Shadowing Practice: The Modern World Is Designed to Destroy You | Naval Ravikant - Learn English Speaking with Video
Choose a practice mode
Each mode opens a full-screen practice room.
220 sentences
If sentences are too short or too long, click Edit to adjust them.
1
Life is really a single -player game.
2
It's all going on in your head.
3
You know, whatever you think you believe will very much shape your reality, both from what risks you take and what actions you perform,
4
but also just your everyday experience of reality.
5
If you're walking down the street and you're judging everyone, you're like, I don't like that person because their skin color.
6
I don't like that.
7
Oh, she's not attractive.
8
That guy's fat.
9
This person's a loser.
10
Oh, who put this in my way?
11
You know, the more you judge, the more you're going to separate yourself and you'll feel good for an instant because you'll feel good about yourself.
12
I'm better than that.
13
But then you're going to feel lonely.
14
And then you're just going to see negativity everywhere.
15
The world just reflects your own feelings back at you.
16
Reality is neutral.
17
Reality has no judgments to it.
18
And so I was just trying to resolve for myself, like, what could the answer be?
19
Not what is the answer, but what could the answer be?
20
And so at a core level, I was forced to kind of hunt down all these weird little things and really understand for myself.
21
And it's got to be personal, right? but I have to establish for myself what it could and could not be.
22
And that gave me some level of peace.
23
So now I don't have to keep asking that question.
24
What is the meaning of life?
25
I mean, I think the question is more interesting than the answer.
26
Everyone should explore this on their own.
27
But let me just explore a few parts with you, right?
28
So first is, if I gave you an answer, if I said the meaning of life is to please God, well, which God?
29
Okay, Judeo -Christian God.
30
Well, okay, why that one?
31
Why this thing?
32
The problem is it's a why question.
33
You can keep asking why forever, right?
34
Any answer I give you, you'll just ask why again, why again, why again.
35
Like a little kid.
36
That's right.
37
And you end up in a place called Agrippa's Trilemma.
38
Okay, this is a philosophical exercise, but I kind of thought it through and Googled around it.
39
There's a thing called Agrippa's Trilemma.
40
And Agrippa's Trilemma says that any questioning like this, why, will always end in one of three places.
41
Okay, first is infinite regress, right?
42
Why?
43
Because of this.
44
Why that? and just keep going forever.
45
The second is circular reasoning.
46
Well, A.
47
Why A?
48
Because of B.
49
Well, why B?
50
Because of A.
51
You get trapped in that.
52
Or the third is an axiom.
53
And the most popular axiom is God.
54
But it could be anything because of math, because of science, because of the Big Bang, because of simulation, right?
55
These are all axioms.
56
These are all just stopping points.
57
Saying we're in a simulation or saying it's the Big Bang is just another way of saying God.
58
God's a dirty word, so we don't use it as much anymore, but same thing.
59
So you end up in one of these three dead ends, essentially.
60
So there is no answer.
61
The real answer is because.
62
What is the meaning of life?
63
Yeah, you get to make up your own answers to beauty.
64
If there was a single answer, we would not be free.
65
We would be trapped.
66
Because then we would all have to live to that answer.
67
Then we'd be Borg -like robots, each one competing with each other to fulfill that single meaning more than the others.
68
Back to signaling, like I'm better at it than you are
69
but luckily there is no answer
70
so you just do whatever you want well the answers to all the great questions are paradoxes yeah
71
so for example you're asking like do i matter
72
that's like really the question
73
you asked right well how do i matter in this infinite universe well
74
you know on the one hand
75
you're separate no two points are the same every point is every two points are infinitely different
76
you're completely separated no one will have your thoughts your emotions your feelings your experience
77
so your life is a single player game you're trapped inside your head
78
and you're just aware of a bunch of things going on
79
and that's it on the other hand
80
i cannot say the word joe rogan without invoking the entire universe joe rogan alien comes along says what's
81
that joe rogan what's joe rogan
82
it's a human what's a human bipedal ape what's an ape
83
on the earth what's the earth planet what's a planet solar system where was the carbon made inside stars right
84
it's like i have to create the entire universe to just say the words joe rogan
85
so in that sense you're connected to everything.
86
It's inseparable.
