What I learned from 2,000 obituaries | Lux Narayan

Prevoditelj: Tilen Pigac - EFZG Recezent: Ivan Stamenković

Joseph Keller used to jog around the Stanford campus,

Joseph Keller je običavao trčati po Stanford sveučilištu,

and he was struck by all the women jogging there as well.

i bio je zaprepašten svim ženama koje su isto trčale tamo.

Why did their ponytails swing from side to side like that?

Zašto im se repovi ljuljaju od strane na stranu ovako?

Being a mathematician, he set out to understand why.

Budući da je matematičar, krenuo je razumjeti zašto.

(Laughter)

(Smijeh)

Professor Keller was curious about many things:

Profesor Keller je bio znatiželjan o mnogo stvari:

why teapots dribble

zašto čajnici kapaju

or how earthworms wriggle.

ili kako se crvi migolje.

Until a few months ago, I hadn't heard of Joseph Keller.

Do prije nekoliko mjeseci, nisam čuo za Josepha Kellera.

I read about him in the New York Times,

Čitao sam o njemu u New York Timesu,

in the obituaries.

u osmrtnicama.

The Times had half a page of editorial dedicated to him,

The Times je imao pola stranice uvodnika posvećenog njemu,

which you can imagine is premium space for a newspaper of their stature.

što možete zamisliti je premijski prostor za novine njihovog stasa.

I read the obituaries almost every day.

Čitam osmrtnice gotovo svaki dan.

My wife understandably thinks I'm rather morbid

Moja supruga razumljivo misli kako sam prilično morbidan

to begin my day with scrambled eggs and a "Let's see who died today."

što počinjem dan sa kajganom i "Da vidimo tko je umro danas."

(Laughter)

(Smijeh)

But if you think about it,

Ali ako razmislite o tome,

the front page of the newspaper is usually bad news,

naslovnice novina obično nose loše vijesti,

and cues man's failures.

i niže čovjekove neuspjehe.

An instance where bad news cues accomplishment

Instanca gdje loše vijesti nižu postignuća

is at the end of the paper, in the obituaries.

je na kraju novina, u osmrtnicama.

In my day job,

U svom normalnom poslu,

I run a company that focuses on future insights

vodim tvrtku koja se fokusira na buduće uvide

that marketers can derive from past data --

koje marketingaši mogu izvući iz prošlih podataka --

a kind of rearview-mirror analysis.

nešto poput "retrovizor" analize.

And we began to think:

I počeli smo razmišljati:

What if we held a rearview mirror to obituaries from the New York Times?

Što kada bismo držali retrovizor osmrtnicama iz New York Times-a?

Were there lessons on how you could get your obituary featured --

Je li bilo lekcije o tome kako bi mogli imati vašu osmrtnicu u novinama --

even if you aren't around to enjoy it?

čak i ako niste prisutni da uživate ​​u njoj?

(Laughter)

(Smijeh)

Would this go better with scrambled eggs?

Bi li to bolje išlo sa kajganom?

(Laughter)

(Smijeh)

And so, we looked at the data.

I tako smo gledali u podatke.

2,000 editorial, non-paid obituaries

2.000 neplaćenih osmrtnica u uvodniku

over a 20-month period between 2015 and 2016.

kroz period od 20 mjeseci između 2015. i 2016. godine.

What did these 2,000 deaths -- rather, lives -- teach us?

Što nas je tih 2.000 smrtnih slučajeva -- odnosno, života - naučilo?

Well, first we looked at words.

Pa, prvo smo gledali u riječi.

This here is an obituary headline.

Ovo ovdje je naslov osmrtnice.

This one is of the amazing Lee Kuan Yew.

Ova je od nevjerojatnog Lee Kuan Yew-a.

If you remove the beginning and the end,

Ako uklonite početak i kraj,

you're left with a beautifully worded descriptor

ostanete s lijepom oblikovanim opisom

that tries to, in just a few words, capture an achievement or a lifetime.

koji pokušava, u samo nekoliko riječi, uhvatiti postignuća ili cijeli život.

Just looking at these is fascinating.

Samo posmatranje toga je fascinantno.

Here are a few famous ones, people who died in the last two years.

Evo nekoliko poznatih, ljudi koji su umrli u posljednje dvije godine.

Try and guess who they are.

Pokušajte i pogodite tko su oni.

[An Artist who Defied Genre]

[Umjetnik koji je Prkosio Žanru]

That's Prince.

To je Prince.

[Titan of Boxing and the 20th Century]

[Titan boksa i 20. stoljeća]

Oh, yes.

Oh, da.

[Muhammad Ali]

[Muhammad Ali]

[Groundbreaking Architect]

[Revolucionarna Arhitektica]

Zaha Hadid.

Zaha Hadid.

So we took these descriptors

Uzeli smo te opise

and did what's called natural language processing,

i učinili ono što se zove obrada prirodnog jezika,

where you feed these into a program,

gdje ubacite ove u program,

it throws out the superfluous words --

on izbaci suvišne riječi --

"the," "and," -- the kind of words you can mime easily in "Charades," --

"je," "i," -- one riječi koje možete lako oponašati u "igri pantomime," --

and leaves you with the most significant words.

i ostavlja vas s najznačajnijim riječima.

And we did it not just for these four,

I to smo učinili ne samo za ova četiri,

but for all 2,000 descriptors.

već za svih 2.000 opisa.

And this is what it looks like.

I ovako to izgleda.

