Shadowing Practice: “Optimization” Is Destroying Humanity - Learn English Speaking with Video
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We live in a world today obsessed with optimization and efficiency.
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It's gotten to the point where there are countless memes out there about the optimization people,
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the people looks maxing, the people success maxing in the idea of Stephen Bartlett
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and that meme that went viral over him saying
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that he had one glass of wine or two glasses of wine and it ruined three days of his life.
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We've all seen those memes and we're starting to understand
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that this world prioritizes efficiency and usefulness over things that are much more eternal, much more soulful.
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We look at the modern day apartment complexes
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and we compare them to the buildings that were built hundreds of years ago
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and we see that there is just absolutely no soul there.
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They were built in an efficient manner, in a fast manner, to try and maximize for short -term ROI.
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But there's nothing eternal about them.
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And I think the best example about how we've gone
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so far from what is best for the human society and best for the human spirit is the Renaissance period.
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Because it's so easy to look at today and see
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that there are countless construction companies and countless businesses which are maximizing
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and optimizing for efficiency and usefulness
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and making a lot more profit in the short term than businesses did back in the Renaissance period, for example.
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If you look at a modern day building, it gets built a lot more fast, it gets built in a much more efficient manner,
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and is able to bring in millions if not billions of dollars for that construction company in a very short time span.
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Whereas the buildings that were built in Florence, Italy in the 16th or 15th century, those buildings, some of them took over 50,
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60, sometimes even 100 years.
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So the short -term profit wasn't there to the same level as these modern -day, more efficient buildings.
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Except these modern -day buildings will be knocked down in 10, 20, or 30 years, while those buildings that were built back in Florence,
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Italy, are still standing today, and their beauty attracts people to Italy, and has probably brought in tens of billions,
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if not trillions of dollars at this point in tourism money, in economy money, in the sense
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that people travel to Italy to look at these beautiful buildings built hundreds of years ago sometimes a thousand years ago,
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and then what they then do is spend money at the shops and they buy souvenirs and they go to the restaurant.
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It has this huge effect.
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And so beauty wins in the long term, even though it doesn't seem as optimized, even though it doesn't seem as efficient.
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You can also look at modern -day clothing companies,
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which are still reaping the rewards off the focus and attention to detail that their founders had sometimes hundreds of years ago.
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You can look at the big fashion houses.
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Some of them now produce bags and clothes worth thousands of dollars that are actually produced quite cheaply and quite mass manufactured.
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But they're able to charge that amount of money
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because of the attention to detail and beauty that existed in the beginning of that company.
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But then because they try and focus on efficiency, those companies end up dying.
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They start dwindling in their profit and they wonder why
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and then they try and be more efficient and they fire people and they try and optimize the structure of the company,
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forgetting the main point, which is that efficiency wins in the short term,
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but beauty and craft and attention to detail wins in the long term, always.
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And like I said, the renaissance is the best example of that.
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And I think there's a lesson in there for everyone living today.
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And so in today's video, I want to talk about the three principles
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that I learned from reading the Oxford History of the Renaissance when it comes to beauty, when it comes to optimizing for beauty,
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for quality, for craft, and how that can still lead you to succeeding,
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but it's succeeding in a better manner and succeeding in the long term while also feeling more fulfilled.
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And so, without further ado, let's get into principle number one, which is to focus on what you want to bring to the world,
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not what the world can bring to you.
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Something the Renaissance did extremely well was constantly think about what the human can add to the world.
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Look at the limitations that seem to exist out there and try and break through them.
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Try and bring something new to the world that no one else can bring.
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It's what the great
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Renaissance artists from William Shakespeare to Leonardo da Vinci to Michelangelo were able to bring.
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It's what the great statesmen were able to bring.
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And even the bankers.
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It's why when you look at the Medici family who...
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If you go through history, you know they have a checkered past.
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They weren't these brilliant, great people.
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But they still brought something great to the world because they wondered how they could bring something new into the world.
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Even though they were bankers, they thought about how art and culture and beauty would allow
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Florence to gain more soft power, therefore make more money.
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But they were able to generate money as bankers through funding art and beauty.
