Shadowing-Übung: Don't Follow Your Dreams, Follow Your Tools - Englisch Sprechen Lernen mit Video

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I just got asked by a reporter a question

and I'm sure he's gonna publish it in a news source that's behind a paywall.

And that interview is gonna be great for the people who are subscribed to that publication,

but I feel like the question was interesting and good enough

that I should answer it publicly in a place where everybody could see it.

Or not maybe, I don't know.

This is a little bit much.

I have a hard time with this, like knowing where my line should be when it comes to like giving advice.

But the basic question he asked was like, after all this time,

What do you feel like is the thing that's responsible for you doing all of these different things

and having success in many different fields and formats?

So I'm gonna tell you what I told him, I hope it's useful.

I don't have goals.

I don't have dreams.

I think that the narrative that we are taught about, like, follow your dreams, should come with a huge grain of salt.

In fact, if I could just take it out of our minds, I would.

If there's like a place you can put it in your brain and then light that place on fire,

that probably would be for the best in terms of actually having impact on the world.

A dream I definitely did not have in 1988 or 2005 was being a YouTuber, because YouTube didn't exist.

Now, I did have the dream that I wanted to be a science communicator.

But I started making YouTube videos on January 1st of 2007, and I did not start being a science communicator on YouTube until 2011.

Before I did that, I did something that was absolutely not my dream, which was I became a musician,

like a touring musician that was nowhere on my list of things that I wanted to do.

I didn't know how to play guitar when I uploaded my first YouTube video.

So if not dreams, then what?

If I had to say this in like a trite little way, it would be don't follow your dreams, follow your tools.

Now, in among your tools includes you, includes your values, includes what inspires you, includes what you know, what you've learned about,

what you've been drawn toward, what excites you, what you believe in, all that stuff is part of your toolkit.

So at a certain point I get like mental blocks for math,

and so I had a hard time continuing to develop that skill even though at first I was like good at math,

and then eventually I was like I can't figure this out.

Like, much past calculus I kind of broke, and maybe I could have developed that skill more, and that would have been valuable.

But man, physical chemistry turned me off.

But I did, as a young man, have very big sort of young man goals.

You know, like I wanted to be involved in the science of ending death.

That was like a big thing for me.

I was like, this is my thing.

And I'd read books that I had heroes who were fictional characters who had like...

I don't need to get into the details.

But that was what I wanted.

When Catherine asked me my dreams when we first met, I was like, I want to fix death.

But really what I wanted was to, like, have an impact on the world.

And for better or worse, I still have that one.

But I just think that, like, having and aiming for a singular dream doesn't work.

Like, it means that, like, a bunch of other things pass by and you just,

like, watch them pass by because they're not the thing you wanted to be.

And I saw this so much early on in YouTube where these people would have amazing audiences, they'd have, like, money coming in,

they'd have creative freedom, they'd have everything.

It would be simple, it would be small, they'd have the opportunity to like build their own thing and completely own that thing.

And then they would spend like half or three quarters of their time auditioning for TV shows.

Things that they didn't control, they'd only get a tiny slice of the money of

that 99 % of the time they would have wasted the time of the audition

when they could have been at home making YouTube videos,

which was more fun and more lucrative and ultimately much more impactful on their future as like creative people.

But they had this dream.

They had this dream that they wanted to be on TV and so that was the thing they were aiming for.

Like I really honestly think at the core of what has helped make me successful is that I don't have dreams.

I don't want to do anything in particular.

And that allows me to do two things.

Number one, just look at my toolkit, which includes me and includes what I want and includes like the things I'm curious about and my values,

but just look at my toolkit and think, what can I do with this?

And if it's an album of nerdy punk rock songs, great.

If it's a sock subscription club, fantastic.

If it's an online video conference, dope.

If it's 2D glasses that help you watch 3D movies in two dimensions, sure, I'll do that.

And I am such a project -based learner that without those things, my toolkit would be much more limited.

So every time I take my toolkit and I say, okay, I could do this,

it turns out my toolkit was not complete enough to actually do that thing.

I had to learn a bunch of other stuff along the way.

So you're like, I'm just going to like write some comedy songs.

