.
But you know, all the robots I’ve shown you have been
small, and that’s because robots don’t do things that people VIDEO TRACK 1.18  3:26 min
do. They go places people can’t go. And a great example
Page 57, Exercise L, Expand Your Vocabulary
of that is Bujold. Unmanned ground vehicles are particularly
small, so Bujold— “That’s where you’re pulling imagery together and getting
3D reconstruction.”
(Laughter)
1. What does pull together means
Say hello to Bujold.
a. cooperate and work as a team
(Laughter) b. pull things apart to destroy them
Bujold was used extensively at the World Trade Center c. gather several things together to create one thing
to go through Towers 1, 2 and 3. You’re climbing into the “You’re talking about your bridges, your pipelines, your
rubble, rappelling down, going deep in spaces. And just to ports—wiped out. And if you don’t have a port, you don’t
see the World Trade Center from Bujold’s viewpoint, look have a way to get in enough relief supplies to support a
at this. You’re talking about a disaster where you can’t fit a population.”

82 VIDEO SCRIPTS

55523_video.indd 82 31/10/16 11:00 AM

 2. What does wipe out mean? Unit 4
a. damage
b. clean up
c. completely destroy VIDEO TRACK 1.21  6:37 min
“And not only was it challenging to the responders and Part 2, Pages 76 and 77, Exercise F, Watch for Main Ideas
property damage, it’s also putting at risk the future of and Exercise G, Watch for Details
salmon fishing along that part of Washington State.” So, when I was in art school, I developed a shake in my
3. What does putting at risk mean? hand, and this was the straightest line I could draw. Now in
a. endangering hindsight, it was actually good for some things, like mixing
a can of paint or shaking a Polaroid, but at the time this was
b. decreasing
really doomsday. This was the destruction of my dream of
c. improving becoming an artist.
“It’s a game changer.”
The shake developed out of, really, a single-minded pursuit
4. What is a game changer? of pointillism, just years of making tiny, tiny dots. And
a. something that completely changes the way you look eventually these dots went from being perfectly round to
at or do something looking more like tadpoles, because of the shake. So to
b. something that encourages you to take a lot of risks compensate, I’d hold the pen tighter, and this progressively
c. something that makes you lose a game made the shake worse, so I’d hold the pen tighter still. And
“What are the odds that the experts, your chemical this became a vicious cycle that ended up causing so much
engineer, your railroad transportation engineers, have been pain and joint issues, I had trouble holding anything. And
trained on whatever UAV that particular county happens to after spending all my life wanting to do art, I left art school,
have? Probably, like, none.” and then I left art completely.

5. What does the odds mean? But after a few years, I just couldn’t stay away from art,
a. strange ideas and I decided to go to a neurologist about the shake and
discovered I had permanent nerve damage. And he actually
b. probability
took one look at my squiggly line, and said, “Well, why don’t
c. uneven numbers you just embrace the shake?”
6. What does to happen to (have) mean?
So I did. I went home, I grabbed a pencil, and I just started
a. (have) by chance
letting my hand shake and shake. I was making all these
b. (have) a lot of scribble pictures. And even though it wasn’t the kind of
c. (have) an accident art that I was ultimately passionate about, it felt great. And
“The problem becomes: who gets what data when? One more importantly, once I embraced the shake, I realized I
thing to do is to ship all the information to everybody and let could still make art. I just had to find a different approach to
them sort it out.” making the art that I wanted.
7. What does sort out mean? Now, I still enjoyed the fragmentation of pointillism, seeing
a. organize and figure out these little tiny dots come together to make this unified
b. throw out whole. So I began experimenting with other ways to
c. find fragment images where the shake wouldn’t affect the work,
like dipping my feet in paint and walking on a canvas, or, in a
VIDEO TRACK 1.19  0:35 min 3D structure consisting of two-by-fours, creating a 2D image
Page 59, Presentation Skill: Use Body Language Effectively by burning it with a blowtorch. I discovered that, if I worked
on a larger scale and with bigger materials, my hand really
The problem becomes: who gets what data when? One wouldn’t hurt, and after having gone from a single approach
thing to do is to ship all the information to everybody and let to art, I ended up having an approach to creativity that
them sort it out. Well, the problem with that is it overwhelms completely changed my artistic horizons. This was the first
the networks, and worse yet, it overwhelms the cognitive time I’d encountered this idea that embracing a limitation
abilities of each of the people trying to get that one nugget could actually drive creativity.
of information they need to make the decision that’s going
to make the difference. At the time, I was finishing up school, and I was so excited
to get a real job and finally afford new art supplies. I had this
VIDEO TRACK 1.20  0:35 min horrible little set of tools, and I felt like I could do so much
more with the supplies I thought an artist was supposed to
Page 59, Exercise C have.
The problem becomes: who gets what data when? One So I got out of school, I got a job, I got a paycheck, I got
thing to do is to ship all the information to everybody and let myself to the art store, and I just went nuts buying supplies.
them sort it out. Well, the problem with that is it overwhelms And then when I got home, I sat down and I set myself to
the networks, and worse yet, it overwhelms the cognitive task to really try to create something just completely outside
abilities of each of the people trying to get that one nugget of the box. But I sat there for hours, and nothing came
of information they need to make the decision that’s going to mind. The same thing the next day, and then the next,
to make the difference. quickly slipping into a creative slump. And I was in a dark
place for a long time, unable to create. And it didn’t make
any sense, because I was finally able to support my art, and
yet I was creatively blank.

