1 00:00:12,639 --> 00:00:16,080 A pattern is something that appears in 2 00:00:16,080 --> 00:00:19,199 uh different worlds simultaneously. 3 00:00:19,199 --> 00:00:22,320 That's what a pattern to my mind is. So 4 00:00:22,320 --> 00:00:24,160 you'll see patterns so long as you 5 00:00:24,160 --> 00:00:26,560 inhabit different worlds. 6 00:00:26,560 --> 00:00:28,720 So a you know a pattern might be 7 00:00:28,720 --> 00:00:30,880 something that shows up in music, 8 00:00:30,880 --> 00:00:34,079 fashion and 9 00:00:34,079 --> 00:00:36,239 you know sports. A trend would be 10 00:00:36,239 --> 00:00:38,719 something that surfaces and those worlds 11 00:00:38,719 --> 00:00:41,360 are connected but 12 00:00:41,360 --> 00:00:43,280 not they don't overlap. They're have 13 00:00:43,280 --> 00:00:46,399 subtle connections but if you see 14 00:00:46,399 --> 00:00:49,200 something popping up in those kinds of 15 00:00:49,200 --> 00:00:51,360 then you know oh that's a trend right? 16 00:00:51,360 --> 00:00:53,199 So in order to see the trend, all you 17 00:00:53,199 --> 00:00:55,840 really need to do is to spend a little 18 00:00:55,840 --> 00:00:58,320 bit of time in those different worlds. 19 00:00:58,320 --> 00:01:00,320 So I always think of part of what I need 20 00:01:00,320 --> 00:01:03,199 to do in order to kind of understand 21 00:01:03,199 --> 00:01:05,600 what's going on is 22 00:01:05,600 --> 00:01:08,400 uh to make sure that I'm regularly 23 00:01:08,400 --> 00:01:10,880 leaving my own little island and 24 00:01:10,880 --> 00:01:14,240 visiting other islands. Um, I don't 25 00:01:14,240 --> 00:01:17,759 always do a good job of that, but um, 26 00:01:17,759 --> 00:01:20,400 sometimes it's just about, you know, but 27 00:01:20,400 --> 00:01:22,799 uh, yeah, I don't know if I always do a 28 00:01:22,799 --> 00:01:24,320 good job of that, but I do try I do 29 00:01:24,320 --> 00:01:26,720 think in my mind about how important it 30 00:01:26,720 --> 00:01:30,880 is to uh, to trespass into in foreign 31 00:01:30,880 --> 00:01:33,880 territories. 32 00:01:38,400 --> 00:01:40,960 The book David and Goliath the original 33 00:01:40,960 --> 00:01:42,560 idea 34 00:01:42,560 --> 00:01:45,280 came from I went to a conference once 35 00:01:45,280 --> 00:01:47,119 and 36 00:01:47,119 --> 00:01:49,439 it was a software conference and I 37 00:01:49,439 --> 00:01:51,200 didn't know anything about software but 38 00:01:51,200 --> 00:01:53,680 they had this kind of mixer that I was 39 00:01:53,680 --> 00:01:56,799 required to attend and I found myself 40 00:01:56,799 --> 00:02:00,719 chatting to this guy it's from India and 41 00:02:00,719 --> 00:02:02,479 he was talking about we talked about 42 00:02:02,479 --> 00:02:05,200 sports because that's all I could talk 43 00:02:05,200 --> 00:02:06,000 about because I didn't know anything 44 00:02:06,000 --> 00:02:07,520 about soccer. So, we're talking about 45 00:02:07,520 --> 00:02:10,560 sports and he told me that he was the 46 00:02:10,560 --> 00:02:13,280 coach of his daughter's basketball team. 47 00:02:13,280 --> 00:02:16,160 And I said, "Oh, cuz I he had a very 48 00:02:16,160 --> 00:02:17,840 strong Indian accent. It was clear he 49 00:02:17,840 --> 00:02:19,599 was an immigrant to this country of 50 00:02:19,599 --> 00:02:21,440 relatively recent vintage." And I was 51 00:02:21,440 --> 00:02:23,120 like, "Oh, did you know that's kind of 52 00:02:23,120 --> 00:02:25,280 interesting, you know, it wasn't like 53 00:02:25,280 --> 00:02:26,720 most basketball coaches are people who 54 00:02:26,720 --> 00:02:29,040 had played basketball as a kid." And I 55 00:02:29,040 --> 00:02:30,239 was like, "Did you play basketball in 56 00:02:30,239 --> 00:02:31,360 India?" He's like, "Oh, no. I played 57 00:02:31,360 --> 00:02:34,080 cricket. Never even." It's like, "So, 58 00:02:34,080 --> 00:02:35,599 wow, you must have mastered, you know, I 59 00:02:35,599 --> 00:02:36,959 got him talking and he told me this 60 00:02:36,959 --> 00:02:38,160 story." He's like, "Yeah, I know nothing 61 00:02:38,160 --> 00:02:40,160 about basketball." He said, "In fact, I 62 00:02:40,160 --> 00:02:41,920 think basketball 63 00:02:41,920 --> 00:02:44,239 as it's played by Americans is crazy. I 64 00:02:44,239 --> 00:02:45,920 don't Once I got the rules explained to 65 00:02:45,920 --> 00:02:47,360 me, I was like, why do they play it in 66 00:02:47,360 --> 00:02:51,120 such a weird way?" He didn't understand 67 00:02:51,120 --> 00:02:53,360 why 68 00:02:53,360 --> 00:02:55,040 one team would advance the ball up the 69 00:02:55,040 --> 00:02:57,280 court and the other team would wait, the 70 00:02:57,280 --> 00:02:59,200 team on defense would wait at the other 71 00:02:59,200 --> 00:03:02,480 end for the play to come to them. If you 72 00:03:02,480 --> 00:03:04,159 know basketball, what he was wondering 73 00:03:04,159 --> 00:03:07,200 was why don't teams on defense play a 74 00:03:07,200 --> 00:03:10,159 fullcourt press the whole game all the 75 00:03:10,159 --> 00:03:13,280 time. The most, 76 00:03:13,280 --> 00:03:15,840 you know, basically he was like, you let 77 00:03:15,840 --> 00:03:18,480 the defenses nine times out of 10 let 78 00:03:18,480 --> 00:03:21,360 the other team advance into their own 79 00:03:21,360 --> 00:03:24,640 end and set up their offense and then 80 00:03:24,640 --> 00:03:26,879 they decide to defend. It would be as if 81 00:03:26,879 --> 00:03:30,879 we waited for Canada to arrive on the 82 00:03:30,879 --> 00:03:34,159 outskirts of Washington DC right before 83 00:03:34,159 --> 00:03:36,640 we mounted a defense. And so for someone 84 00:03:36,640 --> 00:03:37,920 who comes from a different culture he's 85 00:03:37,920 --> 00:03:39,040 like this is the craziest thing I've 86 00:03:39,040 --> 00:03:41,440 ever heard. So he's like I he had this 87 00:03:41,440 --> 00:03:42,560 team and they were all he was from 88 00:03:42,560 --> 00:03:45,280 Silicon Valley. His daughter was like 12 89 00:03:45,280 --> 00:03:46,959 all the all these 12-y old girls. He was 90 00:03:46,959 --> 00:03:48,480 like the other thing I realized was they 91 00:03:48,480 --> 00:03:51,200 didn't know how to play basketball and I 92 00:03:51,200 --> 00:03:52,480 didn't know how to coach it because I 93 00:03:52,480 --> 00:03:53,680 didn't know anything about basketball. 94 00:03:53,680 --> 00:03:55,200 So, I decided we're just going to play 95 00:03:55,200 --> 00:03:58,080 defense. So, he got these girls and he 96 00:03:58,080 --> 00:04:00,959 just told them to play fullcourt press 97 00:04:00,959 --> 00:04:02,560 the entire time. He's like, "All we need 98 00:04:02,560 --> 00:04:05,439 to know was to learn how to shoot 99 00:04:05,439 --> 00:04:08,319 layups, but everything else was beyond 100 00:04:08,319 --> 00:04:10,799 our specialtity." And he was like, what 101 00:04:10,799 --> 00:04:12,480 he discovered was if you play really 102 00:04:12,480 --> 00:04:16,320 maniacal defense all the time and you're 103 00:04:16,320 --> 00:04:18,320 in a league of 12-year-old girls, you'll 104 00:04:18,320 --> 00:04:20,239 win every game because no one can 105 00:04:20,239 --> 00:04:22,639 advance the ball. And so he he had a 106 00:04:22,639 --> 00:04:25,199 group of ragtag nerdy girls from Silicon 107 00:04:25,199 --> 00:04:26,479 Valley and they took he went all the way 108 00:04:26,479 --> 00:04:28,400 to the state championships with a bunch 109 00:04:28,400 --> 00:04:30,560 of girls who had no discernable 110 00:04:30,560 --> 00:04:32,720 basketball skills whatsoever. I thought 111 00:04:32,720 --> 00:04:34,000 this is the funniest thing I've ever 112 00:04:34,000 --> 00:04:35,520 heard. 