TED英语演讲稿：如何让选择更容易

第一篇：TED英语演讲稿：如何让选择更容易

TED英语演讲稿：如何让选择更容易

简介：面对商场里五花八门的商品，你的选择恐惧症又犯了吗? 美国哥伦比亚大学商学教授sheena iyengar研究如何让你在做选择时更容易。为了让你的选择省时省力，商家又会有哪些诀窍呢?

do you know how many choices you make in a typical day? do you know how many choices you make in typical week? i recently did a survey with over 2,000 americans, and the average number of choices that the typical american reports making is about 70 in a typical day.there was also recently a study done with ceos in which they followed ceos around for a whole week.and these scientists simply documented all the various tasks that these ceos engaged in and how much time they spent engaging in making decisions related to these tasks.and they found that the average ceo engaged in about 139 tasks in a week.each task was made up of many, many, many sub-choices of course.50 percent of their decisions were made in nine minutes or less.only about 12 percent of the decisions did they make an hour or more of their time.think about your own choices.do you know how many choices make it into your nine minute category versus your one hour category? how well do you think you're doing at managing those choices?

today i want to talk about one of the biggest modern day choosing problems that we have, which is the choice overload problem.i want to talk about the problem and some potential solutions.now as i talk about this problem, i'm going to have some questions for you and i'm going to want to know your answers.so when i ask you a question, since i'm blind, only raise your hand if you want to burn off some calories.(laughter)otherwise, when i ask you a question, and if your answer is yes, i'd like you to clap your hands.so for my first question for you today: are you guys ready to hear about the choice overload problem?(applause)thank you.so when i was a graduate student at stanford university, i used to go to this very, very upscale grocery store;at least at that time it was truly upscale.it was a store called draeger's.now this store, it was almost like going to an amusement park.they had 250 different kinds of mustards and vinegars and over 500 different kinds of fruits and vegetables and more than two dozen different kinds of bottled water--and this was during a time when we actually used to drink tap water.i used to love going to this store, but on one occasion i asked myself, well how come you never buy anything? here's their olive oil aisle.they had over 75 different kinds of olive oil, including those that were in a locked case that came from thousand-year-old olive trees.so i one day decided to pay a visit to the manager, and i asked the manager, “is this model of offering people all this choice really working?” and he pointed to the busloads of tourists that would show up everyday, with cameras ready usually.we decided to do a little experiment, and we picked jam for our experiment.here's their jam aisle.they had 348 different kinds of jam.we set up a little tasting booth right near the entrance of the store.we there put out six different flavors of jam or 24 different flavors of jam, and we looked at two things: first, in which case were people more likely to stop, sample some jam? more people stopped when there were 24, about 60 percent, than when there were six, about 40 percent.the next thing we looked at is in which case were people more likely to buy a jar of jam.now we see the opposite effect.of the people who stopped when there were 24, only three percent of them actually bought a jar of jam.of the people who stopped when there were six, well now we saw that 30 percent of them actually bought a jar of jam.now if you do the math, people were at least six times more likely to buy a jar of jam if they encountered six than if they encountered 24.now choosing not to buy a jar of jam is probably good for us--at least it's good for our waistlines--but it turns out that this choice overload problem affects us even in very consequential decisions.we choose not to choose, even when it goes against our best self-interests.so now for the topic of today: financial savings.now i'm going to describe to you a study i did with gur huberman, emir kamenica, wei jang where we looked at the retirement savings decisions of nearly a million americans from about 650 plans all in the and what we looked at was whether the number of fund offerings available in a retirement savings plan, the 401(k)plan, does that affect people's likelihood to save more for tomorrow.and what we found was that indeed there was a correlation.so in these plans, we had about 657 plans that ranged from offering people anywhere from two to 59 different fund offerings.and what we found was that, the more funds offered, indeed, there was less participation rate.so if you look at the extremes, those plans that offered you two funds, participation rates were around in the mid-70s--still not as high as we want it to be.in those plans that offered nearly 60 funds, participation rates have now dropped to about the 60th percentile.now it turns out that even if you do choose to participate when there are more choices present, even then, it has negative consequences.so for those people who did choose to participate, the more choices available, the more likely people were to completely avoid stocks or equity funds.the more choices available, the more likely they were to put all their money in pure money market accounts.now neither of these extreme decisions are the kinds of decisions that any of us would recommend for people when you're considering their future financial well-being.well, over the past decade, we have observed three main negative consequences to offering people more and more choices.they're more likely to delay choosing--procrastinate even when it goes against their best self-interest.they're more likely to make worse choices--worse financial choices, medical choices.they're more likely to choose things that make them less satisfied, even when they do objectively better.the main reason for this is because, we might enjoy gazing at those giant walls of mayonnaises, mustards, vinegars, jams, but we can't actually do the math of comparing and contrasting and actually picking from that stunning display.so what i want to propose to you today are four simple techniques--techniques that we have tested in one way or another in different research venues--that you can easily apply in your businesses.the first: cut.you've heard it said before, but it's never been more true than today, that less is more.people are always upset when i say, “cut.” they're always worried they're going to lose shelf space.but in fact, what we're seeing more and more is that if you are willing to cut, get rid of those extraneous redundant options, well there's an increase in sales, there's a lowering of costs, there is an improvement of the choosing experience.when proctor & gamble went from 26 different kinds of head & shoulders to 15, they saw an increase in sales by 10 percent.when the golden cat corporation got rid of their 10 worst-selling cat litter products, they saw an increase in profits by 87 percent--a function of both increase in sales and lowering of costs.you know, the average grocery store today offers you 45,000 products.the typical walmart today offers you 100,000 products.but the ninth largest retailer, the ninth biggest retailer in the world today is aldi, and it offers you only 1,400 products--one kind of canned tomato sauce.now in the financial savings world, i think one of the best examples that has recently come out on how to best manage the choice offerings has actually been something that david laibson was heavily involved in designing, which was the program that they have at harvard.every single harvard employee is now automatically enrolled in a lifecycle fund.for those people who actually want to choose, they're given 20 funds, not 300 or more funds.you know, often, people say, “i don't know how to cut.they're all important choices.” and the first thing i do is i ask the employees, “tell me how these choices are different from one another.and if your employees can't tell them apart, neither can your consumers.”

now before we started our session this afternoon, i had a chat with gary.and gary said that he would be willing to offer people in this audience an all-expenses-paid free vacation to the most beautiful road in the world.here's a description of the road.and i'd like you to read it.and now i'll give you a few seconds to read it and then i want you to clap your hands if you're ready to take gary up on his offer.(light clapping)okay.anybody who's ready to take him up on his offer.is that all? all right, let me show you some more about this.(laughter)you guys knew there was a trick, didn't you.(honk)now who's ready to go on this trip.(applause)(laughter)i think i might have actually heard more hands.all right.now in fact, you had objectively more information the first time around than the second time around, but i would venture to guess that you felt that it was more real the second time around.because the pictures made it feel more real to you.which brings me to the second technique for handling the choice overload problem, which is concretization.that in order for people to understand the differences between the choices, they have to be able to understand the consequences associated with each choice, and that the consequences need to be felt in a vivid sort of way, in a very concrete way.why do people spend an average of 15 to 30 percent more when they use an atm card or a credit card as opposed to cash? because it doesn't feel like real money.and it turns out that making it feel more concrete can actually be a very positive tool to use in getting people to save more.so a study that i did with shlomo benartzi and alessandro previtero, we did a study with people at ing--employees that are all working at ing--and now these people were all in a session where they're doing enrollment for their 401(k)plan.and during that session, we kept the session exactly the way it used to be, but we added one little thing.the one little thing we added was we asked people to just think about all the positive things that would happen in your life if you saved more.by doing that simple thing, there was an increase in enrollment by 20 percent and there was an increase in the amount of people willing to save or the amount that they were willing to put down into their savings account by four percent.the third technique: categorization.we can handle more categories than we can handle choices.so for example, here's a study we did in a magazine aisle.it turns out that in wegmans grocery stores up and down the northeast corridor, the magazine aisles range anywhere from 331 different kinds of magazines all the way up to 664.but you know what? if i show you 600 magazines and i divide them up into 10 categories, versus i show you 400 magazines and divide them up into 20 categories, you believe that i have given you more choice and a better choosing experience if i gave you the 400 than if i gave you the 600.because the categories tell me how to tell them apart.here are two different jewelry displays.one is called “jazz” and the other one is called “swing.” if you think the display on the left is swing and the display on the right is jazz, clap your hands.(light clapping)okay, there's some.if you think the one on the left is jazz and the one on the right is swing, clap your hands.okay, a bit more.now it turns out you're right.the one on the left is jazz and the one on the right is swing, but you know what? this is a highly useless categorization scheme.(laughter)the categories need to say something to the chooser, not the choice-maker.and you often see that problem when it comes down to those long lists of all these funds.who are they actually supposed to be informing?

my fourth technique: condition for complexity.it turns out we can actually handle a lot more information than we think we can, we've just got to take it a little easier.we have to gradually increase the complexity.i'm going to show you one example of what i'm talking about.let's take a very, very complicated decision: buying a car.here's a german car manufacturer that gives you the opportunity to completely custom make your car.you've got to make 60 different decisions, completely make up your car.now these decisions vary in the number of choices that they offer per decision.car colors, exterior car colors--i've got 56 choices.engines, gearshift--four choices.so now what i'm going to do is i'm going to vary the order in which these decisions appear.so half of the customers are going to go from high choice, 56 car colors, to low choice, four gearshifts.the other half of the customers are going to go from low choice, four gearshifts, to 56 car colors, high choice.what am i going to look at? how engaged you are.if you keep hitting the default button per decision, that means you're getting overwhelmed, that means i'm losing you.what you find is the people who go from high choice to low choice, they're hitting that default button over and over and over again.we're losing them.they go from low choice to high choice, they're hanging in there.it's the same information.it's the same number of choices.the only thing that i have done is i have varied the order in which that information is presented.if i start you off easy, i learn how to choose.even though choosing gearshift doesn't tell me anything about my preferences for interior decor, it still prepares me for how to choose.it also gets me excited about this big product that i'm putting together, so i'm more willing to be motivated to be engaged.so let me recap.i have talked about four techniques for mitigating the problem of choice overload--cut--get rid of the extraneous alternatives;concretize--make it real;categorize--we can handle more categories, less choices;condition for complexity.all of these techniques that i'm describing to you today are designed to help you manage your choices--better for you, you can use them on yourself, better for the people that you are serving.because i believe that the key to getting the most from choice is to be choosy about choosing.and the more we're able to be choosy about choosing the better we will be able to practice the art of choosing.thank you very much.(applause)

