Hola a tots. És un plaer estar aquí i parlar amb vosaltres. Avui us parlaré sobre la sort i la justícia, i de com estan relacionades.
Hello, everybody. I'm honored to be here to talk to you, and what I'm going to talk about today is luck and justice and the relation between them.
Fa uns anys, un antic estudiant meu em va trucar per parlar de la seva filla. Estava acabant el batxillerat, volia entrar a Swarthmore, on jo donava classes, i volia saber si jo creia que hi podria accedir. Swarthmore és una escola on és molt difícil entrar. Vaig dir-li: «Explica'm coses sobre ella», i em va dir quines notes treia, les assignatures que feia, les activitats extraescolars, etc. I tot el que deia sonava perfecte, una noia meravellosa. Vaig dir-li: «Tot el que em dius sona genial. És el tipus d'estudiant que Swarthmore voldria tenir.» I em va preguntar: «Això vol dir que hi entraria?» Vaig dir-li: «No. No hi ha places suficients a Swarthmore per a tothom qui és bo. Ni a Harvard, Yale, Princeton o Stanford. No hi ha suficients places a Google, Amazon o Apple. No hi ha prou places a les conferències TED. Hi ha moltíssimes persones molt bones, però algunes no aconseguiran mai accedir-hi.» I em va dir: «Aleshores, què hi podem fer?» «És una molt bona pregunta», li vaig respondre.
Some years ago, a former student of mine called me to talk about his daughter. It turns out his daughter was a high school senior, was seriously interested in applying to Swarthmore, where I taught, and he wanted to get my sense of whether she would get in. Swarthmore is an extremely hard school to get into. So I said, "Well, tell me about her." And he told me about her, what her grades were like, her board scores, her extracurricular activities. And she just sounded like a superstar, wonderful, wonderful kid. So I said, "She sounds fabulous. She sounds like just the kind of student that Swarthmore would love to have." And so he said, "Well, does that mean that she'll get in?" And I said, "No. There just aren't enough spots in the Swarthmore class for everybody who's good. There aren't enough spots at Harvard or Yale or Princeton or Stanford. There aren't enough spots at Google or Amazon or Apple. There aren't enough spots at the TED Conference. There are an awful lot of good people, and some of them are not going to make it." So he said, "Well, what are we supposed to do?" And I said, "That's a very good question."
Què se suposa que hem de fer? Sé què fan algunes universitats. En pro de la justícia, apugen els estàndards, perquè no és just admetre persones poc qualificades i rebutjar-ne de molt qualificades, així que s'apugen els estàndards més i més fins que són tan alts que només admeten el nombre d'estudiants que hi caben.
What are we supposed to do? And I know what colleges and universities have done. In the interest of fairness, what they've done is they've kept ratcheting up the standards because it doesn't seem fair to admit less qualified people and reject better qualified people, so you just keep raising the standards higher and higher until they're high enough that you can admit only the number of students that you can fit.
Això vulnera allò que molta gent considera just. A la societat americana hi ha opinions diferents sobre què significa que un procés sigui just, però crec que la majoria està d'acord en una cosa: que en un sistema just, la gent té el que es mereix.
And this violates a lot of people's sense of what justice and fairness is. People in American society have different opinions about what it means to say that some sort of process is just, but I think there's one thing that pretty much everyone agrees on, that in a just system, a fair system, people get what they deserve.
I el que jo volia dir al meu antic estudiant és que, pel que fa a les admissions a les universitats, no és cert que la gent té el que es mereix. Alguns ho tenen, però d'altres no. Això és així.
And what I was telling my former student is that when it comes to college admissions, it just isn't true that people get what they deserve. Some people get what they deserve, and some people don't, and that's just the way it is.
Quan apuges tant els estàndards com han fet les universitats, es crea una competició boja entre els estudiants, perquè no està bé ser bo, no està bé ser suficientment bo, s'ha de ser millor que tots els altres. I el que passa, el que provoca, és una mena d'epidèmia d'ansietat i depressió entre els adolescents. Estem marcant una generació amb aquestes competicions.
When you ratchet up requirements as colleges have done, what you do is you create a crazy competition among high school kids, because it's not adequate to be good, it's not adequate to be good enough, you have to be better than everybody else who is also applying. And what this has done, or what this has contributed to, is a kind of epidemic of anxiety and depression that is just crushing our teenagers. We are wrecking a generation with this kind of competition.
