Shadowing Practice: Game Theory #3: Rich Dad, Poor Dad - Learn English Speaking with Video

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Today we look at the question of success.

Okay, the question is who succeeds and why?

Okay, so we've done a lot of research and we've discovered that people who succeed succeed for certain reasons.

So there is a Columbia psychologist named Walter Mischel and he devised a very famous experiment called the marshmallow test.

In the marshmallow test it's very very easy okay

so imagine a room and I invite a four -year -old

or five -year -old to come into this room

and have a conversation with him

or her I asked him how's your mother what do you like to do

and it's a very good conversation then suddenly I get up and say I'm really sorry but I need to go

across the hallway for another meeting but I'll be back okay

so just wait for me

and here I'll make you a deal here's a marshmallow I'm gonna put a marshmallow in front of you

and you can have it right now if I come back

and the marshmallow is still there I will give you two marshmallows okay

and and then Walter Mitchell he goes away

and he goes behind the room

and for a see -through mirror he's able to see the students as they struggle to contain themselves

because obviously they want two marshmallows and there are some students who can, in fact, resist the temptation to eat the first marshmallow and they get a second marshmallow,

but then there are others who cannot.

And Walter Mitchell will spend 50 years just tracking them, okay?

And what he discovers is this.

The students who resist the temptation, who get the second marshmallow, they are much more likely to do better in school.

They have higher test scores.

They have better careers.

Their careers are more stable.

They get promoted their careers they're much more able to find

a stable relationship they avoid jail they avoid drugs they avoid

alcohol they're more lean they're more fit they live longer better teeth

and those who cannot resist

and eat the first marshmallow right away they have the opposite effect okay And so the idea is that for Walter Mischel,

success means delayed gratification.

And all this means is that people who succeed are capable of long -term planning.

To succeed today, I will make sacrifices necessary.

So, if my friends are playing outside and I need to do my homework, well, I'm going to stay at home and do my homework.

So, long -term planning, what he calls delayed gratification.

Or, a much more simple way of saying this is the idea of self -control.

Right?

Or, the idea of emotional regulation.

You're able to keep your emotions in check.

If you're angry, you're able to calm yourself down.

Okay, and so we've tried, we know about this, and that's why in school we focus on the idea of emotional regulation.

Teaching you how to better control your emotions.

How to do long -term planning.

Okay?

So that's one theory of success.

Another fear of success comes to us from another psychologist named Carol Dwight.

And she's at Stanford.

And she wrote a book called Mindset.

Okay?

And what she tells us is that those who succeed in life have a growth mindset.

and those who fell in life have a fixed mindset, okay, and it's not hard,

okay, the idea is resilience.

Those who have a growth mindset, if they fall or they fail, they see themselves, this opportunity for me to learn.

So I'm going to think about what I did wrong,

next time I'll do better and a fixed mindset are people who can accept the idea of failure who think that

It's because they're not capable of improving and therefore they give up Okay So those who have a growth mindset

If they fail, they try harder.

Those who have a fixed mindset if they fail, they just give up and So they have resilience.

Okay, pretty simple, right?

And the third idea of success comes to us from Kay Anders Eriksson who is a Swedish psychologist,

and she wants to know why certain people are able to succeed as musicians or athletes.

And he creates the idea of deliberate practice.

Okay, so what he found is that people who want to become athletes or musicians, They work really hard.

They practice every day.

The people who succeed practice strategically.

Okay?

So those who work hard just work a long time.

But those who work strategically have a plan.

The plan is this.

What are my goals?

How can I achieve these goals?

and then how do I improve my plan okay

so they're examining their own practices

and they're trying to figure out where the weaknesses are where

they can improve instead of plan on how to improve

and then they follow this plan and

if this plan helps them improve they stick to a plan

but if the plan doesn't really work they change the plan as well okay

so this is the idea of self reflection

or self assessment constantly thinking about

how you are as a student and figure out figure out how to improve your own learning strategies and what What K.

Anders Ericsson discovered is that if you do this, you'll succeed at anything.

And this is true.

Okay?

And the reason why we know it's true is there are two American psychologists named Dunning and Kruger.

There's something called the Dunning -Kruger effect.

And so what they did was this.

They ran an experiment.

There are 500 students in their psychology class, first year university.

They made every student take an IQ test.

