Joseph Keller used to jog around the Stanford campus, and he was struck by all the women jogging there as well. Why did their ponytails swing from side to side like that? Being a mathematician, he set out to understand why.
Joseph Keller je običavao trčati po Stanford sveučilištu, i bio je zaprepašten svim ženama koje su isto trčale tamo. Zašto im se repovi ljuljaju od strane na stranu ovako? Budući da je matematičar, krenuo je razumjeti zašto.
(Laughter)
(Smijeh)
Professor Keller was curious about many things: why teapots dribble or how earthworms wriggle. Until a few months ago, I hadn't heard of Joseph Keller. I read about him in the New York Times, in the obituaries. The Times had half a page of editorial dedicated to him, which you can imagine is premium space for a newspaper of their stature.
Profesor Keller je bio znatiželjan o mnogo stvari: zašto čajnici kapaju ili kako se crvi migolje. Do prije nekoliko mjeseci, nisam čuo za Josepha Kellera. Čitao sam o njemu u New York Timesu, u osmrtnicama. The Times je imao pola stranice uvodnika posvećenog njemu, što možete zamisliti je premijski prostor za novine njihovog stasa.
I read the obituaries almost every day. My wife understandably thinks I'm rather morbid to begin my day with scrambled eggs and a "Let's see who died today."
Čitam osmrtnice gotovo svaki dan. Moja supruga razumljivo misli kako sam prilično morbidan što počinjem dan sa kajganom i "Da vidimo tko je umro danas."
(Laughter)
(Smijeh)
But if you think about it, the front page of the newspaper is usually bad news, and cues man's failures. An instance where bad news cues accomplishment is at the end of the paper, in the obituaries.
Ali ako razmislite o tome, naslovnice novina obično nose loše vijesti, i niže čovjekove neuspjehe. Instanca gdje loše vijesti nižu postignuća je na kraju novina, u osmrtnicama.
In my day job, I run a company that focuses on future insights that marketers can derive from past data -- a kind of rearview-mirror analysis. And we began to think: What if we held a rearview mirror to obituaries from the New York Times? Were there lessons on how you could get your obituary featured -- even if you aren't around to enjoy it?
U svom normalnom poslu, vodim tvrtku koja se fokusira na buduće uvide koje marketingaši mogu izvući iz prošlih podataka -- nešto poput "retrovizor" analize. I počeli smo razmišljati: Što kada bismo držali retrovizor osmrtnicama iz New York Times-a? Je li bilo lekcije o tome kako bi mogli imati vašu osmrtnicu u novinama -- čak i ako niste prisutni da uživate u njoj?
(Laughter)
(Smijeh)
Would this go better with scrambled eggs?
Bi li to bolje išlo sa kajganom?
(Laughter)
(Smijeh)
And so, we looked at the data. 2,000 editorial, non-paid obituaries over a 20-month period between 2015 and 2016. What did these 2,000 deaths -- rather, lives -- teach us?
I tako smo gledali u podatke. 2.000 neplaćenih osmrtnica u uvodniku kroz period od 20 mjeseci između 2015. i 2016. godine. Što nas je tih 2.000 smrtnih slučajeva -- odnosno, života - naučilo?
Well, first we looked at words. This here is an obituary headline. This one is of the amazing Lee Kuan Yew. If you remove the beginning and the end, you're left with a beautifully worded descriptor that tries to, in just a few words, capture an achievement or a lifetime. Just looking at these is fascinating. Here are a few famous ones, people who died in the last two years. Try and guess who they are.
Pa, prvo smo gledali u riječi. Ovo ovdje je naslov osmrtnice. Ova je od nevjerojatnog Lee Kuan Yew-a. Ako uklonite početak i kraj, ostanete s lijepom oblikovanim opisom koji pokušava, u samo nekoliko riječi, uhvatiti postignuća ili cijeli život. Samo posmatranje toga je fascinantno. Evo nekoliko poznatih, ljudi koji su umrli u posljednje dvije godine. Pokušajte i pogodite tko su oni.
[An Artist who Defied Genre] That's Prince.
[Umjetnik koji je Prkosio Žanru] To je Prince.
[Titan of Boxing and the 20th Century] Oh, yes.
[Titan boksa i 20. stoljeća] Oh, da.
[Muhammad Ali]
[Muhammad Ali]
[Groundbreaking Architect] Zaha Hadid.
[Revolucionarna Arhitektica] Zaha Hadid.
So we took these descriptors and did what's called natural language processing, where you feed these into a program, it throws out the superfluous words -- "the," "and," -- the kind of words you can mime easily in "Charades," -- and leaves you with the most significant words. And we did it not just for these four, but for all 2,000 descriptors. And this is what it looks like. Film, theatre, music, dance and of course, art, are huge. Over 40 percent. You have to wonder why in so many societies we insist that our kids pursue engineering or medicine or business or law to be construed as successful. And while we're talking profession, let's look at age -- the average age at which they achieved things. That number is 37. What that means is, you've got to wait 37 years ... before your first significant achievement that you're remembered for -- on average -- 44 years later, when you die at the age of 81 -- on average.