113 00:04:35,520 --> 00:04:37,280 And of course I did nothing with it 114 00:04:37,280 --> 00:04:40,479 because I'm an idiot. And then I went 115 00:04:40,479 --> 00:04:42,800 home and like a year later was talking 116 00:04:42,800 --> 00:04:44,160 about basketball with my friend Bruce 117 00:04:44,160 --> 00:04:45,919 and I said, "You know, so funny. This 118 00:04:45,919 --> 00:04:48,080 guy told me this hilarious story once at 119 00:04:48,080 --> 00:04:49,600 a conference and Bruce looked at me and 120 00:04:49,600 --> 00:04:51,840 said, "Why have you never written about 121 00:04:51,840 --> 00:04:53,919 that?" I like, "You're right. That's a 122 00:04:53,919 --> 00:04:55,919 great story." So, I called up this guy, 123 00:04:55,919 --> 00:04:58,800 his name was VC, and I was like, "Can I 124 00:04:58,800 --> 00:05:00,240 come and see you because I want to 125 00:05:00,240 --> 00:05:02,000 actually talk about your daughter's 126 00:05:02,000 --> 00:05:04,639 basketball team." So, I went and I wrote 127 00:05:04,639 --> 00:05:05,919 a story. It's fun little story for the 128 00:05:05,919 --> 00:05:08,960 New Yorker. Um, parathetically, VC turns 129 00:05:08,960 --> 00:05:11,520 out to be a guy named VC Ranadiv who two 130 00:05:11,520 --> 00:05:13,759 years later bought the Sacramento Kings 131 00:05:13,759 --> 00:05:16,080 basketball team. He was so inspired by 132 00:05:16,080 --> 00:05:18,000 his experience coaching his daughter's 133 00:05:18,000 --> 00:05:19,199 basketball team that he went out and 134 00:05:19,199 --> 00:05:21,680 bought an NBA team. He was super rich. 135 00:05:21,680 --> 00:05:26,080 But I really really loved the story and 136 00:05:26,080 --> 00:05:28,000 we called that story The New Yorker when 137 00:05:28,000 --> 00:05:30,560 David meets Goliath or when David beat 138 00:05:30,560 --> 00:05:32,320 or I've forgotten some version of David 139 00:05:32,320 --> 00:05:34,479 and Goliath. And I thought, you know, 140 00:05:34,479 --> 00:05:36,080 the 141 00:05:36,080 --> 00:05:39,120 I always love 142 00:05:39,120 --> 00:05:42,320 um to me part of the challenge with 143 00:05:42,320 --> 00:05:44,800 stories that are about ideas is framing 144 00:05:44,800 --> 00:05:46,720 them in a way that makes sense to people 145 00:05:46,720 --> 00:05:50,240 that simply and quickly communicates to 146 00:05:50,240 --> 00:05:52,720 them what the idea is. So, six degrees 147 00:05:52,720 --> 00:05:55,680 of Lois Weisberg, if you know about the 148 00:05:55,680 --> 00:05:58,160 concept of six degrees of separation and 149 00:05:58,160 --> 00:05:59,919 six degrees of Kevin Bacon and all those 150 00:05:59,919 --> 00:06:01,840 kinds of ideas, you instantly know, 151 00:06:01,840 --> 00:06:03,199 boom, it's about someone who's at the 152 00:06:03,199 --> 00:06:05,840 center of a social circle, right? David 153 00:06:05,840 --> 00:06:08,319 and Goliath is a concept we all know. 154 00:06:08,319 --> 00:06:11,120 The little guy beats up on the giant. 155 00:06:11,120 --> 00:06:13,759 And that I thought, well, if I wanted I 156 00:06:13,759 --> 00:06:14,960 want I think this is a really 157 00:06:14,960 --> 00:06:16,479 interesting idea to explore in a book. 158 00:06:16,479 --> 00:06:21,360 How do little guys beat giants? And so 159 00:06:21,360 --> 00:06:23,840 that led me to the story of David and 160 00:06:23,840 --> 00:06:26,479 Goliath. Now, in my original story about 161 00:06:26,479 --> 00:06:28,240 Becad and his daughter's basketball 162 00:06:28,240 --> 00:06:29,919 team, I had told the story of David and 163 00:06:29,919 --> 00:06:33,360 Goliath the standard way. 164 00:06:33,360 --> 00:06:35,759 David shoots a slingshot and hits 165 00:06:35,759 --> 00:06:38,240 Goliath between the eyes and Goliath 166 00:06:38,240 --> 00:06:40,240 falls over. And I thought, well, I'll 167 00:06:40,240 --> 00:06:41,919 tell a more sophisticated version of 168 00:06:41,919 --> 00:06:44,479 that story in the book. So, I started to 169 00:06:44,479 --> 00:06:46,240 read theological literature on the story 170 00:06:46,240 --> 00:06:48,240 of David and Goliath. I called up my 171 00:06:48,240 --> 00:06:49,680 friend Jim, who's a pastor, and said, 172 00:06:49,680 --> 00:06:51,759 'What should I read? And he sent me all 173 00:06:51,759 --> 00:06:53,840 kinds of things. And I went to the 174 00:06:53,840 --> 00:06:55,520 seminary library and I read all these 175 00:06:55,520 --> 00:06:59,360 texts from 300 years ago. And 176 00:06:59,360 --> 00:07:01,039 there it was just all versions of the 177 00:07:01,039 --> 00:07:02,560 same 178 00:07:02,560 --> 00:07:06,240 story. It was didn't really help me. I 179 00:07:06,240 --> 00:07:08,400 learned something about where the 180 00:07:08,400 --> 00:07:10,240 confrontation between David and Goliath 181 00:07:10,240 --> 00:07:13,599 took place, but wasn't it didn't 182 00:07:13,599 --> 00:07:18,319 transform the story in my own um eyes 183 00:07:18,319 --> 00:07:22,400 until I stumbled across this weird paper 184 00:07:22,400 --> 00:07:25,039 that had been written by uh an 185 00:07:25,039 --> 00:07:27,440 endocrinologist, an Israeli 186 00:07:27,440 --> 00:07:28,960 endocrinologist 187 00:07:28,960 --> 00:07:31,520 who had suggested, wait a minute, 188 00:07:31,520 --> 00:07:34,000 there's another way to see this story, 189 00:07:34,000 --> 00:07:35,680 and that is from a medical standoint. 190 00:07:35,680 --> 00:07:38,319 point. Goliath sounds a lot like someone 191 00:07:38,319 --> 00:07:40,240 who has this really rare medical 192 00:07:40,240 --> 00:07:43,759 condition which is caused by uh a growth 193 00:07:43,759 --> 00:07:46,160 in the pituitary gland which causes you 194 00:07:46,160 --> 00:07:48,560 to lose your eyesight. And if you think 195 00:07:48,560 --> 00:07:50,080 about that and read the story in the 196 00:07:50,080 --> 00:07:51,360 Bible again, you realize there's all 197 00:07:51,360 --> 00:07:53,280 these clues about how the fact that 198 00:07:53,280 --> 00:07:57,440 Goliath is blind. The giant is blind. 199 00:07:57,440 --> 00:07:59,680 And once you understand the giant is 200 00:07:59,680 --> 00:08:01,919 blind, you have this fantastic metaphor 201 00:08:01,919 --> 00:08:05,759 for why why do giants lose? because they 202 00:08:05,759 --> 00:08:07,520 can't see, they're so big and strong and 203 00:08:07,520 --> 00:08:09,759 powerful, they lose the ability to kind 204 00:08:09,759 --> 00:08:12,560 of um properly appreciate the world 205 00:08:12,560 --> 00:08:15,280 around them, right? And that was a 206 00:08:15,280 --> 00:08:17,919 really important lesson to me because I 207 00:08:17,919 --> 00:08:20,160 didn't to me it's the best story in the 208 00:08:20,160 --> 00:08:23,840 book and that insight about Goliath 209 00:08:23,840 --> 00:08:25,759 transforms the biblical story of David 210 00:08:25,759 --> 00:08:28,000 and Goliath in this it makes it even 211 00:08:28,000 --> 00:08:31,520 more beautiful and powerful um because 212 00:08:31,520 --> 00:08:33,360 it's not just a story about David's 213 00:08:33,360 --> 00:08:35,279 courage and greatness. It's a story 214 00:08:35,279 --> 00:08:37,599 about Goliath's blindness, right? It's 215 00:08:37,599 --> 00:08:40,479 suddenly you've got two characters who 216 00:08:40,479 --> 00:08:42,000 teach you something crucial about the 217 00:08:42,000 --> 00:08:44,399 world, not just one. Right? Goliath in 218 00:08:44,399 --> 00:08:46,399 the traditional telling is an empty 219 00:08:46,399 --> 00:08:48,560 vessel. He's just a big dude, an 220 00:08:48,560 --> 00:08:50,720 arrogant big dude who thinks he's going 221 00:08:50,720 --> 00:08:52,959 fighting a sword fight and David changed 222 00:08:52,959 --> 00:08:54,880 the rules, right? It's just about 223 00:08:54,880 --> 00:08:58,240 David's cunning and no, no, he's more 224 00:08:58,240 --> 00:09:00,800 than an arrogant big dude. He is someone 225 00:09:00,800 --> 00:09:03,440 who has been blinded by his strength. 226 00:09:03,440 --> 00:09:06,160 But that was a you don't I didn't get to 227 00:09:06,160 --> 00:09:08,959 that until I stepped 228 00:09:08,959 --> 00:09:10,959 outside of till I stopped reading all 229 00:09:10,959 --> 00:09:12,320 the theological literature and 230 00:09:12,320 --> 00:09:15,120 understood that a story can live in a 231 00:09:15,120 --> 00:09:17,839 variety of different worlds. 232 00:09:17,839 --> 00:09:20,480 Right? It's not just the theologians who 233 00:09:20,480 --> 00:09:22,480 thought about David and Goliath. It's 234 00:09:22,480 --> 00:09:24,560 also the endocrinologists. 