Film, theatre, music, dance and of course, art, are huge.

Film, kazalište, glazba, ples i naravno, umjetnost, su ogromne.

Over 40 percent.

Preko 40 posto.

You have to wonder why in so many societies

Morate se zapitati zašto u svim tim društvima

we insist that our kids pursue engineering or medicine or business or law

inzistiramo da naša djeca nastave sa inženjerstvom ili medicinom ili pravom

to be construed as successful.

kako bi ih oslovili kao uspješne.

And while we're talking profession,

I dok govorimo o profesiji,

let's look at age --

pogledajmo dob --

the average age at which they achieved things.

prosječna dob u kojoj su postigli stvari.

That number is 37.

Ta brojka je 37.

What that means is, you've got to wait 37 years ...

Što to znači je da morate čekati 37 godina ...

before your first significant achievement that you're remembered for --

prije prvog značajnog postignuća po kojem ćete biti zapamćeni --

on average --

u prosjeku --

44 years later, when you die at the age of 81 --

44 godine kasnije, kada umrete u dobi od 81 godine --

on average.

u prosjeku.

(Laughter)

(Smijeh)

Talk about having to be patient.

To je strpljivost.

(Laughter)

(Smijeh)

Of course, it varies by profession.

Naravno, varira od profesije do profesije.

If you're a sports star,

Ako ste sportaš,

you'll probably hit your stride in your 20s.

vjerojatno ćete ostvariti postignuća u svojim 20-ima.

And if you're in your 40s like me,

A ako ste u svojim 40-ima poput mene,

you can join the fun world of politics.

možete se pridružiti zabavnom svijetu politike.

(Laughter)

(Smijeh)

Politicians do their first and sometimes only commendable act in their mid-40s.

Političari postignu svoje prvo, a nekad i jedino pohvalno djelo u srednjim 40-ima.

(Laughter)

(Smijeh)

If you're wondering what "others" are,

Ako se pitate kakvi su "drugi,"

here are some examples.

evo nekoliko primjera.

Isn't it fascinating, the things people do

Nije li fascinantno, stvari koje ljudi rade

and the things they're remembered for?

i stvari po kojima ostaju zapamćeni?

(Laughter)

(Smijeh)

Our curiosity was in overdrive,

Naša znatiželja je prešla granicu

and we desired to analyze more than just a descriptor.

i željeli smo analizirati više od samog opisa.

So, we ingested the entire first paragraph of all 2,000 obituaries,

Dakle, stavili smo cijeli prvi stavak svih 2.000 osmrtnica,

but we did this separately for two groups of people:

ali to smo napravili odvojeno za dvije skupine ljudi:

people that are famous and people that are not famous.

ljude koji su slavni i ljude koji nisu slavni.

Famous people -- Prince, Ali, Zaha Hadid --

Slavni ljudi -- Prince, Ali, Zaha Hadid --

people who are not famous are people like Jocelyn Cooper,

ljudi koji nisu slavni su ljudi poput Jocelyn Cooper,

Reverend Curry

velečasnog Currya

or Lorna Kelly.

ili Lorne Kelly.

I'm willing to bet you haven't heard of most of their names.

Spreman sam se kladiti kako niste čuli većinu njihovih imena.

Amazing people, fantastic achievements, but they're not famous.

Nevjerojatni ljudi, fantastični uspjesi, ali nisu poznati.

So what if we analyze these two groups separately --

Pa što ako analiziramo ove dvije skupine zasebno --

the famous and the non-famous?

slavne i ne-slavne?

What might that tell us?

Što bi nam to moglo reći?

Take a look.

Pogledajte.

Two things leap out at me.

Dvije stvari su iskočile.

First:

Prva:

"John."

"John."

(Laughter)

(Smijeh)

Anyone here named John should thank your parents --

Svatko ovdje sa imenom John bi trebao zahvaliti svojim roditeljima --

(Laughter)

(Smijeh)

and remind your kids to cut out your obituary when you're gone.

i podsjetiti svoju djecu da izrežu vašu osmrtnica kada odete.

And second:

I druga:

"help."

"pomoć."

We uncovered, many lessons from lives well-led,

Otkrili smo, mnoge lekcije od života dobro proživiljenog,

and what those people immortalized in print could teach us.

i ono što su ti ljudi ovjekovječili u tisku bi nas moglo poučiti.

The exercise was a fascinating testament to the kaleidoscope that is life,

Vježba je bila fascinantan testament kaleidoskopu života,

and even more fascinating

a još fascinantnija

was the fact that the overwhelming majority of obituaries

je bila činjenica da je nadmoćna većina osmrtnicama

featured people famous and non-famous,

sadržavala slavne i ne-slavne ljude

who did seemingly extraordinary things.

koji su, naizgled, uradili izvanredne stvari.

They made a positive dent in the fabric of life.

Oni su napravili pozitivan trag u tkivu života.

They helped.

Oni su pomogli.

So ask yourselves as you go back to your daily lives:

Dakle, zapitajte kada se vraćate svom svakodnevnom životu:

How am I using my talents to help society?

Kako koristim svoje talente kako bi pomogao društvu?

Because the most powerful lesson here is,

Jer najsnažnija pouka ovdje je,

if more people lived their lives trying to be famous in death,

kada bi više ljudi živilo svoje živote pokušavajući biti slavni u smrti,

the world would be a much better place.

svijet bi bio puno bolje mjesto.

Thank you.

Hvala vam.

(Applause)

(Pljesak)