Listening to TED talks was a regular habit of mine. I’m publishing all of my notes. Here’s the complete list.
This week, Andrew Stanton on the clues to a great story and James Pennebaker on the secret life of pronouns.
Andrew Stanton: The clues to a great story
- stories are all about the ending
- the greatest story commandment: “make me care”
- at beginning, stories should make a promise, can be as simple as “once upon a time”
- the audience WANTS to work for their meal, they just don’t want to know they’re doing it!
- “Pixar’s Unifying Theory of 2 + 2”; don’t give them the answer (4), make them do the work
- “drama is anticipation mingled with uncertainty”
- every story needs a strong, unifying theme
- before they made Toy Story, everyone in Hollywood thought animation = singing
The Secret Life of Pronouns: James Pennebaker at TEDxAustin
- writing 15 mins/day shown to help with trauma – rape, assault
- what you write about didn’t matter – it was the usage of specific articles and prepositions that did!
- content (nouns, adjectives) versus function words (rest)
- function words are 65% of language usage; in English they’re usually the shortest words, and so they’re processed so quickly that they’re basically subconscious
- function words are profoundly social
- for example, usage of 3rd person pronouns (he, she, they) shows you pay attention to other people
- first person pronouns: I, me, my
- the higher your status, the LESS you use them
- the lower your status, the MORE you use them
- high status looks at world, low status looks inside
- suicidal and non-suicidal poets use negative words at same rates, but suicidal poets use “I” more!
- depressed people – high awareness, self-focused, extremely self-honest, unable to have positive allusions about themselves
- honest people use “I” more, own what they say, liars distance themselves
- in relationships and speed dating – the more your function words match your partner’s, the stronger your relationship
Here’s the full list of TED notes!