235 00:09:24,560 --> 00:09:26,640 Right? Now, that's a really, really 236 00:09:26,640 --> 00:09:29,760 crucial because so often when we try and 237 00:09:29,760 --> 00:09:32,399 tell a story, we think a story belongs 238 00:09:32,399 --> 00:09:34,000 to a world and we stay within that 239 00:09:34,000 --> 00:09:36,560 world. And that's a really good way to 240 00:09:36,560 --> 00:09:41,880 be boring and to miss truths. 241 00:09:46,399 --> 00:09:48,800 I once wrote a a piece I love. I don't 242 00:09:48,800 --> 00:09:49,920 know whether the rest of the world loves 243 00:09:49,920 --> 00:09:52,000 it, but I wrote a piece for The New 244 00:09:52,000 --> 00:09:55,440 Yorker about um a guy named Caesar 245 00:09:55,440 --> 00:09:57,920 Milan. And Caesar Milan had a show, I 246 00:09:57,920 --> 00:09:59,040 don't know if he still does, for many 247 00:09:59,040 --> 00:10:02,480 years called The Dog Whisperer. Um and 248 00:10:02,480 --> 00:10:04,240 it was all about Caesar's incredible 249 00:10:04,240 --> 00:10:06,480 ability to he was always called in when 250 00:10:06,480 --> 00:10:09,120 a dog was misbehaving. And I wanted to 251 00:10:09,120 --> 00:10:12,959 do a profile of Caesar. 252 00:10:12,959 --> 00:10:15,040 And I wanted to be very, very simple. I 253 00:10:15,040 --> 00:10:19,839 wanted to have one idea in it and 254 00:10:19,839 --> 00:10:22,000 I decided the way to do it was to step 255 00:10:22,000 --> 00:10:25,680 outside the world of dogs and of people 256 00:10:25,680 --> 00:10:28,160 who deal with dogs and to talk about 257 00:10:28,160 --> 00:10:30,160 movement 258 00:10:30,160 --> 00:10:32,000 because 259 00:10:32,000 --> 00:10:33,680 what I understood from hang I went to 260 00:10:33,680 --> 00:10:35,279 California hung out with Caesar for like 261 00:10:35,279 --> 00:10:37,519 a week and what I understood from Caesar 262 00:10:37,519 --> 00:10:40,399 was that everything that was crucial 263 00:10:40,399 --> 00:10:42,720 about how he worked with troubling dogs 264 00:10:42,720 --> 00:10:47,279 was not about what he said or what he it 265 00:10:47,279 --> 00:10:50,320 was about what how he moved that he had 266 00:10:50,320 --> 00:10:53,680 a way of moving that calmed dogs, a way 267 00:10:53,680 --> 00:10:55,920 of approaching them, a way of carrying 268 00:10:55,920 --> 00:10:58,720 his body, a way of matching his voice to 269 00:10:58,720 --> 00:11:01,839 his movements. And in response, the dogs 270 00:11:01,839 --> 00:11:04,720 move differently. It was all about the 271 00:11:04,720 --> 00:11:07,839 more I observed it, I realized, oh, this 272 00:11:07,839 --> 00:11:10,160 is about dancing, 273 00:11:10,160 --> 00:11:13,360 right? This is to understand Caesar you 274 00:11:13,360 --> 00:11:15,040 need and the dogs you need the 275 00:11:15,040 --> 00:11:19,040 vocabulary of dancing of people who are 276 00:11:19,040 --> 00:11:20,320 interested in describing and 277 00:11:20,320 --> 00:11:21,839 understanding and communicating through 278 00:11:21,839 --> 00:11:25,200 movement. So I wonder whether there was 279 00:11:25,200 --> 00:11:28,560 uh a language associated with movement. 280 00:11:28,560 --> 00:11:30,160 There had to be people who studied 281 00:11:30,160 --> 00:11:32,560 movement, right? Particularly dancers. 282 00:11:32,560 --> 00:11:35,360 If you think about it, 283 00:11:35,360 --> 00:11:37,920 even something as simple as if you're 284 00:11:37,920 --> 00:11:40,320 doing a ballet 285 00:11:40,320 --> 00:11:42,480 and someone has a particularly intricate 286 00:11:42,480 --> 00:11:44,399 movement in the ballet, how do you 287 00:11:44,399 --> 00:11:46,480 describe it? Like it's not like, you 288 00:11:46,480 --> 00:11:47,680 know, for music you have musical 289 00:11:47,680 --> 00:11:50,800 notation for, you know, I suppose you 290 00:11:50,800 --> 00:11:51,920 could videotape it, but that's a 291 00:11:51,920 --> 00:11:53,680 relatively recent phenomenon. They had 292 00:11:53,680 --> 00:11:55,440 to have some way to describe movement. 293 00:11:55,440 --> 00:11:57,040 So I was like, I got to find that 294 00:11:57,040 --> 00:12:01,040 person. Um, so I found turns out there 295 00:12:01,040 --> 00:12:03,200 is such a language and there are all 296 00:12:03,200 --> 00:12:05,519 kinds of people and they're totally 297 00:12:05,519 --> 00:12:07,279 happy to talk to you if you call them up 298 00:12:07,279 --> 00:12:09,519 and I went to see them and we had long a 299 00:12:09,519 --> 00:12:12,480 lovely conversation with this long um 300 00:12:12,480 --> 00:12:14,000 with a woman who was a kind of an expert 301 00:12:14,000 --> 00:12:16,480 in this and in teaching in using 302 00:12:16,480 --> 00:12:18,639 principles of dance 303 00:12:18,639 --> 00:12:21,279 uh to help people in their communication 304 00:12:21,279 --> 00:12:23,839 in all kinds of realms. and she had a 305 00:12:23,839 --> 00:12:26,959 friend even more crucially who used the 306 00:12:26,959 --> 00:12:29,839 principles of movement to help autistic 307 00:12:29,839 --> 00:12:34,399 children because to be autistic um am 308 00:12:34,399 --> 00:12:36,800 among the many problems autistic people 309 00:12:36,800 --> 00:12:40,000 have is in the management of their own 310 00:12:40,000 --> 00:12:41,839 physicality 311 00:12:41,839 --> 00:12:44,240 um they're very bad at self soothing 312 00:12:44,240 --> 00:12:46,480 they're they all and what they do is a 313 00:12:46,480 --> 00:12:48,560 what this woman was doing was she was a 314 00:12:48,560 --> 00:12:51,440 movement therapist and as I looked at I 315 00:12:51,440 --> 00:12:53,440 went to see her and talked to to her and 316 00:12:53,440 --> 00:12:54,959 watched all kinds of tapes of people 317 00:12:54,959 --> 00:12:58,240 that she had um dealt with. It struck me 318 00:12:58,240 --> 00:13:00,639 that what she was doing on a much more 319 00:13:00,639 --> 00:13:02,320 sophisticated 320 00:13:02,320 --> 00:13:04,639 and meaningful level was exactly the 321 00:13:04,639 --> 00:13:07,760 same as was analogous to what Caesar 322 00:13:07,760 --> 00:13:11,360 Milan was doing with dogs with calming 323 00:13:11,360 --> 00:13:14,959 troubled dogs. Now that's a in some ways 324 00:13:14,959 --> 00:13:16,720 that's a tricky comparison because you 325 00:13:16,720 --> 00:13:18,480 don't want to say autistic kids are like 326 00:13:18,480 --> 00:13:20,320 dogs but that's not what I was saying. I 327 00:13:20,320 --> 00:13:23,680 was saying that the same principles were 328 00:13:23,680 --> 00:13:26,800 being used by this guy on TV as are 329 00:13:26,800 --> 00:13:29,360 being used in much more consequential 330 00:13:29,360 --> 00:13:31,600 settings with people struggling with 331 00:13:31,600 --> 00:13:34,160 real life problems in the world. And 332 00:13:34,160 --> 00:13:36,800 what what was interesting about that was 333 00:13:36,800 --> 00:13:38,480 and what made I think the story so 334 00:13:38,480 --> 00:13:40,399 important was 335 00:13:40,399 --> 00:13:43,040 um I took what would be something that 336 00:13:43,040 --> 00:13:47,120 was trivial dogs like little yappy dogs 337 00:13:47,120 --> 00:13:49,680 in LA like ultimately who cares if they 338 00:13:49,680 --> 00:13:51,920 misbehave and you got to call in someone 339 00:13:51,920 --> 00:13:53,839 who does a kind of reality TV show about 340 00:13:53,839 --> 00:13:55,920 calming them down right that's funny and 341 00:13:55,920 --> 00:13:59,360 it might be interesting it has no weight 342 00:13:59,360 --> 00:14:02,000 and so by stepping outside that world 343 00:14:02,000 --> 00:14:04,000 and saying wait a minute can Can I add 344 00:14:04,000 --> 00:14:07,279 weight to this story? And it turns out 345 00:14:07,279 --> 00:14:10,880 you can. And to my mind, the most moving 346 00:14:10,880 --> 00:14:13,279 part of the story that I wrote was when 347 00:14:13,279 --> 00:14:16,000 I described the work that that woman was 348 00:14:16,000 --> 00:14:18,160 doing with a particular boy, autistic 349 00:14:18,160 --> 00:14:21,519 boy, in teaching him how to move. Um, 350 00:14:21,519 --> 00:14:23,279 ultimately in teaching him how to dance, 351 00:14:23,279 --> 00:14:26,560 right, to relate to music. And suddenly 352 00:14:26,560 --> 00:14:30,160 what you thought of as this little slice 353 00:14:30,160 --> 00:14:33,040 of pop culture was something that 354 00:14:33,040 --> 00:14:35,360 hopefully taught you something 355 00:14:35,360 --> 00:14:39,440 profoundly moving about how to heal 356 00:14:39,440 --> 00:14:42,240 um how to heal people who had real 357 00:14:42,240 --> 00:14:44,000 problems. 