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I mean, what a far cry from the world we live in today, where the modern -day bankers are so focused on efficiency
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and optimization that they wouldn't even think about how important the arts
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and beauty of art could be for their banking systems and for the economy of the country.
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Like I already gave that example, look at Florence and Italy still bringing in people to look at monuments that are hundreds of years old,
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in some cases thousands of years old.
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That still generates billions of dollars in profit for the country.
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So like I said, beauty wins in the long term
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and even bankers like the Medici family back in the Renaissance understood that concept.
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You want to bring something new.
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You want to do something new for the world.
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No bankers had done that before, and then they were able to do that.
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And so in your life, if you're focused on trying to do well and trying to grow and trying to succeed as we all are,
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I think the first step
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that we can all learn from the Renaissance is to think about how we can bring something unique to the world,
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how we can solve a unique problem, how we can bring something that we feel as though only us can bring.
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If I can personalize this in a way when I look at myself and the content that I make here,
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I try to ruthlessly make it as unique as possible.
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I try to constantly stay as close as I can to what I can bring personally to the content landscape,
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to this philosophy and self -help and self -education landscape.
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What can I do that's unique?
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There are constant videos out there that are very similar to other videos, people constantly copying each other.
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There are many different creators out there who make great content.
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But I'm different.
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What can I bring that's unique?
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And so I try to think about self -help and self -education through a more humanities lens, through a more philosophical lens,
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and also through a classical lens.
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Ever since I was a kid, I've liked wearing suits.
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It makes me kind of unique in today's environment, which is more focused on efficiency.
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They believe a T -shirt is more efficient than a suit and tie, which I guess it is.
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But for me, that doesn't make me feel good.
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For me, putting on this suit makes me feel ready to talk.
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It makes me feel professional.
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It makes me feel grounded in some sense.
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It's a meditative process to put on a shirt, button up the shirt, tie the tie, put on the jacket, and there's a layering to it.
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It's meditative.
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And I think that does make me unique, even though it might seem superficial.
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It adds to the beauty of my content, if I can say that without sounding arrogant in any way.
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I just mean that it's unique.
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And so I constantly try
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and stay as close as I can to what I can add that no one else could possibly add.
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What makes me unique and how can I get that across while still providing value?
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I like to think that I make videos that no one else really makes in the same way.
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We may talk about similar concepts and similar ideas.
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It's impossible to talk about unique ideas every day, but we do it in a different way,
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and I try to bring what I can bring to it.
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And so I think the first step in beauty is to constantly think about how whatever it is you're looking to do,
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painting, writing, architecture, being a banker, being a politician, being a real estate agent,
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whatever you can do, how can you bring your own unique beauty to it?
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If you're a real estate agent, the beauty, I'm sure, comes in the way that you approach the sale,
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the way that you go above and beyond to communicate, what allows you to make it more of a seamless process, a comfortable process.
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What unique version of beauty can you bring to it?
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And I think in today's world, not enough people start there.
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I think they start with what's my target market?
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How much money can I make out of this market?
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What can my business do?
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What's working for other businesses?
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How can I split test to see what can work for mine?
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But not enough focus goes on how can I be as unique as possible?
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And I think especially in the age of AI, where AI is going to occupy more of the useful space,
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all the efficiency, all the rinse and repeat processes when it comes to jobs,
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all the areas of work that are very much focused on just efficiency and usefulness.
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AI is going to be able to replace that.
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AI is going to be able to come up with the most efficient business model.
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It's going to be able to do the editing process for videos like these, for example.
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So that efficiency level, that's going to be occupied.
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So how can my edits in my video, or how can the way I talk,
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or how can the work I make be unique and still do well in the AI landscape?
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I think it comes down to what beauty you're bringing to it.
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It might take you longer to write a book than it would take AI, but there is a level of beauty that can come through
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if you can be as focused as you can on what uniqueness you can bring to it.
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Now, some people may push back there.
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Some people may say that AI will become so complex that it will be able to create unique pieces of art, and maybe that's the case.
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But think about it if you're a writer and you're writing a romance book or a murder mystery book.
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And let's say that morning you went for a jog and you ended up seeing a person with a dog.
