full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Jason Fried: Why work doesn't happen at work

Unscramble the Blue Letters

The real problems are what I like to call the M&Ms, the Managers and the mgeneits. Those are the real problems in the modern office toady. And this is why things don't get done at work, it's because of the M&Ms. Now what's irteensintg is, if you lseitn to all the places that people talk about doing work, like at home, in the car, on a plane, late at night, or early in the morning, you don't find managers and meetings. You find a lot of other distractions, but not managers and meetings. So these are the things that you don't find elsewhere, but you do find at the office. And managers are basically people whose job it is to interrupt people. That's pretty much what maegrans are for. They're for itneuprrnitg people. They don't really do the work, so they make sure everyone else is doing work, which is an interruption. We have lots of managers in the world now, and a lot of people in the wrold, and a lot of iptuintrornes by these managers. They have to ccehk in: "Hey, how's it going? Show me what's up." This sort of thing. They keep interrupting you at the wrong time, while you're actually trying to do something they're paying you to do, they tend to interrupt you. That's kind of bad.

Open Cloze

The real problems are what I like to call the M&Ms, the Managers and the ________. Those are the real problems in the modern office _____. And this is why things don't get done at work, it's because of the M&Ms. Now what's ___________ is, if you ______ to all the places that people talk about doing work, like at home, in the car, on a plane, late at night, or early in the morning, you don't find managers and meetings. You find a lot of other distractions, but not managers and meetings. So these are the things that you don't find elsewhere, but you do find at the office. And managers are basically people whose job it is to interrupt people. That's pretty much what ________ are for. They're for ____________ people. They don't really do the work, so they make sure everyone else is doing work, which is an interruption. We have lots of managers in the world now, and a lot of people in the _____, and a lot of _____________ by these managers. They have to _____ in: "Hey, how's it going? Show me what's up." This sort of thing. They keep interrupting you at the wrong time, while you're actually trying to do something they're paying you to do, they tend to interrupt you. That's kind of bad.

Solution

  1. interruptions
  2. interrupting
  3. managers
  4. meetings
  5. world
  6. today
  7. check
  8. interesting
  9. listen

Original Text

The real problems are what I like to call the M&Ms, the Managers and the Meetings. Those are the real problems in the modern office today. And this is why things don't get done at work, it's because of the M&Ms. Now what's interesting is, if you listen to all the places that people talk about doing work, like at home, in the car, on a plane, late at night, or early in the morning, you don't find managers and meetings. You find a lot of other distractions, but not managers and meetings. So these are the things that you don't find elsewhere, but you do find at the office. And managers are basically people whose job it is to interrupt people. That's pretty much what managers are for. They're for interrupting people. They don't really do the work, so they make sure everyone else is doing work, which is an interruption. We have lots of managers in the world now, and a lot of people in the world, and a lot of interruptions by these managers. They have to check in: "Hey, how's it going? Show me what's up." This sort of thing. They keep interrupting you at the wrong time, while you're actually trying to do something they're paying you to do, they tend to interrupt you. That's kind of bad.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations

ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
uninterrupted time 4
great work 3
work day 3
long stretches 3
real problems 3
expect people 2

Important Words

  1. bad
  2. basically
  3. call
  4. car
  5. check
  6. distractions
  7. early
  8. find
  9. home
  10. interesting
  11. interrupt
  12. interrupting
  13. interruption
  14. interruptions
  15. job
  16. kind
  17. late
  18. listen
  19. lot
  20. lots
  21. managers
  22. meetings
  23. modern
  24. morning
  25. night
  26. office
  27. paying
  28. people
  29. places
  30. plane
  31. pretty
  32. problems
  33. real
  34. show
  35. sort
  36. talk
  37. tend
  38. time
  39. today
  40. work
  41. world
  42. wrong