What I learned from 2,000 obituaries | Lux Narayan

Prevodilac: Ivana Krivokuća Lektor: Tijana Mihajlović

Joseph Keller used to jog around the Stanford campus,

Džozef Keler je imao običaj da džogira oko studentskog doma u Stenfordu

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

i bio je zapanjen tolikim ženama koje su tamo takođe džogirale.

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

Zašto su se njihovi konjski repovi tako ljuljali sa strane na stranu?

Being a mathematician, he set out to understand why.

Kako je bio matematičar, rešio je da razume zašto.

(Laughter)

(Smeh)

Profesoru Keleru su mnoge stvari budile radoznalost:

Professor Keller was curious about many things:

why teapots dribble

zašto iz čajnika kaplje

or how earthworms wriggle.

ili kako se kišne gliste uvijaju.

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

Do pre nekoliko meseci, nisam čuo za Džozefa Kelera.

I read about him in the New York Times,

Čitao sam o njemu u Njujork Tajmsu,

in the obituaries.

u čituljama.

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

Tajms je imao pola stranice uvodnog teksta posvećenog njemu,

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

za šta možete pretpostaviti da je izvanredan prostor

za novine njihovog ugleda.

I read the obituaries almost every day.

Čitam čitulje skoro svaki dan.

My wife understandably thinks I'm rather morbid

Moja žena s razlogom misli da sam prilično morbidan

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

jer počinjem dan uz kajganu i „da vidimo ko je umro danas.“

(Laughter)

(Smeh)

But if you think about it,

Ali ako razmislite o tome,

na prednjoj strani novina obično su loše vesti

the front page of the newspaper is usually bad news,

and cues man's failures.

i ukazuje se na čovekove neuspehe.

An instance where bad news cues accomplishment

Primer u kome loše vesti ukazuju na dostignuće

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

je na kraju novina, u čituljama.

In my day job,

U svom svakodnevnom poslu,

I run a company that focuses on future insights

upravljam kompanijom koja se fokusira na buduće uvide

koje trgovci mogu da izvedu iz prošlih podataka -

that marketers can derive from past data --

a kind of rearview-mirror analysis.

nešto poput analize u retrovizoru.

And we began to think:

Počeli smo da razmišljamo

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

šta bi bilo kada bismo stavili u retrovizor čitulje iz „Njujork Tajmsa“?

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

Da li je tu bilo lekcija o tome kako da vam istaknu čitulju -

even if you aren't around to enjoy it?

čak i ako niste tu da biste u tome uživali?

(Laughter)

(Smeh)

Would this go better with scrambled eggs?

Da li bi to bolje išlo uz kajganu?

(Laughter)

(Smeh)

And so, we looked at the data.

Tako smo pogledali podatke.

2,000 editorial, non-paid obituaries

Dve hiljade tekstova urednika, neplaćenih čitulja

over a 20-month period between 2015 and 2016.

tokom perioda od 20 meseci između 2015. i 2016. godine.

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

Čemu nas je ovih 2 000 smrti, odnosno života, naučilo?

Well, first we looked at words.

Pa, prvo smo pogledali reči.

This here is an obituary headline.

Ovo ovde je jedan naslov čitulje.

This one is of the amazing Lee Kuan Yew.

To je čitulja neverovatnog Lija Guangjaoa.

If you remove the beginning and the end,

Ako uklonite početak i kraj,

you're left with a beautifully worded descriptor

ostaje vam lepo sročeni opis

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

koji nastoji da, u samo nekoliko reči, obuhvati dostignuće jednog životnog veka.

Just looking at these is fascinating.

Samo gledanje ovoga je fascinantno.

Evo nekoliko poznatih, ljudi koji su umrli tokom poslednje dve godine.

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

Try and guess who they are.

Pokušajte da pogodite ko su.

[An Artist who Defied Genre]

[Umetnik koji se opirao svrstavanju u žanr]

That's Prince.

To je Prins.

[Titan of Boxing and the 20th Century]

[Titan boksa i 20. veka]

O, da.

Oh, yes.

[Muhamed Ali]

[Muhammad Ali]

[Groundbreaking Architect]

[Inovativni arhitekta]

Zaha Hadid.

Zaha Hadid.

So we took these descriptors

Uzeli smo ove opise

and did what's called natural language processing,

i sproveli ono što se naziva obrada prirodnog jezika,

where you feed these into a program,

gde ubacite ovo u program,

it throws out the superfluous words --

a on izbacuje suvišne reči -

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

članove, „i“ - one reči koje lako možete da pokažete u igri pantomime -

and leaves you with the most significant words.

i ostavlja vam najznačajnije reči.

And we did it not just for these four,

Ovo smo uradili ne samo za ova četiri,

but for all 2,000 descriptors.

već za svih 2 000 opisa.