VIDEO SCRIPTS 83

55523_video.indd 83 31/10/16 11:00 AM

 But as I searched around in the darkness, I realized I was this became a vicious cycle that ended up causing so much
actually paralyzed by all of the choices that I never had pain and joint issues, I had trouble holding anything. And
before. And it was then that I thought back to my jittery after spending all my life wanting to do art, I left art school,
hands. Embrace the shake. And I realized, if I ever wanted and then I left art completely.
my creativity back, I had to quit trying so hard to think But after a few years, I just couldn’t stay away from art,
outside of the box and get back into it. and I decided to go to a neurologist about the shake and
I wondered, could you become more creative, then, by discovered I had permanent nerve damage. And he actually
looking for limitations? What if I could only create with a took one look at my squiggly line, and said, “Well, why don’t
dollar’s worth of supplies? At this point, I was spending a you just embrace the shake?”
lot of my evenings in—well, I guess I still spend a lot of my
evenings in Starbucks—but I know you can ask for an extra Segment 2
cup if you want one, so I decided to ask for 50. Surprisingly, So I did. I went home, I grabbed a pencil, and I just started
they just handed them right over, and then with some letting my hand shake and shake. I was making all these
pencils I already had, I made this project for only 80 cents. It scribble pictures. And even though it wasn’t the kind of
really became a moment of clarification for me that we need art that I was ultimately passionate about, it felt great. And
to first be limited in order to become limitless. more importantly, once I embraced the shake, I realized I
. . . what if, instead of painting with a brush, I could only could still make art. I just had to find a different approach to
paint with karate chops? (Laughter) So I’d dip my hands making the art that I wanted.
in paint, and I just attacked the canvas, and I actually hit Now, I still enjoyed the fragmentation of pointillism, seeing
so hard that I bruised a joint in my pinkie and it was stuck these little tiny dots come together to make this unified
straight for a couple of weeks. whole. So I began experimenting with other ways to
(Laughter) (Applause) fragment images where the shake wouldn’t affect the work,
like dipping my feet in paint and walking on a canvas, or, in a
(Applause) Or what if instead of making art to display, I 3D structure consisting of two-by-fours, creating a 2D image
had to destroy it? This seemed like the ultimate limitation, by burning it with a blowtorch. I discovered that, if I worked
being an artist without art. This destruction idea turned into on a larger scale and with bigger materials, my hand really
a yearlong project that I called Goodbye Art, where each wouldn’t hurt, and after having gone from a single approach
and every piece of art had to be destroyed after its creation. to art, I ended up having an approach to creativity that
In the beginning of Goodbye Art, I focused on forced completely changed my artistic horizons. This was the first
destruction, like this image of Jimi Hendrix, made with over time I’d encountered this idea that embracing a limitation
7,000 matches. (Laughter) could actually drive creativity.
[A]nd something really surprising came out of this. As I
destroyed each project, I was learning to let go, let go of Segment 3
outcomes, let go of failures, and let go of imperfections. And At the time, I was finishing up school, and I was so excited
in return, I found a process of creating art that’s perpetual to get a real job and finally afford new art supplies. I had this
and unencumbered by results. I found myself in a state of horrible little set of tools, and I felt like I could do so much
constant creation, thinking only of what’s next and coming more with the supplies I thought an artist was supposed to
up with more ideas than ever. have.
When I think back to my three years away from art, away So I got out of school, I got a job, I got a paycheck, I got
from my dream, just going through the motions, instead of myself to the art store, and I just went nuts buying supplies.
trying to find a different way to continue that dream, I just And then when I got home, I sat down and I set myself to
quit, I gave up. And what if I didn’t embrace the shake? task to really try to create something just completely outside
Because embracing the shake for me wasn’t just about of the box.
art and having art skills. It turned out to be about life, and But I sat there for hours, and nothing came to mind. The
having life skills. Because ultimately, most of what we do same thing the next day, and then the next, quickly slipping
takes place here, inside the box, with limited resources. into a creative slump. And I was in a dark place for a long
Learning to be creative within the confines of our limitations time, unable to create. And it didn’t make any sense,
is the best hope we have to transform ourselves and, because I was finally able to support my art, and yet I was
collectively, transform our world. creatively blank.
But as I searched around in the darkness, I realized I was
VIDEO TRACK 1.22  5:37 min actually paralyzed by all of the choices that I never had
Pages 77 and 78, Exercise I, Watch and Take Notes before. And it was then that I thought back to my jittery
hands. Embrace the shake. And I realized, if I ever wanted
Segment 1
my creativity back, I had to quit trying so hard to think
So, when I was in art school, I developed a shake in my outside of the box and get back into it.
hand, and this was the straightest line I could draw. Now in
hindsight, it was actually good for some things, like mixing I wondered, could you become more creative, then, by
a can of paint or shaking a Polaroid, but at the time this was looking for limitations? What if I could only create with a
really doomsday. This was the destruction of my dream of dollar’s worth of supplies? At this point, I was spending a
becoming an artist. lot of my evenings in—well, I guess I still spend a lot of my
evenings in Starbucks—but I know you can ask for an extra
The shake developed out of, really, a single-minded pursuit cup if you want one, so I decided to ask for 50. Surprisingly,
of pointillism, just years of making tiny, tiny dots. And they just handed them right over, and then with some
eventually these dots went from being perfectly round to pencils I already had, I made this project for only 80 cents. It
looking more like tadpoles, because of the shake. So to really became a moment of clarification for me that we need
compensate, I’d hold the pen tighter, and this progressively to first be limited in order to become limitless.
made the shake worse, so I’d hold the pen tighter still. And
84 VIDEO SCRIPTS

55523_video.indd 84 31/10/16 11:00 AM

 . . . what if, instead of painting with a brush, I could only
paint with karate chops? (Laughter) So I’d dip my hands
Unit 5
in paint, and I just attacked the canvas, and I actually hit
so hard that I bruised a joint in my pinkie and it was stuck VIDEO TRACK 1.25  4:48 min
straight for a couple of weeks. (Laughter) (Applause) Part 1, Page 86, Exercise E, Listen for Main Ideas
(Applause) Or what if instead of making art to display, I PROFESSOR  Our topic today is the effects of stress on the
had to destroy it? This seemed like the ultimate limitation, body. These effects can be positive or negative. First,
being an artist without art. This destruction idea turned into you need to understand the two types of stress: acute
a yearlong project that I called Goodbye Art, where each and chronic.
and every piece of art had to be destroyed after its creation. You experience acute stress when you are in physical
In the beginning of Goodbye Art, I focused on forced danger. Acute stress lasts only a short time, just until the
destruction, like this image of Jimi Hendrix, made with over danger is gone.
7,000 matches.
For example, imagine you’re walking home when a big scary
VIDEO TRACK 1.23  2:44 min dog jumps out at you. What happens? You’re suddenly
full of energy, ready to run away or fight. This is called the
Page 78, Exercise K, Expand Your Vocabulary
“fight or flight” reaction. Where does all that energy come
“So I got out of school, I got a job, I got a paycheck, I from? It starts with your brain releasing the powerful stress
got myself to the art store, and I just went nuts buying hormones adrenaline and cortisol. These hormones act
supplies.” on the systems in your body that can give you immediate
1. What does go nuts (buying) mean? energy. This strengthens your body and enhances your
a. buy in a hurry and with a lot of excitement reaction time. Suddenly, you feel like Superman.
b. go completely crazy Your heart starts to beat faster, and your blood pressure
c. spend someone else’s money goes up. Your breathing rate also increases to get more
“And then when I got home, I sat down and I set myself to oxygen to your brain and muscles. Your muscles tense up,
task to really try to create something just completely outside and you are able to run faster than you’ve ever run. After
of the box. But I sat there for hours, and nothing came to you’re safe, your brain stops releasing stress hormones, and
mind.” you lose your special powers. Superman is gone, but so is
the big scary dog.
2. What does come to mind mean?
That’s acute stress. It’s your body’s natural reaction to a
a. enter your mind and appear in your thoughts
crisis, and it’s not at all harmful. In fact, it can save your life.
b. is forgotten as soon as you think of it
c. is something that bothers you a lot Chronic stress is a completely different story. At first,
however, it looks and feels exactly like acute stress. The
“I found myself in a state of constant creation, thinking only
body’s stress response is the same—you get all the same
of what’s next and coming up with more ideas than ever.”
special powers—but the problem is that the brain doesn’t
3. What does coming up with mean? stop releasing the stress hormones. As a result, your blood
a. finding and writing down an idea pressure and breathing rate remain high, and your muscles
b. imagining or thinking of something new don’t relax. That’s a big problem. Even Superman cannot
c. remembering something important stay Superman forever! So, the difference between acute
“When I think back to my three years away from art, away and chronic stress is in how long the stress reaction lasts.
from my dream, just going through the motions, instead And being stressed for a long time, rather than saving you,
of trying to find a different way to continue that dream, I just can actually kill you.
quit, I gave up.” So, why does the brain keep releasing stress hormones after
4. What does to going through the motions mean? the danger is gone? The reason is that the danger is not
gone. To explain this, I need to go back in time, thousands
a. doing something without thinking and without
of years. At that time, most of the dangers humans faced
any passion
were physical, like wild animals and storms.
b. quitting doing something
c. struggling to do something difficult. And the crisis didn’t last long; inevitably, you either escaped
or died.
“As I destroyed each project, I was learning to let go, let go
of outcomes, let go of failures, and let go of imperfections.” These days, however, we rarely have to face a wild animal,
and we can usually predict and avoid bad storms. So,
5. What does let go mean?
where’s the danger? It’s often in our minds. Nowadays, our
a. not fail anymore stress tends to be caused by psychological fear or worry
b. free yourself of something that has been about the future, not physical danger. For example, we may
bothering you worry that we’ll lose our job and not be able to support
c. stop holding on and fall down our family. And that future feels like a dangerous place. Of
course we can’t escape that kind of danger with our “special
powers.” Unfortunately, our bodies cannot always tell the
VIDEO TRACK 1.24  0:27 min difference between that fear and a present danger. So,
Page 79, Presentation Skill: Use Repetition and Rephrasing sometimes, when we’re afraid of losing our job, our bodies
react as if a lion were chasing us. Why? Because our body’s
As I destroyed each project, I was learning to let go, let go of stress mechanism is the same as it was thousands of years
outcomes, let go of failures, and let go of imperfections. And ago. The problem is that the fear of losing a job can last a
in return, I found a process of creating art that’s perpetual long time. This leads to chronic stress, which is associated
and unencumbered by results. with some serious health problems.