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And seeing that person with a dog made you think about a unique scene
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that you can put into your book involving a dog, maybe by the beach if you were running by the beach or in a park,
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wherever it was that unique daily experience that you had may trigger an idea
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that only you can bring to the book because only you had that experience that morning and had that epiphany.
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So that's what I mean by unique beauty that you can bring to your job.
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Now, of course, that's in a creative space, but there are ideas like that that can work across all jobs,
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across all areas of life that you're trying to do well in and succeed in.
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If you try and be as efficient as possible
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and you don't slow down and think about the unique beauty
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and unique ideas and unique examples that you can bring to it, you may miss out on doing the best work you can do,
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which can help you win in the long term.
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And I think the Renaissance is a great example of that.
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Which leads me in to principle number two, which is to pay ruthless attention to detail.
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Something that the Renaissance did is just the attention to detail is insane.
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Anybody who's been to Florence, anybody who's visited all these different monuments across Europe
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that erected during the 15th and 16th and even getting into the 17th century, you can zoom in on like one aspect of a wall.
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You can go up to just one speck of a wall
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and see these little minor details that from a distance you wouldn't be able to see, But up close, you can see then.
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And so you think, wow, they really paid a lot of attention to detail.
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And that paying attention to detail is what allowed them to make work
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that can succeed in the long term and continues to amaze people
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and attract people and bring wonder and beauty to the world.
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If you make something that looks beautiful from a distance, but the attention to detail isn't there,
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then that beauty will exist for a little bit of time, but eventually it will fade, because there's not enough there for you to chew on.
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And so no matter what you're doing in life, you need to pay such small detail,
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pay such big attention to the small details in order to make your work timeless.
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What makes Dostoevsky's books timeless is that you can reread them
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and reread them for the rest of your life
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and find small little moments that can speak to you in
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that moment of your life that didn't speak to you a year ago or even a month ago.
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And that's because every word, every sentence, he paid close attention to it.
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Now, that's not efficient.
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That may elongate the writing process.
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You may be able to craft just as entertaining of a story.
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You may be able to craft just as detailed of a plot as you can in
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that Dostoevsky book in a shorter time span
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if you spend less attention to the precise word
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that this character used at this very moment and how that can harken back to something that happened two chapters before,
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or whatever it may be you can skip a few details
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and on the surface craft the same level of beauty and quality.
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But over time, people will see through it.
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And it's that attention to detail which separates the work that lasts forever from the work that slowly fades over time.
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I think a great example of this in the content space in the last few years is the example of Chris Williamson.
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His podcast has been somewhat of a slow burn.
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He started it years and years ago.
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It took a little while to get going.
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And then it grew to 200, 300, 400 ,000 subscribers.
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And it's been a slow uptick ever since.
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But every day that uptick gets further and further.
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more fast.
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It gets further and further quicker.
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And yet he pays such close attention to the detail.
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He makes beautiful content.
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He's really following his curiosity.
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He goes above and beyond to make the podcast experience more than potentially he even needs to.
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When you look at some of the big episodes he's done with Matthew McConaughey,
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for example, he pays, I don't even want to know how much money he spends, but I would imagine hundreds of thousands of dollars on this
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beautiful set to recreate the interstellar house in order to craft this beautiful visual experience for that podcast episode.
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Now, a podcast doesn't need to do that, yet he pays attention to that detail and it enhances the experience
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and that creates a better relationship and it might be a slow burn, it might make less profit in the short term,
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but those episodes in this podcast is going to continue to resonate with people for many years down the line, potentially decades.
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And then you compare that with the Florentine Duomo, which of course is still generating income today, 500 years on.
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Compare that with the Sistine Chapel, which doesn't just generate income in tourism fees and in visiting fees,
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but also adds to the allure, the cultural significance of the Vatican, the soft power of the Vatican,
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and is able to transcend space and time and generations and religions even, and speak to everybody.
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Atheists go to the Vatican to look at the Sistine Chapel.
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Muslims go to the Vatican to look at the Sistine Chapel
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because beauty bridges divides beauty is able to unite people beauty is able to win in the long term
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it is precisely why Dostoevsky said
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that beauty will save the world
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you can look at the way Chris Williamson has been able to grow the podcast unite people
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and compare it to Andrew Tate who didn't have any focus on beauty didn't unite the world in any way
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and completely rose very fast but just completely fell apart because there was no foundations there
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There was no beauty there.