87
So the answer to that question of do I matter is I am nothing and I am everything.
88
And you'll find this with all the great questions.
89
The answers are all paradoxes, which is why at some level, it's sort of pointless to pursue them, to find a trite answer like I'm giving.
90
But the act of pursuing them is actually really useful
91
because then it gives you certain intrinsic understanding in your life that brings a level of peace.
92
I wonder where this is going.
93
I really do.
94
I wonder because this is it seems like this newfound ability to broadcast that we have with
95
Whether you have a YouTube page or whether you have
96
Twitter or whatever you're doing this newfound ability to
97
Spread whatever you're trying to say to
98
so many people with very little understanding on the most part from I think it's actually a great thing overall.
99
Yeah Because now it means that any human can broadcast to any other human on the planet at any time.
100
I think
101
that the human brain is not designed to absorb all of
102
the world's breaking news 24 -7 emergencies injected straight into your skull with clickbait headline news.
103
If you pay attention to that stuff, even if you're well -meaning, even if you're sound of mind and body, it will eventually drive you insane.
104
I think that's what's happening right now because these are addictive, right?
105
Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, these are weaponized.
106
You have social statisticians and scientists and researchers and people in lab codes,
107
literally best minds of our generation figuring out how to addict you to the news.
108
And if you fall for it, if you get addicted, your brain will get destroyed.
109
And I think this is the modern struggle.
110
The modern struggle.
111
So the ancient struggle used to be the tribal struggle.
112
You had your tribe of friends and family.
113
You had your religion.
114
You had your country.
115
You had your loyalty.
116
You had your nationality.
117
At least you had meaning and support, but now you would struggle against other tribes.
118
Modern life, we're so free, everything's become atomized.
119
We stand alone.
120
You live in your apartment alone.
121
You live in your house alone.
122
Your parents don't live nearby.
123
Your friends don't live nearby.
124
You don't have any tribal meaning.
125
You don't believe in religion anymore.
126
You don't believe in country anymore.
127
It's fine.
128
You got a lot of freedom.
129
It's fantastic.
130
But now when they come to attack you, you're alone and you can't resist.
131
So how do they attack you?
132
It's all well -meaning.
133
I don't fault capitalism.
134
I love capitalism.
135
But look at how it happens.
136
Social media, they've massaged all the mechanisms to addict you like a Skinner pigeon or a rat who's just going to click, click, click, click, click.
137
Can't put the phone down.
138
Food, they've taken sugar and they've weaponized it.
139
They've put it into all these different forms and varieties that you can't resist eating.
140
Drugs, right?
141
They've taken pharmaceuticals and plants and they've synthesized them.
142
They've grown them in such a way that you get addicted.
143
You can't put them down.
144
Porn, right?
145
If you're a young male and you wander around the internet, it'll like sap away your libido
146
and you're not going out in real life society anymore because you've got this incredibly stimulating stuff coming at you.
147
Video games, another way to addict people.
148
So you have entire large factories of people that are working to addict you to these things, and you stand alone.
149
So the modern struggle as an individual is learning how to resist these things in the first place,
150
drawing your own boundaries, and there's no one there to help you.
151
That's terrifying.
152
Extreme power.
153
The most powerful people in the world today, and this is not well known,
154
but the most powerful people in the world today are the people who are writing the algorithms for Twitter
155
and Facebook and Instagram because they're controlling the spread of information.
156
They're literally rewriting people's brains.
157
They're programming the culture and they're doing it very subtly.
158
You know, when I was growing up, there was this statement, I think it was Pascal.
159
He said, you know, all of man's problems arise because he cannot sit by himself in a room for 30 minutes alone.
160
And it's very true.
161
I always needed to be stimulated.
162
And when the iPhone came along, boredom was dead.
163
I would never be bored again.
164
Even if I'm standing in line, I'm on my iPhone and I thought it was great.
165
And when I was a kid, I used to try and overclock my brain and be like, how many thoughts can I think at once?
166
The answer is only one, but I would try to think multiple thoughts at once.
167
And I was proud of that.
168
I was proud that my brain was always running.
169
This engine was always moving.
170
And it's a disease.
171
It's actually the road to misery.
172
And now that I'm older, I realize you actually want to, again, rest your mind.
