[originaltext] To begin my talk, I’d like to tell you a story first. So it’s

To begin my talk, I’d like to tell you a story first. So it’s 1995, I’m in college, and a friend and I go on a road trip from Providence, Rhode Island to Portland, Oregon. And you know, we’re young and unemployed, so we do the whole thing on back roads through state parks and national forests— basically the longest route we can possibly take. And somewhere in the middle of South Dakota, I turn to my friend and I ask her a question that’s been bothering me for 2000 miles. "What’s up with the Chinese character I keep seeing by the side of the road?" She just stares at me for a few moments, and then she cracks up, because she figures out what I’m talking about. And what I’m talking about is this—the sign for picnic area that looks like a Chinese character.
    I’ve spent the last five years of my life thinking about situations exactly like this—why we sometimes misunderstand the signs around us, and how we behave when that happens, and what all of this can tell us about human nature. In fact, most of us do everything we can to avoid thinking about being wrong, or at least to avoid thinking about the possibility that we ourselves are wrong. We get it in the abstract. We all know everybody in this room makes mistakes. But we all kind of wind up travelling through life, trapped in this little bubble of feeling very right about everything.
    I think this is a problem. I think it’s a problem for each of us as individuals, in our personal and professional lives, and I think it’s a problem for all of us collectively as a culture.  So what I want to do with all my books, all my talks is, first of all, talk about why we get stuck inside this feeling of being right. And second, why it’s such a problem. And finally, I want to convince you that it is possible to step outside of that feeling and that if you can do so, it is the single greatest moral, intellectual and creative leap you can make. Well, as time is up, I’ll explain in detail how I try to achieve the above goals in the next session.
    Questions 16 to 18 are based on the recording you have just heard.
    16. What kind of route did the speaker and her friends choose in 1995?
    17. How do most people feel about themselves?
    18. What does the speaker want to do with her books and talks?