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There was no attention to the small details, which leads me in to principle number three, which is to always remain curious.
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Now, when building in life, when trying to achieve a dream, achieve an objective, something that the Renaissance did very well was
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while they were very focused on beauty and they had the idea and they were striving for that idea, They also remained curious in the way
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that they would pay attention to the world around them
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and try to come to epiphanies and see how they can work those epiphanies into their buildings, into their paintings, into their literature,
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into the way that they do diplomacy, into their banking systems.
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They remained outward looking.
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They didn't have this vision of beauty and hunker down and just focus on that and that alone.
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There was this ability to allow different cultures through the mass immigration
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that was going on during that time of the Renaissance period.
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You had the world shifting from a more
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Eastern perspective, a more
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Eastern -centered world to a Western -centered world.
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And in that immigration, in that cultural, I want to say, communication,
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they were able to remain curious and have different ideas form and create unique pieces of work because of that curiosity.
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Now, some of these examples of these are in the way that they approach painting, in the way that they approached art,
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where they were able to draw from different regions of the world
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and allow each region to have an effect over the techniques used in creating art, which then go into the Sistine Chapel,
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which then go in to the Statue of David, which then go in to da Vinci's work.
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And it's that idea of remaining curious that allows you to have your idea of beauty,
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have your idea and goal and objective of what you're trying to reach, but also remain curious enough to take in inputs that can help you.
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And I think this is almost where the efficiency conversation loses me.
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Because if you're so focused on optimization and efficiency, you will almost have your blinders on.
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You won't be focused on slowing down for a bit, contemplating ideas, sharing ideas.
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Stephen Bartlett doesn't want to have two glasses of wine with a friend over dinner
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because that might take too long and ruin the next three days of his life and he's got work to do.
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But what if, while having those two glasses of wine, he slowed down, enjoyed it,
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elongated the dinner, and had a conversation which then led him to view the world in a different way,
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which then could shape the direction of his podcast and the way that the podcast moved?
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You know, I've noticed in my own life that...
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It's at the times that I slow down
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and become less focused on efficiency that I become more efficient in a way
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because I can gain more clarity over the direction of my life.
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I slow down and have more time to come to epiphanies,
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which can drastically improve what I'm doing in my life and my own work when it comes to these videos,
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the way that I come up with the ideation of my videos is in slowing down
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and thinking about ideas and coming to epiphanies on what I think could be interesting topics to talk about.
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It's following my own curiosity, picking up the books that I feel curious to read and allowing those ideas,
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and I have to slow down to allow this process to happen,
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but allowing those ideas to form new ideas within me that I can then talk about.
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If I tried to be efficient
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and I sat down on the first day of every month
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and I mapped out 15 videos that day
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that I could then pre -record the following day
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and then have 15 videos of content scheduled out over the next month
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and then I can spend time doing other things, right?
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I don't have to spend time thinking about content throughout the entire month.
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That was all done in 48 hours.
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That's the efficient way.
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But what if in that one day I came up with 15 video ideas
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and really only two or three were that great?
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What if then four days later I'm reading a book
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and a new idea pops into my head and I want to make a video about that?
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But I've already scheduled out 15 videos for that month.
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I have to then, you know, put in, I have to then, you know, put it into the next month batch of content.
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And that just becomes a bit soulless
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because by the time the next month comes around and I sit down and record it, the passion won't be there.
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I feel like there's a passion in what I'm talking about, which in some way carries over in the content, I hope.
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In some way can allow the people receiving this video to then also feel
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that passion and allow that beauty to inspire them.
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It's a slower process, but I actually think it's more efficient in a way because it makes my content better.
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It allows this channel to probably grow at a faster rate.
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But because I'm not focused on optimizing for just growth, because I'm focused on optimizing for passion,
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for depth, for beauty, for quality, to being as unique to my vision as possible,
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I have a feeling that that transcends and allows this channel to grow.
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You know, every day I am blown away at the growth of this channel.