And then after they took the IQ test, they asked each student, how do you think you did on the IQ test?

Do you place in the top 5 % or the bottom 5 %?

And it turns out that no one got the ranking correct.

So those who were in the top 5 % in terms of IQ thought they were maybe in the top 20%.

Because for them, it was easy, so they assumed everyone, for everyone else, it was easy as well.

But what was dramatic is that those who scored the lowest thought they were average, okay?

So the worst 5 % in the class thought they were in the top 50%, or just average.

And the reason why is those people who are stupid lack the capacity to know they're stupid, okay?

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So what Dunning -Cougar discovered is that the hardest part of being a student is to assess yourself properly.

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To know exactly where you stand and how to improve.

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Those who are stupid are often the most confident in the world.

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That's what's called the Dunning -Cougar effect.

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And this helps explain why the world is why it is.

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Because often the people in power are stupid.

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They don't know they're stupid.

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They were confident and they do stupid things like Donald Trump.

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Okay?

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All right All right, so now with these three theories, right?

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We have self -control.

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We have resilience and we have self -assessment and which

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and then and so as educators at schools what we can do is devise strategies and

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Curriculum top students all succeed correct, right?

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the problem is that when we actually try this it doesn't work okay

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if you do a bad student and you teach him self -control resilience

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and self -assessment the student doesn't actually get better the reason why is okay

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and this is a very important idea for you guys to remember is that

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correlation does not equal causation okay you guys you guys need

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to remember this this means things are correlated does not mean they cost each other

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so I'll give you an example we know

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that successful people they get up early in the morning okay they get about four o 'clock in the morning

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but just because you get up at four o 'clock in the morning does not mean you'll succeed.

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Okay?

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Just because you work hard, just because you're resilient, just because you have growth mindset does not mean you'll succeed.

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But if you're successful, you'll get up early in the morning because you are more motivated.

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If you are successful in life, you will have more self -control.

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You will have more resilience you will be more humble okay does

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that make sense so if you're rich guess what happens you become successful

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and therefore you will have growth mindset self -control deliberate practice it doesn't make sense

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but just because you have growth mindset deliberate practice

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and resilience does not mean you succeed okay

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so the question for us is why does this happen

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and ultimately who succeeds okay so we know for a fact

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that rich people are much more likely likely to succeed than poor people

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and in fact we know from macro academic studies is

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that school doesn't really matter doesn't matter how well you know

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do in school your parents are rich you'll be successful in life

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if your parents are poor you will not be successful in life okay

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so what's the difference okay so now let's look at parenting strategies between rich

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and poor okay so there are lots of differences

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but let's focus on three major differences the first major difference is

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that rich parents speak to their kids more

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than poor parents okay high vocabulary low vocabulary

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when rich parents speak to the kids which parents will use high vocabulary longer sentences.

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Poor parents will just be no, yes, go away.

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Okay, another major difference is in attitude.

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Okay, so rich parents use a friendly attitude and poor Your parents use an authoritarian or command attitude.

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So for example, if you are a rich kid, and you go and touch a stove,

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okay, and you burn your hand, the rich parent will say, listen, you made a mistake, don't worry about it.

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Let me explain to you why touching a fire is bad for you

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because you'll burn yourself and you might have to go to a doctor

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and we will feel pain if you hurt yourself, okay?

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So the rich parent will spend a lot of time explaining to the child why this is wrong

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and how not to do it again.

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The poor parent is like, don't you ever do that again or I'll beat the crap out of you, okay?

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Don't do that.

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Pretty simple, okay?

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But as you can understand,

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the rich kid will understand that the world is safe and that he is respected in this world, okay?

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Whereas the poor child will think that the world is scary and he or she must be afraid of adults.

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And this carries on into school, right?

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Because as a rich kid, you go to school and you think that, oh, my teacher is my friend.

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So you smile at the teacher, and you hug the teacher, and the teacher smiles back, and now you're friends, right?

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But if you're a poor kid, and you see the teacher, you're afraid to look at the teacher.

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You don't smile.

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You are stressed, okay?

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And the teacher thinks that you might be a problem child.

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So the problem with this is that, yes, being a third -in -term parent, it is effective, but it creates stress in the family.

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Okay, it makes the child feel unsafe and this leads to our the third major difference between rich parents and poor parents

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Rich parents offer stability, okay?