And this is what it looks like.

Ovako to izgleda.

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

Film, pozorište, muzika, ples i, naravno, umetnost, su veoma zastupljeni.

Over 40 percent.

Preko 40 procenata.

You have to wonder why in so many societies

Morate se zapitati zašto u toliko mnogo društava

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

insistiramo da se naša deca bave

inženjerstvom, medicinom, biznisom ili pravom

to be construed as successful.

da bi ih smatrali uspešnim.

And while we're talking profession,

Dok smo kod zanimanja,

let's look at age --

razmotrimo godine -

the average age at which they achieved things.

prosečne godine u kojima su ostvarili nešto.

That number is 37.

Taj broj je 37.

To znači da morate da čekate 37 godina

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

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

pre svog prvog značajnog dostignuća po kome će vas pamtiti -

u proseku -

on average --

44 godine kasnije, kada umrete u 81. godini -

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

on average.

u proseku.

(Smeh)

(Laughter)

Talk about having to be patient.

To se zove strpljenje.

(Laughter)

(Smeh)

Of course, it varies by profession.

Naravno, to se razlikuje u zavisnosti od zanimanja.

If you're a sports star,

Ako ste sportska zvezda,

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

verovatno ćete dostići vrhunac u svojim 20-im godinama.

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

A ako ste u 40-im kao ja,

you can join the fun world of politics.

možete se priključiti zabavnom svetu politike.

(Laughter)

(Smeh)

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

Političari ostvare svoje prvo, a ponekad i jedino delo vredno pohvale,

sredinom 40-ih godina.

(Laughter)

(Smeh)

If you're wondering what "others" are,

Ako se pitate ko su „ostali“,

here are some examples.

evo nekih primera.

Isn't it fascinating, the things people do

Zar nije fascinantno šta ljudi rade

and the things they're remembered for?

i po čemu ostaju upamćeni?

(Laughter)

(Smeh)

Our curiosity was in overdrive,

Naša radoznalost je uhvatila zamah

and we desired to analyze more than just a descriptor.

i rešili smo da analiziramo i više od opisa.

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

Uneli smo čitav prvi pasus svih 2 000 čitulja,

but we did this separately for two groups of people:

ali smo to uradili zasebno za dve grupe ljudi -

people that are famous and people that are not famous.

za ljude koji su poznati i one koji nisu poznati.

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

Poznati ljudi - Prins, Ali, Zaha Hadid -

ljudi koji nisu poznati su osobe poput Džoslin Kuper,

people who are not famous are people like Jocelyn Cooper,

Reverend Curry

Velečasni Kari

or Lorna Kelly.

i Lorna Keli.

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

Spreman sam da se kladim da niste čuli većinu njihovih imena.

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

Neverovatni su ljudi, fantastična dostignuća, ali nisu poznati.

So what if we analyze these two groups separately --

Dakle, šta ako analiziramo ove dve grupe odvojeno -

the famous and the non-famous?

poznate i nepoznate?

What might that tell us?

Šta bi nam to pokazalo?

Take a look.

Pogledajte.

Two things leap out at me.

Dve stvari mi upadaju u oči.

First:

Prvo:

"John."

„Džon“

(Smeh)

(Laughter)

Anyone here named John should thank your parents --

Ko god se ovde zove Džon treba da zahvali svojim roditeljima -

(Laughter)

(Smeh)

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

i podseti decu da izrežu njegovu čitulju kad ga više ne bude.

And second:

Drugo:

"help."

„pomoć“.

We uncovered, many lessons from lives well-led,

Otkrili smo mnogo lekcija iz kvalitetno proživljenih života

and what those people immortalized in print could teach us.

i ono čemu nas mogu naučiti ti ljudi ovekovečeni u štampi.

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

Ova vežba je bila fascinantno svedočanstvo kaleidoskopa koji predstavlja život,

and even more fascinating

a još fascinantnija

was the fact that the overwhelming majority of obituaries

bila je činjenica da je velika većina čitulja

featured people famous and non-famous,

isticala poznate i nepoznate ljude,

who did seemingly extraordinary things.

koji su uradili naizgled izuzetne stvari.

They made a positive dent in the fabric of life.

Napravili su pozitivan trag u strukturi života.

They helped.

Pomogli su.

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

Zato se zapitajte kad se vratite svom svakodnevnom životu

How am I using my talents to help society?

kako koristite svoje talente da biste pomogli društvu.

Because the most powerful lesson here is,

Jer je ovde najsnažnija lekcija da bi,

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

ako bi više ljudi živelo svoj život nastojeći da budu poznati nakon smrti,

the world would be a much better place.

svet bi bio mnogo bolje mesto.

Thank you.

Hvala.

(Aplauz)

(Applause)