VIDEO SCRIPTS 85

55523_video.indd 85 31/10/16 11:00 AM

 One of the most obvious examples is cardiovascular, or So this study got me wondering: Can changing how you
heart, disease. Your heart is a muscle. Stress hormones think about stress make you healthier? And here the science
make it beat very fast. This is not a problem over the says yes. When you change your mind about stress, you can
short term. However, over time, the muscles of your heart change your body’s response to stress.
will become thicker from all that beating, and your blood Now, in a typical stress response, your heart rate goes up,
pressure will remain high. This combination of thicker heart and your blood vessels constrict like this. And this is one of
muscles and high blood pressure increases your risk of heart the reasons that chronic stress is sometimes associated with
disease. cardiovascular disease. It’s not really healthy to be in this
The effects of chronic stress on the heart are the easiest state all the time. But in the study, when participants viewed
to explain, but every day research reveals other parts of their stress response as helpful, their blood vessels stayed
the body that are affected. Next week we’ll talk about how relaxed like this. Their heart was still pounding, but this is a
chronic stress can affect the brain, the stomach, and the much healthier cardiovascular profile. It actually looks a lot
muscles. like what happens in moments of joy and courage. Over a
lifetime of stressful experiences, this one biological change
VIDEO TRACK 1.26  10:44 min could be the difference between a stress-induced heart
Part 2, Page 96, Exercise E, Watch for Main Ideas attack at age 50 and living well into your 90s. And this is
really what the new science of stress reveals, that how you
I have a confession to make. But first, I want you to make think about stress matters.
a little confession to me. In the past year, I want you to just
raise your hand if you’ve experienced relatively little stress. So my goal as a health psychologist has changed. I no
Anyone? longer want to get rid of your stress. I want to make you
better at stress. And we just did a little intervention. If you
How about a moderate amount of stress? raised your hand and said you’d had a lot of stress in the
Who has experienced a lot of stress? Yeah. Me too. last year, we could have saved your life, because hopefully
the next time your heart is pounding from stress, you’re
But that is not my confession. My confession is this: I am
going to remember this talk and you’re going to think to
a health psychologist, and my mission is to help people
yourself, this is my body helping me rise to this challenge.
be happier and healthier. But I fear that something I’ve
And when you view stress in that way, your body believes
been teaching for the last 10 years is doing more harm
you, and your stress response becomes healthier.
than good, and it has to do with stress. For years I’ve been
telling people, stress makes you sick. It increases the risk of I want to tell you about one of the most under-appreciated
everything from the common cold to cardiovascular disease. aspects of the stress response, and the idea is this: Stress
Basically, I’ve turned stress into the enemy. But I have makes you social.
changed my mind about stress, and today, I want to change To understand this side of stress, we need to talk about a
yours. hormone, oxytocin.
Let me start with the study that made me rethink my whole Oxytocin is a neuro-hormone. It fine-tunes your brain’s
approach to stress. This study tracked 30,000 adults in the social instincts. It primes you to do things that strengthen
United States for eight years, and they started by asking close relationships. Oxytocin makes you crave physical
people, “How much stress have you experienced in the contact with your friends and family. It enhances your
last year?” They also asked, “Do you believe that stress is empathy. It even makes you more willing to help and
harmful for your health?” And then they used public death support the people you care about. But here’s what most
records to find out who died. people don’t understand about oxytocin. It’s a stress
(Laughter) hormone. Your pituitary gland pumps this stuff out as part
of the stress response. It’s as much a part of your stress
Okay. Some bad news first. People who experienced a lot
response as the adrenaline that makes your heart pound.
of stress in the previous year had a 43 percent increased
And when oxytocin is released in the stress response, it
risk of dying. But that was only true for the people who also
is motivating you to seek support. Your biological stress
believed that stress is harmful for your health.
response is nudging you to tell someone how you feel,
(Laughter) instead of bottling it up. Your stress response wants to make
People who experienced a lot of stress but did not view sure you notice when someone else in your life is struggling
stress as harmful were no more likely to die. In fact, they so that you can support each other. When life is difficult,
had the lowest risk of dying of anyone in the study, including your stress response wants you to be surrounded by people
people who had relatively little stress. who care about you.

Now the researchers estimated that over the eight years they Okay, so how is knowing this side of stress going to make
were tracking deaths, 182,000 Americans died prematurely, you healthier? Well, oxytocin doesn’t only act on your
not from stress, but from the belief that stress is bad for you. brain. It also acts on your body, and one of its main roles
in your body is to protect your cardiovascular system from
(Laughter) the effects of stress. It’s a natural anti-inflammatory. It also
That is over 20,000 deaths a year. Now, if that estimate is helps your blood vessels stay relaxed during stress. But
correct, that would make believing stress is bad for you my favorite effect on the body is actually on the heart. Your
the 15th largest cause of death in the United States last heart has receptors for this hormone, and oxytocin helps
year, killing more people than skin cancer, HIV/AIDS and heart cells regenerate and heal from any stress-induced
homicide. damage. This stress hormone strengthens your heart.
(Laughter) And the cool thing is that all of these physical benefits of
oxytocin are enhanced by social contact and social support.
You can see why this study freaked me out. Here I’ve been
So when you reach out to others under stress, either to seek
spending so much energy telling people stress is bad for
support or to help someone else, you release more of this
your health.
86 VIDEO SCRIPTS

55523_video.indd 86 31/10/16 11:00 AM

 hormone, your stress response becomes healthier, and you That is over 20,000 deaths a year. Now, if that estimate is
actually recover faster from stress. I find this amazing, that correct, that would make believing stress is bad for you
your stress response has a built-in mechanism for stress the 15th largest cause of death in the United States last
resilience, and that mechanism is human connection. year, killing more people than skin cancer, HIV/AIDS and
I want to finish by telling you about one more study. And homicide.
listen up, because this study could also save a life. This (Laughter)
study tracked about 1,000 adults in the United States, Segment 2
and they ranged in age from 34 to 93, and they started the
study by asking, “How much stress have you experienced So when you reach out to others under stress, either to seek
in the last year?” They also asked, “How much time have support or to help someone else, you release more of this
you spent helping out friends, neighbors, people in your hormone, your stress response becomes healthier, and you
community?” And then they used public records for the next actually recover faster from stress. I find this amazing, that
five years to find out who died. your stress response has a built-in mechanism for stress
resilience, and that mechanism is human connection.
Okay, so the bad news first: For every major stressful life
experience, like financial difficulties or family crisis, that
increased the risk of dying by 30 percent. But—and I hope
VIDEO TRACK 1.28  3:35 min
you are expecting a “but” by now—but that wasn’t true for Page 97, Exercise H, Expand Your Vocabulary
everyone. People who spent time caring for others showed “You can see why this study freaked me out. Here I’ve
absolutely no stress-related increase in dying. Zero. Caring been spending so much energy telling people stress is bad
created resilience. for your health.”
And so we see once again that the harmful effects of stress 1. What does freak (someone) out mean?
on your health are not inevitable. How you think and how a. confuse and disappoint someone
you act can transform your experience of stress. When you b. make someone feel stressed
choose to view your stress response as helpful, you create c. surprise and excite someone
the biology of courage. And when you choose to connect
with others under stress, you can create resilience. Now “Can changing how you think about stress make you
I wouldn’t necessarily ask for more stressful experiences healthier? And here the science says yes. When you change
in my life, but this science has given me a whole new your mind about stress, you can change your body’s
appreciation for stress. Stress gives us access to our hearts. response to stress.”
The compassionate heart that finds joy and meaning in 2. What does change your mind mean?
connecting with others, and yes, your pounding physical a. become something different; transform
heart, working so hard to give you strength and energy. b. exchange; switch
And when you choose to view stress in this way, you’re c. think differently
not just getting better at stress, you’re actually making a
“Oxytocin is a neuro-hormone. It fine-tunes your brain’s
pretty profound statement. You’re saying that you can trust
social instincts. It primes you to do things that strengthen
yourself to handle life’s challenges. And you’re remembering
close relationships. Oxytocin makes you crave physical
that you don’t have to face them alone.
contact with your friends and family. It enhances your
Thank you. empathy. It even makes you more willing to help and
support the people you care about.”
VIDEO TRACK 1.27  2:42 min 3. What does fine-tune mean?
Page 97, Exercise F, Watch for Details a. fix something that is broken
Segment 1 b. interfere with something
Let me start with the study that made me rethink my whole c. make small changes to make something work better
approach to stress. This study tracked 30,000 adults in the “And when oxytocin is released in the stress response, it
United States for eight years, and they started by asking is motivating you to seek support. Your biological stress
people, “How much stress have you experienced in the response is nudging you to tell someone how you feel,
last year?” They also asked, “Do you believe that stress is instead of bottling it up. Your stress response wants to
harmful for your health?” And then they used public death make sure you notice when someone else in your life is
records to find out who died. struggling so that you can support each other.”
(Laughter) 4. What does nudge mean?
Okay. Some bad news first. People who experienced a lot a. allow
of stress in the previous year had a 43 percent increased b. encourage
risk of dying. But that was only true for the people who also c. force
believed that stress is harmful for your health. 5. What does bottle up mean?
(Laughter) a. hold inside
People who experienced a lot of stress but did not view b. release
stress as harmful were no more likely to die. In fact, they c. struggle
had the lowest risk of dying of anyone in the study, including “So when you reach out to others under stress, either to
people who had relatively little stress. seek support or to help someone else, you release more of
this hormone, your stress response becomes healthier, and
Now the researchers estimated that over the eight years they
you actually recover faster from stress.”
were tracking deaths, 182,000 Americans died prematurely,
not from stress, but from the belief that stress is bad for you. 6. What does reach out to mean?
(Laughter) a. make contact with