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Poor parents can only offer volatility.

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This is a very simple idea.

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Rich parents have money so they can afford to keep promises.

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So, I'm a rich parent, I say to my child, okay, next week we'll go to Thailand for vacation.

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Guess what?

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Next week you guys go to Thailand for vacation.

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But if you're a poor parent, money is always an issue.

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So it's hard for you to keep promises, right?

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So it's like next week we'll go to McDonald's for lunch, but your paycheck It's not enough.

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So you're like, sorry, we can't go anymore Okay,

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and now because of these different parenting styles we understand why Rich kids behave different from poor kids, right?

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So let's look at the idea idea of self -control Right self -control What is the marshmallow test?

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Marshmallow test is not a test of self -control.

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It's a test of your trust in others, right?

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If you believe that the teacher who goes outside,

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if you believe that he or she comes back and will keep his or her promise, then you will not eat that marshmallow.

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But if you think that this teacher is lying to me, then you're not going to eat that marshmallow.

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Then you will eat that marshmallow, right?

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So it's not really about self -control.

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It's about your belief and trust in authority figures, right?

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So if you're rich, stability, you have stability.

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But if you're poor, you don't have stability.

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So you're actually better off eating that marshmallow rather than waiting for that second marshmallow.

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Because guess what?

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Most of the time, you will not get that second marshmallow.

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Do you understand?

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So it's not that poor kids are stupid poor kids are rational

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and they're responding to the circumstances that they live in Okay, and Resilience right?

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Well the idea of resilience is that You believe that the world will help you Right,

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so if you're rich and you believe that everyone helps you, you can be resilient.

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Because if you fail, someone will help you get up.

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If you're poor, if you fail, that probably tells you you shouldn't be doing this.

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Okay?

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You probably won't succeed doing this.

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So you don't have much confidence in others.

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Okay?

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And the idea of self -assessment, right?

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Looking inward.

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Well, if you're a poor child who lives under a lot of stress, it's hard for you to be self -reflective because if you look back at yourself,

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all you can think about is your pain and your stress.

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Okay?

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So, from these different parenting strategies, we can now explain why different students behave the way they do.

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This, of course, may lead you to think, okay, well then, rather than construct our schools around self -control,

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resilience, and self -reflection, we should construct our schools around better parenting skills, okay?

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Which means that, hey, let's construct schools where kids are exposed to a lot of vocabulary,

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where teachers are friendly, and where there's a lot of stability, okay?

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And we've tried this, and it's more effective, but it doesn't really work either.

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Why?

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Because the kids come in too late.

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A lot of their worldview is already established.

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Then you're like, okay, well, then let's change how parents behave.

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And when you do that, what you recognize is that, nope, you can't change how they behave either.

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So no matter what you do, you end up with massive differences between the poor and the rich.

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The rich stay rich and the poor stay poor.

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So now the question for us is, why is this the case?

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And it's the case because society is a hierarchy,

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and the hierarchy is usually divided between the rich and the poor.

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And these two worlds are night and day, they're very, very different.

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As a poor person, if you want to survive, you have to obey authority,

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but if you're a rich person, the way that you get along with others,

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the way that you maximize your outcome is by negotiating with others okay negotiating okay

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so negotiating can also mean debate right so who should be the boss well let's have a debate and

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present different evidence as to to figure out who's who should be the boss

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okay so negotiation means debate and argument

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so this helps us this helps us understand why different parents parent their child differently

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if you're a poor parent your responsibility is to make sure

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that your child knows how to obey authority okay that's why you command your child But if you are a rich parent,

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you want your child to be able to negotiate with authority.

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And that's why you respect your child and you teach your child how to debate, how to argue, how to negotiate with others.

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Okay?

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Because they live in different worlds.

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Another way of saying this is that from day one,

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rich kids know that they're playing a different game than, they're playing a different game from poor kids, okay?

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Okay?

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So, let's go back and look at parents.

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Okay?

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So, poor parents command their child.

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Don't really speak.

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Don't communicate. And don't keep promises.

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Okay?

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All right, so poor parents do these three things, and we know that if they do these three things, the outcome won't be so good, okay?

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And the reason why they do this is that they're not playing a game to improve their kid's outcome,

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they're playing a game to get along with other parents, okay?

