WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.720 --> 00:00:03.390 All right, we've sort of talked about this once or twice. 2 00:00:03.390 --> 00:00:05.250 I've definitely used the word I'm pretty sure, 3 00:00:05.250 --> 00:00:08.430 but I haven't emphasized it probably quite enough. 4 00:00:08.430 --> 00:00:11.130 Numbers aren't very relatable. 5 00:00:11.130 --> 00:00:13.260 It's really hard to understand what some numbers mean. 6 00:00:13.260 --> 00:00:15.660 Like first of all, like what's a nanometer? 7 00:00:15.660 --> 00:00:17.340 Not only what is it, how do you define it, 8 00:00:17.340 --> 00:00:19.500 but what does it really mean, okay? 9 00:00:19.500 --> 00:00:21.784 Or how about $17 trillion? 10 00:00:21.784 --> 00:00:24.270 Is that a lot or a little, right? 11 00:00:24.270 --> 00:00:27.300 It depends on context and all kinds of other things. 12 00:00:27.300 --> 00:00:29.070 10,000 hectares. 13 00:00:29.070 --> 00:00:30.750 I cannot relate to that whatsoever, 14 00:00:30.750 --> 00:00:33.540 not to mention I don't really know what a hectare is. 15 00:00:33.540 --> 00:00:37.384 5 billion tons, 5 billion tons of carbon 16 00:00:37.384 --> 00:00:42.384 5 billion tons of grass, 5 billion tons of what? 17 00:00:42.450 --> 00:00:46.350 Like, even no matter which one of those it is, 18 00:00:46.350 --> 00:00:47.820 I don't know if it's a lot or a little 19 00:00:47.820 --> 00:00:49.470 et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. 20 00:00:49.470 --> 00:00:51.000 So, relatability. 21 00:00:51.000 --> 00:00:53.310 You have to make your information relatable. 22 00:00:53.310 --> 00:00:55.080 I have to understand what the heck you're talking about. 23 00:00:55.080 --> 00:00:56.100 The numbers on their own. 24 00:00:56.100 --> 00:00:58.260 And especially for those of you in science, right? 25 00:00:58.260 --> 00:01:00.198 Like, climate science is the best example. 26 00:01:00.198 --> 00:01:04.104 You know, "We used five gigatons of carbon last year." 27 00:01:04.104 --> 00:01:06.870 I have no clue what that means. 28 00:01:06.870 --> 00:01:08.490 Is that a lot or a little? 29 00:01:08.490 --> 00:01:09.810 Is that adding to the problem? 30 00:01:09.810 --> 00:01:11.610 Are we doing incredibly well? 31 00:01:11.610 --> 00:01:13.320 I have no clue. 32 00:01:13.320 --> 00:01:15.570 So, make your numbers relatable. 33 00:01:15.570 --> 00:01:16.403 We've already seen it. 34 00:01:16.403 --> 00:01:18.450 This is another example, or not another example, 35 00:01:18.450 --> 00:01:20.850 the same example I've shown a few times. 36 00:01:20.850 --> 00:01:23.520 I understand how big that iceberg is, 37 00:01:23.520 --> 00:01:25.015 'cause I can see that it's pretty much 38 00:01:25.015 --> 00:01:28.110 exactly the same size as Cape Verde. 39 00:01:28.110 --> 00:01:30.780 Okay, it's relatable now to some degree, right? 40 00:01:30.780 --> 00:01:31.710 And then they had the version 41 00:01:31.710 --> 00:01:33.270 where I could see it compared to Puerto Rico. 42 00:01:33.270 --> 00:01:36.269 And actually a map form also makes it relatable. 43 00:01:36.269 --> 00:01:39.300 So, make your numbers relatable. 44 00:01:39.300 --> 00:01:40.680 Great example of that. 45 00:01:40.680 --> 00:01:43.470 This is from XKCD. 46 00:01:43.470 --> 00:01:46.290 This guy does great little stick figure comics 47 00:01:46.290 --> 00:01:48.210 about very nerdy topics. 