VIDEO SCRIPTS 87

55523_video.indd 87 31/10/16 11:00 AM

 b.
stretch out your arms toward changing by the hour, explosions of sand covering the
c.
try to avoid sculptures in a cloud of mystery, a unique timeless quality
and the procession of inquisitive visitors, each lending their
VIDEO TRACK 1.29  0:25 min own special touch to the site.
Page 99, Presentation Skill: Vary Your Pace (Music)
I want to tell you about one of the most under-appreciated But over the years, I’ve realized that the greatest thing
aspects of the stress response, and the idea is this: Stress about what we do, the really humbling thing about the work,
makes you social. To understand this side of stress, we is that as soon as we submerge the sculptures, they’re
need to talk about a hormone, oxytocin. not ours anymore, because as soon as we sink them, the
sculptures, they belong to the sea. As new reefs form, a
VIDEO TRACK 1.30  0:56 min new world literally starts to evolve, a world that continuously
Page 100, Exercise B amazes me.
And when you choose to view stress in this way, you’re Sponges look like veins across the faces. Staghorn coral
not just getting better at stress, you’re actually making a morphs the form. Fireworms scrawl white lines as they feed.
pretty profound statement. You’re saying that you can trust Tunicates explode from the faces. Sea urchins crawl across
yourself to handle life’s challenges. And you’re remembering the bodies feeding at night. Coralline algae applies a kind of
that you don’t have to face them alone. purple paint. The deepest red I’ve ever seen in my life lives
underwater. Purple sponges breathe water like air. And grey
angelfish glide silently overhead.

Unit 6 And the amazing response we’ve had to these works tells
me that we’ve managed to plug into something really primal,
because it seems that these images translate across the
VIDEO TRACK 1.31  9:59 min world, and that’s made me focus on my responsibility as
Part 2, Page 116, Exercise G, Watch for Main Ideas an artist and about what I’m trying to achieve. I’m standing
here today on this boat in the middle of the ocean, and this
Ten years ago, I had my first exhibition here. I had no idea couldn’t be a better place to talk about the really, really
if it would work or was at all possible, but with a few small important effect of my work. Because as we all know, our
steps and a very steep learning curve, I made my first reefs are dying, and our oceans are in trouble.
sculpture, called “The Lost Correspondent.” Teaming up
with a marine biologist and a local dive center, I submerged So here’s the thing: the most used, searched and shared
the work off the coast of Grenada, in an area decimated by image of all my work thus far is this. And I think this is for
Hurricane Ivan. And then this incredible thing happened. a reason, or at least I hope it is. What I really hope is that
It transformed. One sculpture became two. Two quickly people are beginning to understand that when we think of
became 26. And before I knew it, we had the world’s first the environment and the destruction of nature, that we need
underwater sculpture park. to start thinking about our oceans, too.

In 2009, I moved to Mexico and started by casting local Since building these sites, we’ve seen some phenomenal
fisherman. This grew to a small community, to almost an and unexpected results. Besides creating over 800 square
entire movement of people in defense of the sea. And then meters of new habitats and living reef, visitors to the marine
finally, to an underwater museum, with over 500 living park in Cancun now divide half their time between the
sculptures. Gardening, it seems, is not just for greenhouses. museum and the natural reefs, providing significant rest for
We’ve since scaled up the designs: “Ocean Atlas,” in the natural, overstressed areas. The sculpture park in Grenada
Bahamas, rising 16 feet up to the surface and weighing over was instrumental in the government designating a spot—a
40 tons, to now currently in Lanzarote, where I’m making marine-protected area. Entrance fees to the park now help
an underwater botanical garden, the first of its kind in the fund park rangers to manage tourism and fishing quotas.
Atlantic Ocean. The site was actually listed as a “Wonder of the World” by
National Geographic.
Each project, we use materials and designs that help
encourage life; a long-lasting pH-neutral cement provides So why are we all here today in this room? What do we all
a stable and permanent platform. It is textured to allow have in common? I think we all share a fear that we don’t
coral polyps to attach. We position them down current from protect our oceans enough. And one way of thinking about
natural reefs so that after spawning, there’s areas for them this is that we don’t regard our oceans as sacred, and we
to settle. The formations are all configured so that they should. When we see incredible places—like the Himalayas
aggregate fish on a really large scale. Even this VW Beetle or the La Sagrada Família, or the Mona Lisa, even—when
has an internal living habitat to encourage crustaceans such we see these incredible places and things, we understand
as lobsters and sea urchins. their importance. We call them sacred, and we do our best
to cherish them, to protect them and to keep them safe.
So why exhibit my work in the ocean? Because honestly, it’s But in order to do that, we are the ones that have to assign
really not easy. When you’re in the middle of the sea under that value; otherwise, it will be desecrated by someone who
a hundred-foot crane, trying to lower eight tons down to the doesn’t understand that value.
sea floor, you start to wonder whether I shouldn’t have taken
up watercolor painting instead. So I want to finish up tonight by talking about sacred things.
When we were naming the site in Cancun, we named it a
(Laughter) museum for a very important and simple reason: museums
But in the end, the results always blow my mind. are places of preservation, of conservation and of education.
They’re places where we keep objects of great value to us,
(Music)
where we simply treasure them for them being themselves.
The ocean is the most incredible exhibition space an artist If someone was to throw an egg at the Sistine Chapel, we’d
could ever wish for. You have amazing lighting effects all go crazy. If someone wanted to build a seven-star hotel
88 VIDEO SCRIPTS