Al reflexionar sobre això, se'm va ocórrer que hi ha una manera d'arreglar-ho. Podríem fer això: quan la gent vulgui entrar a la universitat, podem diferenciar entre els estudiants que són prou bons per ser exitosos i els que no ho són, i rebutjar els que no són prou bons. I aleshores podríem considerar tots els altres noms, posar-los dins un barret, triar-los a l'atzar i admetre'ls. És a dir, escollim qui entra per loteria, i podem donar feines per loteria, i –quina bogeria, no?– potser triar qui fa TED Talks per loteria.
As I was thinking about this, it occurred to me there's a way to fix this problem. And here's what we could do: when people apply to college, we distinguish between the applicants who are good enough to be successful and the ones who aren't, and we reject the ones who aren't good enough to be successful, and then we take all of the others, and we put their names in a hat, and we just pick them out at random and admit them. In other words, we do college admissions by lottery, and maybe we do job offers at tech companies by lottery, and -- perish the thought -- maybe we even make decisions about who gets invited to talk at TED by lottery.
Però no em malentengueu, una loteria com aquesta no eliminaria pas la injustícia. Encara hi hauria moltíssima gent que no tindria el que es mereix. Però com a mínim és honest. Mostra la injustícia tal com és, en comptes de pretendre el contrari, i evita aquest increïble globus de pressió sota el qual viuen els estudiants.
Now, don't misunderstand me, a lottery like this is not going to eliminate the injustice. There will still be plenty of people who don't get what they deserve. But at least it's honest. It reveals the injustice for what it is instead of pretending otherwise, and it punctures the incredible pressure balloon that our high school kids are now living under.
Per què aquesta proposta, perfectamente raonable, no es considera seriosament? Crec que en sé el perquè. Crec que odiem la idea que les coses realment importants a la vida passin per atzar o per sort, que les coses realment importants no estiguin sota el nostre control. Jo odio aquesta idea. No és sorprenent que la gent també l'odiï, però la cosa funciona així.
So why is it that this perfectly reasonable proposal, if I do say so myself, doesn't get any serious discussion? I think I know why. I think it's that we hate the idea that really important things in life might happen by luck or by chance, that really important things in our lives are not under our control. I hate that idea. It's not surprising that people hate that idea, but it simply is the way things are.
Primer, entrar a les universitats ja és una loteria. Només que els qui decideixen qui hi accedeix fan veure que no ho és. Siguem honestos.
First of all, college admissions already is a lottery. It's just that the admissions officers pretend that it isn't. So let's be honest about it.
I segon, si veiéssim que és una loteria, ens faria apreciar la importància de tenir bona sort en les nostres vides.
And second, I think if we appreciated that it was a lottery, it would also get us to acknowledge the importance of good fortune in almost every one of our lives.
Us explicaré el meu cas. La major part dels fets més importants a la meva vida han estat, en gran part, el resultat de tenir bona sort. Quan anava a l'ESO, la meva família va marxar de Nova York i vam anar a Westchester County. Just al començament del curs, vaig conèixer una noia i ens vam fer amics, després vam ser millors amics, després va ser la meva parella i després ens vam casar. Estem feliçment casats des de fa 52 anys. Jo no vaig tenir gaire a veure amb això. Va ser fortuït.
Take me. Almost all the most significant events in my life have occurred, to a large degree, as a result of good luck. When I was in seventh grade, my family left New York and went to Westchester County. Right at the beginning of school, I met a lovely young girl who became my friend, then she became my best friend, then she became my girlfriend and then she became my wife. Happily, she's been my wife now for 52 years. I had very little to do with this. This was a lucky accident.
Vaig anar a la universitat, i al primer semestre vaig apuntar-me a una classe d'introducció a la psicologia. Jo no sabia què era la psicologia, però encaixava al meu horari i em deixaven fer-la, així que la vaig agafar. I, per atzar, la classe la donava un professor genial, una llegenda. I per això vaig començar a agafar assignatures de psicologia.
I went off to college, and in my first semester, I signed up for a class in introduction to psychology. I didn't even know what psychology was, but it fit into my schedule and it met requirements, so I took it. And by luck, the class was taught by a superstar introductory psychology teacher, a legend. Because of that, I became a psychology major.