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第二篇：让孩子模仿小动物学英语更容易

让孩子模仿小动物学英语更容易

2013年06月18日16:20沪江英语 微博我有话说

“学英语去”，是目前许多家长[微博]双休日带孩子外出学习的首选，幼儿园的孩子也纷纷加入到学英语的行列中，学习英语的年龄呈现出越来越小的趋势。有的家长由于不懂幼儿学习语言的特点，让孩子认字母背单词，结果是自己教得冒火，孩子学得吃力。特别是在你火冒三丈大声训斥孩子的时候，孩子会渐渐失去信心，对英语学习失去兴趣，这种结果是最可怕的，因为它有可能影响孩子今后的学习态度。

心理学家认为：兴趣具有动力作用，也就是说兴趣可以转化为激发人们进行某种活动的推动力。幼儿期的儿童，由于注意力等心理因素发展不够成熟，他们的学习在很大程度上带有明显的情绪化倾向，当儿童对学习有浓厚兴趣和好奇心时，便会产生情感上的需求。对孩子来说，英语学习是新的认知点，家长更应考虑孩子情感上的需求，采用生动活泼、有趣味的形式来吸引他们。孩子学习英语，重要的是创设一个轻松愉悦的环境。爸爸妈妈要有意识地把英语学习和游戏结合起来，如“Wolf，wolf，what time is it?”“It‘s five o’clock。”在游戏中，让孩子模仿小动物，边做动作边用英语回答，轻松自然地就学会了英语句型。在和孩子玩过家家的时候，问问孩子“What do you like?”让孩子试着用学过的单词说一说。平时，父母也可以利用一些日常活动，如给孩子洗脸时，一边洗一边教孩子念念英语儿歌“Wash your face, Wash your eyes, Wash your nose, Wash your„„”这样既让孩子觉得好玩，又学得有趣。带孩子去超市时问问孩子”What do you want?”鼓励孩子用单词或句型来回答。当孩子能正确说出单词时，妈妈的一个亲吻，一个拥抱，爸爸翘起的大拇指，奖励一张小小的粘纸都会使孩子产生自信的情感，激起学习的兴趣。因此爸爸妈妈在教孩子学英语时，要不断地变换形式，采用模仿小动物、敲榔头、敲门、开火车、击鼓传花、听故事、表演等来愉悦儿童学习的过程，使孩子学得兴趣盎然。

俗话说合则情生趣有，不合则情失趣无。教孩子学习英语对父母来说既是一种耐心的培养，更是智慧的挑战。

第三篇：TED英语演讲稿

01.Remember to say thank you

Hi.I'm here to talk to you about the importance of praise, admiration and thank you, and having it be specific and genuine.And the way I got interested in this was, I noticed in myself, when I was growing up, and until about a few years ago, that I would want to say thank you to someone, I would want to praise them, I would want to take in their praise of me and I'd just stop it.And I asked myself, why? I felt shy, I felt embarrassed.And then my question became, am I the only one who does this? So, I decided to investigate.I'm fortunate enough to work in the rehab facility, so I get to see people who are facing life and death with addiction.And sometimes it comes down to something as simple as, their core wound is their father died without ever saying he's proud of them.But then, they hear from all the family and friends that the father told everybody else that he was proud of him, but he never told the son.It's because he didn't know that his son needed to hear it.So my question is, why don't we ask for the things that we need? I know a gentleman, married for 25 years, who's longing to hear his wife say, “Thank you for being the breadwinner, so I can stay home with the kids,” but won't ask.I know a woman who's good at this.She, once a week, meets with her husband and says, “I'd really like you to thank me for all these things I did in the house and with the kids.” And he goes, “Oh, this is great, this is great.” And praise really does have to be genuine, but she takes responsibility for that.And a friend of mine, April, who I've had since kindergarten, she thanks her children for doing their chores.And she said, “Why wouldn't I thank it, even though they're supposed to do it?”

So, the question is, why was I blocking it? Why were other people blocking it? Why can I say, “I'll take my steak medium rare, I need size six shoes,” but I won't say, “Would you praise me this way?” And it's because I'm giving you critical data about me.I'm telling you where I'm insecure.I'm telling you where I need your help.And I'm treating you, my inner circle, like you're the enemy.Because what can you do with that data? You could neglect me.You could abuse it.Or you could actually meet my need.And I took my bike into the bike store--I love this--same bike, and they'd do something called “truing” the wheels.The guy said, “You know, when you true the wheels, it's going to make the bike so much better.” I get the same bike back, and they've taken all the little warps out of those same wheels I've had for two and a half years, and my bike is like new.So, I'm going to challenge all of you.I want you to true your wheels: be honest about the praise that you need to hear.What do you need to hear? Go home to your wife--go ask her, what does she need? Go home to your husband--what does he need? Go home and ask those questions, and then help the people around you.And it's simple.And why should we care about this? We talk about world peace.How can we have world peace with different cultures, different languages? I think it starts household by household, under the same roof.So, let's make it right in our own backyard.And I want to thank all of you in the audience for being great husbands, great mothers, friends, daughters, sons.And maybe somebody's never said that to you, but you've done a really, really good job.And thank you for being here, just showing up and changing the world with your ideas.02.The benefits of a bilingual brain

¿Hablas español? Parlez-vous français? ni hui shuo zhong wen ma? If you answered “si”,”oui” or ”hui” and you are watching this in English, chances are you belong to the world bilingual and multilingual majority.And besides having an easier time traveling, or watching movies without subtitles, knowing two or more languages means that your brain may actually look and work differently than those of your monolingual friends.So what does it really mean to know a language?

Language ability is typically measured in two active parts, speaking and writing, and two passive parts, listening and reading.While a balanced bilingual has near equal abilities across the board in two languages, most bilinguals around the world know and use their languages in vary proportions.And depending on their situation and how they acquired each language, they can be classified into three general types.For example, let’s take Gabriella, whose family immigrates to the US from Peru when she was two-years old.As a compound bilingual, Gabriella develops two linguistic codes simultaneously, with a single set of concepts, learning both English and Spanish as she begins to process the world around her.Her teenage brother, on the other hand, might be a coordinate bilingual, working with two sets of concepts, learning English in school, while continuing to speak Spanish at home and with friends.Finally, Gabriella’s parents are likely to be subordinate bilinguals who learned a secondary language by filtering it through their primary language.Because all types of bilingual people can become fully proficient in a language regardless of accent and pronunciation, the difference may not be apparent to be a casual observer.But recent advances in imaging technology have given neurolinguists a glimpse into how specific aspects of language learning affect the bilingual brain.It’s well known that the brain’s left hemisphere is more dominant and analytical in logical processes, while the right hemisphere is more active in emotional and social ones, though this is a matter of degree, not an absolute split.The fact that language involves both types of functions while lateralization develops gradually with age, has lead to the critical period hypothesis.According to this theory, children learn languages more easily because the plasticity of their developing brains let them use both hemispheres in language acquisition, while in most adults, language is lateralized to one hemisphere, usually the left.If this is true, learning a language in childhood may give you a more holistic grasp of its social and emotional contexts.Conversely, recent research showed that people who learned a second language in adulthood exhibit less emotional bias and a more rational approach when confronting problems in the second language than their native one.But regardless of when you acquire additional languages, being multilingual gives your brain some remarkable advantages.Some of these are even visible, such higher density of the gray matter that contains most of your brain’s neurons and synapses, and more activity in certain regions when engaging a second language.The heightened workout a bilingual brain receives throughout its life can also help delay the onset of diseases, like Alzheimers and Dementia by as much as 5 years.The idea of major cognitive benefits to bilingualism may seem intuitive now, but it would have surprised earlier experts.Before the 1960s, bilingualism was considered a handicap that slowed the child’s development by forcing them to spend them too much energy distinguishing between languages, a view based largely on flawed studies.And while a more recent study did show that reaction times and errors increase for some bilingual students in cross-language tests, it also showed that the effort and attention needed to switch between languages triggered more activity in, and potentially strengthened, the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex.This is the part of brain that plays a large role in executive function, problem solving, switching between tasks, and focusing while filtering out irrelevant information.So, while bilingual may not necessarily make you smarter, it does make your brain more healthy, complex and actively engaged, and even if you didn’t have the good fortune of learning a second language like a child, it’s never too late to do yourself a favor and make the linguistic leap from, ”Hello,” to “Hola”, ”Bonjour” or “ninhao’s” because when it comes to our brains a little exercise can go a long way.03.Feats of memory anyone can do