Well, if you actually want to like release those with a music video,

maybe you have to learn how to work and do kinetic typography in like an Adobe product of some kind.

What was I using?

The one that's the motion design one.

It's been a while.

Both the extraordinarily enabling and very difficult part of my current life is that I have so many tools.

It's my, it's personal relationships, it's trust, it's audience, it's skill, it's talent.

It's like all this stuff that I've built up that now

that the number of like unsolved problems I could apply that to is fairly large, which makes me have a hard time.

Like if you have, if you can do these things,

not doing them, which is why I've got like 21 different projects on one of my burners right now.

And like in any given week, maybe I don't work on the thing that I really should be working on, which is probably my book,

but I'll get there eventually, you know?

And instead of doing this, I'm making this video.

What the hell, Hank?

So that's one thing that it allows me to do.

And the other one is like very counterintuitive and people don't like it.

Kind of.

I don't get the best responses when I tell people this, but it is when they're like,

how do you decide what to do? how I fall downhill is what I say.

I am not swimming upstream very rarely like I might be swimming upstream in terms of like the broader culture

but in terms of my skill set and my toolkit

and my values I am doing the easy thing in any given moment

because like I only have so much energy and there are times

when I'm doing the hard thing but it's only ever

because I have I am obliged to like I have to

because of some you know obligation that I have that I would would feel like a true monster to ignore, like that kind of thing.

But mostly, and this is like the secret to the productivity, I have built a very substantial toolkit and I mostly fall downhill.

So I do what's easy.

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The idea isn't a good idea

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if it's going to require a tremendous amount of discipline from me because I know that I don't have that discipline.

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Like I know what I'm working with, you know, I know what I'm working with and like this, I'm working with this and this, you know,

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it can't be like that guy who gets up at five in the morning

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and jumps in the cold plunge and like gets everything, you know, all your macros are in order.

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And then you get like two full work days in because you're like,

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well, my first work day starts at five and then my second work day starts at five.

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And that way I get two eight hour days and I get everything done.

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Like I'm not that guy.

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I'm not even the kind of guy who can like get up in time to go for a hike before

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it gets hot out.

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Like I'm going, I'm falling downhill and it's a weird thing to be this productive while not being particularly dedicated or,

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I mean, people will yell at me about this or hardworking.

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I am hardworking, but like, I don't feel like I'm hardworking because mostly I'm just doing what I want to do in any given moment.

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Now there are times and there could be long stretches where that's not the case.

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I am focused and I am exercising self -control

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and I'm pushing on something that I need to get done

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that I don't want to do during all of the times that I'm doing it, but mostly, mostly.

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But in terms of concrete advice, things that I actually did that I think have helped me be this way,

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you know, there's like who I am and like we're all different, so we're gonna have different ways of doing things.

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So I'm working with me like as I exist.

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But a piece of concrete advice that I really would give to people is

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if you have an idea for something that you think is like an unsolved problem or just even interesting,

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do not shy away from spending some significant amount of your available capital on that.

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And that is both time and money.

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It's very easy to give, and I think that you should, it's very easy to buy education from a university.

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This is absolutely a good way to spend money.

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And also, it is easier to do it if even

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if you don't have money because student loan infrastructure exists

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but that's not the only way to learn stuff and so i

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and at various times in my life i have said okay

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it is all right for me to spend five percent of my net worth on this idea that probably won't work

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and when those things have failed in my life

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which early on they all did i came out with new tools you know

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that was when i was young and silly and and like those ideas were not going to work

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Like, there was no path.

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But I learned so much doing them, so much like working with someone else, like paying another person to work with you.

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Wild.

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And early on, there was no income for those things, so I had to do it out of savings.

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And I feel like those were really smart ideas.

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Sorry, they were not smart ideas.

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They were bad ideas.

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Some of them were okay ideas.

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But I didn't actually have the toolkit to pull any of them off,

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but all of them I learned so much from just in terms of like taking the risk on myself,

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like rather than spending money in a safe way, like with school or taking the risk on someone else,

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like investing in something or giving someone else a loan, taking the risk on myself, letting my, like letting me see what happened when I,

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when I outweighed that capital, both in terms of time and money and like better understanding at the end of that process,

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what was it that was in the way of that success?