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okay colleagues family okay authority okay so another thing this is this

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police boss okay family okay all right

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so as a parent you're trying to figure out how to negotiate with the police for your boss

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and with your family so if you're a poor person

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and the police knows you're a poor person the police is gonna bully you

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if you fight back the police will probably put you in jail

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okay so it's very important that you accept authority you don't charge authority

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because if you do you'll probably get into trouble your boss right

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if you're a poor person your your boss will just command you about

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and so it's very important

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that your child knows how to take orders rather than ask

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questions rather than debate your child must learn how to just follow orders

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or at least keep his mouth shut okay

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and then family is about maintaining good relations with those who can most support you,

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and that often means the same values.

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So if your family members or your friends, if they are parenting their child in this manner, you're also going to copy them, okay, imitation.

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All right, and for a poor person,

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this is the optimal strategy of how to parent Okay,

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doesn't make sense guys Because if you do it another way,

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okay If you are, if you choose to be a friend to your child If you choose to communicate,

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if you choose to keep your promises, then your friends and your family will think that you're doing something wrong.

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Do you understand?

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They won't think, oh my god, you're an enlightened parent who's read a lot of parenting books and great for you.

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They're going to think there's something wrong with you.

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Okay?

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So let me give you an example of this.

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Let me give you an example of this.

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So my wife and I have three kids, okay?

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My parenting style.

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So my wife and I have three kids.

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And this is how we parent our kid, okay?

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First of all, we have our child, we give our child a lot of freedom.

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So we don't have our kids do activities, okay?

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Okay, we don't have our kids do lots of activities.

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We don't send our kids to math class, we don't send our kids to swimming class, we don't send our kids to piano class, okay?

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We just let our kids run around and play.

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The other thing that we do is we communicate a lot with our child.

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We believe in democracy in our family.

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If there's if we're gonna make a decision together, we want everyone to communicate together Okay, um so

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Normal Chinese family will just have a very tight schedule right

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and the other thing that we do that's different is we tell stories the other Chinese families will do math,

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okay so So we raise our children in a way that's very different from normal Chinese families,

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from the way that you've been raised.

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And we do this because both my wife and I, we spend a lot of time talking about parenting.

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I've read a lot of books about parenting.

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I've spent many decades researching the best education possible.

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And so that's why we raise our children in this way.

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And guess what?

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Because we do this, we have no friends in China.

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We have family, but they all think we're crazy.

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Okay?

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But we do this because for us, what's most important is to make sure that our children are happy

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and healthy and that they have a chance to be creative and be successful in life.

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Because I think that if you do it this way, the child will not be creative, will not be successful successful.

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But if you do it this way, your child will fit into China better.

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So parenting, the goal, the incentive, is not for your child to succeed.

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The incentive is for your child to fit into China

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or the larger social environment that you are in okay

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and that's why it's very hard to change the way people behave

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and that's why social structures are extremely rigid

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because the game they're playing is often just to fit into their environment okay does

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that make sense guys okay any questions So for poor families,

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is there any way for the poor kids to succeed to be the rich parent you describe in the future?

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Okay, that's a really good question, okay?

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So we know that there are certain poor kids who do succeed.

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For example, I'm a poor kid who succeeded.

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My, um, we immigrated to Toronto, Canada, when I was like six years old, and my father was a dishwasher,

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so we were a very poor family, okay?

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And, but I succeeded because I left Canada for the United States.

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So Canada is a very rigid place, where poor people basically move up a bit, but not too far.

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But I was able to succeed because I was able to get a scholarship to go study in the United States Okay,

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so there are opportunities the problem though is that it means leaving your community Okay, does that make sense?

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So one way to succeed is to abandon your community Okay,

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but that's high risk So you have to be extremely individualistic.

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to take such a risk so that's why most most people don't do it

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because you think about it the safest option for you is to stay within your community

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that's what's gonna guarantee you the most the best outcome but

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if you choose to abandon your community and just say

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and just say you know what I'm gonna go somewhere else

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and try my luck that's taking a really high risk okay so you To succeed, you have to take high risk.

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So another possibility is war.

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That traditionally, historically, has been the best mechanism of social mobility.

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When you go fight a war and you do really well, you get promoted in life.

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Okay?

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But again, war is high risk, because chances are you'll get killed.

