full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Tim Harford: Trial, error and the God complex

Unscramble the Blue Letters


Now I've been sort of banging on about this for the last cuople of months, and people sometimes say to me, "Well Tim, it's kind of obvious. Obviously trial and error is very imtaropnt. Obviously experimentation is very important. Now why are you just wandering around saying this obvious thing?"

So I say, okay, fine. You think it's obvious? I will admit it's obvious when sooclhs start teaching children that there are some pmrbeols that don't have a crrcoet answer. Stop gniivg them lists of questions every single one of which has an answer. And there's an authority figure in the corner behind the teacher's desk who knows all the arnswes. And if you can't find the answers, you must be lazy or suitpd. When schools stop doing that all the time, I will aimdt that, yes, it's oobivus that trial and erorr is a good thing. When a politician stands up campaigning for elected office and says, "I want to fix our health system. I want to fix our education system. I have no idea how to do it. I have half a dozen ideas. We're going to test them out. They'll probably all fail. Then we'll test some other ideas out. We'll find some that work. We'll build on those. We'll get rid of the ones that don't." — when a politician ciangmpas on that platform, and more importantly, when votres like you and me are willing to vote for that kind of politician, then I will admit that it is obvious that trial and error works, and that — thank you.

Open Cloze


Now I've been sort of banging on about this for the last ______ of months, and people sometimes say to me, "Well Tim, it's kind of obvious. Obviously trial and error is very _________. Obviously experimentation is very important. Now why are you just wandering around saying this obvious thing?"

So I say, okay, fine. You think it's obvious? I will admit it's obvious when _______ start teaching children that there are some ________ that don't have a _______ answer. Stop ______ them lists of questions every single one of which has an answer. And there's an authority figure in the corner behind the teacher's desk who knows all the _______. And if you can't find the answers, you must be lazy or ______. When schools stop doing that all the time, I will _____ that, yes, it's _______ that trial and _____ is a good thing. When a politician stands up campaigning for elected office and says, "I want to fix our health system. I want to fix our education system. I have no idea how to do it. I have half a dozen ideas. We're going to test them out. They'll probably all fail. Then we'll test some other ideas out. We'll find some that work. We'll build on those. We'll get rid of the ones that don't." — when a politician _________ on that platform, and more importantly, when ______ like you and me are willing to vote for that kind of politician, then I will admit that it is obvious that trial and error works, and that — thank you.

Solution


  1. campaigns
  2. voters
  3. admit
  4. schools
  5. couple
  6. stupid
  7. problems
  8. correct
  9. error
  10. important
  11. obvious
  12. answers
  13. giving

Original Text


Now I've been sort of banging on about this for the last couple of months, and people sometimes say to me, "Well Tim, it's kind of obvious. Obviously trial and error is very important. Obviously experimentation is very important. Now why are you just wandering around saying this obvious thing?"

So I say, okay, fine. You think it's obvious? I will admit it's obvious when schools start teaching children that there are some problems that don't have a correct answer. Stop giving them lists of questions every single one of which has an answer. And there's an authority figure in the corner behind the teacher's desk who knows all the answers. And if you can't find the answers, you must be lazy or stupid. When schools stop doing that all the time, I will admit that, yes, it's obvious that trial and error is a good thing. When a politician stands up campaigning for elected office and says, "I want to fix our health system. I want to fix our education system. I have no idea how to do it. I have half a dozen ideas. We're going to test them out. They'll probably all fail. Then we'll test some other ideas out. We'll find some that work. We'll build on those. We'll get rid of the ones that don't." — when a politician campaigns on that platform, and more importantly, when voters like you and me are willing to vote for that kind of politician, then I will admit that it is obvious that trial and error works, and that — thank you.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
god complex 9
archie cochrane 4
prison camp 3
american businesses 3
world war 2
exercise book 2
scottish accent 2
hans rosling 2
wonderful work 2
york times 2
times magazine 2
thousand products 2
product category 2
ten percent 2
failure rate 2
cochrane understood 2

ngrams of length 3

collocation frequency
york times magazine 2

Important Words


  1. admit
  2. answer
  3. answers
  4. authority
  5. banging
  6. build
  7. campaigning
  8. campaigns
  9. children
  10. corner
  11. correct
  12. couple
  13. desk
  14. dozen
  15. education
  16. elected
  17. error
  18. experimentation
  19. fail
  20. figure
  21. find
  22. fine
  23. fix
  24. giving
  25. good
  26. health
  27. idea
  28. ideas
  29. important
  30. importantly
  31. kind
  32. lazy
  33. lists
  34. months
  35. obvious
  36. office
  37. people
  38. platform
  39. politician
  40. problems
  41. questions
  42. rid
  43. schools
  44. single
  45. sort
  46. stands
  47. start
  48. stop
  49. stupid
  50. system
  51. teaching
  52. test
  53. tim
  54. time
  55. trial
  56. vote
  57. voters
  58. wandering
  59. work
  60. works