I'd like to invite you to close your eyes.Imagine yourself standing outside the front door of your home.I'd like you to notice the color of the door, the material that it's made out of.Now visualize a pack of overweight nudists on bicycles.They are competing in a naked bicycle race, and they are headed straight for your front door.I need you to actually see this.They are pedaling really hard, they're sweaty, they're bouncing around a lot.And they crash straight into the front door of your home.Bicycles fly everywhere, wheels roll past you, spokes end up in awkward places.Step over the threshold of your door into your foyer, your hallway, whatever's on the other side, and appreciate the quality of the light.The light is shining down on Cookie Monster.Cookie Monster is waving at you from his perch on top of a tan horse.It's a talking horse.You can practically feel his blue fur tickling your nose.You can smell the oatmeal raisin cookie that he's about to shovel into his mouth.Walk past him.Walk past him into your living room.In your living room, in full imaginative broadband, picture Britney Spears.She is scantily clad, she's dancing on your coffee table, and she's singing “Hit Me Baby One More Time.” And then, follow me into your kitchen.In your kitchen, the floor has been paved over with a yellow brick road, and out of your oven are coming towards you Dorothy, the Tin Man, the Scarecrow and the Lion from “The Wizard of Oz,” hand-in-hand, skipping straight towards you.Okay.Open your eyes.I want to tell you about a very bizarre contest that is held every spring in New York City.It's called the United States Memory Championship.And I had gone to cover this contest a few years back as a science journalist, expecting, I guess, that this was going to be like the Superbowl of savants.This was a bunch of guys and a few ladies, widely varying in both age and hygienic upkeep.They were memorizing hundreds of random numbers, looking at them just once.They were memorizing the names of dozens and dozens and dozens of strangers.They were memorizing entire poems in just a few minutes.They were competing to see who could memorize the order of a shuffled pack of playing cards the fastest.I was like, this is unbelievable.These people must be freaks of nature.And I started talking to a few of the competitors.This is a guy called Ed Cook, who had come over from England, where he had one of the best-trained memories.And I said to him, “Ed, when did you realize that you were a savant?” And Ed was like, “I'm not a savant.In fact, I have just an average memory.Everybody who competes in this contest will tell you that they have just an average memory.We've all trained ourselves to perform these utterly miraculous feats of memory using a set of ancient techniques, techniques invented 2,500 years ago in Greece, the same techniques that Cicero had used to memorize his speeches, that medieval scholars had used to memorize entire books.” And I said, “Whoa.How come I never heard of this before?”

And we were standing outside the competition hall, and Ed, who is a wonderful, brilliant, but somewhat eccentric English guy, says to me, “Josh, you're an American journalist.Do you know Britney Spears?” I'm like, “What? No.Why?” “Because I really want to teach Britney Spears how to memorize the order of a shuffled pack of playing cards on U.S.national television.It will prove to the world that anybody can do this.”

I was like, “Well, I'm not Britney Spears, but maybe you could teach me.I mean, you've got to start somewhere, right?” And that was the beginning of a very strange journey for me.I ended up spending the better part of the next year not only training my memory, but also investigating it, trying to understand how it works, why it sometimes doesn't work, and what its potential might be.And I met a host of really interesting people.This is a guy called E.P.He's an amnesic who had, very possibly, the worst memory in the world.His memory was so bad, that he didn't even remember he had a memory problem, which is amazing.And he was this incredibly tragic figure, but he was a window into the extent to which our memories make us who we are.At the other end of the spectrum, I met this guy.This is Kim Peek, he was the basis for Dustin Hoffman's character in the movie “Rain Man.” We spent an afternoon together in the Salt Lake City Public Library memorizing phone books, which was scintillating.And I went back and I read a whole host of memory treatises, treatises written 2,000-plus years ago in Latin, in antiquity, and then later, in the Middle Ages.And I learned a whole bunch of really interesting stuff.One of the really interesting things that I learned is that once upon a time, this idea of having a trained, disciplined, cultivated memory was not nearly so alien as it would seem to us to be today.Once upon a time, people invested in their memories, in laboriously furnishing their minds.Over the last few millenia, we've invented a series of technologies--from the alphabet, to the scroll, to the codex, the printing press, photography, the computer, the smartphone--that have made it progressively easier and easier for us to externalize our memories, for us to essentially outsource this fundamental human capacity.These technologies have made our modern world possible, but they've also changed us.They've changed us culturally, and I would argue that they've changed us cognitively.Having little need to remember anymore, it sometimes seems like we've forgotten how.One of the last places on Earth where you still find people passionate about this idea of a trained, disciplined, cultivated memory, is at this totally singular memory contest.It's actually not that singular, there are contests held all over the world.And I was fascinated, I wanted to know how do these guys do it.A few years back a group of researchers at University College London brought a bunch of memory champions into the lab.They wanted to know: Do these guys have brains that are somehow structurally, anatomically different from the rest of ours? The answer was no.Are they smarter than the rest of us? They gave them a bunch of cognitive tests, and the answer was: not really.There was, however, one really interesting and telling difference between the brains of the memory champions and the control subjects that they were comparing them to.When they put these guys in an fMRI machine, scanned their brains while they were memorizing numbers and people's faces and pictures of snowflakes, they found that the memory champions were lighting up different parts of the brain than everyone else.Of note, they were using, or they seemed to be using, a part of the brain that's involved in spatial memory and navigation.Why? And is there something that the rest of us can learn from this?

The sport of competitive memorizing is driven by a kind of arms race where, every year, somebody comes up with a new way to remember more stuff more quickly, and then the rest of the field has to play catch-up.This is my friend Ben Pridmore, three-time world memory champion.On his desk in front of him are 36 shuffled packs of playing cards that he is about to try to memorize in one hour, using a technique that he invented and he alone has mastered.He used a similar technique to memorize the precise order of 4,140 random binary digits in half an hour.Yeah.And while there are a whole host of ways of remembering stuff in these competitions, everything, all of the techniques that are being used, ultimately come down to a concept that psychologists refer to as “elaborative encoding.”

And it's well-illustrated by a nifty paradox known as the Baker/baker paradox, which goes like this: If I tell two people to remember the same word, if I say to you, “Remember that there is a guy named Baker.” That's his name.And I say to you, “Remember that there is a guy who is a baker.” Okay? And I come back to you at some point later on, and I say, “Do you remember that word that I told you a while back? Do you remember what it was?” The person who was told his name is Baker is less likely to remember the same word than the person was told his job is a baker.Same word, different amount of remembering;that's weird.What's going on here?

Well, the name Baker doesn't actually mean anything to you.It is entirely untethered from all of the other memories floating around in your skull.But the common noun “baker”--we know bakers.Bakers wear funny white hats.Bakers have flour on their hands.Bakers smell good when they come home from work.Maybe we even know a baker.And when we first hear that word, we start putting these associational hooks into it, that make it easier to fish it back out at some later date.The entire art of what is going on in these memory contests, and the entire art of remembering stuff better in everyday life, is figuring out ways to transform capital B Bakers into lower-case B bakers--to take information that is lacking in context, in significance, in meaning, and transform it in some way, so that it becomes meaningful in the light of all the other things that you have in your mind.One of the more elaborate techniques for doing this dates back 2,500 years to Ancient Greece.It came to be known as the memory palace.The story behind its creation goes like this:

There was a poet called Simonides, who was attending a banquet.He was actually the hired entertainment, because back then, if you wanted to throw a really slamming party, you didn't hire a D.J., you hired a poet.And he stands up, delivers his poem from memory, walks out the door, and at the moment he does, the banquet hall collapses.Kills everybody inside.It doesn't just kill everybody, it mangles the bodies beyond all recognition.Nobody can say who was inside, nobody can say where they were sitting.The bodies can't be properly buried.It's one tragedy compounding another.Simonides, standing outside, the sole survivor amid the wreckage, closes his eyes and has this realization, which is that in his mind's eye, he can see where each of the guests at the banquet had been sitting.And he takes the relatives by the hand, and guides them each to their loved ones amid the wreckage.What Simonides figured out at that moment, is something that I think we all kind of intuitively know, which is that, as bad as we are at remembering names and phone numbers, and word-for-word instructions from our colleagues, we have really exceptional visual and spatial memories.If I asked you to recount the first 10 words of the story that I just told you about Simonides, chances are you would have a tough time with it.But, I would wager that if I asked you to recall who is sitting on top of a talking tan horse in your foyer right now, you would be able to see that.The idea behind the memory palace is to create this imagined edifice in your mind's eye, and populate it with images of the things that you want to remember--the crazier, weirder, more bizarre, funnier, raunchier, stinkier the image is, the more unforgettable it's likely to be.This is advice that goes back 2,000-plus years to the earliest Latin memory treatises.So how does this work? Let's say that you've been invited to TED center stage to give a speech, and you want to do it from memory, and you want to do it the way that Cicero would have done it, if he had been invited to TEDxRome 2,000 years ago.What you might do is picture yourself at the front door of your house.And you'd come up with some sort of crazy, ridiculous, unforgettable image, to remind you that the first thing you want to talk about is this totally bizarre contest.And then you'd go inside your house, and you would see an image of Cookie Monster on top of Mister Ed.And that would remind you that you would want to then introduce your friend Ed Cook.And then you'd see an image of Britney Spears to remind you of this funny anecdote you want to tell.And you'd go into your kitchen, and the fourth topic you were going to talk about was this strange journey that you went on for a year, and you'd have some friends to help you remember that.This is how Roman orators memorized their speeches--not word-for-word, which is just going to screw you up, but topic-for-topic.In fact, the phrase “topic sentence”--that comes from the Greek word “topos,” which means “place.” That's a vestige of when people used to think about oratory and rhetoric in these sorts of spatial terms.The phrase “in the first place,” that's like “in the first place of your memory palace.”