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Was it me?

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Was it my ability to stay focused on the task?

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Was it the cost getting bigger than I thought it was going to, the marketing being harder than I thought it was going to,

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the story not working for people, like they're just not being people who wanted that product, whatever it was.

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You know, the marketplace, sometimes it's a marketplace problem, like not

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understanding

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or being able to integrate well into like the app ecosystem would be an example from today at this point

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there there wasn't in my life there wasn't an like an app store

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this was more like trying to compete on the web for views

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and some of those things like made some of the money

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back like money did come in some of those things never

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and some of those things became actually made more money than they cost

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and then just were like weren't you know that's a big difference between like

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that and it becoming a job

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and of course i'm i'm remembering all this stuff through through rose -colored glasses

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and it was uh you know how much did i actually learn

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But I think I did.

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I think I learned a lot from doing that.

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And I hope that people don't like think less of me that I don't have a goal that I'm running toward.

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I'm like really looking at like an idea has to solve a legitimate problem and has to be achievable with my toolkit.

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And I have to understand both of those things really well.

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And that's like where it comes from.

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So understand the problem space.

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And that's probably the hardest part.

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And then understanding my toolkit, which is easier because it's like I'm in it.

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It is me in many ways.

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I know it's also with this computer and you know the relationships i have

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and the audience i have but like it's that all all this

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that feels pretty internal to me it feels like a extension of me

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i don't sort of like draw the boundary of who i

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am at the the flesh boundary at the at the like flesh border

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that would be silly you know how could i imagine that

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when people uh are seeing versions of me that

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that made a video 10 years ago and that's still out there being me, even if it's not me anymore.

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Anyway, the self is a topic for another video.

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And hey, this video is brought to you by ThisJob, Entering Marketing and Website Manager at dfdba .com.

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You can find that at the link in the description, so check that out if you think it would mesh well with your toolkit,

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which of course includes yourself.

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Wortschatz und Sprechhinweise zu dieser Lektion

Diese Sprechübung basiert auf dem Video „Don't Follow Your Dreams, Follow Your Tools“. Dieses Video enthält 186 Sätze und 2498 Wörter zum Nachsprechen. Der gesprochene Teil dauert 12:04. Der Sprecher spricht schnell, etwa 207 Wörter pro Minute – rechne mit verbundenen und verkürzten Lauten. 86 % der Wörter gehören zu den 3.000 häufigsten im Englischen; den Rest solltest du dir vor dem Üben ansehen.

Wichtiger Wortschatz in diesem Video

15 lernenswerte Wörter aus dem Video, mit Aussprache und Bedeutung:

Wort	Aussprache	Bedeutung
skill Substantiv	/skɪl/	Fähigkeit, Fertigkeit
downhill Adverb	/ˌdaʊnˈhɪl/	bergab
concrete Adjektiv	/ˌkɑnˈkɹit/	konkret, bestimmt
silly Adjektiv	/ˈsɪl.i/	doof, dumm
discipline Substantiv	/ˈdɪsəplɪn/	Disziplin
swim Verb	/swɪm/	schwimmen
flesh Substantiv	/flɛʃ/	Fleisch
mathematics Substantiv	/mæθ(.ə)ˈmæt.ɪks/	Mathematik
boundary Substantiv	/ˈbaʊndɹi/	Grenze
musician Substantiv	/mjuˈzɪʃən/	Musiker, Musikerin
marketplace Substantiv		Marktplatz
audition Substantiv	/ɑˈdɪʃən/	Vorsingen, Casting
upstream Adjektiv	/ʌpˈstɹiːm/	stromaufwärts
topic Substantiv	/ˈtɑpɪk/	Thema
guitar Substantiv	/ɡɪˈtɑɹ/	Gitarre

Phrasal Verbs, die du hören wirst

Wort	Bedeutung
build up Verb	sich ansammeln, sich türmen
turn out Verb	sich herausstellen als/dass, sich erweisen als

Sätze zum Wiederholen

Kurze, vollständige Sätze aus dem Video, die du im Alltag wiederverwenden kannst:

I don't need to get into the details.
I don't want to do anything in particular.
What was I using?
Was it my ability to stay focused on the task?

