full transcript

From the Ted Talk by John Maeda: My journey in design

Unscramble the Blue Letters


So, when I got to MIT, you know, as most of you who are creatives, your parents all told you not to be creative, right? So, same way, you know, I was good at art and good at math, and my father says, he's — John's good at math. I went to MIT, did my math, but I had this wonderful ouitrtnpopy, because cerptoums had just become visual. The aplpe — Macintosh just came out; I had a Mac in hand when I went to MIT. And it was a time when a guy who, kind of, could cross the two sides — it was a good time.

And so, I remember that my first major peice of sofrtwae was on a dceirt copy of then-Aldus paaegkemr. I made a desktop publishing system way back when, and that was, kind of, my first step into furignig out how to — oh, these two sdeis are kind of fun to mix. And the problem when you're yenougr — for all you students out there — is, your head gets kind of big really easy. And when I was making icons, I was, like, the icon master, and I was, like, yeah, I'm really good at this, you know. And then luckily, you know, I had the fortune of going to something called a library, and in the library I came upon this very book. I found this book. It's called, "Thoughts on Design," by a man named Paul Rand. It's a little slim volume; I'm not sure if you've seen this. It's a very nice little book. It's about this guy, Paul Rand, who was one of the greatest gpahirc designers, and also a geart wiertr as well. And when I saw this man's work, I realized how bad I was at design, or whatever I called it back then, and I suddenly had a kind of career goal, kind of in hot puruist.

Open Cloze


So, when I got to MIT, you know, as most of you who are creatives, your parents all told you not to be creative, right? So, same way, you know, I was good at art and good at math, and my father says, he's — John's good at math. I went to MIT, did my math, but I had this wonderful ___________, because _________ had just become visual. The _____ — Macintosh just came out; I had a Mac in hand when I went to MIT. And it was a time when a guy who, kind of, could cross the two sides — it was a good time.

And so, I remember that my first major _____ of ________ was on a ______ copy of then-Aldus _________. I made a desktop publishing system way back when, and that was, kind of, my first step into ________ out how to — oh, these two _____ are kind of fun to mix. And the problem when you're _______ — for all you students out there — is, your head gets kind of big really easy. And when I was making icons, I was, like, the icon master, and I was, like, yeah, I'm really good at this, you know. And then luckily, you know, I had the fortune of going to something called a library, and in the library I came upon this very book. I found this book. It's called, "Thoughts on Design," by a man named Paul Rand. It's a little slim volume; I'm not sure if you've seen this. It's a very nice little book. It's about this guy, Paul Rand, who was one of the greatest _______ designers, and also a _____ ______ as well. And when I saw this man's work, I realized how bad I was at design, or whatever I called it back then, and I suddenly had a kind of career goal, kind of in hot _______.

Solution


  1. software
  2. direct
  3. figuring
  4. piece
  5. opportunity
  6. younger
  7. graphic
  8. writer
  9. computers
  10. apple
  11. sides
  12. pagemaker
  13. pursuit
  14. great

Original Text


So, when I got to MIT, you know, as most of you who are creatives, your parents all told you not to be creative, right? So, same way, you know, I was good at art and good at math, and my father says, he's — John's good at math. I went to MIT, did my math, but I had this wonderful opportunity, because computers had just become visual. The Apple — Macintosh just came out; I had a Mac in hand when I went to MIT. And it was a time when a guy who, kind of, could cross the two sides — it was a good time.

And so, I remember that my first major piece of software was on a direct copy of then-Aldus PageMaker. I made a desktop publishing system way back when, and that was, kind of, my first step into figuring out how to — oh, these two sides are kind of fun to mix. And the problem when you're younger — for all you students out there — is, your head gets kind of big really easy. And when I was making icons, I was, like, the icon master, and I was, like, yeah, I'm really good at this, you know. And then luckily, you know, I had the fortune of going to something called a library, and in the library I came upon this very book. I found this book. It's called, "Thoughts on Design," by a man named Paul Rand. It's a little slim volume; I'm not sure if you've seen this. It's a very nice little book. It's about this guy, Paul Rand, who was one of the greatest graphic designers, and also a great writer as well. And when I saw this man's work, I realized how bad I was at design, or whatever I called it back then, and I suddenly had a kind of career goal, kind of in hot pursuit.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
blue tape 3
tofu factory 2
family business 2
paul rand 2
strange moment 2
design schools 2
strange medium 2
digital media 2
art center 2


Important Words


  1. apple
  2. art
  3. bad
  4. big
  5. book
  6. called
  7. career
  8. computers
  9. copy
  10. creative
  11. creatives
  12. cross
  13. design
  14. designers
  15. desktop
  16. direct
  17. easy
  18. father
  19. figuring
  20. fortune
  21. fun
  22. goal
  23. good
  24. graphic
  25. great
  26. greatest
  27. guy
  28. hand
  29. head
  30. hot
  31. icon
  32. icons
  33. kind
  34. library
  35. luckily
  36. mac
  37. macintosh
  38. major
  39. making
  40. man
  41. master
  42. math
  43. mit
  44. mix
  45. named
  46. nice
  47. opportunity
  48. pagemaker
  49. parents
  50. paul
  51. piece
  52. problem
  53. publishing
  54. pursuit
  55. rand
  56. realized
  57. remember
  58. sides
  59. slim
  60. software
  61. step
  62. students
  63. suddenly
  64. system
  65. time
  66. told
  67. visual
  68. wonderful
  69. work
  70. writer
  71. yeah
  72. younger