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okay so not just war but also revolution right okay

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and of course the best way of course is to marry up marrying up okay

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and that's why remember remember in our first class we talked

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about the dating game right where woman only want five

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and four okay the reason why is that five

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and four are high status and three two one are low status

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so if you're a woman you don't want to marry into a low -status family

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because your children will be screwed over okay your best option

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is to take a risk gamble into a high -status

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and marry you want you want trying to marry into a high status family okay

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so traditionally um war and marrying up are the two major mechanisms of social mobility in today's world um

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abandoning community can also lead to success okay basically immigrating to a place that offers more or social mobility,

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which often means the United States.

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Okay, but another way of saying this is, you have to get really lucky, guys.

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Okay, so there's lots of poor people who think that, you know, I succeeded because I worked hard and I'm really talented.

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Look, I was born poor, I lucked into Yale.

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Okay, it's luck.

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You can work as hard as you want, but the chances are against you.

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Okay, and it takes a certain personality, which is you're really individualistic.

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You're very ambitious and you have high risk tolerance Most people don't have that.

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Okay, so yes, there are certain people who despite their background they're able to succeed

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But that's often the exception to the rule as opposed to the rule itself.

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Okay, so so thank you Is this clear?

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Okay.

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Any more questions guys before I move on?

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Okay

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can be luck counted as a kind of ability

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or is just coincidence okay that's a really good question yeah okay yep

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so you're absolutely right okay so luck is a form of strategy okay strategy

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And all this is saying is

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that you are trying to position yourself in a place that allows you to get lucky, okay?

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So I left Canada and I went to the United States because I knew that in Canada, it doesn't matter how hard you work, no one cares.

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But in the United States, if you work really hard, then you might get lucky and you might meet someone who's like, wow, you're a really hard worker, I want to promote you, okay?

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So you're right in that, yes, you can strategize and increase your luck, but it's still luck.

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And those who succeed are able to think strategically and far ahead

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and position themselves in a way that allows them to get lucky.

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okay and they often have the characteristics that we talked about you know like so self -control

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resilience and the ability to look inward and better understand what you're good at okay

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so it takes a combination of factors

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but the point I'm trying to make is

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that these people only my no not our minority okay 1 % of the population really Okay,

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and they still depend on luck Any more questions before I move on?

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Okay So this leads us to a question which is okay.

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Well the way that I frame everything Okay, the way that I frame everything you have poor and you have rich

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And as discussed they live in their own world world

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and they don't really connect with each other They have different parenting strategies, they have different outlooks.

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The rich stay with themselves, the poor stay amongst themselves.

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So this looks like a very stable system, right?

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Stability.

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The word we can use is equilibrium.

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Now the question then is, why do societies collapse?

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Why are there revolutions?

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Why are there social changes?

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This looks like a system of equilibrium where, because of parenting, people know their place.

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And people know how to best strategize about maintaining their place.

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So why is there social change?

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And the reason why is that this system has problems and it's stable,

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but the main problem is this system.

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Okay?

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It's the rich that's problematic.

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And the reason why is that the rich are taught from day one to negotiate a better outcome.

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Okay, so another way of saying this is that the poor is like minimum outcome, okay?

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The rich want the maximum outcome.

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the poor like you know what if I'm you know if I'm alive if I have a different job I'm okay though

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but the rich are like no I need to be the

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top dog I need to improve my lot in society otherwise what's the point of my life okay

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so they have high expectations okay high expectations expectations,

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low expectations, okay, and this is a problem because power,

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it's a zero -sum game, okay, hierarchy is a zero -sum game, so only a few people can be at the top,

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so eventually, you get into a situation where there are two rich people, too many rich people and not enough powerful positions,

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and this is what's called elite overproduction.

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And then what happens here is that in order to get power,

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certain factions of the rich will align with certain factions of the poor against the powers that be.

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So all revolutions are always between the half a lot versus half some.

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It's never between rich and poor.

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It's always between half a lot and half some.

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So the people who led the Chinese Revolution, right, people like Mao Zedong, Zhou Enlai, Deng Xiaoping, they were not poor people, they didn't come from poor families.

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But they weren't rich enough, okay, so the Chinese Revolution was really between the urban elite Versus the rural elite Okay,

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if I have a lot versus have some you look at every revolution in human history.

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That's always been the case Okay, you go back to Chinese history.

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You look at all these revolutions that started in China.