48 00:01:48.210 --> 00:01:52.650 And so it's explaining the idea of gravity wells. 49 00:01:52.650 --> 00:01:54.090 Do you all know what a gravity well is? 50 00:01:54.090 --> 00:01:55.200 A gravity well is the idea 51 00:01:55.200 --> 00:01:58.560 that if you were to land on Jupiter, 52 00:01:58.560 --> 00:02:02.310 how hard would it be to escape Jupiter's gravity? 53 00:02:02.310 --> 00:02:05.610 It's the same as climbing outta that humongous hole. 54 00:02:05.610 --> 00:02:08.850 And you can see over here, this is Earth. 55 00:02:08.850 --> 00:02:11.730 So it's pretty darn easy to escapes Earth's gravity. 56 00:02:11.730 --> 00:02:12.570 And we know how hard it is 57 00:02:12.570 --> 00:02:14.520 to get a rocket up into space right? 58 00:02:14.520 --> 00:02:17.190 Look at how hard it would be to escape Jupiter's gravity. 59 00:02:17.190 --> 00:02:20.040 This makes the numbers relatable. 60 00:02:20.040 --> 00:02:22.530 If they started using other mathematical terms 61 00:02:22.530 --> 00:02:25.200 to describe the strength of Jupiter's gravity, 62 00:02:25.200 --> 00:02:26.319 I wouldn't get it, right? 63 00:02:26.319 --> 00:02:27.840 Now I get it. 64 00:02:27.840 --> 00:02:30.300 Jupiter and Saturn are ridiculously hard. 65 00:02:30.300 --> 00:02:31.860 How are we ever gonna launch a rocket from there? 66 00:02:31.860 --> 00:02:32.970 I have no clue. 67 00:02:32.970 --> 00:02:35.910 But I understand that that's the issue now, right? 68 00:02:35.910 --> 00:02:39.930 Or another example, how wealthy is Jeff Bezos? 69 00:02:39.930 --> 00:02:44.820 As it says there, quite literally unimaginable. 70 00:02:44.820 --> 00:02:46.807 So, wealth shown to scale. 71 00:02:46.807 --> 00:02:47.940 "Scroll to the right," it says. 72 00:02:47.940 --> 00:02:51.776 Okay, so this dot that you probably can't even see 73 00:02:51.776 --> 00:02:54.270 is a thousand dollars, okay? 74 00:02:54.270 --> 00:02:58.052 So the median US household income is $68,000. 75 00:02:58.052 --> 00:02:59.116 Very small square. 76 00:02:59.116 --> 00:03:02.094 A million dollars which seems like a lot of money 77 00:03:02.094 --> 00:03:05.010 is this pretty small square. 78 00:03:05.010 --> 00:03:06.570 And then here is a billion. 79 00:03:06.570 --> 00:03:09.240 A billion is a pretty darn big square 80 00:03:09.240 --> 00:03:10.170 compared to all the rest of that. 81 00:03:10.170 --> 00:03:12.523 A billion's a lot of money. 82 00:03:12.523 --> 00:03:16.290 And so Jeff Bezos at the time that this was created 83 00:03:16.290 --> 00:03:18.427 had $185 billion. 84 00:03:18.427 --> 00:03:21.540 So here you can see 80 million down here 85 00:03:21.540 --> 00:03:23.907 for whatever that's worth, $185 billion. 86 00:03:23.907 --> 00:03:27.430 So I'm scrolling, I'm scrolling, 87 00:03:27.430 --> 00:03:30.341 I'm scrolling, I'm scrolling, 88 00:03:30.341 --> 00:03:34.260 and it just goes on and on and on 89 00:03:34.260 --> 00:03:36.060 and on and on. 90 00:03:36.060 --> 00:03:40.650 It's truly unimaginable how much money that is it. 91 00:03:40.650 --> 00:03:42.730 The number is completely unrelatable. 92 00:03:42.730 --> 00:03:43.842 He's so wealthy 93 00:03:43.842 --> 00:03:46.593 that it's quite literally unmanageable, we see. 94 00:03:46.593 --> 00:03:48.455 Keep scrolling, it keeps scrolling. 95 00:03:48.455 --> 00:03:50.913 You know, it just takes forever.