full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Dan Gilbert: The psychology of your future self

Unscramble the Blue Letters


Why does this hpapen? We're not entirely sure, but it probably has to do with the ease of remembering versus the difficulty of imagining. Most of us can remember who we were 10 years ago, but we find it hard to imagine who we're going to be, and then we mistakenly think that because it's hard to imagine, it's not likely to happen. Sorry, when people say "I can't imagine that," they're usually talking about their own lack of imagination, and not about the unlikelihood of the event that they're describing.

The bototm line is, time is a perwuofl fcroe. It transforms our pefrrcneees. It reshapes our values. It alters our personalities. We seem to appreciate this fact, but only in retrospect. Only when we look backwards do we razeile how much change happens in a ddceae. It's as if, for most of us, the present is a magic time. It's a watershed on the timeline. It's the memnot at which we finally become ourselves. Human bgenis are works in progress that mistakenly think they're finished. The person you are right now is as transient, as fleeting and as temporary as all the people you've ever been. The one constant in our life is change.

Open Cloze


Why does this ______? We're not entirely sure, but it probably has to do with the ease of remembering versus the difficulty of imagining. Most of us can remember who we were 10 years ago, but we find it hard to imagine who we're going to be, and then we mistakenly think that because it's hard to imagine, it's not likely to happen. Sorry, when people say "I can't imagine that," they're usually talking about their own lack of imagination, and not about the unlikelihood of the event that they're describing.

The ______ line is, time is a ________ _____. It transforms our ___________. It reshapes our values. It alters our personalities. We seem to appreciate this fact, but only in retrospect. Only when we look backwards do we _______ how much change happens in a ______. It's as if, for most of us, the present is a magic time. It's a watershed on the timeline. It's the ______ at which we finally become ourselves. Human ______ are works in progress that mistakenly think they're finished. The person you are right now is as transient, as fleeting and as temporary as all the people you've ever been. The one constant in our life is change.

Solution


  1. happen
  2. beings
  3. realize
  4. force
  5. decade
  6. moment
  7. preferences
  8. bottom
  9. powerful

Original Text


Why does this happen? We're not entirely sure, but it probably has to do with the ease of remembering versus the difficulty of imagining. Most of us can remember who we were 10 years ago, but we find it hard to imagine who we're going to be, and then we mistakenly think that because it's hard to imagine, it's not likely to happen. Sorry, when people say "I can't imagine that," they're usually talking about their own lack of imagination, and not about the unlikelihood of the event that they're describing.

The bottom line is, time is a powerful force. It transforms our preferences. It reshapes our values. It alters our personalities. We seem to appreciate this fact, but only in retrospect. Only when we look backwards do we realize how much change happens in a decade. It's as if, for most of us, the present is a magic time. It's a watershed on the timeline. It's the moment at which we finally become ourselves. Human beings are works in progress that mistakenly think they're finished. The person you are right now is as transient, as fleeting and as temporary as all the people you've ever been. The one constant in our life is change.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
favorite musician 3
good money 2
asked people 2
favorite kind 2


Important Words


  1. alters
  2. beings
  3. bottom
  4. change
  5. constant
  6. decade
  7. describing
  8. difficulty
  9. ease
  10. event
  11. fact
  12. finally
  13. find
  14. finished
  15. fleeting
  16. force
  17. happen
  18. hard
  19. human
  20. imagination
  21. imagine
  22. imagining
  23. lack
  24. life
  25. line
  26. magic
  27. mistakenly
  28. moment
  29. people
  30. person
  31. personalities
  32. powerful
  33. preferences
  34. present
  35. progress
  36. realize
  37. remember
  38. remembering
  39. reshapes
  40. retrospect
  41. talking
  42. temporary
  43. time
  44. timeline
  45. transforms
  46. transient
  47. unlikelihood
  48. values
  49. watershed
  50. works
  51. years