Grammatik in diesem Video

Die Strukturen, die der Sprecher am häufigsten verwendet, mit den genauen Worten aus dem Video:

Struktur	Im Video
Present Perfect have/has + Partizip Perfekt – eine vergangene Handlung, die jetzt noch wichtig ist	you've learned · you've been drawn · has helped
Relativsätze who / which + Satz – eine Zusatzinformation über eine Person oder Sache	people who are · dream, which was · large, which makes
Passiv be + Partizip Perfekt – wichtig ist, was geschieht, nicht wer es tut	are subscribed · are taught · you've been drawn

Aussprache, auf die du achten solltest

Der Sprecher verwendet 75 Kurzformen und abgeschwächte Formen, zum Beispiel I'm, don't, they'd. Sprich sie in der kurzen Form, so wie du sie hörst.

Die Laute „sh“ und „zh“: flesh /flɛʃ/, musician /mjuˈzɪʃən/, audition /ɑˈdɪʃən/, extension /ɪkˈstɛnʃən/, publication /ˌpʌblɪˈkeɪʃ(ə)n/
Lange Wörter – auf die Betonung achten: mathematics /mæθ(.ə)ˈmæt.ɪks/, infrastructure /ˈɪnfɹəˌstɹʌkt͡ʃə/, publication /ˌpʌblɪˈkeɪʃ(ə)n/, legitimate /lɪˈd͡ʒɪt.ɪ.mət/, productivity /ˌpɹɒdʌkˈtɪvəti/

Laute, die Deutschsprachigen schwerfallen:

/w/ — mit runden Lippen, nicht wie das deutsche „w“ (/v/): swim /swɪm/, nowhere /ˈnoʊ.(h)wɛɹ/, hardworking /ˈhɑːɹdˌwɜːɹ.kɪŋ/, outweigh /ˌaʊtˈweɪ/, paywall /ˈpeɪ.wɔl/
Stimmhafter Auslaut — /b/, /d/, /g/, /z/, /v/ am Wortende nicht verhärten: solve /sɒlv/, narrative /ˈnæɹ.ə.tɪv/, productive /pɹəˈdʌk.tɪv/, subscribe /səbˈskɹaɪb/, upload /ˈʌpˌloʊd/
/æ/ — offener als „ä“: mathematics /mæθ(.ə)ˈmæt.ɪks/, format /ˈfɔːɹ.mæt/, narrative /ˈnæɹ.ə.tɪv/, substantial /səbˈstænʃəl/, macro /ˈmæk.ɹoʊ/

So übst du mit diesem Video

Höre dir das ganze Video einmal an, ohne zu sprechen, und notiere die Wörter, die du nicht kennst.
Beginne mit 0,75-facher Geschwindigkeit, sprich Satz für Satz nach und wechsle zur normalen Geschwindigkeit, sobald es leichtfällt.
Nimm dich auf und vergleiche mit dem Original; achte dabei auf Wörter wie skill, downhill, concrete.

Was ist die Shadowing-Technik?

Shadowing ist eine wissenschaftlich fundierte Sprachlerntechnik, die ursprünglich für die professionelle Dolmetscherausbildung entwickelt und durch den Polyglotten Dr. Alexander Arguelles populär gemacht wurde. Die Methode ist einfach aber wirkungsvoll: Du hörst englisches Audio von Muttersprachlern und wiederholst es sofort laut — wie ein Schatten, der dem Sprecher mit nur 1–2 Sekunden Verzögerung folgt. Anders als passives Hören oder Grammatikübungen zwingt Shadowing dein Gehirn und deine Mundmuskulatur, gleichzeitig echte Sprachmuster zu verarbeiten und zu reproduzieren. Studien zeigen, dass es Aussprachegenauigkeit, Intonation, Rhythmus, verbundene Sprache, Hörverständnis und Sprechflüssigkeit signifikant verbessert — was es zu einer der effektivsten Methoden für die IELTS Speaking-Vorbereitung und reale englische Kommunikation macht.

Shadowing-Technik: die vollständige Schritt-für-Schritt-Anleitung lesen →

Shadowing-Übung: Don't Follow Your Dreams, Follow Your Tools - Englisch Sprechen Lernen mit Video

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