358 00:14:44,000 --> 00:14:46,720 And that, you know, that all stems from 359 00:14:46,720 --> 00:14:49,600 an unwillingness to settle for the world 360 00:14:49,600 --> 00:14:51,600 that I was given, right? The world I 361 00:14:51,600 --> 00:14:55,440 started with, which is the world of a a 362 00:14:55,440 --> 00:14:58,560 Mexican guy and dogs in LA, right? And 363 00:14:58,560 --> 00:15:03,279 being determined to find another um uh 364 00:15:03,279 --> 00:15:06,720 universe to to tell a story about. And I 365 00:15:06,720 --> 00:15:08,959 think people should always that's a 366 00:15:08,959 --> 00:15:12,160 question that 367 00:15:12,160 --> 00:15:15,040 uh writers non-fiction writers need to 368 00:15:15,040 --> 00:15:17,600 always ask themselves which is is there 369 00:15:17,600 --> 00:15:20,320 another is there an analogist world 370 00:15:20,320 --> 00:15:23,440 that's dealt with this same question. Um 371 00:15:23,440 --> 00:15:25,680 and that can transform a story into 372 00:15:25,680 --> 00:15:30,120 something u much more powerful. 373 00:15:40,480 --> 00:15:42,959 If someone's a jerk, you can pick it up 374 00:15:42,959 --> 00:15:45,120 in their writing. Just pay attention. 375 00:15:45,120 --> 00:15:47,279 You go like, "Oh, I really don't want to 376 00:15:47,279 --> 00:15:49,040 hang out with this person. They're 377 00:15:49,040 --> 00:15:50,240 they're really high in their own 378 00:15:50,240 --> 00:15:52,959 supply." Or sometimes writers who they 379 00:15:52,959 --> 00:15:54,800 insert themselves gratuitously into 380 00:15:54,800 --> 00:15:58,240 stories and you're like that is just not 381 00:15:58,240 --> 00:16:00,079 you know did you really are you really 382 00:16:00,079 --> 00:16:01,279 that do you really think you're that 383 00:16:01,279 --> 00:16:03,120 important that you have to you know 384 00:16:03,120 --> 00:16:04,240 they'll they'll talk about some 385 00:16:04,240 --> 00:16:06,160 incredibly consequential thing and then 386 00:16:06,160 --> 00:16:08,000 they'll just 387 00:16:08,000 --> 00:16:09,600 start talking about their own something 388 00:16:09,600 --> 00:16:11,040 that happened in their own lives and 389 00:16:11,040 --> 00:16:13,759 it's not equivalent. You're like, you 390 00:16:13,759 --> 00:16:19,440 know, so you you're coming your your 391 00:16:19,440 --> 00:16:23,040 listener is assessing not just what 392 00:16:23,040 --> 00:16:26,000 you're saying, but who you are. 393 00:16:26,000 --> 00:16:28,720 So, you can't you can't get away with 394 00:16:28,720 --> 00:16:31,040 you can no more get get away with being 395 00:16:31,040 --> 00:16:33,519 obnoxious or egotistical or 396 00:16:33,519 --> 00:16:35,519 self-indulgent in a piece of writing 397 00:16:35,519 --> 00:16:37,920 than you can in a conversation. There's 398 00:16:37,920 --> 00:16:41,199 no difference, right? You can't hide 399 00:16:41,199 --> 00:16:42,959 your personality when you write. It 400 00:16:42,959 --> 00:16:46,320 comes out loud and clear. I read a piece 401 00:16:46,320 --> 00:16:49,360 recently, I won't say where, and it was 402 00:16:49,360 --> 00:16:50,880 about 403 00:16:50,880 --> 00:16:55,120 this controversy at some fraternity, 404 00:16:55,120 --> 00:16:58,560 and the writer, 405 00:16:58,560 --> 00:17:00,160 it was really clear to me, the writer 406 00:17:00,160 --> 00:17:02,399 had 407 00:17:02,399 --> 00:17:05,120 they had about five 4,000 words of 408 00:17:05,120 --> 00:17:07,760 material and they wanted to write a long 409 00:17:07,760 --> 00:17:10,319 story. So they handed in 8,000 words and 410 00:17:10,319 --> 00:17:13,839 the rest was just padding. 411 00:17:13,839 --> 00:17:18,000 They took a trip and the trip 412 00:17:18,000 --> 00:17:19,679 and visited somebody and interviewed 413 00:17:19,679 --> 00:17:21,199 someone and the interview wasn't 414 00:17:21,199 --> 00:17:23,360 terribly interesting. 415 00:17:23,360 --> 00:17:26,319 Didn't add to the story but and they 416 00:17:26,319 --> 00:17:27,760 didn't do anything with it that made it 417 00:17:27,760 --> 00:17:30,160 made me happy to go down that 418 00:17:30,160 --> 00:17:32,320 digression. They just wanted to prove 419 00:17:32,320 --> 00:17:33,840 that they had flown all the way to 420 00:17:33,840 --> 00:17:36,640 California to talk to this person. And I 421 00:17:36,640 --> 00:17:38,880 resented it. It's like, I don't care if 422 00:17:38,880 --> 00:17:40,720 you went to California. I know you I 423 00:17:40,720 --> 00:17:42,880 know you want to show the writer wanted 424 00:17:42,880 --> 00:17:46,000 to desperately to show readers that they 425 00:17:46,000 --> 00:17:48,080 had done their homework. I went to 426 00:17:48,080 --> 00:17:51,600 California. I went to Pennsylvania. I 427 00:17:51,600 --> 00:17:53,760 read this report. That was like loud and 428 00:17:53,760 --> 00:17:55,520 clear in the piece. Time and time again, 429 00:17:55,520 --> 00:17:58,799 we were reminded just how hard the 430 00:17:58,799 --> 00:18:00,880 writer worked. We don't want to know 431 00:18:00,880 --> 00:18:04,480 how. We don't care. We assume 432 00:18:04,480 --> 00:18:06,320 I assume you worked hard. Of course you 433 00:18:06,320 --> 00:18:08,720 did. But you don't have to don't waste 434 00:18:08,720 --> 00:18:10,799 my time on 800 words on your California 435 00:18:10,799 --> 00:18:12,960 trip. That turned out to be a total 436 00:18:12,960 --> 00:18:15,200 waste of time and money, right? It's 437 00:18:15,200 --> 00:18:17,440 just a So there's that the writer wasn't 438 00:18:17,440 --> 00:18:18,720 thinking about how they were coming 439 00:18:18,720 --> 00:18:21,760 across. They were so anxious to make 440 00:18:21,760 --> 00:18:28,240 this kind of um they were so uh insecure 441 00:18:28,240 --> 00:18:31,520 about their status as a writer that they 442 00:18:31,520 --> 00:18:34,160 that they ended up like going on on 443 00:18:34,160 --> 00:18:40,160 these these digressions that had no uh I 444 00:18:40,160 --> 00:18:41,360 I don't want to say had no function 445 00:18:41,360 --> 00:18:43,120 because digressions don't have to have a 446 00:18:43,120 --> 00:18:44,640 function. They just have to be 447 00:18:44,640 --> 00:18:46,480 interesting, right? It wasn't 448 00:18:46,480 --> 00:18:48,880 interesting. It was just serving the 449 00:18:48,880 --> 00:18:51,919 kind of uh troubled ego, fragile ego of 450 00:18:51,919 --> 00:18:55,080 the writer. 451 00:18:59,039 --> 00:19:00,559 Invariably in a public speaking event, 452 00:19:00,559 --> 00:19:02,480 there's a QandA. 453 00:19:02,480 --> 00:19:05,760 And QandAs's are very difficult. And 454 00:19:05,760 --> 00:19:08,640 they're difficult because you're 455 00:19:08,640 --> 00:19:11,039 essentially selecting a random sample of 456 00:19:11,039 --> 00:19:14,480 people and allowing them giving them the 457 00:19:14,480 --> 00:19:17,520 floor. So some people ask don't ask some 458 00:19:17,520 --> 00:19:19,440 people just go on forever don't really 459 00:19:19,440 --> 00:19:21,520 ask a question some people ask a bad 460 00:19:21,520 --> 00:19:24,400 question and some people ask a question 461 00:19:24,400 --> 00:19:26,320 you can't answer and some people ask a 462 00:19:26,320 --> 00:19:27,919 good question right so you all kinds of 463 00:19:27,919 --> 00:19:29,679 questions and you have to learn how to 464 00:19:29,679 --> 00:19:32,480 manage that and one of the things I've 465 00:19:32,480 --> 00:19:36,480 learned from QandAs's is that 466 00:19:36,480 --> 00:19:38,720 one of the ways you manage the the 467 00:19:38,720 --> 00:19:42,400 impossible problem posed by a QandA is 468 00:19:42,400 --> 00:19:46,080 with your own tone 469 00:19:46,080 --> 00:19:48,240 Uh 470 00:19:48,240 --> 00:19:51,360 so if you strike the right tone in the 471 00:19:51,360 --> 00:19:54,000 talk before and in the way that you have 472 00:19:54,000 --> 00:19:55,360 answered the questions leading up to the 473 00:19:55,360 --> 00:19:57,120 impossible question, you can answer 474 00:19:57,120 --> 00:19:58,960 impossible questions. I'll give you an 475 00:19:58,960 --> 00:20:02,000 example. Um years ago, I always remember 476 00:20:02,000 --> 00:20:06,240 this one. years ago, I gave a talk to a 477 00:20:06,240 --> 00:20:08,240 group of 478 00:20:08,240 --> 00:20:10,720 uh they were a group of a subsp 479 00:20:10,720 --> 00:20:12,640 specialty within psychology that deals 480 00:20:12,640 --> 00:20:16,000 with what are called human factors. 