I thought this was just fascinating, and I got really into it.And I went to a few more of these memory contests, and I had this notion that I might write something longer about this subculture of competitive memorizers.But there was a problem.The problem was that a memory contest is a pathologically boring event.Truly, it is like a bunch of people sitting around taking the SATs--I mean, the most dramatic it gets is when somebody starts massaging their temples.And I'm a journalist, I need something to write about.I know that there's incredible stuff happening in these people's minds, but I don't have access to it.And I realized, if I was going to tell this story, I needed to walk in their shoes a little bit.And so I started trying to spend 15 or 20 minutes every morning, before I sat down with my New York Times, just trying to remember something.Maybe it was a poem, maybe it was names from an old yearbook that I bought at a flea market.And I found that this was shockingly fun.I never would have expected that.It was fun because this is actually not about training your memory.What you're doing, is you're trying to get better and better at creating, at dreaming up, these utterly ludicrous, raunchy, hilarious, and hopefully unforgettable images in your mind's eye.And I got pretty into it.This is me wearing my standard competitive memorizer's training kit.It's a pair of earmuffs and a set of safety goggles that have been masked over except for two small pinholes, because distraction is the competitive memorizer's greatest enemy.I ended up coming back to that same contest that I had covered a year earlier, and I had this notion that I might enter it, sort of as an experiment in participatory journalism.It'd make, I thought, maybe a nice epilogue to all my research.Problem was, the experiment went haywire.I won the contest--which really wasn't supposed to happen.Now, it is nice to be able to memorize speeches and phone numbers and shopping lists, but it's actually kind of beside the point.These are just tricks.They work because they're based on some pretty basic principles about how our brains work.And you don't have to be building memory palaces or memorizing packs of playing cards to benefit from a little bit of insight about how your mind works.We often talk about people with great memories as though it were some sort of an innate gift, but that is not the case.Great memories are learned.At the most basic level, we remember when we pay attention.We remember when we are deeply engaged.We remember when we are able to take a piece of information and experience, and figure out why it is meaningful to us, why it is significant, why it's colorful, when we're able to transform it in some way that makes sense in the light of all of the other things floating around in our minds, when we're able to transform Bakers into bakers.The memory palace, these memory techniques--they're just shortcuts.In fact, they're not even really shortcuts.They work because they make you work.They force a kind of depth of processing, a kind of mindfulness, that most of us don't normally walk around exercising.But there actually are no shortcuts.This is how stuff is made memorable.And I think if there's one thing that I want to leave you with, it's what E.P., the amnesic who couldn't even remember he had a memory problem, left me with, which is the notion that our lives are the sum of our memories.How much are we willing to lose from our already short lives, by losing ourselves in our Blackberries, our iPhones, by not paying attention to the human being across from us who is talking with us, by being so lazy that we're not willing to process deeply?

I learned firsthand that there are incredible memory capacities latent in all of us.But if you want to live a memorable life, you have to be the kind of person who remembers to remember.Thank you.01.请别忘记感谢身边的人

嗨。我在这里要和大家谈谈向别人表达赞美，倾佩和谢意的重要性。并使它们听来真诚，具体。

之所以我对此感兴趣是因为我从我自己的成长中注意到几年前，当我想要对某个人说声谢谢时，当我想要赞美他们时，当我想接受他们对我的赞扬，但我却没有说出口。我问我自己，这是为什么？我感到害羞，我感到尴尬。接着我产生了一个问题难道我是唯一一个这么做的人吗？所以我决定做些探究。

我非常幸运的在一家康复中心工作，所以我可以看到那些因为上瘾而面临生与死的人。有时候这一切可以非常简单地归结为，他们最核心的创伤来自于他们父亲到死都未说过“他为他们而自豪”。但他们从所有其它家庭或朋友那里得知他的父亲告诉其他人为他感到自豪，但这个父亲从没告诉过他儿子。因为他不知道他的儿子需要听到这一切。

因此我的问题是，为什么我们不索求我们需要的东西呢？我认识一个结婚25年的男士渴望听到他妻子说，“感谢你为这个家在外赚钱，这样我才能在家陪伴着孩子，”但他从来不去问。我认识一个精于此道的女士。每周一次，她见到丈夫后会说，“我真的希望你为我对这个家和孩子们付出的努力而感谢我。”他会应和到“哦，真是太棒了，真是太棒了。”赞扬别人一定要真诚，但她对赞美承担了责任。一个从我上幼儿园就一直是朋友的叫April的人，她会感谢她的孩子们做了家务。她说：“为什么我不表示感谢呢，即使他们本来就要做那些事情？”

因此我的问题是，为什么我不说呢？为什么其它人不说呢？为什么我能说：“我要一块中等厚度的牛排，我需要6号尺寸的鞋子，”但我却不能说：“你可以赞扬我吗？”因为这会使我把我的重要信息与你分享。会让我告诉了你我内心的不安。会让你认为我需要你的帮助。虽然你是我最贴心的人，我却把你当作是敌人。你会用我托付给你的重要信息做些什么呢？你可以忽视我。你可以滥用它。或者你可以满足我的要求。

我把我的自行车拿到车行－－我喜欢这么做－－同样的自行车，他们会对车轮做整形。那里的人说：“当你对车轮做整形时，它会使自行车变成更好。”我把这辆自行车拿回来，他们把有小小弯曲的铁丝从轮子上拿走这辆车我用了2年半，现在还像新的一样。所以我要问在场的所有人，我希望你们把你们的车轮整形一下：真诚面对对你们想听到的赞美。你们想听到什么呢？回家问问你们的妻子，她想听到什么？回家问问你们的丈夫，他想听到什么？回家问问这些问题，并帮助身边的人实现它们。

非常简单。为什么要关心这个呢？我们谈论世界和平。我们怎么用不同的文化，不同的语言来保持世界和平？我想要从每个小家庭开始。所以让我们在家里就把这件事情做好。我想要感谢所有在这里的人们因为你们是好丈夫，好母亲，好伙伴，好女儿和好儿子。或许有些人从没跟你们说过但你们已经做得非常非常得出色了。感谢你们来到这里，向世界显示着你们的智慧，并用它们改变着世界。

02.双语能力对大脑的益处惊人

你会说中文吗？如果你能回答“si”、“oui”或者“是的”，而且能看懂这个英文短片，那么你就跟世界上很多人一样、具备双语能力或是多语能力。除了旅游时沟通比较方便、看电影不需要字幕这些好处之外，通晓两种或者三种以上的语言，意味着你的大脑在结构上或运作上与你那些单一语言的朋友有着明显的不同。所以到底什么才能算通晓一门语言呢？

衡量语言能力，主要包含两个主动部分——说和写，和两个被动部分——听和读。虽然一个出色的双语者对于两种语言都有着相近的使用能力，但是大多数的双语者对两个语种的认知和使用能力是有差异的。根据个人所处的环境以及他们具体学语言的方法，双语者通常可以分成三类。

举个例子来说，Gabriella在两岁时跟着家人由秘鲁移民到美国。她属于复合型双语者，Gabriella在刚接触这个世界时就同时学英语和西班牙语，所以给她一个概念、她的大脑就能同时唤起两种语言信号。她有一个十几岁的哥哥，则属于协调型双语使用者，他运用两种不同的概念，一方面在学校学习英语，另一方面用西班牙语和家人、朋友交流。

最后，Gabriella的父母，则属于从属型双语者。当他们学习外语（英语）时，需要通过母语进行翻译再进行学习。

如果不考虑口音和发音问题，这三种类型的双语者至少都算能精通一门语言。因此，一般人很难发现这三种类型的差异。然而现在，由于大脑成像技术不断进步，神经语言学家能够知道语言学习对双语使用者的大脑产生什么样的影响。

大家都知道，大脑的左半球是掌管数据和逻辑分析的，而大脑的右半球则掌管情感与社交，但这并不是绝对的、只是比例多少的问题。

语言同时包括了左脑和右脑的功能，而随着年龄的增长，大脑的功能会逐渐侧重其中的一边，语言学习的关键时期假说就是由这个事实引申出来的。根据这个理论，儿童学习语言更容易，是因为他们的大脑仍在发展、可塑性更强，他们可以同时调用左右两边大脑的机能来学习语言；然而多数成年人只通过大脑的一边（通常是左脑）学习语言。

如果这个假说是真的，那么在儿童时期学习语言可以让你对其社会和情感内涵有着更整体的把握。另一方面，近期的研究表明，成年人学习外语时的情绪性偏见没那么多，同时相比于母语环境，他们在外语环境中遇到问题时也更为理性。

无论如何，当你学习一门新的语言时，多语能力都会给你的大脑带来明显的好处。有些好处甚至是可视化的，比如大脑灰白质的密度增加，那里包含了大多数的神经元和突触，而且在学习外语时，大脑的部分区域会变得更加活跃。双语者的大脑可以持续不断地接收强化训练，这能让一些病症（如阿兹海默痴呆症和失智症）的发作推迟至5年以后。

双语能力对认知能力的有所帮助在现代来看是很好理解的，但是过去的专家一定会对这个观点大吃一惊。在1960年之前，人们认为使用双语对于儿童的成长来说是一种障碍，因为这需要儿童花费精力去分辨别不同语言，这种观点的产生源自有瑕疵的研究方法。

最新的研究的确显示，在跨语言测验当中，使用双语的学生的反应时间与错误次数增加了；同时也表明，学生需要花费更多的努力和注意力进行语言的转换，这也使得前额叶脑区更加活跃、进而强化其机能。前额叶脑区主要影响执行、解决问题、多任务转换、集中注意力、排除无关信息的能力。

虽然学习双语不一定能让你更聪明，但是它可以让你的大脑更加健康、多元和活跃。即使你在年幼时没有机会学习第二语言，但是现在学习永远不会太晚。从现在开始学一门外语吧，把“hello”转换成“Hola”、“Bonjour”、“你好”(本文作者母语为英语)等外语问候，即使只是小小的训练，也能对大脑有所帮助。03.每个人都能掌握的记忆技巧

