full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Michele Wucker: Why we ignore obvious problems -- and how to act on them

Unscramble the Blue Letters


So after things caelmd down a little bit, ganeepsrn and many others came out with a postmortem and said, "Nobody could have predicted that crisis." They called it "a black swan." Something that was unimaginable, uesbrfoaeenle and cpeelmloty improbable. A total surprise. Except it wasn't always such a surprise. For example, my Manhattan apartment nearly doubled in value in less than four years. I saw the writing on the wall and I sold it.

(Laughter)

(Applause)

So, a lot of other people also saw the warning, spoke out publicly and they were ignored. So we didn't know exactly what the crisis was going to look like, not the exact parameters, but we could all tell that the thing coming at us was as dangerous, visible and pbidtrlcaee as a giant gray rhino carhnigg right at us.

Open Cloze


So after things ______ down a little bit, _________ and many others came out with a postmortem and said, "Nobody could have predicted that crisis." They called it "a black swan." Something that was unimaginable, _____________ and __________ improbable. A total surprise. Except it wasn't always such a surprise. For example, my Manhattan apartment nearly doubled in value in less than four years. I saw the writing on the wall and I sold it.

(Laughter)

(Applause)

So, a lot of other people also saw the warning, spoke out publicly and they were ignored. So we didn't know exactly what the crisis was going to look like, not the exact parameters, but we could all tell that the thing coming at us was as dangerous, visible and ___________ as a giant gray rhino ________ right at us.

Solution


  1. charging
  2. predictable
  3. completely
  4. unforeseeable
  5. greenspan
  6. calmed

Original Text


So after things calmed down a little bit, Greenspan and many others came out with a postmortem and said, "Nobody could have predicted that crisis." They called it "a black swan." Something that was unimaginable, unforeseeable and completely improbable. A total surprise. Except it wasn't always such a surprise. For example, my Manhattan apartment nearly doubled in value in less than four years. I saw the writing on the wall and I sold it.

(Laughter)

(Applause)

So, a lot of other people also saw the warning, spoke out publicly and they were ignored. So we didn't know exactly what the crisis was going to look like, not the exact parameters, but we could all tell that the thing coming at us was as dangerous, visible and predictable as a giant gray rhino charging right at us.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
gray rhinos 5
gray rhino 2
pay attention 2


Important Words


  1. apartment
  2. applause
  3. bit
  4. black
  5. called
  6. calmed
  7. charging
  8. coming
  9. completely
  10. crisis
  11. dangerous
  12. doubled
  13. exact
  14. giant
  15. gray
  16. greenspan
  17. improbable
  18. laughter
  19. lot
  20. manhattan
  21. parameters
  22. people
  23. postmortem
  24. predictable
  25. predicted
  26. publicly
  27. rhino
  28. sold
  29. spoke
  30. surprise
  31. swan
  32. total
  33. unforeseeable
  34. unimaginable
  35. visible
  36. wall
  37. warning
  38. writing
  39. years