full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Barry Schwartz: The way we think about work is broken

Unscramble the Blue Letters


It is not true that you "just can't get good help anymore." It is true that you "can't get good help anymore" when you give people work to do that is demeaning and soulless. And interestingly enough, Adam Smith — the same guy who gave us this incredible ienvtnion of mass production, and diiisovn of labor — understood this. He said, of people who worked in assembly lines, of men who weorkd in assembly lines, he says: "He gnrlaeely becomes as stupid as it is possible for a human being to become." Now, notice the word here is "become." "He generally becomes as stupid as it is possible for a human being to become." Whether he intended it or not, what Adam stmih was telling us there, is that the very shape of the institution within which ploepe work ctreaes people who are fitted to the demands of that institution and dveeirps people of the opportunity to derive the kinds of stansitofacis from their work that we take for granted.

Open Cloze


It is not true that you "just can't get good help anymore." It is true that you "can't get good help anymore" when you give people work to do that is demeaning and soulless. And interestingly enough, Adam Smith — the same guy who gave us this incredible _________ of mass production, and ________ of labor — understood this. He said, of people who worked in assembly lines, of men who ______ in assembly lines, he says: "He _________ becomes as stupid as it is possible for a human being to become." Now, notice the word here is "become." "He generally becomes as stupid as it is possible for a human being to become." Whether he intended it or not, what Adam _____ was telling us there, is that the very shape of the institution within which ______ work _______ people who are fitted to the demands of that institution and ________ people of the opportunity to derive the kinds of _____________ from their work that we take for granted.

Solution


  1. people
  2. worked
  3. deprives
  4. generally
  5. smith
  6. creates
  7. satisfactions
  8. invention
  9. division

Original Text


It is not true that you "just can't get good help anymore." It is true that you "can't get good help anymore" when you give people work to do that is demeaning and soulless. And interestingly enough, Adam Smith — the same guy who gave us this incredible invention of mass production, and division of labor — understood this. He said, of people who worked in assembly lines, of men who worked in assembly lines, he says: "He generally becomes as stupid as it is possible for a human being to become." Now, notice the word here is "become." "He generally becomes as stupid as it is possible for a human being to become." Whether he intended it or not, what Adam Smith was telling us there, is that the very shape of the institution within which people work creates people who are fitted to the demands of that institution and deprives people of the opportunity to derive the kinds of satisfactions from their work that we take for granted.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
human nature 6
human beings 4
false ideas 3
adam smith 3
science creates 2
factory system 2
people work 2
people live 2


Important Words


  1. adam
  2. anymore
  3. assembly
  4. creates
  5. demands
  6. demeaning
  7. deprives
  8. derive
  9. division
  10. fitted
  11. gave
  12. generally
  13. give
  14. good
  15. granted
  16. guy
  17. human
  18. incredible
  19. institution
  20. intended
  21. interestingly
  22. invention
  23. kinds
  24. labor
  25. lines
  26. mass
  27. men
  28. notice
  29. opportunity
  30. people
  31. production
  32. satisfactions
  33. shape
  34. smith
  35. soulless
  36. stupid
  37. telling
  38. true
  39. understood
  40. word
  41. work
  42. worked