请大家跟我一起闭上眼睛，象一下。

你站在，自己家门口的外面，请留心一下门的颜色，以及门的材质，现在请想象一群超重的裸骑者，正在进行一场裸体自行车赛，向你的前门直冲而来，尽量让画面想象得栩栩如生近在眼前，他们都在奋力地踩脚踏板汗流浃背，路面非常颠簸，然后径直撞进了你家前门，自行车四下飞散车轮从你身旁滚过，辐条扎进了各种尴尬角落，跨过门槛，进到门厅、走廊和门里的其他地方，室内光线柔和舒适，光线洒在甜饼怪物身上，他坐在一匹棕色骏马的马背上，正向你招手，这匹马会说话，你可以感觉到他的蓝色鬃毛让你鼻子发痒，你可以闻到他正要扔进嘴里的葡萄燕麦曲奇的香气，绕过他绕过他走进客厅，站在客厅里把你的想象力调到最大档，想象小甜甜布兰妮，她衣着暴露在你咖啡桌上跳舞，并唱着“Hit Me Baby One More Time”，接下来跟着我走进你的厨房，厨房的地面被一道黄砖路覆盖，依次钻出你的烤箱向你走来的是，《绿野仙踪》里的多萝西铁皮人，稻草人和狮子，他们手挽着手蹦蹦跳跳地向你走来，好了睁开眼睛吧，我要给你们讲一个每年春天在纽约，都会举办的奇异竞赛，叫做全美记忆冠军赛，几年前我作为一名科技类记者，去报道这项竞赛，心里想着大概那儿得像，怪才的“超级碗冠军赛”一样热闹吧，一大堆男人和屈指可数的女性，从小孩儿到老人有些还不怎么注意个人卫生，有的奋力在只看一次的情况下，记下上百个任意列出的数字，有的在努力记住成群的陌生人的名字，有的想在几分钟内努力背下整篇诗歌，还有的在比赛谁能以最快速度，记下一整副打乱的牌的顺序，我当时觉得这太不可思议了，这些人肯定天赋异禀。

所以我开始采访参赛者，这位叫Ed Cook，是从英格兰来的，他在那儿接受了最好的记忆训练，我问他 “Ed 你是什么时候开始意识到，自己是记忆天才的?”，Ed答道“我并不是什么专家，其实我的记忆力很一般，来参赛的每一个人，都会告诉你他们的记忆力只是一般水平，我们都在训练自己后才能，完成这些奇迹般的记忆游戏，我们运用了一系列古老的技巧，这些技巧是希腊人在两千五百年前发明的，西塞罗正是用了这些技巧，来记忆他的演讲稿的，中世纪学者用这种技巧来背诵正本书籍的内容“，我惊讶不已 ”哇噻怎么我从来没听说过呢?“，我们站在竞技大厅外，聪明过人令人惊叹，而又稍有些古怪的英国人Ed，对我说 ”Josh 你是个美国记者，你知道小甜甜布兰妮吧?”，我茫然不解 “什么? 当然为什么要问这个?”，“因为我真的很想在，美国国家电台上教会布兰妮，怎样记住一整副打乱的牌的顺序，就能证明这是人人都可以做到的了“，我说 ”虽然我不是布兰妮，但你也可以教教我呀，总得找个人开教嘛不是吗?“，接着一段非常奇特的历程在我面前展开了序幕，结果第二年的大部分时间，我都花在了训练自己的记忆力，同时调查研究记忆上，我想尝试理解产生记忆的原理，为何有时会记了又忘，及其它到底隐藏着什么样的潜力，途中我遇到了很多有趣的人，其中一个叫E.P.，他患有健忘症他的记忆力，恐怕是世界上最差的了，他的记忆能力差到，甚至记不得自己有健忘症，真的很神奇，虽然他是个悲剧角色，但通过他我们能了解到，记忆在何种程度上塑造了我们的人格，情况的另一个极端是我遇到了这样一个人，他叫Kim Peek，他是Dustin Hoffman在电影《雨人》里的角色的原型，我和他花了一下午，在盐湖城公共图书馆里背电话簿，让我大开眼界，回家后我读了许多关于记忆的论文，写于两千多年前的论文，用拉丁文写的从古代，一直到后来中世纪期间，我学到很多很有意思的事儿，其中一个就是，曾经，训练规束培养记忆力的这种概念，完全不像如今那样陌生，曾几何时人们寄希望于自己的记忆，能不遗余力地装饰自己的心灵，近几千年来，人类发明了一系列技术，从字母表到卷轴，到法典印刷机摄影技术，电脑智能手机，让我们能越来越轻松地，外化记忆能力，让我们从根本上，把这种基础的人类能力拱手让出，这些技术让现代生活变为可能，但同时也改变了我们，不仅在文化上，我觉得也在认知上，不再需要费劲去记忆，有时会觉得我们已经忘了如何去记忆，在这片地球上已经很少有地方，能让你觉得人们仍热衷于，训练规束培养记忆力了，那非同寻常的记忆大赛算是一个，其实它也没有那么非同寻常，世界各地都开始举办这样的竞赛，我对此深深着迷想要知道这些人是怎么做到的，几年前伦敦大学学院的一组研究人员，请来一批记忆大赛的冠军接受研究，他们想要弄明白，这些人的大脑，是否跟我们其他人在解剖学上的结构不一样?，答案是否定的，那他们比我们都聪明吗?，他们给研究对象实施了一系列认知测试，依旧得出了否定结论，但对比受控制的比对目标的大脑，记忆大赛冠军们的大脑，确实有一处很有趣的不同很说明问题，这些人被送去做功能磁共振，扫描大脑时，当他们在记忆数字或人脸或雪花图案时，研究人员发现记忆大赛冠军们，的大脑激活的区域，跟普通人不太一样，值得注意的是他们看来是在用，脑中在空间记忆和导航时会用到的部分，为什么? 我们可以从中得出什么样的结论呢?，竞争性记忆的较量，被一种类似军事比赛的方式推向了白热化，每年都会有人，带着更有效的记忆方法现身赛场，而其他人就必须迎头赶上，这是我的朋友Ben Pridmore，赢得过三次国际记忆大赛冠军，在他的台前，有三十六副打乱顺序的牌，他要在一个小时内记下全部，用的是一种他自己发明的也只有他会的技巧，用与此类似的方法，他曾一字不差地背下了，4140个任意排列的二进制数，只用了半个小时，很牛吧，参赛者在这些竞赛中，运用过很多不同的记忆方法，各式各样被运用到的所有技巧，最终都能归化为一个概念，心理学家称之为”精细编码“，这个概念能用一则幽默的悖论完美诠释，叫做Baker/baker悖论，简单说来就是，假设我让两个人去记同一个词，我跟你说，”记住有个人叫Baker“，Baker是人名，我又来告诉你 ”记住有个人是面包师(baker)“，过了一段时间我又回来找到你们，问 ”还记得我之前，叫你们记住的那个词吗?“，”还记得是什么词吗?“，被告知人名是Baker的人，记住这个词的可能性远不如，被告知职业是面包师的那个人，同样的词导致不同的记忆程度，到底是为什么呢，是因为人名Baker没有任何特殊含义，没法跟你脑海里，零碎繁杂的记忆产生任何联系，但是面包师(baker)作为一个常用名词，我们都知道面包师是什么，面包师带着搞笑的白帽子，他们手上沾满了面粉，他们下班回到家带着扑鼻的烤面包香，甚至可能有些人有朋友就是面包师，我们初次听到这个词时，马上就会产生各种各样的联想，这使我们能在一段时间后还能回忆起来，其实要理解记忆竞赛中的，一切奥妙，或在日常生活中改善记忆力的秘诀，仅仅在于想办法把Baker中的大写B，变为面包师(baker)中的小写b，把没有前因后果，没有重要性没有涵义的信息，用某种方法转化为，有意义的内容，跟脑海里的其他记忆串联起来，这种精确记忆的技巧，在两千五百年前的古希腊就已出现，后来将其称为记忆宫殿，发明这种技巧的过程如下，有个叫做Simonides的诗人，他要去参加一个晚宴，其实他算是被请去做表演嘉宾的，因为在那个年代炫酷派对的标准，不是请D.J.来打碟而是要请诗人来颂诗，他站起来背出了他的全篇诗作然后潇洒离去，他刚走出门口晚宴大厅就塌了，砸死了里面所有的人，不仅全体死亡，所有的死者都被砸得面目全非，没人说得清死者都有些谁，没人说得清谁坐在哪儿，导致死者的尸体没法得到合适的殉葬安置，这又加重了整件事的悲剧色彩，Simonides站在外面，作为废墟中的唯一幸存者，闭上眼睛猛然意识到，在他的脑海中，他眼前出现了所有宾客所坐的位置，他就牵着亲属们的手，穿过废墟把他们带到了亲人身边，Simonides当时猛然醒悟的事，大概我们大家也都猜到了，其实是不管我们，有多不善于记住姓名电话号码，或是同事的每句指令，我们都拥有异常敏锐的视觉或空间记忆能力，要是我让你们逐字逐句地重述，我刚才讲的Simonides故事的前十个字，应该没几个人会记得，但我敢打赌，如果我让你们现在回想下，在你的门厅里坐在会讲话的棕色骏马上的，是谁，你们就明白我刚才说的意思了，记忆宫殿的原理，就是在你的脑海里建立一栋想象大厦，并让你想记住的东西，的影像充满其中，越是疯狂古怪奇诡，荒诞搞笑乱七八糟招人厌恶的影像，就越容易记住，这个建议来自于两千多年前，拉丁最早的记忆学者，那么这种说法的原理到底是什么呢，假设你被邀请，站上TED的中心讲台演讲，而你想脱稿完成，如西塞罗在两千年前在TEDx罗马上的演讲一般，他就会这么霸气走一回而你也想这样，你要做的就是，想象自己站在自家门前，然后凭空想象出，一段完全荒诞疯狂难忘的景象，用来提示你上台要提的第一件事，就是这场诡异的裸骑大赛，然后你走进房子里，想到甜饼怪物，坐在Ed先生背上的样子，这个景象会提醒你，要介绍你的朋友Ed Cook，然后你脑海里出现了小甜甜布兰妮的样子，你就会想起要讲那个关于布兰妮的小故事，然后你走进厨房，你要说到的第四个话题是，你花了一整年走过的奇妙历程，通过绿野仙踪就可以联想得到，这就是罗马演说家背诵演讲稿的秘诀，并非一字不差逐字背诵只会平添麻烦，而是记住一个个主题，其实短语”主题句“，就来源于希腊词”topos“，意思是”地点“，这是古时候，人们谈到演讲或是修辞时，会用到的空间术语，短语 ”第一"，就意味着你的记忆宫殿的第一层，这简直太有意思了，我对这起了很大的兴趣，后来我又去了更多记忆大赛，我开始萌发了要更详细描写，这种竞技记忆文化的念头，但有一个问题，问题是记忆大赛，其实过程很无聊的，(大笑)，真的就像一群人坐那儿高考一样，最最激动人心的时刻，也不过就是有人揉了揉太阳穴，我是个记者总得有东西可写呀，我知道这些人脑子里肯定是惊涛骇浪，但我作为外人无法得见，我意识到若我真的想报道这事儿，一定得亲身体验才行，所以我开始尝试着每天早上坐下来看纽约时报前，花上十五到二十分钟，尝试记忆一些事，背背小诗，背背我在跳蚤市场买来的，旧年鉴里的人名，我惊奇地发现这其实非常带劲，要不去尝试根本想不到，有趣在于其实目标并不是要通过训练提高记忆力，而是你在努力培养改善，创造力想象力，在你的脑海里凭空造出，那些完全滑稽荒诞胡乱最好是难忘的影像，而它成为了我的乐趣，这是我戴着标准竞赛记忆者训练套装的样子，它有一对耳塞，一副护目镜镜面全部遮黑，就留了两个小孔，因为竞技记忆者最大的敌人就是注意力分散，最后我再次回到了一年前报道的那场竞赛场上，我一时冲动也想报名参加，就当做参与性新闻报道的实验了，我当时想到时能在前言里调侃一下自己也好，问题是实验最后得到了意想不到的结果，那场竞赛我赢了，真是完全出乎我预料之外，对我来说现在，背演讲稿电话号码或是购物单，都是小菜一碟倒是很不错，但其实这些都不重要了，这些都是小伎俩，这些记忆伎俩之所以有效，是因为它们依仗人类大脑运转的，一些基本原理，并不用真的去建立记忆宫殿，或记下几副牌的顺序，你也完全可以从了解大脑运转原理中，获得一些益处，我们总会议论记忆力很好的人，总觉得那些人是天赋异禀，事实并不是这样，强大的记忆力是可以习得的，从最根本的说起专心致志就能记住，全心投入时就能记住，只要能想办法把信息和经历，转化为有意义的事，就能记住，想它为何重要为何多彩，当我们能把它转化成为，有前因后果的事，并跟我们脑海中繁杂琐碎的其他事产生联想时，当我们能把人名Baker转化为面包师baker时，记忆宫殿或是那些记忆技巧，都只是捷径而已，其实说到底它们都不能算捷径，这方法有效是因为它迫使你思考，它迫使你往更深层次去想，让你更加专注，大部分人平时并不会费力去训练这个，其实捷径并不存在，这一直就是我们能记住事物的原因，有一件事我希望你们能记住，就是E.P.，那个连自己患了健忘症都想不起来的人，让我深思，得出了一个感想，人生就是我们个人记忆的合集，在短暂的人生里，你还愿意因为黑莓 iPhone，丧失多少瞬间，忽略对面坐着的人，在跟我们交谈的人，变得越发懒惰不愿意，深究任何事？，通过亲身经历我发现，我们的身体里潜藏着，不可思议的记忆能力，但若你想活得难忘，就得做那种，记得时常记忆的人。