55523_video.indd 88 31/10/16 11:00 AM

 at the bottom of the Grand Canyon, then we would laugh coral polyps to attach. We position them down current from
them out of Arizona. Yet every day we dredge, pollute and natural reefs so that after spawning, there’s areas for them
overfish our oceans. And I think it’s easier for us to do that, to settle. The formations are all configured so that they
because when we see the ocean, we don’t see the havoc aggregate fish on a really large scale. Even this VW Beetle
we’re wreaking. Because for most people, the ocean is like has an internal living habitat to encourage crustaceans such
this. And it’s really hard to think of something that’s just so as lobsters and sea urchins.
plain and so enormous, as fragile. It’s simply too massive,
too vast, too endless. And what do you see here? I think Segment 4
most people actually look past to the horizon. So I think And one way of thinking about this is that we don’t
there’s a real danger that we never really see the sea [. . .] regard our oceans as sacred, and we should. When
We want to team up with other inventors, creators, we see incredible places—like the Himalayas or the La
philanthropists, educators, biologists, to see better futures Sagrada Família, or the Mona Lisa, even—when we see
for our oceans. And we want to see beyond sculpture, these incredible places and things, we understand their
beyond art, even. importance. We call them sacred, and we do our best to
cherish them, to protect them and to keep them safe. But
Say you’re a 14-year-old kid from the city, and you’ve never in order to do that, we are the ones that have to assign that
seen the ocean. And instead of getting taken to the natural value; otherwise, it will be desecrated by someone who
history museum or an aquarium, you get taken out to the doesn’t understand that value.
ocean, to an underwater Noah’s Ark, which you can access
through a dry-glass viewing tunnel, where you can see all So I want to finish up tonight by talking about sacred things.
the wildlife of the land be colonized by the wildlife of the When we were naming the site in Cancun, we named it a
ocean. Clearly, it would blow your mind. museum for a very important and simple reason: museums
are places of preservation, of conservation and of education.
So let’s think big and let’s think deep. Who knows where They’re places where we keep objects of great value to us,
our imagination and willpower can lead us? I hope that by where we simply treasure them for them being themselves.
bringing our art into the ocean, that not only do we take If someone was to throw an egg at the Sistine Chapel, we’d
advantage of amazing creativity and visual impact of the all go crazy. If someone wanted to build a seven-star hotel
setting, but that we are also giving something back, and at the bottom of the Grand Canyon, then we would laugh
by encouraging new environments to thrive, and in some them out of Arizona. Yet every day we dredge, pollute and
way opening up a new—or maybe it’s a really old way of overfish our oceans. And I think it’s easier for us to do that,
seeing the seas: as delicate, precious places, worthy of our because when we see the ocean, we don’t see the havoc
protection. we’re wreaking. Because for most people, the ocean is like
Our oceans are sacred. this. And it’s really hard to think of something that’s just so
plain and so enormous, as fragile. It’s simply too massive,
Thank you. too vast, too endless. And what do you see here? I think
(Applause) most people actually look past to the horizon. So I think
there’s a real danger that we never really see the sea
VIDEO TRACK 1.32  4:32 min
Page 117, Exercise H, Watch for Details VIDEO TRACK 1.33  3:07 min
Page 117, Exercise I, Expand Your Vocabulary
Segment 1
“I had no idea if it would work or was at all possible, but with
Ten years ago, I had my first exhibition here. I had no idea a few small steps and a very steep learning curve, I made
if it would work or was at all possible, but with a few small my first sculpture, called ‘The Lost Correspondent.’”
steps and a very steep learning curve, I made my first
sculpture, called “The Lost Correspondent.” Teaming up 1. What does steep learning curve mean?
with a marine biologist and a local dive center, I submerged a. demanding learning process
the work off the coast of Grenada, in an area decimated by b. school learning process
Hurricane Ivan. And then this incredible thing happened. c. unsuccessful learning process
It transformed. One sculpture became two. Two quickly “Teaming up with a marine biologist and a local dive center,
became 26. And before I knew it, we had the world’s first I submerged the work off the coast of Grenada, in an area
underwater sculpture park. decimated by Hurricane Ivan.”
Segment 2 2. What does teaming up with mean?
In 2009, I moved to Mexico and started by casting local a. competing against
fisherman. This grew to a small community, to almost an b. looking for
entire movement of people in defense of the sea. And then c. working with
finally, to an underwater museum, with over 500 living “When you’re in the middle of the sea under a hundred-
sculptures. Gardening, it seems, is not just for greenhouses. foot crane, trying to lower eight tons down to the sea floor,
We’ve since scaled up the designs: “Ocean Atlas,” in the you start to wonder whether I shouldn’t have taken up
Bahamas, rising 16 feet up to the surface and weighing over watercolor painting instead.”
40 tons, to now currently in Lanzarote, where I’m making
an underwater botanical garden, the first of its kind in the 3. What does take up mean?
Atlantic Ocean. a. begin to do as a hobby
b. give up something you enjoy
Segment 3 c. lift
Each project, we use materials and designs that help “But in the end, the results always blow my mind.”
encourage life; a long-lasting pH-neutral cement provides
a stable and permanent platform. It is textured to allow

VIDEO SCRIPTS 89

55523_video.indd 89 31/10/16 11:00 AM

 4. What does blow my mind mean? So that’s a pretty strong comment there. I said schools
a. amaze me as we know them now, they’re obsolete. I’m not saying
b. be hard to understand they’re broken. It’s quite fashionable to say that the
c. be as good as expected education system’s broken. It’s not broken. It’s wonderfully
constructed. It’s just that we don’t need it anymore. It’s
“And the amazing response we’ve had to these works
outdated. What are the kind of jobs that we have today?
tells me that we’ve managed to plug into something really
Well, the clerks are the computers. They’re there in
primal, because it seems that these images translate across
thousands in every office. And you have people who guide
the world.”
those computers to do their clerical jobs. Those people
5. What does plug into mean? don’t need to be able to write beautifully by hand. They
a. connect to don’t need to be able to multiply numbers in their heads.
b. remember They do need to be able to read. In fact, they need to be
c. invent able to read discerningly.
“And I think it’s easier for us to do that, because when we Well, that’s today, but we don’t even know what the jobs
see the ocean, we don’t see the havoc we’re wreaking.” of the future are going to look like. We know that people
6. What does the havoc we’re wreaking mean? will work from wherever they want, whenever they want,
in whatever way they want. How is present-day schooling
a. the problems we are causing
going to prepare them for that world?
b. the sea life on the ocean floor
c. the storms below the ocean’s surface Segment 2
Well, I bumped into this whole thing completely by accident.
I used to teach people how to write computer programs
Unit 7 in New Delhi, 14 years ago. And right next to where I used
to work, there was a slum. And I used to think, how on
Earth are those kids ever going to learn to write computer
VIDEO TRACK 1.34  15:27 min programs? Or should they not? At the same time, we also
Part 2, Pages 137 and 138, Exercise F, Watch for Main had lots of parents, rich people, who had computers, and
Ideas who used to tell me, “You know, my son, I think he’s gifted,
because he does wonderful things with computers. And my
Segment 1 daughter—oh, surely she is extra-intelligent.” And so on.
What is going to be the future of learning? So I suddenly figured that, how come all the rich people
are having these extraordinarily gifted children? (Laughter)
I do have a plan, but in order for me to tell you what that
What did the poor do wrong? I made a hole in the boundary
plan is, I need to tell you a little story, which kind of sets the
wall of the slum next to my office, and stuck a computer
stage.
inside it just to see what would happen if I gave a computer
I tried to look at where did the kind of learning we do in to children who never would have one, didn’t know any
schools, where did it come from? And you know you can English, didn’t know what the Internet was.
look far back into the past, but if you look at present-day
The children came running in. It was three feet off the
schooling the way it is, it’s quite easy to figure out where it
ground, and they said, “What is this?”
came from. It came from about 300 years ago, and it came
from the last and the biggest of the empires on this planet. And I said, “Yeah, it’s, I don’t know.” (Laughter)
Imagine trying to run the show, trying to run the entire They said, “Why have you put it there?”
planet, without computers, without telephones, with data
handwritten on pieces of paper, and traveling by ships. But I said, “Just like that.”
the Victorians actually did it. What they did was amazing. And they said, “Can we touch it?” I said, “If you wish to.”
They created a global computer made up of people. It’s still
And I went away. About eight hours later, we found them
with us today. It’s called the bureaucratic administrative
browsing and teaching each other how to browse. So I said,
machine. In order to have that machine running, you need
“Well that’s impossible, because—How is it possible? They
lots and lots of people. They made another machine to
don’t know anything.”
produce those people: the school. The schools would
produce the people who would then become parts of the My colleagues said, “No, it’s a simple solution. One of your
bureaucratic administrative machine. They must be identical students must have been passing by, showed them how to
to each other. They must know three things: They must use the mouse.”
have good handwriting, because the data is handwritten; So I said, “Yeah, that’s possible.”
they must be able to read; and they must be able to do
multiplication, division, addition and subtraction in their So I repeated the experiment. I went 300 miles out of Delhi
head. They must be so identical that you could pick one up into a really remote village where the chances of a passing
from New Zealand and ship them to Canada and he would software development engineer was very little. (Laughter) I
be instantly functional. The Victorians were great engineers. repeated the experiment there. There was no place to stay,
They engineered a system that was so robust that it’s still so I stuck my computer in, I went away, came back after a
with us today, continuously producing identical people for a couple of months, found kids playing games on it.
machine that no longer exists. The empire is gone, so what When they saw me, they said, “We want a faster processor
are we doing with that design that produces these identical and a better mouse.”
people, and what are we going to do next if we ever are
(Laughter)
going to do anything else with it?
So I said, “How on Earth do you know all this?”
[“Schools as we know them are obsolete”]

