full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Crispin Thurlow: Why you should embrace mediocrity

Unscramble the Blue Letters


But I can't help but think, and in fact, I genuinely believe that these uiuiqutbos, cntansot appeals to eliteness are trying to persuade us that superiority really does matter and that status is something that we should be thnniikg about all the time. And these little one-word messages also suggests to us that superiority is easily obtained.

To be very clear, the language of superiority and comparison is really good for business. All of these relentless little one-word messages, and ones like them, are trying to keep us aisrinpg upwards all the time. And if we're aspiring, we're also acquiring. In other wdors, we're shopping. And for this, they don't even need us aspiring to be the best. Just aspiring to be better is often enough.

Open Cloze


But I can't help but think, and in fact, I genuinely believe that these __________, ________ appeals to eliteness are trying to persuade us that superiority really does matter and that status is something that we should be ________ about all the time. And these little one-word messages also suggests to us that superiority is easily obtained.

To be very clear, the language of superiority and comparison is really good for business. All of these relentless little one-word messages, and ones like them, are trying to keep us ________ upwards all the time. And if we're aspiring, we're also acquiring. In other _____, we're shopping. And for this, they don't even need us aspiring to be the best. Just aspiring to be better is often enough.

Solution


  1. words
  2. constant
  3. ubiquitous
  4. aspiring
  5. thinking

Original Text


But I can't help but think, and in fact, I genuinely believe that these ubiquitous, constant appeals to eliteness are trying to persuade us that superiority really does matter and that status is something that we should be thinking about all the time. And these little one-word messages also suggests to us that superiority is easily obtained.

To be very clear, the language of superiority and comparison is really good for business. All of these relentless little one-word messages, and ones like them, are trying to keep us aspiring upwards all the time. And if we're aspiring, we're also acquiring. In other words, we're shopping. And for this, they don't even need us aspiring to be the best. Just aspiring to be better is often enough.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
bit extra 3
embracing mediocrity 2
relentless language 2
premium economy 2
symbolic violence 2


Important Words


  1. acquiring
  2. appeals
  3. aspiring
  4. business
  5. clear
  6. comparison
  7. constant
  8. easily
  9. eliteness
  10. fact
  11. genuinely
  12. good
  13. language
  14. matter
  15. messages
  16. obtained
  17. persuade
  18. relentless
  19. shopping
  20. status
  21. suggests
  22. superiority
  23. thinking
  24. time
  25. ubiquitous
  26. words