481 00:20:16,000 --> 00:20:17,600 They're the guys who figure out when you 482 00:20:17,600 --> 00:20:20,880 get into a car, 483 00:20:20,880 --> 00:20:22,720 you know, this is a very simple thing 484 00:20:22,720 --> 00:20:24,559 they will do. Where should the 485 00:20:24,559 --> 00:20:28,320 speedometer be? Where should the gear 486 00:20:28,320 --> 00:20:30,960 gear shift be? So that you don't make a 487 00:20:30,960 --> 00:20:32,320 mistake with it. Well, they also do that 488 00:20:32,320 --> 00:20:34,559 for when I'm designing a missile system 489 00:20:34,559 --> 00:20:36,320 and I want to make sure the guy who 490 00:20:36,320 --> 00:20:37,600 fires the missile doesn't make a 491 00:20:37,600 --> 00:20:39,200 mistake. What should where should the 492 00:20:39,200 --> 00:20:40,640 button be? How should it be designed? 493 00:20:40,640 --> 00:20:42,320 They do all that kind of stuff. Super 494 00:20:42,320 --> 00:20:44,400 super smart people. I gave I know 495 00:20:44,400 --> 00:20:45,840 nothing about that world. I gave some 496 00:20:45,840 --> 00:20:47,600 talk. I was invited to give the kind of 497 00:20:47,600 --> 00:20:51,200 public talk and 498 00:20:51,200 --> 00:20:53,280 I was 499 00:20:53,280 --> 00:20:56,280 self-deprec. 500 00:21:00,880 --> 00:21:02,480 but also because it was important to set 501 00:21:02,480 --> 00:21:05,760 that tone. They legitimately are 502 00:21:05,760 --> 00:21:08,080 exceedingly expert, well educated, 503 00:21:08,080 --> 00:21:11,039 sophisticated people and I'm just a guy 504 00:21:11,039 --> 00:21:12,559 from 505 00:21:12,559 --> 00:21:15,280 New York who's flown in for the day. I 506 00:21:15,280 --> 00:21:18,960 cannot presume to Anyway, fast forward 507 00:21:18,960 --> 00:21:21,520 to the QandA. Somebody asked me one of the 508 00:21:21,520 --> 00:21:23,120 most brutal questions I've ever been 509 00:21:23,120 --> 00:21:26,240 asked. And you know basically he went 510 00:21:26,240 --> 00:21:27,520 through something I had said and then 511 00:21:27,520 --> 00:21:29,039 something I had written earlier and 512 00:21:29,039 --> 00:21:31,200 proved that I had massively 513 00:21:31,200 --> 00:21:33,280 oversimplified 514 00:21:33,280 --> 00:21:35,440 and basically butchered a very 515 00:21:35,440 --> 00:21:38,159 complicated subject. 516 00:21:38,159 --> 00:21:40,960 And so I was like I mean and the whole 517 00:21:40,960 --> 00:21:43,360 room was like whoa you just got 518 00:21:43,360 --> 00:21:46,720 completely smoked by this guy right? But 519 00:21:46,720 --> 00:21:49,120 the way because I had set the right 520 00:21:49,120 --> 00:21:52,000 tone, I was like basically I basically 521 00:21:52,000 --> 00:21:53,600 said I forgotten the exact words, but it 522 00:21:53,600 --> 00:21:57,039 was something to the effect of um if you 523 00:21:57,039 --> 00:22:00,320 are accusing me of being more 524 00:22:00,320 --> 00:22:03,039 interesting than correct or something 525 00:22:03,039 --> 00:22:04,880 like that, I plead guilty. But 526 00:22:04,880 --> 00:22:07,280 basically, I was like, you got me right. 527 00:22:07,280 --> 00:22:11,600 But that works if you went in with the 528 00:22:11,600 --> 00:22:14,480 right in with the right tone. The tone 529 00:22:14,480 --> 00:22:16,960 was, "Look, I'm happy to be here. Just 530 00:22:16,960 --> 00:22:19,600 to be clear, you all know this stuff way 531 00:22:19,600 --> 00:22:21,840 better than I do. I'm just here to to 532 00:22:21,840 --> 00:22:24,480 amuse you, you know, and if you want to 533 00:22:24,480 --> 00:22:25,679 give me good advice at the end, 534 00:22:25,679 --> 00:22:27,440 fantastic." So, when a guy asked that 535 00:22:27,440 --> 00:22:29,440 question, I was able to turn it into, 536 00:22:29,440 --> 00:22:31,840 you know, thank you for pointing out 537 00:22:31,840 --> 00:22:34,880 stuff that I can do better and and by 538 00:22:34,880 --> 00:22:37,440 the way, you know, this is exactly what 539 00:22:37,440 --> 00:22:38,799 I thought would happen. And it's kind of 540 00:22:38,799 --> 00:22:41,039 fantastic that 541 00:22:41,039 --> 00:22:43,280 in your writing could be the same way. 542 00:22:43,280 --> 00:22:45,440 You have to when you're writing 543 00:22:45,440 --> 00:22:47,039 something, one thing you need to pay 544 00:22:47,039 --> 00:22:49,440 attention to is how am I coming? How is 545 00:22:49,440 --> 00:22:53,159 my tone coming across? 546 00:22:57,360 --> 00:22:59,039 When the troubles began in Northern 547 00:22:59,039 --> 00:23:01,120 Ireland, Rosemary Lawler was just a 548 00:23:01,120 --> 00:23:03,200 newlywed. That is the first line of a 549 00:23:03,200 --> 00:23:05,200 chapter in my book David and Goliath 550 00:23:05,200 --> 00:23:07,520 that is about 551 00:23:07,520 --> 00:23:11,120 uh the long 552 00:23:11,120 --> 00:23:14,080 bitter bloody conflict in Northern 553 00:23:14,080 --> 00:23:15,440 Ireland between Catholics and 554 00:23:15,440 --> 00:23:18,240 Protestants. And 555 00:23:18,240 --> 00:23:20,240 what I'm there's a number of things I'm 556 00:23:20,240 --> 00:23:24,720 trying to get at in that chapter. Um, 557 00:23:24,720 --> 00:23:26,640 but mostly what I'm trying to get at is 558 00:23:26,640 --> 00:23:31,120 to explain on a human level 559 00:23:31,120 --> 00:23:33,600 um what happens to people when they get 560 00:23:33,600 --> 00:23:35,600 caught up in 561 00:23:35,600 --> 00:23:38,000 um cycles of violence. What does it feel 562 00:23:38,000 --> 00:23:42,080 like? Um and how the failure of people 563 00:23:42,080 --> 00:23:46,480 in power to appreciate that feeling, to 564 00:23:46,480 --> 00:23:50,000 understand what that feeling is like um 565 00:23:50,000 --> 00:23:52,880 is often the cause of further conflict. 566 00:23:52,880 --> 00:23:55,520 is what makes these conflicts so endless 567 00:23:55,520 --> 00:23:59,280 and bloody. And that the people who are 568 00:23:59,280 --> 00:24:02,799 trying to end them or trying to confront 569 00:24:02,799 --> 00:24:07,440 the disorder never stop and think about 570 00:24:07,440 --> 00:24:10,480 um the people that they're fighting on a 571 00:24:10,480 --> 00:24:12,960 personal level. Don't think of them as 572 00:24:12,960 --> 00:24:15,279 individuals and think of them as kind of 573 00:24:15,279 --> 00:24:17,600 faceless representatives of a hostile 574 00:24:17,600 --> 00:24:21,279 force. Um, and this I feel like this 575 00:24:21,279 --> 00:24:22,640 mistake is made up again and again and 576 00:24:22,640 --> 00:24:24,880 again. And in that chapter I was trying 577 00:24:24,880 --> 00:24:26,880 to kind of 578 00:24:26,880 --> 00:24:29,679 um describe that 579 00:24:29,679 --> 00:24:33,200 failing using 580 00:24:33,200 --> 00:24:34,880 um the story of Northern Ireland, the 581 00:24:34,880 --> 00:24:37,039 troubles in Northern Ireland. And so the 582 00:24:37,039 --> 00:24:38,640 tone 583 00:24:38,640 --> 00:24:40,080 that I'm trying to strike from the 584 00:24:40,080 --> 00:24:42,559 beginning is personal. 585 00:24:42,559 --> 00:24:45,360 And the first line, 586 00:24:45,360 --> 00:24:48,640 Rosemary Lawler was just a newlywed. 587 00:24:48,640 --> 00:24:54,240 The two key words are just and newlywed. 