today I want to talk about the the
meaning of words how we define them and
how they almost as revenge define us the
English language is a magnificent sponge
I love the English language I'm glad
that I speak it but for all that it has
a lot of holes in Greek there's a word
laka sysm which is the hunger for
disaster you know when you see a
thunderstorm on the horizon and you just
find yourself rooting for the storm in
Mandarin they have a word you Yi I'm not
pronouncing it correctly which means the
longing to feel intensely again the way
you did when you were kid in in Polish
they have a word juice cot which is the
kind of hypothetical conversation that
you can possibly play out in your head
and and finally in German of course in
German they have a word called the Zeile
earth which is the dread of getting what
you want
finally fulfilling a lifelong dream I'm
German myself so I know exactly what
that feels like you know I'm not sure if
I would use any of these words as I go
about my day but I'm really glad they
exist but the only reason they exist is
because I made them up I am the author
of the dictionary of obscure sorrows
which I've been writing for the last
seven years and the whole mission of the
project is to sort of find holes in in
the language of emotion and try to fill
them so that we have a way of talking
about all those human peccadilloes and
quirks of the human condition that that
we all feel but may not think to talk
about because we don't have the words to
do it and about halfway through this
project I defined saunder the idea that
we all think of ourselves as the main
character and everyone else is just
extras but in reality we're all the main
character and you yourself are an extra
in someone else's story and so as soon
as I that I got a lot of response from
people saying thank you for giving voice
to something that I felt oh my life but
I there was no word for that so it made
them feel less alone I think that's the
power of words to make us feel less
alone and it was not not long after that
that I started to notice saunder being
used earnestly in conversations online
and not long after that that I actually
noticed it I caught it next to me in an
actual conversation in person
there is no stranger feeling than making
up a word and then seeing it take on a
mind of its own I don't have a word for
that yet but I will
I'm working on it I started to think
about what makes words real because a
lot of people ask me the most common
thing I got from people is well are
these words may enough I don't I don't
really understand and I didn't really
know what to tell them because once
Saunders started to take off Who am I to
say what words are real and what aren't
and so I sort of felt like Steve Jobs
who described his his epiphany as when
he realized that most of us as we go
through the day we just try to avoid
bouncing against the walls too much and
just sort of get on with things but once
you realized that that people did this
world was built by people no smarter
than you then you can reach out and
touch those walls and even put your hand
through them and realize that you have
the power to change it and when people
ask me are these words real I had a
variety of answers that I tried out some
of them made sense some that didn't but
one of them I tried out was well a word
is real if you want it to be real you
know it the way that this past is real
because people wanted it to be there
what happens on college campuses all the
time it's called a desire path but then
I decided what people are really asking
when they're asking it for word is real
they're really asking well how many how
many brains you will it give me access
to because I think that's a lot of how
we look at language like a word is
essentially a key that gets us into
certain people's heads and if it gets us
into one brain it's not really worth it
not really worth knowing two brains and
it depends on who it is a million brains
okay now we're talking and so a real
word is one that gets you access to as
many brains as you can that what that's
what makes it worth knowing incidentally
the realest word of all why this measure
is this
that's it the realist word we have that
is the closest thing we have to a master
key that's the most commonly understood
word in the world no matter where you
are in the world the problem that is no
one seems to know what those two letters
stand for which is kind of weird right I
mean it could it could be a misspelling
of all correct I guess or old Kinderhook
no one really seems to know but the fact
the fact that it doesn't matter says
something about how we add meaning to
words the meaning is not in the words
themselves we're the ones that pour
ourselves into it and I think when we're
all searching for meaning in our lives
and searching for the meaning of life
and I think words have something to do
with that and I think if you're looking
for the meaning of something the
dictionary is a decent place to start it
brings a sense of order to a very
chaotic universe our view of things is
so limited that we have to come up with
patterns and shorthands and try to
figure out a way to interpret it and be
able to get on with our day we need
words to contain us to define ourselves
I think a lot of us feel boxed in by how
we use these words we forget that words
are made up it's not just my words all
words are made up but not all of them
means something we're all just sort of
trapped in our own lexicons that don't
necessarily correlate with people who
aren't already like us and so I think I
feel as drifting apart a little more
every year the more seriously we take
words because remember words are not
real they don't have meaning we do and
I'd like to leave you with a reading for
one of my favorite philosophers Bill
Watterson who created Calvin and Hobbes
you said
creating a life that reflects your
values and satisfies your soul is a rare
achievement to invent your own life's
meaning is not easy but it is still
allowed and I think you'll be happier
for the trouble thank you
[Applause]