173
You want to learn how to settle into your mind.
174
Now, I look forward to solitary confinement.
175
You leave me alone for a day, It'll be like the happiest day I've had in a while.
176
And that is a superpower that I think everybody can attain.
177
The superpower of learning to be alone and enjoying it.
178
Yeah.
179
When I first started meditating, it was really hard, right?
180
Because everybody, I think a lot of people who listen to this broadcast have heard of meditation that has a good rep.
181
So everybody tries it.
182
They struggle.
183
They kind of give it up.
184
It's one of those things that everybody says they do, but nobody actually does.
185
It's like not eating sugar, right?
186
Everyone talks about how, yeah, I don't eat sugar with like, yeah, then the dessert tray rolls around and everyone's going for the cookies, right?
187
So it's become one of those things.
188
And in fact, it's now even become a signaling thing where it's like, oh, how much did you meditate?
189
I meditated this much.
190
But really all it is is the art of doing nothing, okay?
191
And it's important because I think when we grow up, right, it's all this stuff happening to you in your life.
192
And some of it you're processing, some of it you're absorbing,
193
and some of it you should probably think a little bit more about and work through, but you don't.
194
You don't have time.
195
So it gets buried in you.
196
And it's all these preferences and judgments and unresolved situations and issues.
197
And it's like your email inbox.
198
It's just piling up email after email after email that's not answered, going back 10, 20, 30, 40 years.
199
And then when you sit down to meditate, those emails start coming back at you.
200
Hey, what about this issue?
201
What about that issue?
202
Have you solved this?
203
Did you think about that?
204
You have regrets there?
205
You have issues there?
206
And that gets scary.
207
People don't want to do that.
208
It's like, it's not working.
209
I can't clear my mind.
210
I better get up and not do this.
211
But really what's happening is it's self -therapy.
212
It's just that instead of paying a therapist to sit there and listen to you, you're listening to yourself.
213
And you just have to sit there as those emails go through one by one.
214
You work through each of them until you get to the magical inbox zero.
215
And there comes a day when you sit down, you realize the only things you're thinking about are things that happened yesterday.
216
Because you've processed everything else.
217
Not necessarily even resolved it, but at least listened to yourself.
218
And that's when meditation starts.
219
And I think it's a very powerful thing that everybody should experience.
220
And that's when you arrive.
Download App
Everything you need to speak fluently
AI PronunciationScore every sentence
IPA PracticeMaster every sound
VocabularyBuild your word bank
Vocab GameLearn while playing
Same Channel
C11
How to Train Your Brain to Enjoy Hard Work | Andrew Huberman
Daily ConversationUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
C12
How to Lock In and Actually Get Things Done | Andrew Huberman
Daily ConversationUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
C12
Most People Waste Their Life Without Realizing It | Naval Ravikant
Business EnglishUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
FOR YOU
Recommend Video
C12
40 sentences
Put Thought in its Right Place
Daily ConversationUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
C12
582 sentences
You've (Likely) Been Playing The Game Of Life Wrong
Daily ConversationUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
C11
306 sentences
Why Nihilism is Taking Over Modern Society
Daily ConversationUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
C11
654 sentences
Stuart & Cliffe Knechtle | Do Agnostics Just Want To Have Control? | Give Me an Answer
Daily ConversationUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
C12
241 sentences
How to Detach So Fast It Feels Kinda Scary
Daily ConversationUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
C11
58 sentences
How to find purpose and meaning (when we get a little lost).
Daily ConversationUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
C14
65 sentences
The shock of doing nothing | Andrew Holecek
Daily ConversationUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
C11
246 sentences
Why Life Feels Boring (And Skyrim Doesn’t)
Daily ConversationUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
C11
256 sentences
Psychology of Life (And How To Spend It Wisely)
Daily ConversationUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
C13
234 sentences
The Philosophy of Rick Sanchez
Daily ConversationUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
C12
814 sentences
What It Means To Be A Good Man Today With Tom Junod
Daily ConversationUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
C185
66 sentences
What science can’t answer, according to physicist Jim Al-Khalili | Big Think
Daily ConversationUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This speaking lesson is built on the video “The Modern World Is Designed to Destroy You”. This video has 220 sentences and 2130 words to shadow. The speech runs for 10:13. The speaker talks fast, about 208 words per minute, so expect linked and reduced sounds. 87% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English, so the vocabulary is easy to follow. 33 of its 220 sentences are questions, so it is good practice for question intonation and short answers.
