full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Manoush Zomorodi: How boredom can lead to your most brilliant ideas

Unscramble the Blue Letters

So, I want you to picture this: you host a podcast, and you have to pvroe that the investment of peoiurcs public rdiao dollars in you is worth it. My goal was to increase my audience size tenfold. So one day, I sat down to birosrantm, as you do, and I came up barren. This was different than writer's block, right? It wasn't like there was something there wnitiag to be unearthed. There was just nothing. And so I sretatd to think back: When was the last time I actually had a good idea? Yeah, it was when I was pushing that damn stroller. Now all the cracks in my day were filled with phone time. I checked the headlines while I wiated for my latte. I updated my calendar while I was stiitng on the couch. Texting turned every spare moment into a chance to show to my coworkers and my dear husband what a responsive posern I was, or at least it was a chance to find another perfect couch for my page on Pinterest. I realized that I was never bored. And anyway, don't only binrog people get bored?

Open Cloze

So, I want you to picture this: you host a podcast, and you have to _____ that the investment of ________ public _____ dollars in you is worth it. My goal was to increase my audience size tenfold. So one day, I sat down to __________, as you do, and I came up barren. This was different than writer's block, right? It wasn't like there was something there _______ to be unearthed. There was just nothing. And so I _______ to think back: When was the last time I actually had a good idea? Yeah, it was when I was pushing that damn stroller. Now all the cracks in my day were filled with phone time. I checked the headlines while I ______ for my latte. I updated my calendar while I was _______ on the couch. Texting turned every spare moment into a chance to show to my coworkers and my dear husband what a responsive ______ I was, or at least it was a chance to find another perfect couch for my page on Pinterest. I realized that I was never bored. And anyway, don't only ______ people get bored?

Solution

  1. brainstorm
  2. radio
  3. waiting
  4. person
  5. boring
  6. sitting
  7. prove
  8. waited
  9. started
  10. precious

Original Text

So, I want you to picture this: you host a podcast, and you have to prove that the investment of precious public radio dollars in you is worth it. My goal was to increase my audience size tenfold. So one day, I sat down to brainstorm, as you do, and I came up barren. This was different than writer's block, right? It wasn't like there was something there waiting to be unearthed. There was just nothing. And so I started to think back: When was the last time I actually had a good idea? Yeah, it was when I was pushing that damn stroller. Now all the cracks in my day were filled with phone time. I checked the headlines while I waited for my latte. I updated my calendar while I was sitting on the couch. Texting turned every spare moment into a chance to show to my coworkers and my dear husband what a responsive person I was, or at least it was a chance to find another perfect couch for my page on Pinterest. I realized that I was never bored. And anyway, don't only boring people get bored?

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations

ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
public radio 2
average person 2
challenge week 2
antonio garcía 2
feeling kind 2

Important Words

  1. audience
  2. barren
  3. block
  4. bored
  5. boring
  6. brainstorm
  7. calendar
  8. chance
  9. checked
  10. couch
  11. coworkers
  12. cracks
  13. damn
  14. day
  15. dear
  16. dollars
  17. filled
  18. find
  19. goal
  20. good
  21. headlines
  22. host
  23. husband
  24. idea
  25. increase
  26. investment
  27. latte
  28. moment
  29. page
  30. people
  31. perfect
  32. person
  33. phone
  34. picture
  35. pinterest
  36. podcast
  37. precious
  38. prove
  39. public
  40. pushing
  41. radio
  42. realized
  43. responsive
  44. sat
  45. show
  46. sitting
  47. size
  48. spare
  49. started
  50. stroller
  51. tenfold
  52. texting
  53. time
  54. turned
  55. unearthed
  56. updated
  57. waited
  58. waiting
  59. worth
  60. yeah