full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Tristan Harris: How better tech could protect us from distraction

Unscramble the Blue Letters

But I'll give you a hint why this is happening. What do you think makes more menoy in the ueintd States than moeivs, game parks and baseball combined? Slot machines. How can slot machines make all this money when we play with such small atonmus of money? We play with cions. How is this possible? Well, the thing is ... my pnhoe is a slot machine. Every time I check my phone, I'm playing the slot machine to see, what am I going to get? What am I going to get? Every time I check my email, I'm playing the slot machine, saying, "What am I going to get?" Every time I scroll a news feed, I'm playing the slot machine to see, what am I going to get next? And the thing is that, again, koninwg exactly how this works — and I'm a designer, I know exactly how the psychology of this works, I know exactly what's going on — but it doesn't leave me with any coiche, I still just get sucked into it.

Open Cloze

But I'll give you a hint why this is happening. What do you think makes more _____ in the ______ States than ______, game parks and baseball combined? Slot machines. How can slot machines make all this money when we play with such small _______ of money? We play with _____. How is this possible? Well, the thing is ... my _____ is a slot machine. Every time I check my phone, I'm playing the slot machine to see, what am I going to get? What am I going to get? Every time I check my email, I'm playing the slot machine, saying, "What am I going to get?" Every time I scroll a news feed, I'm playing the slot machine to see, what am I going to get next? And the thing is that, again, _______ exactly how this works — and I'm a designer, I know exactly how the psychology of this works, I know exactly what's going on — but it doesn't leave me with any ______, I still just get sucked into it.

Solution

  1. coins
  2. knowing
  3. amounts
  4. phone
  5. united
  6. money
  7. movies
  8. choice

Original Text

But I'll give you a hint why this is happening. What do you think makes more money in the United States than movies, game parks and baseball combined? Slot machines. How can slot machines make all this money when we play with such small amounts of money? We play with coins. How is this possible? Well, the thing is ... my phone is a slot machine. Every time I check my phone, I'm playing the slot machine to see, what am I going to get? What am I going to get? Every time I check my email, I'm playing the slot machine, saying, "What am I going to get?" Every time I scroll a news feed, I'm playing the slot machine to see, what am I going to get next? And the thing is that, again, knowing exactly how this works — and I'm a designer, I know exactly how the psychology of this works, I know exactly what's going on — but it doesn't leave me with any choice, I still just get sucked into it.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations

ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
slot machine 3
people spent 3
time people 3
slot machines 2
thich nhat 2
nhat hanh 2
deepest human 2
design goal 2
social network 2
measure success 2
consumer demand 2

ngrams of length 3

collocation frequency
thich nhat hanh 2
time people spent 2

Important Words

  1. amounts
  2. baseball
  3. check
  4. choice
  5. coins
  6. combined
  7. designer
  8. email
  9. feed
  10. game
  11. give
  12. happening
  13. hint
  14. knowing
  15. leave
  16. machine
  17. machines
  18. money
  19. movies
  20. news
  21. parks
  22. phone
  23. play
  24. playing
  25. psychology
  26. scroll
  27. slot
  28. small
  29. states
  30. sucked
  31. time
  32. united
  33. works