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It was always led by

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the middle class or

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the aspirational class usually merchants right merchants because they were discriminated heavily in society

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but they had money and they wanted to transform their money into power

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and so when times were bad when people were looking for change they took the initiative and led people into revolution Okay,

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does it make sense, guys?

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Alright, any questions?

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Alright.

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So you said the revolution was initially being with.. in those rich people

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so how could they lead the poor people to to to vote for them to start the revolution because

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revolution need a huge amount of people that let the public face to um like yeah to initiate okay

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okay great question okay so revolutions are almost the same so over time because of the structure

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because of the inequality between rich and poor, certain problems arise, okay?

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So, and these problems are extremely common.

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The first problem, okay, problems.

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The first problem is indebtedness.

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Because the rich have a monopoly over wealth, for the poor to survive, they need to borrow money.

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But over time, because of interest rates,

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the poor find themselves in slavery, okay?

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Because you can't afford to pay back the bank or the rich person, then your body is collateral, okay?

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So you become a slave, but not only do you become a slave, but your children become slaves as well.

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So slavery was a very common problem,

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and then the third issue of course is landlessness Okay,

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so these are the three most common Problems that ultimately become the seeds of revolution

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The poor are getting a debt and so they lose their land

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and their children become slaves the children their children's children become slaves as well Because of interest rates,

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it's impossible for you to pay back that debt.

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So now you have a majority of people who have actually no incentive to live.

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So what happens now is that an elite say to these people,

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follow me into revolution and I will clear your debts.

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I will give you land and I will end slavery.

451

And that's it.

452

Okay?

453

Every single revolution has been like this.

454

There have been different names.

455

Okay?

456

So for example, communists are like, we'll create a communist paradise.

457

But what's a communist paradise?

458

A communist paradise is where debt is canceled, where people are given land, and where no one's a slave.

459

Okay?

460

Then others are like, okay, we'll create a religious paradise.

461

Islam.

462

Okay, so Mohammed, the Islamic revolution was about this initially.

463

Later on it changed, right?

464

And Mohammed said to everyone, where you create the kingdom of heaven?

465

What's the kingdom of heaven?

466

The kingdom of heaven is where people don't have debt, where people have land to feed themselves, and where there are no slaves.

467

So if you are a Muslim, you You can never be a slave.

468

Okay?

469

So look at every single revolution, it's this pattern.

470

Whereas over time, because of inequality in society, you have people who fall into too much debt,

471

they become slaves, they have no land, and then because of elite overproduction, you have this faction that splinters off and who,

472

in order to obtain power, get the people on their side.

473

And you look at the Roman Civil War Julius Caesar was saying the same thing Why was he so popular?

474

Because he was saying to the Roman people

475

If I become king I will get rid of your debt I will free you of slavery

476

And I will give you land And that's why they had to kill him

477

Why is Donald Trump so popular in America right now?

478

Same thing man Where Americans are in debt to their credit cards Student loans,

479

their houses and so they believe that Donald Trump were to become a power, if he were to become king, what's the First United King does?

480

What the First United King always does is cancel all debts.

481

Because if you cancel all debts, who loses power?

482

It's the rich who lose power.

483

And it's the rich who are most dangerous to a king.

484

Okay?

485

Does that make sense?

486

So again, this is a very similar pattern in human history.

487

It's all game theory, okay?

488

Any more questions, guys?

489

Okay, ask one more question, then we'll break, okay?

490

Is this clear to you guys?

491

Okay, so another way of understanding this is that according to game theory, individuals don't really matter, okay?

492

You have to look at large groups, you have to look at large social trends, okay?

493

You cannot really change the outcome for certain groups of people like poor kids unless you

494

and look at the overall structure in which they live.

495

One more question guys, then we'll break for the day.

496

Yeah, Alan.

497

so like does that the the society or like just the elite

498

that really rule the country who really have the power

499

and have the motivations to maintain a society

500

that a certain degree of social mobility is allowed

501

but not all of them but but but not really a big social mobility

502

so so that firstly they can maintain their power, but second, they give their lower class people a hope to get into the rich class,

503

but not using revolutions or other things that will turn this society into collapse.

504

Okay, yeah.

505

Okay, look, you're absolutely right.

506

So social mobility is really the best form of governance, right?

507

As long as you enable people with talent and ability and ambition to climb up, they'll be happy.