90 VIDEO SCRIPTS

55523_video.indd 90 31/10/16 11:00 AM

 And they said something very interesting to me. In an irritated doing something that’s a decade ahead of their time.
voice, they said, “You’ve given us a machine that works only Absurd. But I had to follow the Victorian norm. Thirty percent
in English, so we had to teach ourselves English in order to is a fail. How do I get them to pass? I have to get them
use it.” (Laughter) That’s the first time, as a teacher, that I 20 more marks. I couldn’t find a teacher. What I did find
had heard the word “teach ourselves” said so casually. was a friend that they had, a 22-year-old girl who was an
Here’s a short glimpse from those years. That’s the first day accountant and she played with them all the time.
at the Hole in the Wall. On your right is an eight-year-old. To So I asked this girl, “Can you help them?”
his left is his student. She’s six. And he’s teaching her how So she says, “Absolutely not. I didn’t have science in school.
to browse. Then onto other parts of the country, I repeated I have no idea what they’re doing under that tree all day
this over and over again, getting exactly the same results long. I can’t help you.”
everywhere. [“Hole in the wall film—1999”] An eight-year-old
telling his elder sister what to do. And finally a girl explaining I said, “I’ll tell you what. Use the method of the
in Marathi what it is, and said, “There’s a processor inside.” grandmother.”
So she says, “What’s that?”
Segment 3
So I started publishing. I published everywhere. I wrote I said, “Stand behind them. Whenever they do anything, you
down and measured everything, and I said, in nine months, a just say, ‘Well, wow, I mean, how did you do that? What’s
group of children left alone with a computer in any language the next page? Gosh, when I was your age, I could have
will reach the same standard as an office secretary in the never done that.’ You know what grannies do.”
West. I’d seen it happen over and over and over again. So she did that for two more months. The scores jumped
So then people said, well, how far will it go? Where does to 50 percent. Kallikuppam had caught up with my control
it stop? I decided I would destroy my own argument by school in New Delhi, a rich private school with a trained
creating an absurd proposition. I made a hypothesis, a biotechnology teacher. When I saw that graph I knew there
ridiculous hypothesis. Tamil is a south Indian language, and is a way to level the playing field.
I said, can Tamil-speaking children in a south Indian village Here’s Kallikuppam.
learn the biotechnology of DNA replication in English from a (Children speaking) Neurons . . . communication.
streetside computer? And I said, I’ll measure them. They’ll
get a zero. I’ll spend a couple of months, I’ll leave it for a I got the camera angle wrong. That one is just amateur stuff,
couple of months, I’ll go back, they’ll get another zero. I’ll go but what she was saying, as you could make out, was about
back to the lab and say, we need teachers. I found a village. neurons, with her hands were like that, and she was saying
It was called Kallikuppam in southern India. I put in Hole in neurons communicate. At 12.
the Wall computers there, downloaded all kinds of stuff from
the Internet about DNA replication, most of which I didn’t Segment 4
understand. I came back to England looking for British grandmothers.
I put out notices in papers saying, if you are a British
The children came rushing, said, “What’s all this?” grandmother, if you have broadband and a web camera, can
So I said, “It’s very topical, very important. But it’s all in you give me one hour of your time per week for free? I got
English.” 200 in the first two weeks. I know more British grandmothers
So they said, “How can we understand such big English than anyone in the universe. (Laughter) They’re called the
words and diagrams and chemistry?” Granny Cloud. The Granny Cloud sits on the Internet. If
there’s a child in trouble, we beam a Gran. She goes on over
So by now, I had developed a new pedagogical method, so Skype and she sorts things out. I’ve seen them do it from a
I applied that. I said, “I haven’t the foggiest idea.” (Laughter) village called Diggles in northwestern England, deep inside
“And anyway, I am going away.” (Laughter) a village in Tamil Nadu, India, 6,000 miles away. She does it
So I left them for a couple of months. They’d got a zero. I with only one age-old gesture. “Shhh.” Okay?
gave them a test. I came back after two months and the Watch this.
children trooped in and said, “We’ve understood nothing.”
Grandmother: You can’t catch me. You say it. You can’t
So I said, “Well, what did I expect?” So I said, “Okay, but catch me.
how long did it take you before you decided that you can’t
understand anything?” Children: You can’t catch me.

So they said, “We haven’t given up. We look at it every Grandmother: I’m the Gingerbread Man. Children: I’m the
single day.” Gingerbread Man.
Grandmother: Well done! Very good.

So I said, “What? You don’t understand these screens and Segment 5

you keep staring at it for two months? What for?” So what’s happening here? I think what we need to look at
So a little girl who you see just now, she raised her hand, is we need to look at learning as the product of educational
and she says to me in broken Tamil and English, she said, self-organization. If you allow the educational process to
“Well, apart from the fact that improper replication of the self-organize, then learning emerges. It’s not about making
DNA molecule causes disease, we haven’t understood learning happen. It’s about letting it happen. The teacher
anything else.” sets the process in motion and then she stands back in awe
(Laughter) (Applause) and watches as learning happens. I think that’s what all this
is pointing at.
So I tested them. I got an educational impossibility, zero
to 30 percent in two months in the tropical heat with a But how will we know? How will we come to know? Well, I
computer under the tree in a language they didn’t know intend to build these Self-Organized Learning Environments.

VIDEO SCRIPTS 91

55523_video.indd 91 31/10/16 11:00 AM

 They are basically broadband, collaboration and So I said, “How on Earth do you know all this?”
encouragement put together. And they said something very interesting to me. In an
So here are a couple of images from SOLEs. I’ve tried irritated voice, they said, “You’ve given us a machine that
incredible, incredible questions—“When did the world works only in English, so we had to teach ourselves English
begin? How will it end?”—to nine-year-olds. This one is in order to use it.” (Laughter) That’s the first time, as a
about what happens to the air we breathe. This is done by teacher, that I had heard the word “teach ourselves” said so
children without the help of any teacher. The teacher only casually.
raises the question, and then stands back and admires the Here’s a short glimpse from those years. That’s the first day
answer. at the Hole in the Wall. On your right is an eight-year-old. To
So what’s my wish? My wish is that we design the future his left is his student. She’s six. And he’s teaching her how
of learning. We don’t want to be spare parts for a great to browse. Then onto other parts of the country, I repeated
human computer, do we? So we need to design a future this over and over again, getting exactly the same results
for learning. And I’ve got to—hang on, I’ve got to get everywhere. [“Hole in the wall film—1999”] An eight-year-old
this wording exactly right, because, you know, it’s very telling his elder sister what to do. And finally a girl explaining
important. My wish is to help design a future of learning in Marathi what it is, and said, “There’s a processor inside.”
by supporting children all over the world to tap into their So I started publishing. I published everywhere. I wrote
wonder and their ability to work together. Help me build this down and measured everything, and I said, in nine months, a
school. It will be called the School in the Cloud. group of children left alone with a computer in any language
will reach the same standard as an office secretary in the
VIDEO TRACK 1.35  7:42 min West. I’d seen it happen over and over and over again.
Page 139, Exercise G, Watch for Details
So then people said, well, how far will it go? Where does
Well, I bumped into this whole thing completely by accident. it stop? I decided I would destroy my own argument by
I used to teach people how to write computer programs creating an absurd proposition. I made a hypothesis, a
in New Delhi, 14 years ago. And right next to where I used ridiculous hypothesis. Tamil is a south Indian language, and
to work, there was a slum. And I used to think, how on I said, can Tamil-speaking children in a south Indian village
Earth are those kids ever going to learn to write computer learn the biotechnology of DNA replication in English from a
programs? Or should they not? At the same time, we also streetside computer? And I said, I’ll measure them. They’ll
had lots of parents, rich people, who had computers, and get a zero. I’ll spend a couple of months, I’ll leave it for a
who used to tell me, “You know, my son, I think he’s gifted, couple of months, I’ll go back, they’ll get another zero. I’ll go
because he does wonderful things with computers. And my back to the lab and say, we need teachers. I found a village.
daughter—oh, surely she is extra-intelligent.” And so on. It was called Kallikuppam in southern India. I put in Hole in
So I suddenly figured that, how come all the rich people the Wall computers there, downloaded all kinds of stuff from
are having these extraordinarily gifted children? (Laughter) the Internet about DNA replication, most of which I didn’t
What did the poor do wrong? I made a hole in the boundary understand.
wall of the slum next to my office, and stuck a computer
The children came rushing, said, “What’s all this?”
inside it just to see what would happen if I gave a computer
to children who never would have one, didn’t know any So I said, “It’s very topical, very important. But it’s all in
English, didn’t know what the Internet was. English.”
The children came running in. It was three feet off the So they said, “How can we understand such big English
ground, and they said, “What is this?” words and diagrams and chemistry?”
And I said, “Yeah, it’s, I don’t know.” (Laughter) So by now, I had developed a new pedagogical method, so
I applied that. I said, “I haven’t the foggiest idea.” (Laughter)
They said, “Why have you put it there?”
“And anyway, I am going away.” (Laughter)
I said, “Just like that.”
So I left them for a couple of months. They’d got a zero. I
And they said, “Can we touch it?” I said, “If you wish to.” gave them a test. I came back after two months and the
And I went away. About eight hours later, we found them children trooped in and said, “We’ve understood nothing.”
browsing and teaching each other how to browse. So I said, So I said, “Well, what did I expect?” So I said, “Okay, but
“Well that’s impossible, because—How is it possible? They how long did it take you before you decided that you can’t
don’t know anything.” understand anything?”
My colleagues said, “No, it’s a simple solution. One of your So they said, “We haven’t given up. We look at it every
students must have been passing by, showed them how to single day.”
use the mouse.”
So I said, “What? You don’t understand these screens and
So I said, “Yeah, that’s possible.” you keep staring at it for two months? What for?”
So I repeated the experiment. I went 300 miles out of Delhi So a little girl who you see just now, she raised her hand,
into a really remote village where the chances of a passing and she says to me in broken Tamil and English, she said,
software development engineer was very little. (Laughter) I “Well, apart from the fact that improper replication of the
repeated the experiment there. There was no place to stay, DNA molecule causes disease, we haven’t understood
so I stuck my computer in, I went away, came back after a anything else.”
couple of months, found kids playing games on it.
(Laughter) (Applause)
When they saw me, they said, “We want a faster processor
So I tested them. I got an educational impossibility, zero
and a better mouse.”
to 30 percent in two months in the tropical heat with a
(Laughter) computer under the tree in a language they didn’t know
doing something that’s a decade ahead of their time.
92 VIDEO SCRIPTS