Uzeli smo te opise i učinili ono što se zove obrada prirodnog jezika, gdje ubacite ove u program, on izbaci suvišne riječi -- "je," "i," -- one riječi koje možete lako oponašati u "igri pantomime," -- i ostavlja vas s najznačajnijim riječima. I to smo učinili ne samo za ova četiri, već za svih 2.000 opisa. I ovako to izgleda. Film, kazalište, glazba, ples i naravno, umjetnost, su ogromne. Preko 40 posto. Morate se zapitati zašto u svim tim društvima inzistiramo da naša djeca nastave sa inženjerstvom ili medicinom ili pravom kako bi ih oslovili kao uspješne. I dok govorimo o profesiji, pogledajmo dob -- prosječna dob u kojoj su postigli stvari. Ta brojka je 37. Što to znači je da morate čekati 37 godina ... prije prvog značajnog postignuća po kojem ćete biti zapamćeni -- u prosjeku -- 44 godine kasnije, kada umrete u dobi od 81 godine -- u prosjeku.
(Laughter)
(Smijeh)
Talk about having to be patient.
To je strpljivost.
(Laughter)
(Smijeh)
Of course, it varies by profession. If you're a sports star, you'll probably hit your stride in your 20s. And if you're in your 40s like me, you can join the fun world of politics.
Naravno, varira od profesije do profesije. Ako ste sportaš, vjerojatno ćete ostvariti postignuća u svojim 20-ima. A ako ste u svojim 40-ima poput mene, možete se pridružiti zabavnom svijetu politike.
(Laughter)
(Smijeh)
Politicians do their first and sometimes only commendable act in their mid-40s.
Političari postignu svoje prvo, a nekad i jedino pohvalno djelo u srednjim 40-ima.
(Laughter)
(Smijeh)
If you're wondering what "others" are, here are some examples. Isn't it fascinating, the things people do and the things they're remembered for?
Ako se pitate kakvi su "drugi," evo nekoliko primjera. Nije li fascinantno, stvari koje ljudi rade i stvari po kojima ostaju zapamćeni?
(Laughter)
(Smijeh)
Our curiosity was in overdrive, and we desired to analyze more than just a descriptor. So, we ingested the entire first paragraph of all 2,000 obituaries, but we did this separately for two groups of people: people that are famous and people that are not famous. Famous people -- Prince, Ali, Zaha Hadid -- people who are not famous are people like Jocelyn Cooper, Reverend Curry or Lorna Kelly. I'm willing to bet you haven't heard of most of their names. Amazing people, fantastic achievements, but they're not famous. So what if we analyze these two groups separately -- the famous and the non-famous? What might that tell us?
Naša znatiželja je prešla granicu i željeli smo analizirati više od samog opisa. Dakle, stavili smo cijeli prvi stavak svih 2.000 osmrtnica, ali to smo napravili odvojeno za dvije skupine ljudi: ljude koji su slavni i ljude koji nisu slavni. Slavni ljudi -- Prince, Ali, Zaha Hadid -- ljudi koji nisu slavni su ljudi poput Jocelyn Cooper, velečasnog Currya ili Lorne Kelly. Spreman sam se kladiti kako niste čuli većinu njihovih imena. Nevjerojatni ljudi, fantastični uspjesi, ali nisu poznati. Pa što ako analiziramo ove dvije skupine zasebno -- slavne i ne-slavne? Što bi nam to moglo reći?
Take a look. Two things leap out at me. First: "John."
Pogledajte. Dvije stvari su iskočile. Prva: "John."
(Laughter)
(Smijeh)
Anyone here named John should thank your parents --
Svatko ovdje sa imenom John bi trebao zahvaliti svojim roditeljima --
(Laughter)
(Smijeh)
and remind your kids to cut out your obituary when you're gone. And second: "help."
i podsjetiti svoju djecu da izrežu vašu osmrtnica kada odete. I druga: "pomoć."
We uncovered, many lessons from lives well-led, and what those people immortalized in print could teach us. The exercise was a fascinating testament to the kaleidoscope that is life, and even more fascinating was the fact that the overwhelming majority of obituaries featured people famous and non-famous, who did seemingly extraordinary things. They made a positive dent in the fabric of life. They helped.
Otkrili smo, mnoge lekcije od života dobro proživiljenog, i ono što su ti ljudi ovjekovječili u tisku bi nas moglo poučiti. Vježba je bila fascinantan testament kaleidoskopu života, a još fascinantnija je bila činjenica da je nadmoćna većina osmrtnicama sadržavala slavne i ne-slavne ljude koji su, naizgled, uradili izvanredne stvari. Oni su napravili pozitivan trag u tkivu života. Oni su pomogli.
So ask yourselves as you go back to your daily lives: How am I using my talents to help society? Because the most powerful lesson here is, if more people lived their lives trying to be famous in death, the world would be a much better place.
Dakle, zapitajte kada se vraćate svom svakodnevnom životu: Kako koristim svoje talente kako bi pomogao društvu? Jer najsnažnija pouka ovdje je, kada bi više ljudi živilo svoje živote pokušavajući biti slavni u smrti, svijet bi bio puno bolje mjesto.
Thank you.
Hvala vam.
(Applause)
(Pljesak)