I em vaig graduar. Estava acabant la carrera, i un amic que treballava a Swarthmore va decidir abandonar la docència, ho va deixar per començar medicina. La seva plaça va quedar lliure, la vaig sol·licitar, i em van donar la feina, l'única entrevista de feina que he fet mai. He estat 45 anys donant classes a Swarthmore, una institució que ha marcat molt la meva carrera.
Went off to graduate school. I was finishing up. A friend of mine who taught at Swarthmore decided he didn't want to be a professor anymore, and so he quit to go to medical school. The job that he occupied opened up, I applied for it, I got it, the only job I've ever applied for. I spent 45 years teaching at Swarthmore, an institution that had an enormous impact on the shape that my career took.
I, per donar un altre exemple, vaig fer una xerrada a Nova York i algú del públic va venir a parlar-me a l'acabar. Es va presentar. «Em dic Chris. Voldries fer una xerrada a TED?» I jo vaig respondre-li: «Què és TED?» M'ho va explicar. Aleshores, TED no era el que és ara. Però en els anys següents, més de 20 milions de persones han vist les xerrades que he donat a TED
And to just give one last example, I was giving a talk about some of my work in New York, and there was somebody in the audience who came up to me after my talk. He introduced himself. He said, "My name is Chris. Would you like to give a talk at TED?" And my response was, "What's TED?" Well, I mean, he told me, and TED then wasn't what it is now. But in the intervening years, the talks I've given at TED have been watched by more than 20 million people.
Així que la conclusió és que sóc un home amb sort. He tingut sort amb el meu matrimoni, amb els meus estudis, amb la meva carrera professional. I tinc sort d'haver tingut veu a una plataforma com TED.
So the conclusion is, I'm a lucky man. I'm lucky about my marriage. I'm lucky about my education. I'm lucky about my career. And I'm lucky to have had a platform and a voice at something like TED.
Em mereixo l'èxit que he tingut? Segurament que sí, igual que vosaltres mereixeu el vostre. Però molta altra gent també se'l mereix i no l'ha tingut.
Did I deserve the success I've had? Sure I deserve that success, just as you probably deserve your success. But lots of people also deserve successes like ours who haven't had it.
Les persones tenim el que ens mereixem? La societat és justa? És clar que no. Treballar de valent i seguir les normes no és garantia de res. Si valorem com son d'inevitables aquestes injustícies i com és de vital tenir bona sort, ens podem preguntar: quines responsabilitats tenim cap als qui ara durant la pandèmia veiem com a herois, quan una malaltia greu cau sobre les seves famílies per assegurar-nos que resisteixen i les seves vides no s'escapcen pel cost de fer front a la malaltia? Què devem a les persones que ho passen malament, treballen intensament però tenen menys sort que nosaltres?
So do people get what they deserve? Is society just? Of course not. Working hard and playing by the rules is just no guarantee of anything. If we appreciate the inevitability of this kind of injustice and the centrality of good fortune, we might ask ourselves what responsibilities do we have to the people we are now celebrating as heroes in this time of the pandemic when a serious illness befalls their family to make sure that they remain whole and their lives aren't ruined by the cost of dealing with the illness? What do we owe people who struggle, work hard and are less lucky than we are?
Fa 50 anys, el filòsof John Rawls va escriure el llibre 'Teoria de la justícia', en què parlava del concepte del vel de la ignorància. Es feia la pregunta següent: si no sabessis quina serà la teva posició a la societat, quina societat voldries crear? I suggeria que, quan no sabem si, dintre de la societat, ocuparem una posició alta o baixa, el que voldrem és una societat igualitària al màxim, en la qual els qui no tinguin sort puguin viure vides riques i decents.
About a half century ago, the philosopher John Rawls wrote a book called "A Theory of Justice," and in that book, he introduced a concept that he called "the veil of ignorance." The question he posed was: If you didn't know what your position in society was going to be, what kind of a society would you want to create? And what he suggested is that when we don't know whether we're going to enter society at the top or at the bottom, what we want is a society that is pretty damn equal, so that even the unlucky will be able to live decent, meaningful and satisfying lives.
Per tant, els qui tenim sort i èxit, apliquem això a les nostres comunitats i fem el que puguem per cuidar i honorar les persones que es mereixen tant èxit com nosaltres però no han tingut tanta sort.
So bring this back, all of you lucky, successful people, to your communities, and do what you can to make sure that we honor and take care of people who are just as deserving of success as we are, but just not as lucky.
Gràcies.
Thank you.