full transcript

From the Ted Talk by David Pogue: Simplicity sells

Unscramble the Blue Letters


(Laughter)

(Applause)

Thank you.

So svtee Jobs had always believed in simplicity and elnaecge and beauty. And the truth is, for years I was a little depressed, because Americans obviously did not value it, because the Mac had three percent market share, Windows had 95 percent market share — people did not think it was worth putting a price on it. So I was a little depressed. And then I herad Al Gore's talk, and I realized I didn't know the meaning of depressed.

(lthauegr)

But it turns out I was wrong, right? Because the iPod came out, and it violated every bit of common wisdom. Other products cost less; other pudtocrs had more features, they had vicoe recorders and FM transmitters. The other products were bceakd by Microsoft, with an open standard, not Apple's propriety standard. But the iPod won — this is the one they wanted. The lesson was: simplicity sells. And there are sgins that the industry is getting the message. This is a little cpmnaoy that's done very well with simplicity and elegance. The snoos thing — it's catching on.

Open Cloze


(Laughter)

(Applause)

Thank you.

So _____ Jobs had always believed in simplicity and ________ and beauty. And the truth is, for years I was a little depressed, because Americans obviously did not value it, because the Mac had three percent market share, Windows had 95 percent market share — people did not think it was worth putting a price on it. So I was a little depressed. And then I _____ Al Gore's talk, and I realized I didn't know the meaning of depressed.

(________)

But it turns out I was wrong, right? Because the iPod came out, and it violated every bit of common wisdom. Other products cost less; other ________ had more features, they had _____ recorders and FM transmitters. The other products were ______ by Microsoft, with an open standard, not Apple's propriety standard. But the iPod won — this is the one they wanted. The lesson was: simplicity sells. And there are _____ that the industry is getting the message. This is a little _______ that's done very well with simplicity and elegance. The _____ thing — it's catching on.

Solution


  1. backed
  2. signs
  3. sonos
  4. company
  5. voice
  6. laughter
  7. heard
  8. elegance
  9. steve
  10. products

Original Text


(Laughter)

(Applause)

Thank you.

So Steve Jobs had always believed in simplicity and elegance and beauty. And the truth is, for years I was a little depressed, because Americans obviously did not value it, because the Mac had three percent market share, Windows had 95 percent market share — people did not think it was worth putting a price on it. So I was a little depressed. And then I heard Al Gore's talk, and I realized I didn't know the meaning of depressed.

(Laughter)

But it turns out I was wrong, right? Because the iPod came out, and it violated every bit of common wisdom. Other products cost less; other products had more features, they had voice recorders and FM transmitters. The other products were backed by Microsoft, with an open standard, not Apple's propriety standard. But the iPod won — this is the one they wanted. The lesson was: simplicity sells. And there are signs that the industry is getting the message. This is a little company that's done very well with simplicity and elegance. The Sonos thing — it's catching on.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
operating system 3
microsoft word 3
dialogue box 3
steve jobs 3
entire operating 2
word processor 2
bill gates 2
percent market 2
simplicity sells 2
speech recognition 2
recognition software 2

ngrams of length 3

collocation frequency
entire operating system 2
speech recognition software 2

Important Words


  1. al
  2. americans
  3. applause
  4. backed
  5. beauty
  6. believed
  7. bit
  8. catching
  9. common
  10. company
  11. cost
  12. depressed
  13. elegance
  14. features
  15. fm
  16. heard
  17. industry
  18. ipod
  19. jobs
  20. laughter
  21. lesson
  22. mac
  23. market
  24. meaning
  25. message
  26. microsoft
  27. open
  28. people
  29. percent
  30. price
  31. products
  32. propriety
  33. putting
  34. realized
  35. recorders
  36. sells
  37. share
  38. signs
  39. simplicity
  40. sonos
  41. standard
  42. steve
  43. talk
  44. transmitters
  45. truth
  46. turns
  47. violated
  48. voice
  49. wanted
  50. windows
  51. wisdom
  52. won
  53. worth
  54. wrong
  55. years