55523_video.indd 92 31/10/16 11:00 AM

 Absurd. But I had to follow the Victorian norm. Thirty percent 6. What does spare parts mean?
is a fail. How do I get them to pass? I have to get them a. extra parts to use when the original ones break
20 more marks. I couldn’t find a teacher. What I did find b. small and insignificant pieces
was a friend that they had, a 22-year-old girl who was an c. very important parts
accountant and she played with them all the time.
So I asked this girl, “Can you help them?” VIDEO TRACK 1.37  0:53 min
So she says, “Absolutely not. I didn’t have science in school. Page 140, Presentation Skill: Show Enthusiasm for Your
I have no idea what they’re doing under that tree all day Topic
long. I can’t help you.” It came from about 300 years ago, and it came from the
I said, “I’ll tell you what. Use the method of the last and the biggest of the empires on this planet. Imagine
grandmother.” trying to run the show, trying to run the entire planet, without
computers, without telephones, with data handwritten on
So she says, “What’s that?” pieces of paper, and traveling by ships. But the Victorians
I said, “Stand behind them. Whenever they do anything, you actually did it. What they did was amazing. They created a
just say, ‘Well, wow, I mean, how did you do that? What’s global computer made up of people. It’s still with us today.
the next page? Gosh, when I was your age, I could have It’s called the bureaucratic administrative machine.
never done that.’ You know what grannies do.” So that’s a pretty strong comment there. I said schools
So she did that for two more months. The scores jumped as we know them now, they’re obsolete. I’m not saying
to 50 percent. Kallikuppam had caught up with my control they’re broken. It’s quite fashionable to say that the
school in New Delhi, a rich private school with a trained education system’s broken. It’s not broken. It’s wonderfully
biotechnology teacher. When I saw that graph I knew there constructed. It’s just that we don’t need it anymore. It’s
is a way to level the playing field. outdated. What are the kind of jobs that we have today?
Well, the clerks are the computers. They’re there in
VIDEO TRACK 1.36  3:16 min thousands in every office. And you have people who guide
those computers to do their clerical jobs. Those people
Page 139, Exercise H, Expand Your Vocabulary
don’t need to be able to write beautifully by hand. They
“I do have a plan, but in order for me to tell you what that don’t need to be able to multiply numbers in their heads.
plan is, I need to tell you a little story, which kind of sets the They do need to be able to read. In fact, they need to be
stage.” able to read discerningly.
1. What does set the stage mean?
a. gets you ready for
b. gives you a summary of Unit 8
c. helps you make a plan for
“Imagine trying to run the show, trying to run the entire
planet, without computers, without telephones, with data VIDEO TRACK 1.38  5:40 min
handwritten on pieces of paper, and traveling by ships.” Part 1, Pages 147 and 148, Exercise E, Listen for Main Ideas
2. What does run the show mean? PROFESSOR  Good afternoon. To start today’s class, I have
a. keep a record of everything that happens some questions for you.
b. run away from all of your responsibilities First, have you ever done a “Do It Yourself,” or DIY project?
c. be responsible for and in control of everything Even a simple one like assembling a piece of furniture?
So . . . more than half of you.
“So I said, “How on Earth do you know all this?”
Next question: Do you watch a DIY program? You know,
3. What does how on Earth mean?
those shows where people rebuild their house over a
a. How much is it? weekend? OK, about three quarters of you.
b. How is it possible?
c. Where is it from? Finally, have you ever bought something from a website
where you can design your own product, for example
“So by now, I had developed a new pedagogical method, so sneakers, jeans, or cell-phone cover? Hmmm, so a lot of you
I applied that. I said, “I haven’t the foggiest idea.” have done that, too.
4. What does not have the foggiest idea mean? So, would you agree that DIY is pretty popular these days?
a. be uncertain
b. feel absolutely clear In fact, DIY has become incredibly popular. And businesses,
who have already made a lot of money from DIY, see
c. have absolutely no idea
the potential for making even more—but only if they can
“I got an educational impossibility, zero to 30 percent in two maintain the interest of consumers. To find out if the current
months in the tropical heat with a computer under the tree popularity of DIY products is sustainable, businesses hope
in a language they didn’t know doing something that’s a to understand the psychology behind DIY—which is the
decade ahead of their time.” subject of today’s lecture.
5. What does ahead of (one’s) time mean? Let’s start with two research studies. The first study, done
a. arriving too early by business schools at one U.S. and one Chinese university,
b. more advanced than others is about the link between busyness and happiness. Here’s
c. moving too fast their first hypothesis: People are happier when they are busy
“We don’t want to be spare parts for a great human than when they are idle.
computer, do we?” Now, the second hypothesis: People will choose busyness
over idleness, but only if they see a reason to be busy. The