谢谢。

第四篇：TED英语演讲稿

我知道你们在想什么，你们觉得我迷路了，马上就会有人走上台温和地把我带回我的座位上。（掌声）。我在迪拜总会遇上这种事。“来这里度假的吗，亲爱的？”（笑声）“来探望孩子的吗？这次要待多久呢？ 恩，事实上，我希望能再待久一点。我在波斯湾这边生活和教书已经超过30年了。（掌声）这段时间里，我看到了很多变化。现在这份数据是挺吓人的，而我今天要和你们说的是有关语言的消失和英语的全球化。我想和你们谈谈我的朋友，她在阿布达比教成人英语。在一个晴朗的日子里，她决定带她的学生到花园去教他们一些大自然的词汇。但最后却变成是她在学习所有当地植物在阿拉伯语中是怎么说的。还有这些植物是如何被用作药材，化妆品，烹饪，香草。这些学生是怎么得到这些知识的呢？当然是从他们的祖父母，甚至曾祖父母那里得来的。不需要我来告诉你们能够跨代沟通是多么重要。but sadly, today, languages are dying at an unprecedented rate.a language dies every 14 days.now, at the same time, english is the undisputed global language.could there be a connection? well i dont know.but i do know that ive seen a lot of changes.when i first came out to the gulf, i came to kuwait in the days when it was still a hardship post.actually, not that long ago.that is a little bit too early.but nevertheless, i was recruited by the british council along with about 25 other teachers.and we were the first non-muslims to teach in the state schools there in kuwait.we were brought to teach english because the government wanted to modernize the country and empower the citizens through education.and of course, the u.k.benefited from some of that lovely oil wealth.但遗憾的是，今天很多语言正在以前所未有的速度消失。每14天就有一种语言消失，而与此同时，英语却无庸置疑地成为全球性的语言。这其中有关联吗？我不知道。但我知道的是，我见证过许多改变。初次来到海湾地区时，我去了科威特。当时教英文仍然是个困难的工作。其实，没有那么久啦，这有点太久以前了。总之，我和其他25位老师一起被英国文化协会聘用。我们是第一批非穆斯林的老师，在科威特的国立学校任教。我们被派到那里教英语，是因为当地政府希望国家可以现代化并透过教育提升公民的水平。当然，英国也能得到些好处，产油国可是很有钱的。okay.now this is the major change that ive seen--how teaching english has morphed from being a mutually english-speaking nation on earth.and why not? after all, the best education--according to the latest world university rankings--is to be found in the universities of the u.k.and the u.s.so everybody wants to have an english education, naturally.but if youre not a native speaker, you have to pass a test.言归正传，我见过最大的改变，就是英语教学的蜕变如何从一个互惠互利的行为变成今天这种大规模的国际产业。英语不再是学校课程里的外语学科，也不再只是英国的专利。英语（教学）已经成为所有英语系国家追逐的潮流。何乐而不为呢？毕竟，最好的教育来自于最好的大学，而根据最新的世界大学排名，那些名列前茅的都是英国和美国的大学。所以自然每个人都想接受英语教育，但如果你不是以英文为母语，你就要通过考试。now can it be right to reject a student on linguistic ability well, i dont think so.we english teachers reject them all the time.we put a stop sign, and we stop them in their tracks.they cant pursue their dream any longer, till they get english.now let me put it this way, if i met a dutch speaker who had the cure for cancer, would i stop him from entering my british university? i dont think so.but indeed, that is exactly what we do.we english teachers are the gatekeepers.and you have to satisfy us first that your english is good enough.now it can be dangerous to give too much power to a narrow segment of society.maybe the barrier would be too universal.但仅凭语言能力就拒绝学生这样对吗？譬如如果你碰到一位天才计算机科学家，但他会需要有和律师一样的语言能力吗？我不这么认为。但身为英语老师的我们，却总是拒绝他们。我们处处设限，将学生挡在路上，使他们无法再追求自己的梦想，直到他们通过考试。现在容我换一个方式说，如果我遇到了一位只会说荷兰话的人，而这个人能治愈癌症，我会阻止他进入我的英国大学吗？我想不会。但事实上，我们的确在做这种事。我们这些英语老师就是把关的。你必须先让我们满意，使我们认定你的英文够好。但这可能是危险的。把太多的权力交由这么小的一群人把持，也许会令这种障碍太过普及。okay.but, i hear you say, what about the research? its all in english.so the books are in english, the journals are done in english, but that is a self-fulfilling.it feeds the english requirement.and so it goes on.i ask you, what happened to translation? if you think about the islamic golden age, there was lots of translation then.they translated from latin and greek into arabic, into persian, and then it was translated on into the germanic languages of europe and the romance languages.and so light shone upon the dark ages of europe.now dont get me wrong;i am not against teaching english, all you english teachers out there.i love it that we have a global language.we need one today more than ever.but i am against using it as a barrier.do we really want to end up with 600 languages and the main one being english, or chinese? we need more than that.where do we draw the line? this system equates intelligence with a knowledge of english which is quite.于是，我听到你们问但是研究呢?研究报告都要用英文。”的确，研究论著和期刊都要用英文发表，但这只是一种理所当然的现象。有英语要求，自然就有英语供给，然后就这么循环下去。我倒想问问大家，为什么不用翻译呢？想想伊斯兰的黄金时代，当时翻译盛行，人们把拉丁文和希腊文翻译成阿拉伯文或波斯文，然后再由拉伯文或波斯文翻译为欧洲的日耳曼语言以及罗曼语言。于是文明照亮了欧洲的黑暗时代。但不要误会我的意思，我不是反对英语教学或是在座所有的英语老师。我很高兴我们有一个全球性的语言，这在今日尤为重要。但我反对用英语设立障碍。难道我们真希望世界上只剩下600种语言，其中又以英文或中文为主流吗？我们需要的不只如此。那么我们该如何拿捏呢？这个体制把智能和英语能力画上等号这是相当武断的。