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I just can't believe that there are that many people out there, over 400 or 500 new subscribers per day, that find these ideas interesting.
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I think I'm slightly unique as an individual.
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I think I'm slightly different as an individual.
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And, you know, I probably don't feel as though there are many people out there like me.
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But somehow it resonates.
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And I have a suspicion that what's resonating there is the fact that there is passion.
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It's in the fact that it's unique.
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And it's in the fact that my efficiency strategy is coming down to epiphanies and slowing down my thought process,
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which comes from this Renaissance model.
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Now, it's not to say that you should never be efficient.
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It's not to say that you shouldn't schedule out hours in the day to do things.
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I am very much pro -scheduling.
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I time block every day.
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I know what time I'm recording.
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I know what I need to work on.
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I have my essay writing schedule, which I've talked about on this channel before.
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And so it's not like I'm anti -efficiency.
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But what I am pro, what I'm anti -sorry is to make efficiency the goal.
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Efficiency and growth is not the objective.
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The objective is the beauty that I want to craft.
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It's the uniqueness that I can bring to the world.
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And then I can think about what's the most efficient way of achieving that objective.
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What's the most efficient way of getting there.
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But I'm not going to sacrifice the beauty of it and the quality of it for the efficiency.
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If the most efficient model to create the most amount of content takes me 10 minutes, but then the content isn't as beautiful,
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I'm not going to do that.
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If the most efficient way I can achieve the content I want to create is a five -year timeline,
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obviously it's not.
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It doesn't take me five years to make a video, but let's elongate this.
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If the only efficient way, if the most efficient way
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that I could approach my work to achieve the outcome I'm looking to achieve was a five -year process, I would do the five -year process.
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Because that beauty, that quality, that depth, that attention to detail may not reap the rewards today.
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tomorrow, next month, or even next year.
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But I have faith in the arc of the world for beauty to win in the long run.
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It's why Dostoevsky had that faith too and said that beauty would save the world.
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And it's precisely why the Renaissance period had people build buildings
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and churches that they didn't even get to live to see the finished product.
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They had that much faith in beauty.
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And I think beauty is that important.
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And I think there are
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so many examples in our world today to show why beauty is important and why it wins in the long term.
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And let's also play this out on a societal level to end out this episode, which is that beauty is also a selfless act.
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It is a noble act.
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When you think of these big fashion houses like I was
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talking about at the beginning of the episode where you have these fashion houses
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that are succeeding today based on the fact that 100 years ago, the founder had paid such attention to the small details,
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cared about beauty that much, which crafted and created this company that allows people that person could have never imagined to have even existed,
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may not even be related to, to then profit billions of dollars off their company creation.
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Now these people who are more focused on efficiency change the quality, pay less attention to the small details,
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make it more efficient, but then slowly dwindle the company's profits.
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They will remain profitable for this lifetime of the people running it.
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But for their children, for the next generation, it might be a dead business.
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So it's fine.
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Efficiency may make you more money in your life, but it will damage the future generations of humanity.
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And I think that is the lesson of beauty.
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That is the lesson of why we should be focused on beauty.
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It's not all about money right now for me.
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It's also about how can I craft a world for other people.
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And if you're a person who says, well, I don't care about that.
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I'm going to be dead.
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Then get off this channel.
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That's not what this is about.
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This is about, yes, trying to succeed in your life.
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Yes, trying to do well in your life, but also trying to make it a better world.
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And to end the video on what Dostoevsky said, once again, beauty will save the world.
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I hope you guys enjoyed this one, and until next time, take care.
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This speaking lesson is built on the video ““Optimization” Is Destroying Humanity”. The speaker keeps coming back to these words: beauty, unique, efficient, efficiency, detail. This video has 343 sentences and 4678 words to shadow. The speech runs for 27:19. The speaker talks at a natural 171 words per minute, close to everyday conversation. 86% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English; the rest is worth studying before you start.