588 00:24:54,240 --> 00:24:58,000 Why newlywed? Because newlywed summons 589 00:24:58,000 --> 00:25:04,400 immediately a picture of um hopefulness 590 00:25:04,400 --> 00:25:06,000 and 591 00:25:06,000 --> 00:25:08,159 um enthusiasm 592 00:25:08,159 --> 00:25:09,919 and naive 593 00:25:09,919 --> 00:25:11,760 and innocence, 594 00:25:11,760 --> 00:25:14,559 right? You've just you've just come from 595 00:25:14,559 --> 00:25:16,480 your wedding, right? You were in the 596 00:25:16,480 --> 00:25:19,039 first blush of young love. 597 00:25:19,039 --> 00:25:22,080 So, I wanted to immediately establish 598 00:25:22,080 --> 00:25:24,320 her. We're about to talk about all kinds 599 00:25:24,320 --> 00:25:26,400 of dark and terrible things that 600 00:25:26,400 --> 00:25:27,760 happened to her over the course of her 601 00:25:27,760 --> 00:25:29,760 life and her family and how she gets 602 00:25:29,760 --> 00:25:32,240 caught up in all of this violence. But 603 00:25:32,240 --> 00:25:34,240 before I 604 00:25:34,240 --> 00:25:36,640 implicate her 605 00:25:36,640 --> 00:25:40,799 in all of the horrors of Northern 606 00:25:40,799 --> 00:25:44,400 Ireland, I want to establish her in your 607 00:25:44,400 --> 00:25:47,760 mind as an innocent figure to make it 608 00:25:47,760 --> 00:25:51,679 plain to you that the darkness that she 609 00:25:51,679 --> 00:25:54,799 becomes a part of was not present in her 610 00:25:54,799 --> 00:25:57,120 in the beginning. In other words, it was 611 00:25:57,120 --> 00:26:00,960 imposed on her, not brought by her. She 612 00:26:00,960 --> 00:26:03,600 wasn't a dark person who joined up with 613 00:26:03,600 --> 00:26:05,520 similarly 614 00:26:05,520 --> 00:26:09,520 uh uh dark people to create madness and 615 00:26:09,520 --> 00:26:12,320 terror for 20 years. She was an innocent 616 00:26:12,320 --> 00:26:17,919 who was pulled into this situation that 617 00:26:17,919 --> 00:26:20,960 turned people into hard and cynical and 618 00:26:20,960 --> 00:26:22,960 violent people. That's what the chapter 619 00:26:22,960 --> 00:26:24,559 is all about. 620 00:26:24,559 --> 00:26:26,960 So the there are several ways you can 621 00:26:26,960 --> 00:26:29,039 communicate innocence but newly the word 622 00:26:29,039 --> 00:26:32,720 newlywed is just about 623 00:26:32,720 --> 00:26:35,679 the best and why the word just because 624 00:26:35,679 --> 00:26:37,360 I'm saying she's nothing else at that 625 00:26:37,360 --> 00:26:41,679 moment. She's not a she's not a an 626 00:26:41,679 --> 00:26:44,080 apologist for violence at that moment. 627 00:26:44,080 --> 00:26:46,799 She's not a terrified mother at that 628 00:26:46,799 --> 00:26:50,799 moment. She's not a uh a political 629 00:26:50,799 --> 00:26:52,880 activist at that moment. She's 630 00:26:52,880 --> 00:26:54,720 completely unformed. She is just a 631 00:26:54,720 --> 00:26:57,360 newlywed, right? All of those other 632 00:26:57,360 --> 00:26:58,880 things that we're going to hear about 633 00:26:58,880 --> 00:27:00,240 that happened to her over the course of 634 00:27:00,240 --> 00:27:04,159 her life have not yet begun. So we are 635 00:27:04,159 --> 00:27:07,120 it's a way of saying just says we are 636 00:27:07,120 --> 00:27:09,200 starting at the beginning and we are 637 00:27:09,200 --> 00:27:11,360 going to descend into the hell of 638 00:27:11,360 --> 00:27:15,120 Belfast. Right? That's so that that's 639 00:27:15,120 --> 00:27:17,200 there that to my mind that was the most 640 00:27:17,200 --> 00:27:20,480 effective way to to to signal where I 641 00:27:20,480 --> 00:27:24,279 thought the chapter was headed. 642 00:27:28,400 --> 00:27:31,279 The language of sports is different from 643 00:27:31,279 --> 00:27:33,440 the language of other things. 644 00:27:33,440 --> 00:27:37,919 um that your language as a writer is a 645 00:27:37,919 --> 00:27:41,520 function in part of who your audience is 646 00:27:41,520 --> 00:27:44,400 and the medium in which you're writing, 647 00:27:44,400 --> 00:27:48,240 but also of the subject. That one of the 648 00:27:48,240 --> 00:27:50,400 really fascinating things about to my 649 00:27:50,400 --> 00:27:52,480 mind about 650 00:27:52,480 --> 00:27:55,120 the way Americans or actually anyone 651 00:27:55,120 --> 00:27:57,039 around the world talk about sports is 652 00:27:57,039 --> 00:28:00,080 that sports frees people up. They're 653 00:28:00,080 --> 00:28:01,679 free to be emotional in ways they 654 00:28:01,679 --> 00:28:03,600 wouldn't normally be emotional. They're 655 00:28:03,600 --> 00:28:06,720 free to be to denounce things in the way 656 00:28:06,720 --> 00:28:09,279 they normally would. You know, you you 657 00:28:09,279 --> 00:28:11,600 will scream with the television, you 658 00:28:11,600 --> 00:28:14,640 know, when your own team does something 659 00:28:14,640 --> 00:28:16,960 that you disagree with, you idiot. I 660 00:28:16,960 --> 00:28:18,880 can't believe you would never say that 661 00:28:18,880 --> 00:28:21,200 to someone you worked with or someone in 662 00:28:21,200 --> 00:28:23,600 your family in the same way. And that's 663 00:28:23,600 --> 00:28:25,679 part of what's so lovely and important 664 00:28:25,679 --> 00:28:28,480 about sports, right? that you're so when 665 00:28:28,480 --> 00:28:31,679 I'm writing about sports I reflect that 666 00:28:31,679 --> 00:28:35,039 I don't feel inhibited. I can call in my 667 00:28:35,039 --> 00:28:36,399 other writing I would never call someone 668 00:28:36,399 --> 00:28:39,600 an idiot. I call Roger Goodell an idiot 669 00:28:39,600 --> 00:28:42,799 all the time. Um I have a crus I've been 670 00:28:42,799 --> 00:28:44,480 conducting a crusade against the owner 671 00:28:44,480 --> 00:28:47,919 of the Knicks for years. 672 00:28:47,919 --> 00:28:50,880 um James Dolan and I routinely call him 673 00:28:50,880 --> 00:28:52,559 the dumbest owner in sports and I you 674 00:28:52,559 --> 00:28:53,919 know this kind of Bill and I have done 675 00:28:53,919 --> 00:28:55,760 these back and forth many times and we 676 00:28:55,760 --> 00:28:59,039 always take the time to take a shot at 677 00:28:59,039 --> 00:29:01,200 James Dolan. 678 00:29:01,200 --> 00:29:03,520 That's a function of the fact that if 679 00:29:03,520 --> 00:29:06,320 you own a sports franchise, part of the 680 00:29:06,320 --> 00:29:08,480 contract you've made with the fan base 681 00:29:08,480 --> 00:29:10,080 is you've opened yourself up to that 682 00:29:10,080 --> 00:29:12,559 kind of criticism. You get all kinds of 683 00:29:12,559 --> 00:29:15,760 breaks. Taxpayers will pay for your 684 00:29:15,760 --> 00:29:19,200 stadiums. You get to hang out with 685 00:29:19,200 --> 00:29:22,720 celebrities. You get to make, you know, 686 00:29:22,720 --> 00:29:24,880 deals for athletes, which is super fun. 687 00:29:24,880 --> 00:29:26,880 You do all these amazing things. You get 688 00:29:26,880 --> 00:29:28,640 an incredible business deal. You get to 689 00:29:28,640 --> 00:29:30,799 buy into a monopoly, and it rises in 690 00:29:30,799 --> 00:29:33,840 value every year. But on the downside, 691 00:29:33,840 --> 00:29:36,880 there's one downside and that is you are 692 00:29:36,880 --> 00:29:42,559 you become uh you can be a uh the uh 693 00:29:42,559 --> 00:29:45,760 object of completely uninhibited 694 00:29:45,760 --> 00:29:48,159 emotional responses from your fan base. 695 00:29:48,159 --> 00:29:51,360 That's the rule, right? I'm I wouldn't 696 00:29:51,360 --> 00:29:54,159 say of a CEO of 697 00:29:54,159 --> 00:29:56,480 some Fortune 500 company that what they 698 00:29:56,480 --> 00:29:58,399 do for fun is dump a pile of cash in the 699 00:29:58,399 --> 00:29:59,600 middle of the boardroom and roll around 700 00:29:59,600 --> 00:30:01,279 in it. No, would never. It would be 701 00:30:01,279 --> 00:30:03,760 completely inappropriate. But if I'm 702 00:30:03,760 --> 00:30:05,440 talking about Roger Goodell and the NFL 703 00:30:05,440 --> 00:30:07,840 owners, everyone is completely fine with 704 00:30:07,840 --> 00:30:09,360 that. Like that's appropriate 705 00:30:09,360 --> 00:30:12,360 conversation. 706 00:30:16,480 --> 00:30:19,120 Your writing style is a is an instrument 707 00:30:19,120 --> 00:30:22,480 that needs to be honed and trained and 708 00:30:22,480 --> 00:30:23,919 and one of the ways I think you can 709 00:30:23,919 --> 00:30:26,320 train it is by moving back and forth 710 00:30:26,320 --> 00:30:29,279 between different forms. 