and i want to remind you that the giants upon whose shoulders todays stand did not have to have english, they didnt have to pass an english test.case in point, einstein.he, by the way, was considered remedial at school because he was, in fact, dyslexic.but fortunately for the world, he did not have to pass an english test.because they didnt start until 1964 with toefl, the american test of english.now its exploded.there are lots and lots of tests of english.and millions and millions of students take these tests every year.now you might think, you and me, those fees arent bad, theyre okay, but they are prohibitive to so many millions of poor people.so immediately, were rejecting them.我想要提醒你们，扶持当代知识分子的这些“巨人肩膀不必非得具有英文能力，他们不需要通过英语考试。爱因斯坦就是典型的例子。顺便说一下，他在学校还曾被认为需要课外补习，因为他其实有阅读障碍。但对整个世界来说,很幸运的当时他不需要通过英语考试，因为他们直到1964年才开始使用托福。现在英语测验太泛滥了，有太多太多的英语测验，以及成千上万的学生每年都在参加这些考试。现在你会认为，你和我都这么想，这些费用不贵，价钱满合理的。但是对数百万的穷人来说，这些费用高不可攀。所以，当下我们又拒绝了他们。it brings to mind a headline i saw recently: education: the great divide.now i get it, i understand why people would focus on english.they want to give their children the best chance in life.and to do that, they need a western education.because, of course, the best jobs go to people out of the western universities, that i put on earlier.its a circular thing.这使我想起最近看到的一个新闻标题：“教育：大鸿沟”现在我懂了。我了解为什么大家都重视英语，因为他们希望给孩子最好的人生机会。为了达成这目的，他们需要西方教育。毕竟，不可否认，最好的工作都留给那些西方大学毕业出来的人。就像我之前说的，这是一种循环。

okay.let me tell you a story about two scientists, two english scientists.they were doing an experiment to do with genetics and the forelimbs and the hind limbs of animals.but they couldnt get the results they wanted.they really didnt know what to do, until along came a german scientist who realized that they were using two words for forelimb and hind limb, whereas genetics does not differentiate and neither does german.so bingo, problem solved.if you cant think a thought, you are stuck.but if another language can think that thought, then, by cooperating, we can achieve and learn so much more.好，我跟你们说一个关于两位科学家的故事：有两位英国科学家在做一项实验，是关于遗传学的，以及动物的前、后肢。但他们无法得到他们想要的结果。他们真的不知道该怎么办，直到来了一位德国的科学家。他发现在英文里前肢和后肢是不同的二个字，但在遗传学上没有区别。在德语也是同一个字。所以，叮！问题解决了。如果你不能想到一个念头，你会卡在那里。但如果另一个语言能想到那念头，然后通过合作我们可以达成目的，也学到更多。我的女儿从科威特来到英格兰，她在阿拉伯的学校学习科学和数学。那是所阿拉伯中学。在学校里，她得把这些知识翻译成英文，而她在班上却能在这些学科上拿到最好的成绩。这告诉我们，当外籍学生来找我们，我们可能无法针对他们所知道的给予赞赏，因为那是来自于他们母语的知识。当一个语言消失时，我们不知道还有什么也会一并失去。this is--i dont know if you saw it on cnn recently--they gave the heroes award to a young kenyan shepherd boy who couldnt study at night in his village like all the village children,篇二：杨澜ted演讲稿中英文 yang lan: the generation thats remaking china the night before i was heading for scotland, i was invited to host the final of chinas got talent show in shanghai with the 80,000 live audience in the stadium.guess who was the performing guest?susan boyle.and i told her, im going to scotland the next day.she sang beautifully, and she even managed to say a few words in chinese.[chinese]so its not like hello or thank you, that ordinary stuff.it means green onion for free.why did she say that? because it was a line from our chinese parallel susan boyle--a 50-some year-old woman, a vegetable vendor in shanghai, who loves singing western opera, but she didnt understand any english or french or italian, so she managed to fill in the lyrics with vegetable names in chinese.(laughter)and the last sentence of nessun dorma that she was singing in the stadium was green onion for free.so [as] susan boyle was saying that, 80,000 live audience sang together.that was hilarious.so i guess both susan boyle and this vegetable vendor in shanghai belonged to otherness.they were the least expected to be successful in the business called entertainment, yet their courage and talent brought them through.and a show and a platform gave them the stage to realize their dreams.well, being different is not that difficult.we are all different from different perspectives.but i think being different is good, because you present a different point of view.you may have the chance to make a difference.my generation has been very fortunate to witness and participate in the historic transformation of china that has made so many changes in the past 20, 30 years.i remember that in the year of 1990,when i was graduating from college, i was applying for a job in the sales department of the first five-star hotel in beijing, great wall sheraton--its still there.so after being interrogated by this japanese manager for a half an hour, he finally said, so, miss yang, do you have any questions to ask me?i summoned my courage and poise and said,yes, but could you let me know, what actually do you sell? i didnt have a clue what a sales department was about in a five-star hotel.that was the first day i set my foot in a five-star hotel.my life, and i feel proud of that.but then we are also so fortunate to witness the transformation of the whole country.i was in beijings bidding for the olympic games.i was representing the shanghai expo.i saw china embracing the world and vice versa.but then sometimes im thinking, what are todays young generation up to? how are they different, and what are the differences they are going to make to shape the future of china, or at large, the world? so making a living is not that easy for young people.college graduates are not in short supply.in urban areas, college graduates find the starting salary is about 400 u.s.dollars a month, while the average rent is above $500.so what do they do? they have to share space--squeezed in very limited space to save money--and they call themselves tribe of ants.and for those who are ready to get married and buy their apartment, they figured out they have to work for 30 to 40 years to afford their first apartment.that ratio in americawould only cost a couple five years to earn, but in china its 30 to 40 years with the skyrocketing real estate price.so through some of the hottest topics on microblogging, we can see what young people care most about.social justice and government accountability runs the first in what they demand.for the past decade or so, a massive urbanization and development have let us witness a lot of reports on the forced demolition of private property.and it has aroused huge anger and frustrationamong our young generation.sometimes people get killed, and sometimes people set themselves on fire to protest.so when these incidents are reported more and more frequently on the internet,people cry for the government to take actions to stop this.so the good news is that earlier this year, the state council passed a new regulation on house requisition and demolition and passed the right to order forced demolition from local governments to the court.similarly, many other issues concerning public safety is a hot topic on the internet.we heard about polluted air, polluted water, poisoned food.and guess what, we have faked beef.they have sorts of ingredients that you brush on a piece of chicken or fish, and it turns it to look like beef.and then lately, people are very concerned about cooking oil, because thousands of people have been found [refining] cooking oil from restaurant slop.so all these things have aroused a huge outcry from the internet.and fortunately, we have seen the government responding more timely and also more frequently to the public concerns.while young people seem to be very sure about their participation in public policy-making, but sometimes theyre a little bit lost in terms of what they want for their personal life.china is soon to pass the u.s.as the number one market for luxury brands--thats not including the chinese expenditures in europe and elsewhere.but you know what, half of those consumers are earning a salary below 2,000 u.s.dollars.theyre not rich at all.theyre taking those bags and clothes as a sense of identity and social status.and this is a girl explicitly saying on a tv dating show that she would rather cry in a bmw than smile on a bicycle.but of course, we do have young people who would still prefer to smile, whether in a bmw or [on] a bicycle.so happiness is the most popular word we have heard through the past two years.happiness is not only related to personal experiences and personal values, but also, its about the environment.people are thinking about the following questions: are we going to sacrifice our environment further to produce higher gdp? how are we going to perform our social and political reform to keep pace with economic growth, to keep sustainability and stability? and also, how capable is the systemof self-correctness to keep more people contentwith all sorts of friction going on at the same time?i guess these are the questions people are going to answer.and our younger generation are going to transform this country while at the same time being transformed themselves.thank you very much.杨澜ted演讲：重塑中国的一代 中文演讲稿

在来爱尔兰的前一晚，我应邀主持了中国达人秀在上海的体育场和八万现场观众。猜猜谁是表演嘉宾？——苏珊大妈。我告诉她，“我明天要去爱尔兰了。” 她歌声犹如天籁。而且她还可以说点中文。

“送你葱。” 这不是“你好、谢谢”之类的日常用语。这组词翻译过来是免费给你青葱，为什么她要说这个呢？因为这是我们中国版的苏珊大妈很有名的一句歌词。

这位五十几岁的大妈在上海以贩卖蔬菜为生。她喜欢西方的歌剧，但是她不懂任何外语，所以她就把中文蔬菜名填做歌词。当她在体育场里 唱到今夜无人入眠的最后一句时，她唱的是“送你葱”。苏珊大妈和全场八万观众一起唱“送你葱”，多有意思的场面。我想苏珊大妈和这位在上海做蔬菜买卖的都属于不同寻常的人。在业界所谓的娱乐圈，他们最不可能取得成功，但是他们的勇气和才华让他们成功了。一场秀，一个平台给了他们实现梦想的舞台。与众不同不难，从不同的角度看我们都是不一样的。我认为与众不同是好的，因为你有不同的看法，这给你机会去产生不同的影响。我们这代人有幸见证和参与了过去二三十年中国的历史性的转型。

我记得在九十年代，刚从大学毕业的我申请了一份在北京五星级酒店销售部的工作。在日本经理一个半小时的面试后，他最后说：“杨小姐，你有什么问题要问我吗？”我鼓起勇气，定定神然后问道：“您能告诉我销售部到底销售什么？”我对于五星级酒店的销售部的职责一点都摸不着头脑。那是我在五星级酒店的第一天。

同时，我和上千名大学女生参加了一场由中国中央电视台举办的史无前例的公开选拔。制作人告诉我们他们想找一位可爱，天真，美丽的新面孔。当轮到我时，我站起来说道，“为什么女孩在电视上必须是漂亮，甜美，无邪的，像个花瓶？为什么她们不能有她们的想法，她们自己的声音？”