508

And your society will be very stable.

509

But not only will it be very stable, it will be very prosperous, very creative.

510

And it doesn't matter what system you have, okay?

511

So the example is, okay, America in the 1950s was a democracy.

512

And there's a lot of social mobility.

513

and so people worked really hard and america became very wealthy

514

but guess what in china 1950s china was not a democracy it was a communist system

515

but in 1950s people worked really hard as well why

516

because china was destroyed after decades of war

517

and there were lots of opportunities for social mobility

518

if you worked hard you got promoted very quickly in the system so even though it was a communist system,

519

not a capitalist system, even though it was a command economy rather than democracy,

520

people worked really hard because they thought that by working hard they could improve their lives.

521

So social mobility is the best form of governance.

522

You don't need democracy.

523

You don't need any system.

524

As long as you have social mobility, people will be happy.

525

The problem, though, is that over time,

526

less than a generation, all positions of power are failed, okay?

527

So the people with talent who made the country great, who made the country wealthy, when they get into power,

528

they don't want people like them to replace them they want their children to replace them okay

529

and over time these children are a lot

530

so what happens is at the very top all the positions are filled and there's a waiting list as well so

531

if you are a poor person who is uh who works

532

hard really talented unfortunately all those positions at the top are filled already,

533

and there's also a waiting list, so too bad, okay?

534

And this is, and again, just look at Chinese history, right?

535

Look at Chinese history, where at the beginning of the dynasty, you had all these talented people take the civil entrance examination,

536

the keju, and these are really tall people, but then what happens is that they have children, and they teach their children how to do on a keju,

537

and then eventually they're They're like, you know what, we'll just cheat.

538

So they corrupt the keju, and then eventually, like, you know what, screw this.

539

Whoever can pay to pass the keju will pass the keju.

540

And then all the positions at the very top are filled.

541

There's no more social mobility, so what do people do?

542

They engage in revolution, right?

543

So you look at Hong Xiuquan, right?

544

He failed the keju, or there was no position at the top for him, so he started, so he believed he became the brother of Jesus, right?

545

And he started this revolution that claimed tens of millions of lives in China.

546

Why?

547

Because there was no social mobility for him.

548

50 years ago, prior, he would have been a civil servant.

549

Same thing for Mao Zedong, right?

550

By the time that Mao Zedong became a university student, the Koju had been eliminated.

551

So there's no way for him to climb the ladder anymore.

552

Therefore, he had to start engaging in new ideas.

553

Okay?

554

So you're absolutely right in that social mobility is the best way to maintain social harmony,

555

but people have children and they want the children to succeed

556

and they will arrange a system in a way

557

that only their children can succeed which screws over every other children every everyone else

558

and so they have no choice but to overflow the system okay or another thing this is game reset game reset

559

this is what a revolution is okay so another way another way of saying this is that

560

100 people are playing a game 10 people are winning

561

and they keep on winning and they can only win

562

so everyone else is like screw this game let's start a new game

563

and the 10 people are like nope we're happy playing this game they can't agree

564

so the united people can only do is a revolution

565

which allows for game reset which is now again allows for social mobility and that is the course of human history okay

566

either you um climb up the ladder

567

if they don't allow you to climb up the ladder then you should Just break the game.

568

But unfortunately, again, once you're in power, you want your children to inherit your power,

569

and so you will rig the game in a way that only your children can succeed.

570

That's why the schools are the way they are.

571

Schools for the rich are very different from schools for the poor, right?

572

Schools, for the rich, there's a lot of freedom, there's a lot of creativity, the teachers are very good.

573

You go to poor schools and it's the complete opposite.

574

And the reason why is the system is set up to make sure that certain people succeed and everyone else fails.

575

Okay?

576

Does that make sense, Alan?

577

Okay, great.

578

Any more questions, guys?

579

All right.

580

Good.

581

I'll see you guys next class, okay?

582

Thank you.

583

Thank you.

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59 sentences

Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson

This video has 583 sentences and 6643 words to shadow. The speech runs for 52:56. The speaker talks at a steady 125 words per minute, a comfortable pace for shadowing. 88% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English, so the vocabulary is easy to follow.