711 00:30:29,279 --> 00:30:32,240 um write between writing in a very very 712 00:30:32,240 --> 00:30:36,159 buttoned up formal voice and writing in 713 00:30:36,159 --> 00:30:37,919 the most 714 00:30:37,919 --> 00:30:40,559 kind of freeing voice imaginable. 715 00:30:40,559 --> 00:30:43,279 Imagine in fact taking the same story 716 00:30:43,279 --> 00:30:45,919 and writing it five ways. Write it as a 717 00:30:45,919 --> 00:30:48,240 series of texts. Write it as three 718 00:30:48,240 --> 00:30:49,760 emails. 719 00:30:49,760 --> 00:30:54,880 Write it as a a letter to a friend. 720 00:30:54,880 --> 00:30:57,200 write it as a something that's going to 721 00:30:57,200 --> 00:30:59,279 be published in a pretentious literary 722 00:30:59,279 --> 00:31:01,200 magazine. 723 00:31:01,200 --> 00:31:04,159 That's that you know that story if it's 724 00:31:04,159 --> 00:31:07,520 if you do the exercise correctly, the 725 00:31:07,520 --> 00:31:09,279 form in a broken down in a series of 726 00:31:09,279 --> 00:31:13,039 texts is going to be unrecognizable when 727 00:31:13,039 --> 00:31:15,919 placed next to the formal version for 728 00:31:15,919 --> 00:31:18,320 the pretentious literary magazine. They 729 00:31:18,320 --> 00:31:20,880 should the same things will be said, 730 00:31:20,880 --> 00:31:25,520 same story will be told but the tone 731 00:31:25,520 --> 00:31:28,399 and the everything about the manner in 732 00:31:28,399 --> 00:31:29,760 which the story is told will be 733 00:31:29,760 --> 00:31:33,159 completely different. 734 00:31:33,840 --> 00:31:36,840 Another 735 00:31:38,480 --> 00:31:40,559 thing to practice is find another writer 736 00:31:40,559 --> 00:31:42,880 and do an email exchange back and forth 737 00:31:42,880 --> 00:31:46,480 on some some topic where each of you 738 00:31:46,480 --> 00:31:48,240 writes a paragraph, no more than a 739 00:31:48,240 --> 00:31:50,960 paragraph, and each of you has no more 740 00:31:50,960 --> 00:31:53,679 than 15 minutes to write that paragraph. 741 00:31:53,679 --> 00:31:56,880 And just see just it'll get you. And so 742 00:31:56,880 --> 00:31:58,720 you're you're you're practicing 743 00:31:58,720 --> 00:32:01,200 responding to someone speaking in a 744 00:32:01,200 --> 00:32:03,279 you'll quickly you'll find the two of 745 00:32:03,279 --> 00:32:06,640 you will converge on a tone, right? And 746 00:32:06,640 --> 00:32:09,120 that's a kind of fun exercise. But just 747 00:32:09,120 --> 00:32:12,559 that notion of coming up with something 748 00:32:12,559 --> 00:32:16,000 interesting to say in the moment um and 749 00:32:16,000 --> 00:32:18,799 you know hitting the send button and you 750 00:32:18,799 --> 00:32:19,919 got to live with it. Once you've hit 751 00:32:19,919 --> 00:32:21,279 send, it's an email exchange. You can't 752 00:32:21,279 --> 00:32:23,120 go back and you know revise it. You got 753 00:32:23,120 --> 00:32:24,559 to keep going. And that's a very I think 754 00:32:24,559 --> 00:32:27,600 that's a really can be a very fun way of 755 00:32:27,600 --> 00:32:31,720 of practicing your craft. 756 00:32:41,919 --> 00:32:44,320 I always I think that of if you're in 757 00:32:44,320 --> 00:32:46,320 the business of writing then you're in 758 00:32:46,320 --> 00:32:48,240 the business of creating comparative 759 00:32:48,240 --> 00:32:50,880 advantage for yourself. Um, so I always 760 00:32:50,880 --> 00:32:52,960 ask the question, what can I do to make 761 00:32:52,960 --> 00:32:55,519 sure that I'm different from everyone 762 00:32:55,519 --> 00:32:59,919 that I'm competing with? Um, I the that 763 00:32:59,919 --> 00:33:01,840 always should be the first question that 764 00:33:01,840 --> 00:33:03,679 you ask yourself. What is it about what 765 00:33:03,679 --> 00:33:06,320 I'm doing that will make me stand out 766 00:33:06,320 --> 00:33:09,360 that will not necessarily be better. I 767 00:33:09,360 --> 00:33:12,480 think that's way too high a bar. I don't 768 00:33:12,480 --> 00:33:13,919 even imagine that I'll be better than 769 00:33:13,919 --> 00:33:15,519 everybody else, but I do want to be 770 00:33:15,519 --> 00:33:17,279 different from everybody else. I want 771 00:33:17,279 --> 00:33:19,279 there to be a reason for people to turn 772 00:33:19,279 --> 00:33:20,640 to me. They're getting something they 773 00:33:20,640 --> 00:33:23,120 can't get anywhere else. So when when I 774 00:33:23,120 --> 00:33:27,279 immigrated to America when I was 20, um 775 00:33:27,279 --> 00:33:30,000 it did I was sort of aware that I was 776 00:33:30,000 --> 00:33:33,120 less typical partly because I'm came 777 00:33:33,120 --> 00:33:36,000 from Canada, partly because um I am 778 00:33:36,000 --> 00:33:38,480 biracial and it matters more in this 779 00:33:38,480 --> 00:33:41,919 country. Um but more 780 00:33:41,919 --> 00:33:44,880 and I have consciously tried to defend 781 00:33:44,880 --> 00:33:48,399 my differentness now um because I 782 00:33:48,399 --> 00:33:50,640 realize it's very useful. 783 00:33:50,640 --> 00:33:52,880 Um I still I never became an American 784 00:33:52,880 --> 00:33:54,799 citizen 785 00:33:54,799 --> 00:33:57,679 even though I've lived here now for 35 786 00:33:57,679 --> 00:34:01,360 years. um in part as symbolic as a 787 00:34:01,360 --> 00:34:02,720 symbolic statement not because I hate 788 00:34:02,720 --> 00:34:05,200 America but because it is important for 789 00:34:05,200 --> 00:34:07,840 what I do for me to continue to think of 790 00:34:07,840 --> 00:34:12,079 myself as an outsider and so carrying a 791 00:34:12,079 --> 00:34:15,119 kind of Canadian passport is a symbol of 792 00:34:15,119 --> 00:34:20,079 that um that reminds me that um that's 793 00:34:20,079 --> 00:34:23,919 necessary in the work I do that people 794 00:34:23,919 --> 00:34:27,919 read me or uh not because I because they 795 00:34:27,919 --> 00:34:29,679 want something that's unusual. They're 796 00:34:29,679 --> 00:34:32,800 trying they want to see a get a glimpse 797 00:34:32,800 --> 00:34:34,800 of a perspective different from their 798 00:34:34,800 --> 00:34:39,359 own. Um now not every writer I think 799 00:34:39,359 --> 00:34:41,760 necessarily represents difference in 800 00:34:41,760 --> 00:34:45,040 that same way but that's what 801 00:34:45,040 --> 00:34:47,040 that's what I think the meaning of my 802 00:34:47,040 --> 00:34:50,240 writing is to people. And uh I don't 803 00:34:50,240 --> 00:34:53,520 think I think I I think that I can't 804 00:34:53,520 --> 00:34:56,399 change that. I think that's 805 00:34:56,399 --> 00:34:58,560 that is that is the identity I have 806 00:34:58,560 --> 00:35:00,320 established in the minds of those who 807 00:35:00,320 --> 00:35:02,800 read my work and it's not something I 808 00:35:02,800 --> 00:35:04,960 should ever 809 00:35:04,960 --> 00:35:09,240 um mess with. 810 00:35:13,599 --> 00:35:17,119 I was a history major in college. Uh, 811 00:35:17,119 --> 00:35:19,680 and the day I graduated from college, I 812 00:35:19,680 --> 00:35:22,079 swore that I would never set foot in 813 00:35:22,079 --> 00:35:23,760 another 814 00:35:23,760 --> 00:35:27,440 uh classroom again. Um, I was done with 815 00:35:27,440 --> 00:35:29,440 school. Um, not done with learning, but 816 00:35:29,440 --> 00:35:33,280 done with school. Um, and I entirely by 817 00:35:33,280 --> 00:35:36,720 chance got a job at a magazine, a little 818 00:35:36,720 --> 00:35:39,280 obscure magazine in Indiana called The 819 00:35:39,280 --> 00:35:43,359 American Spectator. And they sent a long 820 00:35:43,359 --> 00:35:46,720 form to fill out with all, you know, 821 00:35:46,720 --> 00:35:49,040 essays about why this and this, who I 822 00:35:49,040 --> 00:35:50,960 was. And the last question, which you 823 00:35:50,960 --> 00:35:53,599 had a full page, was why do you want to 824 00:35:53,599 --> 00:35:55,040 work at the American Spectator? And I 825 00:35:55,040 --> 00:35:56,400 didn't know anything about it. And I was 826 00:35:56,400 --> 00:35:58,240 all a bit of a lark. So, I simply wrote, 827 00:35:58,240 --> 00:35:59,520 "Doesn't