VIDEO SCRIPTS 93

55523_video.indd 93 31/10/16 11:00 AM

 reason doesn’t have to be serious; they just need to have a This experiment gives us another explanation for the
reason. But without a reason, they will do nothing. popularity of DIY projects. People tend to prefer, and even
So . . . the first experiment involved a kind of DIY project overvalue, things they make themselves. Next week, we will
with a bracelet. discuss the implications of these study results for the DIY
industry.
First, the researchers divided the participants into two
groups. VIDEO TRACK 1.39  4:10 min
Second, they put each participant in a separate room with Part 2, Page 155, Exercise F, Watch for Main Ideas
a bracelet in it. They didn’t let them bring anything into the
Hi, my name is Marcin—farmer, technologist. I was born
room—no cell phones, books, or paper.
in Poland, now in the U.S. I started a group called Open
All of the bracelets were identical and easy to take apart and Source Ecology. We’ve identified the 50 most important
put back together. machines that we think it takes for modern life to exist—
Next, they told the participants to stay in the room for things from tractors, bread ovens, circuit makers. Then we
15 minutes. set out to create an open source, DIY, do it yourself version
that anyone can build and maintain at a fraction of the cost.
Then they gave each participant a choice. They could do We call this the Global Village Construction Set.
nothing for 15 minutes—or they could take the bracelet
apart and put it back together again. So let me tell you a story. So I finished my 20s with a Ph.D.
in fusion energy, and I discovered I was useless. I had no
At that point in the experiment, the researchers gave each practical skills. The world presented me with options, and I
group a different version of the instructions. took them. I guess you can call it the consumer lifestyle. So I
If participants in group one took the bracelet apart, they had started a farm in Missouri and learned about the economics
to put it back together in exactly the same way. of farming. I bought a tractor—then it broke. I paid to get
it repaired—then it broke again. Then pretty soon, I was
If participants in group two took the bracelet apart, they had
broke too.
to assemble it in a different way, by following instructions for
a new design. Got that? I realized that the truly appropriate, low-cost tools that I
needed to start a sustainable farm and settlement just didn’t
OK. Then the researchers left the participants alone for
exist yet. I needed tools that were robust, modular, highly
15 minutes.
efficient and optimized, low-cost, made from local and
The results? recycled materials that would last a lifetime, not designed
Most participants in group one did nothing. In contrast, most for obsolescence. I found that I would have to build them
of the participants in group 2 worked on the bracelet. And myself. So I did just that. And I tested them. And I found that
interestingly, the participants from both groups who worked industrial productivity can be achieved on a small scale.
on the bracelet felt happier than those who did nothing. So then I published the 3D designs, schematics,
So, the first hypothesis: People are happier when they are instructional videos and budgets on a wiki. Then
busy than when they are idle. Do the results support it? Yes? contributors from all over the world began showing up,
prototyping new machines during dedicated project visits.
FEMALE STUDENT  Absolutely . . . the participants who worked So far, we have prototyped eight of the 50 machines. And
on the bracelet were busy and happier. now the project is beginning to grow on its own.
PROFESSOR  Good . . . so now the second hypothesis: People
We know that open source has succeeded with tools for
will choose being busy over doing nothing, but only if
managing knowledge and creativity. And the same is starting
they can see a reason for being busy.
to happen with hardware too. We’re focusing on hardware
So, do the results support this? Anyone? Go ahead. because it is hardware that can change people’s lives in
MALE STUDENT 1  Yeah, for sure. The ones with a reason such tangible material ways. If we can lower the barriers to
worked on the bracelet. The ones without a reason did farming, building, manufacturing, then we can unleash just
nothing. massive amounts of human potential.
PROFESSOR  And why did they work on it? That’s not only in the developing world. Our tools are being
MALE STUDENT 2  To change the design. made for the American farmer, builder, entrepreneur, maker.
PROFESSOR  OK, good. So now we have one possible reason We’ve seen lots of excitement from these people, who can
why DIY projects are popular: they give people a reason now start a construction business, parts manufacturing,
to be busy. organic CSA or just selling power back to the grid. Our goal
is a repository of published designs so clear, so complete,
Now for the second study, which involved origami. Origami
that a single burned DVD is effectively a civilization starter kit.
is the Japanese art of folding paper into different shapes,
often of animals, such as birds, fish, or insects. Origami I’ve planted a hundred trees in a day. I’ve pressed
experts are true artists, but anyone can follow instructions to 5,000 bricks in one day from the dirt beneath my feet and
make simple origami. built a tractor in six days. From what I’ve seen, this is only
the beginning.
In the experiment, the participants, who were not experts,
made origami frogs. Next, they were asked to value their If this idea is truly sound, then the implications are
frogs. Finally, they had to value the frogs made by experts. significant. A greater distribution of the means of production,
The results? environmentally sound supply chains, and a newly relevant
DIY maker culture can hope to transcend artificial scarcity.
They valued their own frogs either the same or higher than
We’re exploring the limits of what we all can do to make a
the frogs made by experts . . . and they were sure that
better world with open hardware technology.
others would agree with them. But others did not agree—
they valued the origami made by experts more. Thank you.

94 VIDEO SCRIPTS

55523_video.indd 94 31/10/16 11:00 AM

 VIDEO TRACK 1.40  3:48 min prototyping new machines during dedicated project visits.
Pages 156 and 157, Exercise G, Watch for Details So far, we have prototyped eight of the 50 machines. And
now the project is beginning to grow on its own.
Segment 1 (repeated)
Hi, my name is Marcin—farmer, technologist. I was born VIDEO TRACK 1.42  3:01 min
in Poland, now in the U.S. I started a group called Open Page 157, Exercise K, Expand Your Vocabulary
Source Ecology. We’ve identified the 50 most important “We’ve identified the 50 most important machines that we
machines that we think it takes for modern life to exist— think it takes for modern life to exist—things from tractors,
things from tractors, bread ovens, circuit makers. bread ovens, circuit makers. Then we set out to create an
open source, DIY, do it yourself version that anyone can
Segment 2 (repeated)
build and maintain at a fraction of the cost.”
I realized that the truly appropriate, low-cost tools that I
needed to start a sustainable farm and settlement just didn’t 1. What does a fraction of the cost mean?
exist yet. I needed tools that were robust, modular, highly a. a small amount in comparison to the original cost
efficient and optimized, low-cost, made from local and b. an identical amount to the original cost
recycled materials that would last a lifetime, not designed for c. just a little bit less than the original cost
obsolescence. “So I started a farm in Missouri and learned about the
economics of farming. I bought a tractor—then it broke.
Segment 3 (repeated) I paid to get it repaired—then it broke again. Then pretty
So then I published the 3D designs, schematics, soon, I was broke too.”
instructional videos and budgets on a wiki.
2. What does be broke mean?
Segment 4 (repeated) a. be broken
If we can lower the barriers to farming, building, b. be hopeless
manufacturing, then we can unleash just massive amounts c. to have no more money
of human potential. “Then contributors from all over the world began showing
up, prototyping new machines during dedicated project
Segment 5 (repeated) visits. So far, we have prototyped eight of the 50 machines.
That’s not only in the developing world. Our tools are being And now the project is beginning to grow on its own.”
made for the American farmer, builder, entrepreneur, maker.
3. What does show up mean?
We’ve seen lots of excitement from these people, who can
now start a construction business, parts manufacturing, a. arrive, sometimes unexpectedly
organic CSA or just selling power back to the grid. b. present something
c. send information
VIDEO TRACK 1.41  2:27 min “If we can lower the barriers to farming, building,
Page 157, Exercise I manufacturing, then we can unleash just massive amounts
of human potential.”
Segment 1 4. What does unleash mean?
Hi, my name is Marcin—farmer, technologist. I was born a. create
in Poland, now in the U.S. I started a group called Open b. eliminate
Source Ecology. We’ve identified the 50 most important c. release; set free
machines that we think it takes for modern life to exist—
things from tractors, bread ovens, circuit makers. Then we “A greater distribution of the means of production,
set out to create an open source, DIY, do it yourself version environmentally sound supply chains, and a newly relevant
that anyone can build and maintain at a fraction of the cost. DIY maker culture can hope to transcend artificial scarcity.”
We call this the Global Village Construction Set. 5. What is a supply chain?
a. an interconnected group of restaurants and stores
Segment 2 b. a system for moving products from the original
So I started a farm in Missouri and learned about the producer to the end user
economics of farming. I bought a tractor—then it broke. c. a system that could lead to a scarcity of products
I paid to get it repaired—then it broke again. Then pretty
soon, I was broke too. VIDEO TRACK 1.43  1:00 min
I realized that the truly appropriate, low-cost tools that I Page 160, Exercise B
needed to start a sustainable farm and settlement just didn’t I found that I would have to build them myself. So I did
exist yet. I needed tools that were robust, modular, highly just that. And I tested them. And I found that industrial
efficient and optimized, low-cost, made from local and productivity can be achieved on a small scale.
recycled materials that would last a lifetime, not designed for
obsolescence. So then I published the 3D designs, schematics,
instructional videos and budgets on a wiki. Then
Segment 3 contributors from all over the world began showing up,
I found that I would have to build them myself. So I did prototyping new machines during dedicated project visits.
just that. And I tested them. And I found that industrial So far, we have prototyped eight of the 50 machines. And
productivity can be achieved on a small scale. now the project is beginning to grow on its own.
So then I published the 3D designs, schematics,
instructional videos and budgets on a wiki. Then
contributors from all over the world began showing up,

VIDEO SCRIPTS 95

55523_video.indd 95 31/10/16 11:00 AM