Key vocabulary in this video
15 words from the video worth learning, with pronunciation and meaning:
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| addict noun | /ˈæd.ɪkt/ | A person who is addicted, especially to a harmful drug. |
| broadcast noun | /ˈbɹɔːd(ˌ)kɑːst/ | A transmission of a radio or television programme intended to be received by anyone with a receiver. |
| trap noun | /tɹæp/ | A machine or other device designed to catch (and sometimes kill) animals, either by holding them in a container, or by catching hold of part of the body. |
| resist verb | /ɹɪˈzɪst/ | To attempt to counter the actions or effects of. |
| explore verb | /ɪkˈsploɹ/ | To examine or investigate something systematically. |
| judgment noun | /ˈd͡ʒʌd͡ʒ.mənt/ | The act of judging. |
| pursue verb | /pɚˈsu/ | To follow urgently, originally with intent to capture or harm; to chase. |
| resolve verb | /ɹɪˈzɑlv/ | To find a solution to (a problem). |
| infinite adjective | /ˈɪnfɪnɪt/ | Indefinably large, countlessly great; immense. |
| tribal adjective | /ˈtɹaɪbəl/ | Of or relating to tribes. |
| capitalism noun | /ˈkæp.ə.təlˌɪzm̩/ | A socio-economic system based on private ownership of resources, and capital and their exploitation for profit. |
| meditation noun | /mɛdɪˈteɪʃn̩/ | A devotional exercise of, or leading to, contemplation. |
| simulation noun | /ˌsɪm.jəˈleɪ.ʃn̩/ | Something that simulates a system or environment in order to predict actual behaviour. |
| absorb verb | /æbˈsɔɹb/ | To include so that it no longer has separate existence; to overwhelm; to cause to disappear as if by swallowing up; to incorporate; to assimilate; to take in… |
| stimulate verb | /ˈstɪm.jəˌleɪt/ | To encourage into action. |
Phrasal verbs you will hear
| Word | Meaning |
|---|---|
| come along verb | To accompany. |
| grow up verb | To mature and become an adult. |
| work through verb | To get past a difficult or stressful situation by thinking or talking about it. |
| figure out verb | To come to understand; to discover or find a solution; to deduce. |
| get up verb | To move in an upward direction; to ascend or climb. |
| go back verb | To return to a place or state after having been there at a previous time. |
| go through verb | To travel from one end of something to the other. |
| look forward to verb | To anticipate, expect, or wait for, especially with a feeling of approval or pleasure; to be excited or eager to. |
Sentences worth repeating
Short, complete lines from the video that you can reuse in everyday conversation:
- It's all going on in your head.
- Modern life, we're so free, everything's become atomized.
- Your parents don't live nearby.
- Your friends don't live nearby.
- Did you think about that?
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 get addicted, your brain will get |
| Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now | they've massaged · they've taken · They've put |
| Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it | was forced · would be trapped · is not designed |
| Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing | paradoxes, which is · people who are · people who listen |
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 71 contractions and reduced forms, such as you're, don't, they've. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- The “th” sounds: mathematics /mæθ(.ə)ˈmæt.ɪks/, algorithm /ˈælɡəɹɪðm̩/, therapist /ˈθɛɹəpɪst/, synthesize /ˈsɪnθəsaɪz/
- The “sh” and “zh” sounds: meditation /mɛdɪˈteɪʃn̩/, simulation /ˌsɪm.jəˈleɪ.ʃn̩/, establish /ɪˈstæb.lɪʃ/, essentially /ɪˈsɛnʃəli/, emotion /ɪˈməʊ.ʃən/
- Long words — get the stress right: capitalism /ˈkæp.ə.təlˌɪzm̩/, necessarily /ˌnɛs.əˈsɛɹ.ə.li/, essentially /ɪˈsɛnʃəli/, incredibly /ɪŋˈkɹɛdɪbli/, mechanism /ˈmɛk.ə.nɪ.zəm/
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 addict, broadcast, trap.
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.