Key vocabulary in this video
15 words from the video worth learning, with pronunciation and meaning:
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| efficient adjective | /ɪˈfɪʃənt/ | Making good, thorough, or careful use of resources; not consuming extra. Especially, making good use of time or energy. |
| efficiency noun | /ɪˈfɪʃ.ən.si/ | The extent to which a resource is used for the intended purpose. |
| renaissance noun | /ɹəˈneɪs(ə)ns/ | A rebirth or revival. |
| craft noun | /ˈkɹæft/ | Ability, skillfulness, especially skill in making plans and carrying them into execution; dexterity in managing affairs, adroitness, practical cunning… |
| succeed verb | /səkˈsiːd/ | To follow something in sequence or time. |
| podcast noun | /ˈpɑdˌkæst/ | A program, especially an audio program, produced on a regular basis, delivered over the Internet in a compressed digital format and designed for playback on… |
| banker noun | /ˈbæŋkəː/ | One who conducts the business of banking; one who, individually, or as a member of a company, keeps an establishment for the deposit or loan of money, or for… |
| curious adjective | /ˈkjʊɹ.i.əs/ | Tending to ask questions, or to want to explore or investigate; inquisitive; (with a negative connotation) nosy, prying. |
| passion noun | /ˈpæʃən/ | A true desire sustained or prolonged. |
| objective noun | /ɒbˈd͡ʒɛk.tɪv/ | A material object that physically exists. |
| compare verb | /kəmˈpɛɚ/ | To assess the similarities and differences between two or more things [“to compare X with Y”]. Having made the comparison of X with Y, one might have found it… |
| principle noun | /ˈpɹɪn.sɪ.pəl/ | A fundamental assumption, fundamental law or guiding belief. |
| generate verb | /ˈd͡ʒɛn.ə.ɹeɪt/ | To bring into being; give rise to. |
| optimization noun | /ˌɑptəmaɪˈzeɪʃən/ | The design and operation of a system or process to make it as good as possible in some defined sense. |
| lesson noun | /ˈlɛs.ən/ | A section of learning or teaching into which a wider learning content is divided. |
Phrasal verbs you will hear
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| slow down verb | To decelerate. | |
| come up with verb | To manage to produce, deliver, or present (something) by inventing, creating, thinking of, or obtaining it. | |
| come down to verb | To reach by moving down or reducing. | |
| end up verb | To bring to a conclusion. | |
| break through verb | To gain popularity. | |
| come around verb | /kʌ.məˈɹaʊnd/ | To change one's mind, especially to begin to agree or appreciate what one was reluctant to accept at first. |
| come through verb | To come into a room or other space through a door or passageway. | |
| end out verb | To bring to a conclusion; to finish up. |
Sentences worth repeating
Short, complete lines from the video that you can reuse in everyday conversation:
- What can I do that's unique?
- What can I bring that's unique?
- I just mean that it's unique.
- I think they start with what's my target market?
- What can my business do?
Grammar in this video
The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:
| Structure | In the video |
|---|---|
| Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now | we've gone · has probably brought · I've liked |
| Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing | businesses which are · point, which is · one, which is |
| Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it | were built · will be knocked · are actually produced |
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 62 contractions and reduced forms, such as I'm, you're, doesn't. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- The “th” sounds: clothing /ˈkloʊðɪŋ/, ruthless /ˈɹuːθləs/, atheist /ˈeɪ.θi.ɪst/, ruthlessly /ˈɹuːθ.ləs.li/
- The “sh” and “zh” sounds: efficient /ɪˈfɪʃənt/, efficiency /ɪˈfɪʃ.ən.si/, passion /ˈpæʃən/, optimization /ˌɑptəmaɪˈzeɪʃən/, immigration /ˌɪmɪˈɡɹeɪʃən/
- Long words — get the stress right: efficiency /ɪˈfɪʃ.ən.si/, optimization /ˌɑptəmaɪˈzeɪʃən/, curiosity /ˌkjʊɹ.iˈɑ.sə.ti/, immigration /ˌɪmɪˈɡɹeɪʃən/, potentially /pəˈtɛnʃ(ə)li/
How to practise with this video
- Listen to the whole video once without speaking and note the words you do not know.
- Start at 0.75× speed, shadow it sentence by sentence, then go back to normal speed once it feels easy.
- Record yourself and compare with the original, paying attention to words like efficient, efficiency, renaissance.
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.