everyone want to work at the 828 00:35:59,520 --> 00:36:01,599 American Spectator?" And I got the job. 829 00:36:01,599 --> 00:36:04,400 So, I went there and I worked there for 830 00:36:04,400 --> 00:36:06,480 a couple of months before I got fired 831 00:36:06,480 --> 00:36:09,280 because I couldn't uh handle the 832 00:36:09,280 --> 00:36:13,200 transition to 9 to5 because in college I 833 00:36:13,200 --> 00:36:14,480 used to go to bed at like 4 in the 834 00:36:14,480 --> 00:36:17,040 morning and wake up at 835 00:36:17,040 --> 00:36:20,000 1 in the afternoon and it just was too 836 00:36:20,000 --> 00:36:23,359 much. Couldn't. So then I went to 837 00:36:23,359 --> 00:36:25,280 Washington DC 838 00:36:25,280 --> 00:36:27,280 where I vaguely knew I camped on 839 00:36:27,280 --> 00:36:29,920 someone's floor who I knew, got a job at 840 00:36:29,920 --> 00:36:33,040 a think tank just doing their newsletter 841 00:36:33,040 --> 00:36:36,160 making I made $12,000 a year and then I 842 00:36:36,160 --> 00:36:41,599 um I started to freelance and 843 00:36:41,599 --> 00:36:42,960 I started to freelance first for the 844 00:36:42,960 --> 00:36:44,160 magazine that fired me because they 845 00:36:44,160 --> 00:36:45,520 still liked me. They just understood 846 00:36:45,520 --> 00:36:48,720 that I was not cut out for the world of 847 00:36:48,720 --> 00:36:51,359 9 toive work. So I wrote for them for a 848 00:36:51,359 --> 00:36:55,200 while and then what happens is 849 00:36:55,200 --> 00:36:57,040 my observation about the writing world 850 00:36:57,040 --> 00:37:00,480 is that it's that if you 851 00:37:00,480 --> 00:37:01,680 write something that people find 852 00:37:01,680 --> 00:37:03,760 interesting the system will find you. 853 00:37:03,760 --> 00:37:07,040 System is pretty efficient. Um and 854 00:37:07,040 --> 00:37:09,280 that's even more it's even easier now. 855 00:37:09,280 --> 00:37:13,119 You know my friend Bill Simmons runs the 856 00:37:13,119 --> 00:37:16,480 website the ringer which is the probably 857 00:37:16,480 --> 00:37:18,240 the most important sports website in the 858 00:37:18,240 --> 00:37:20,880 country. He hires people. He's hired 859 00:37:20,880 --> 00:37:23,839 people because he reads their Twitter 860 00:37:23,839 --> 00:37:26,960 and thinks it's great. You know, he he 861 00:37:26,960 --> 00:37:29,520 was wide open. He hires 862 00:37:29,520 --> 00:37:31,359 he's sort of in the forefront, I think, 863 00:37:31,359 --> 00:37:33,200 of where the world of journalism is 864 00:37:33,200 --> 00:37:37,119 headed, but he will read he'll look at, 865 00:37:37,119 --> 00:37:38,800 you know, some people who've just had 866 00:37:38,800 --> 00:37:40,640 their personal blogs that he stumbled 867 00:37:40,640 --> 00:37:44,400 across and thinks they're fantastic. Um, 868 00:37:44,400 --> 00:37:45,920 he'll, like I said, he'll hire someone 869 00:37:45,920 --> 00:37:47,200 because he thought they had he thought 870 00:37:47,200 --> 00:37:48,480 thinks they have really hilarious 871 00:37:48,480 --> 00:37:51,440 Twitter. You know, he's that's the if 872 00:37:51,440 --> 00:37:53,280 you do something that catches people's 873 00:37:53,280 --> 00:37:54,800 attention, 874 00:37:54,800 --> 00:37:58,240 um, you know, I I the world will find 875 00:37:58,240 --> 00:38:00,240 you. Not always, but the world's pretty 876 00:38:00,240 --> 00:38:03,800 good at finding talent. 877 00:38:08,079 --> 00:38:10,160 My attitude from the in the beginning of 878 00:38:10,160 --> 00:38:13,839 my career was that um there were two 879 00:38:13,839 --> 00:38:16,079 separate things I had needed to do. One 880 00:38:16,079 --> 00:38:18,079 was to establish myself as a writer and 881 00:38:18,079 --> 00:38:20,000 one was to make money, but they wouldn't 882 00:38:20,000 --> 00:38:23,040 always overlap. In other words, for much 883 00:38:23,040 --> 00:38:24,880 of my early career, I had a job, a day 884 00:38:24,880 --> 00:38:27,839 job that paid the bills, and then I 885 00:38:27,839 --> 00:38:30,720 freelanced at night. And if I had waited 886 00:38:30,720 --> 00:38:33,760 for a job, a writing job that paid my 887 00:38:33,760 --> 00:38:35,359 bills, I would have waited forever, I 888 00:38:35,359 --> 00:38:38,480 think. So, and also freelancing gives 889 00:38:38,480 --> 00:38:40,240 you a lot of freedom, particularly if 890 00:38:40,240 --> 00:38:43,200 you're making if you're if you're making 891 00:38:43,200 --> 00:38:45,920 your living elsewhere. Then I was free 892 00:38:45,920 --> 00:38:47,680 to write for whoever I wanted for as 893 00:38:47,680 --> 00:38:49,520 little as 894 00:38:49,520 --> 00:38:51,040 possible. I didn't have to take jobs for 895 00:38:51,040 --> 00:38:52,400 the money. I could take jobs because I 896 00:38:52,400 --> 00:38:55,680 thought they would advance my career. 897 00:38:55,680 --> 00:38:57,920 And very often the kinds of assignments 898 00:38:57,920 --> 00:38:59,680 that advanced my career didn't pay at 899 00:38:59,680 --> 00:39:01,839 all. You know, the kind of magazines 900 00:39:01,839 --> 00:39:03,520 that in Washington there's lots of 901 00:39:03,520 --> 00:39:06,560 magazines that are widely read by people 902 00:39:06,560 --> 00:39:09,680 in the business, but you essentially 903 00:39:09,680 --> 00:39:11,760 write for them for free. Um, Huffington 904 00:39:11,760 --> 00:39:13,599 Post is like that today. But I just 905 00:39:13,599 --> 00:39:15,760 wanted to generate I want to get better 906 00:39:15,760 --> 00:39:17,839 and I wanted people to eventually be 907 00:39:17,839 --> 00:39:20,160 seen. Um, so I would write on the 908 00:39:20,160 --> 00:39:22,720 weekends and in the evenings. Um, and I 909 00:39:22,720 --> 00:39:25,280 would do my and I would also write a 910 00:39:25,280 --> 00:39:28,160 work when no one was looking. Um, but 911 00:39:28,160 --> 00:39:32,480 um, but I but I think it was a very 912 00:39:32,480 --> 00:39:35,280 um, the best decision I made as a young 913 00:39:35,280 --> 00:39:39,040 writer was to have a day job that 914 00:39:39,040 --> 00:39:41,200 relieved the economic 915 00:39:41,200 --> 00:39:45,079 burden of writing. 916 00:39:49,280 --> 00:39:51,520 Writing on assignment is made possible 917 00:39:51,520 --> 00:39:55,040 because of experience. So that you write 918 00:39:55,040 --> 00:39:56,560 most successfully on assignment on 919 00:39:56,560 --> 00:39:58,560 things that you have on topics and 920 00:39:58,560 --> 00:39:59,839 subject areas that you have already 921 00:39:59,839 --> 00:40:01,760 written about. So that you're not just 922 00:40:01,760 --> 00:40:03,359 drawing on what you've managed to gather 923 00:40:03,359 --> 00:40:04,800 in the four hours you have to write the 924 00:40:04,800 --> 00:40:06,000 story, the two days you have to write 925 00:40:06,000 --> 00:40:07,599 the story. You're gathering on the 926 00:40:07,599 --> 00:40:08,720 mountain of knowledge that you've 927 00:40:08,720 --> 00:40:10,640 gathered over the course of writing on 928 00:40:10,640 --> 00:40:13,119 that in that particular area. And so 929 00:40:13,119 --> 00:40:14,800 it's uh there's just a learning curve 930 00:40:14,800 --> 00:40:16,720 and you have to accept the fact that 931 00:40:16,720 --> 00:40:21,040 that learning curve is necessary. Um you 932 00:40:21,040 --> 00:40:23,440 have and by the end you know when I was 933 00:40:23,440 --> 00:40:25,839 at the Washington Post after one point I 934 00:40:25,839 --> 00:40:28,000 covered NIH and the Food and Drug 935 00:40:28,000 --> 00:40:28,960 Administration and the National 936 00:40:28,960 --> 00:40:31,280 Institute of Health after three years of 937 00:40:31,280 --> 00:40:35,520 that my kind of implicit database was 938 00:40:35,520 --> 00:40:37,680 enormous. And so you could give me a 939 00:40:37,680 --> 00:40:39,520 story and I could write something 940 00:40:39,520 --> 00:40:41,520 intelligent in three hours because I was 941 00:40:41,520 --> 00:40:45,599 drawing on three years of knowledge. Um 942 00:40:45,599 --> 00:40:47,839 that's this is just more more evidence 943 00:40:47,839 --> 00:40:51,599 of the virtues of growing old.