Key vocabulary in this video

15 less common words from the video, with pronunciation and meaning:

succeed /səkˈsiːd/ (verb) — To follow something in sequence or time.
mobility /mə(ʊ)ˈbɪlɪti/ (noun) — The ability to move; capacity for movement.
mindset /ˈmaɪn(d)ˌsɛt/ (noun) — A way of thinking; an attitude or opinion, especially a habitual one.
resilience /ɹɪˈzɪl.ɪ.əns/ (noun) — The mental ability to recover quickly from depression, illness or misfortune.
slave /sleɪv/ (noun) — A person who is held in servitude as the property of another person, and whose labor (and often also whose body and life) is subject to the owner's volition…
outcome /ˈaʊtkʌm/ (noun) — That which is produced or occurs as a result of an event or process.
negotiate /nəˈɡəʊ.ʃi.eɪt/ (verb) — To confer with others in order to come to terms or reach an agreement.
stable /ˈsteɪ.bəl/ (noun) — A building, wing or dependency set apart and adapted for lodging and feeding (and training) ungulates, especially horses.
elite /ɪˈlit/ (noun) — A special group or social class of people who have a superior social or economic status and attendant power, advantages, or privileges in society; a member of…
marry /ˈmæɹi/ (verb) — To enter into the conjugal or connubial state; to take a husband or a wife.
communist /ˈkɑ.mjə.nɪst/ (noun) — An advocate of a society based on the common ownership of property; a proponent of communism.
stability /stəˈbɪlɪti/ (noun) — The condition of being stable or in equilibrium, and thus resistant to change.
behave /bɪˈheɪv/ (verb) — To conduct (oneself) well, or in a given way; to conform.
assessment /əˈsɛsmənt/ (noun) — The act of assessing or an amount (of tax, levy or duty etc) assessed.
climb /ˈklaɪ̯m/ (verb) — To traverse a slope or contour, either upwards (ascending) or downwards (descending).

Phrasal verbs you will hear

look at (verb) — To observe or watch.
figure out (verb) — To come to understand; to discover or find a solution; to deduce.
get into (verb) — To move into (an object), such that one ends up inside it.
get up (verb) — To move in an upward direction; to ascend or climb.
live in (verb) — To reside on the premises of one's employer (used especially of domestic staff such as nannies, cooks, maids, etc.)
fit into (verb) — To be of the right size and shape to be placed in a location.
think about /ˈθɪŋk əˌbaʊt/ (verb) — To ponder.
come back (verb) — To return to a place.

Pronunciation to watch

The speaker uses 152 contractions and reduced forms, such as you're, don't, they're. Say them the short way, as you hear them.

The “th” sounds: wealthy /ˈwɛl.θi/, mathematics /mæθ(.ə)ˈmæt.ɪks/, athlete /ˈæθ.liːt/, authoritarian /əˌθɑ.ɹəˈtɛɹ.i.ən/
The “sh” and “zh” sounds: negotiate /nəˈɡəʊ.ʃi.eɪt/, expectation /ˌɛk.spɛkˈteɪ.ʃən/, faction /ˈfæk.ʃən/, vacation /veɪˈkeɪ.ʃən/, regulation /ˌɹɛɡjʊˈleɪʃən/
Long words — get the stress right: mobility /mə(ʊ)ˈbɪlɪti/, resilience /ɹɪˈzɪl.ɪ.əns/, negotiate /nəˈɡəʊ.ʃi.eɪt/, stability /stəˈbɪlɪti/, communicate /kəˈmjuːnɪkeɪt/

How to practise with this video

Listen to the whole video once without speaking and note the words you do not know.
Shadow it sentence by sentence at normal speed, repeating each one until your rhythm matches the speaker.
Record yourself and compare with the original, paying attention to words like succeed, mobility, mindset.

Grammar in this video

The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:

Structure	In the video
Conditional sentences if + clause, will/would + verb — a condition and its result	if you do this, you'll succeed · if you're successful, you'll get · if your parents are poor you will not
Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now	we've done · we've tried · you've been raised
Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it	are correlated · is respected · are stressed
Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing	people who succeed · students who can · students who resist

What is the Shadowing Technique?

Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.

Shadowing technique: read the full step-by-step guide →

Shadowing Practice: Game Theory #3: Rich Dad, Poor Dad - Learn English Speaking with Video

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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson

Key vocabulary in this video

Phrasal verbs you will hear

Pronunciation to watch

How to practise with this video

Grammar in this video

What is the Shadowing Technique?