我想我一定得罪了评委。但是事实上，我的发言给他们留下了深刻的印象。接下来我进入了第二轮的选拔，然后是第三轮，第四轮。在经过七轮的选拔后，我胜出了。成为了一个国家电视台黄金时段节目的主持人。

不管你们相不相信，那是中国电视上第一个节目可以允许主持人自由发挥而不是去读审查后的稿子。这个节目的观众人数高达两到三千万。

几年后，我决定去美国哥伦比亚大学进修。之后我有了自己的传媒公司，这是在我刚毕业的时候想都不敢想的。

我和我的团队做了很多事情。在过去的这些年，我采访了上千人。有时候有年轻人走过来对我说：“杨澜，你改变了我的生活。”我也为此而自豪。

今天我想讲讲在社交媒体这个大舞台上的年轻人

李世默ted：

中国崛起与“元叙事”的终结

小乔布斯thomas suarez英语演讲稿ted 大家好，我叫托马斯·斯沃斯，我一直以来对计算机技术着迷。我就给iphone、ipod touch、ipad做了一些应用程序，今天我就来给大家展示几个。第一个应用叫做地球算命，它根据你的运势来改变地球的颜色。我最有名、最成功的应用程序是比斯汀.贾伯，它是一个恶搞贾斯汀·比伯程序。这是因为在我的学校里，许多人有点不喜欢贾斯汀·比伯。所以我就开始做了这个应用了，开始编程，并在2010年的暑假推出了我的作品。a lot of people asked me: how did i make this, a lot of time just because the person you ask a question wants to make an app also, a lot of kids these days like to play games, but now they want to make them and it’s difficult.because not many kids know where to go to find out how to make a program.i mean for soccer you could go to a soccer team, for violin you could get lessons for violin, but what if you want to make an app and kid’s parents might have done these things when they were young, but not many parents made apps.where would you go to find out how to make an app, while this is how i approached, this is what i did.许多人问我，我是怎么做出这些东西来的？大多数情况下，问我这个问题的人也想做一个应用程序试试。现在有许多孩子曾喜欢玩游戏，现在他们可以自己创作游戏了，这很难，因为大多数孩子不知道去哪里学编程。我是说，如果你想学足球，你可以加入一个足球队，如果学拉小提琴，你可以去兴趣班。如果想做应用程序，你该怎么办呢？父母一般叫孩子们做一些事，但是有多少父母会编程呢？你去哪里可以学到编程呢？以下就是我怎么做到的，这就是我做的。first of all, i’ve been programming in multiple other programs just get the basics down, such as python, c, java etc.and then apple released the iphone and with the iphone soft developing, and software development kit is a swift tool for creating and programming an iphone app.this opened up a whole new world possibilities for me, and after playing with the soft developing a little bit i made a couple apps and made some test apps, one of them happen to be earth fortune was ready to put fortune on the app store, and so i persuaded my parents to pay the 99-dollar-fee to be able to put my app on the app stock.they agreed and now my apps are on the app store.首先，我先学了另外的编程，作为基础，比如python、c语言、java编程。不久苹果公司推出了iphone和iphone软件开发工具包。iphone软件开发工具包是一个给iphone编写应用程序的很好的工具。这给我带来了发现新世界一般的可能性，我在小小地玩了一下iphone软件开发工具包之后，我就做了几个应用，并作了测试，其中之一就是地球算命。我很想把我的地球算命放上苹果的应用商店，我就说服我父母去支付进入苹果应用超市所需的99美元。结果他们同意了，我的应用上线了。

我得到了来自我的家庭、朋友、老师，甚至是苹果应用超市的工作人员的鼓励，他们对我有了很大的影响。我从乔布斯身上得到了许多灵感，我在学校里组建了苹果俱乐部。老师对我的俱乐部做出了积极地响应。在我的学校里，每个人都可以来我的俱乐部里学习如何编写应用程序。这就是我与他人分享经验的方式。there are these programs called the ipad pallid program, and some districts have them.i’m fortunate to be part of one;a big challenge is how should the ipad be used on what apps shall we put on the ipads.so we’re getting feedback from teachers at this school to see what kind of apps they like when we design the app and we sell it, it would be free to local districts and other districts we sell to.all the money from that goes to local foundations, these days students usually know a little bit more than teachers with the technology, so, sorry, this is the resource of the teachers and educators should recognize this resource and make good use of it.有一种叫ipad平板电脑编程的组织，有些区里有这类的组织，我有幸成为他们当中的一员。我最大的挑战是怎么利用ipad，我们应该给ipad做什么样的程序。我们在学校里向老师做了反馈信息调查，看看他们喜欢什么样的应用程序。在我们设计好后，我们出售那些应用。本地区的用户可以免费获得，别的地区的用户收费。从中的利润会投入到当地基金会中。现在，学生们，在技术方面，通常会比老师们懂得多。如此看来...对不起，这是老师们的资源，教育工作者应该好好认识并利用它。ted演讲是由ted从每年1000人的俱乐部变成了一个每天10万人流量的社区。为了继续扩大网站的影响力，ted还加入了社交网络的功能，以连接一切“有志改变世界的人”。从2006年起，ted演讲的视频被上传到网上。截至2010年4月，ted官方网站上收录的ted演讲视频已达650个，有逾五千万的网民观看了ted演讲的视频。ted是一下三个英文单词的首字母大写

【t】technology技术 【e】entertainment娱乐 【d】design设计 它是美国的一家私有非盈利机构，该机构以它组织的ted大会著称。the theme of the ted：ideas worth spreading.ambulance 救护车 ——俺不能死；ponderous 肥胖的 ——胖的要死；pest害虫——拍死它；ambition雄心——俺必胜；admire羡慕——额的妈呀篇五：ted英语演讲稿：如何逃出教育的“死亡谷” ted英语演讲稿：如何逃出教育的“死亡谷”

简介：受教育的机会并非人人都有，而在学校的孩子们是否都能学有所成?英国学校教育咨询师sir ken robinson 幽默演讲，如何逃出教育的“死亡谷“? 告诉我们如何以开放的文化氛围培育年轻的一代。

第五篇：TED英语演讲稿

TED英语演讲稿

TED英语演讲稿

I was one of the only kids in college who had a reason to go to the P.O.box at the end of the day, and that was mainly because my mother has never believed in email, in Facebook, in texting or cell phones in general.And so while other kids were BBM-ing their parents, I was literally waiting by the mailbox to get a letter from home to see how the weekend had gone, which was a little frustrating when Grandma was in the hospital, but I was just looking for some sort of scribble, some unkempt cursive from my mother.And so when I moved to New York City after college and got completely sucker-punched in the face by depression, I did the only thing I could think of at the time.I wrote those same kinds of letters that my mother had written me for strangers, and tucked them all throughout the city, dozens and dozens of them.I left them everywhere, in cafes and in libraries, at the U.N., everywhere.I blogged about those letters and the days when they were necessary, and I posed a kind of crazy promise to the Internet: that if you asked me for a hand-written letter, I would write you one, no questions asked.Overnight, my inbox morphed into this harbor of heartbreak--a single mother in Sacramento, a girl being bullied in rural Kansas, all asking me, a 22-year-old girl who barely even knew her own coffee order, to write them a love letter and give them a reason to wait by the mailbox.Well, today I fuel a global organization that is fueled by those trips to the mailbox, fueled by the ways in which we can harness social media like never before to write and mail strangers letters when they need them most, but most of all, fueled by crates of mail like this one, my trusty mail crate, filled with the scriptings of ordinary people, strangers writing letters to other strangers not because they're ever going to meet and laugh over a cup of coffee, but because they have found one another by way of letter-writing.But, you know, the thing that always gets me about these letters is that most of them have been written by people that have never known themselves loved on a piece of paper.They could not tell you about the ink of their own love letters.They're the ones from my generation, the ones of us that have grown up into a world where everything is paperless, and where some of our best conversations have happened upon a screen.We have learned to diary our pain onto Facebook, and we speak swiftly in 140 characters or less.But what if it's not about efficiency this time? I was on the subway yesterday with this mail crate, which is a conversation starter, let me tell you.If you ever need one, just carry one of these.(Laughter)And a man just stared at me, and he was like, “Well, why don't you use the Internet?” And I thought, “Well, sir, I am not a strategist, nor am I specialist.I am merely a storyteller.” And so I could tell you about a woman whose husband has just come home from Afghanistan, and she is having a hard time unearthing this thing called conversation, and so she tucks love letters throughout the house as a way to say, “Come back to me.Find me when you can.” Or a girl who decides that she is going to leave love letters around her campus in Dubuque, Iowa, only to find her efforts ripple-effected the next day when she walks out onto the quad and finds love letters hanging from the trees, tucked in the bushes and the benches.Or the man who decides that he is going to take his life, uses Facebook as a way to say goodbye to friends and family.Well, tonight he sleeps safely with a stack of letters just like this one tucked beneath his pillow, scripted by strangers who were there for him when.These are the kinds of stories that convinced me that letter-writing will never again need to flip back her hair and talk about efficiency, because she is an art form now, all the parts of her, the signing, the scripting, the mailing, the doodles in the margins.The mere fact that somebody would even just sit down, pull out a piece of paper and think about someone the whole way through, with an intention that is so much harder to unearth when the browser is up and the iPhone is pinging and we've got six conversations rolling in at once, that is an art form that does not fall down to the Goliath of “get faster,” no matter how many social networks we might join.We still clutch close these letters to our chest, to the words that speak louder than loud, when we turn pages into palettes to say the things that we have needed to say, the words that we have needed to write, to sisters and brothers and even to strangers, for far too long.Thank you.(Applause)(Applause)