Lux Narayan: What I learned from 2,000 obituaries
Lux Narayan is a perpetual learner of various things -- from origami and molecular gastronomy to stand-up and improv comedy. Full bio
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around the Stanford campus,
jogging there as well.
from side to side like that?
he set out to understand why.
about many things:
I hadn't heard of Joseph Keller.
of editorial dedicated to him,
for a newspaper of their stature.
I'm rather morbid
and a "Let's see who died today."
is usually bad news,
cues accomplishment
in the obituaries.
on future insights
from past data --
to obituaries from the New York Times?
your obituary featured --
between 2015 and 2016.
rather, lives -- teach us?
worded descriptor
capture an achievement or a lifetime.
people who died in the last two years.
natural language processing,
you can mime easily in "Charades," --
significant words.
and of course, art, are huge.
why in so many societies
engineering or medicine or business or law
they achieved things.
you've got to wait 37 years ...
that you're remembered for --
die at the age of 81 --
your stride in your 20s.
only commendable act in their mid-40s.
more than just a descriptor.
first paragraph of all 2,000 obituaries,
for two groups of people:
and people that are not famous.
Ali, Zaha Hadid --
are people like Jocelyn Cooper,
of most of their names.
but they're not famous.
these two groups separately --
should thank your parents --
your obituary when you're gone.
from lives well-led,
in print could teach us.
to the kaleidoscope that is life,
majority of obituaries
in the fabric of life.
back to your daily lives:
trying to be famous in death,
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Lux Narayan - EntrepreneurLux Narayan is a perpetual learner of various things -- from origami and molecular gastronomy to stand-up and improv comedy.
Why you should listen
Lakshmanan aka Lux Narayan mans the helm of Unmetric, a social media intelligence company that helps digital marketers, social media analysts, and content creators harness social signals to track and analyze competitive content and campaigns, and to create better content and campaigns of their own.
Prior to founding Unmetric, Narayan was a co-founder at Vembu Technologies, an online data backup company. He also helped found and volunteered at ShareMyCake, a non-profit started by his wife that focuses on encouraging children to use their birthdays to channel monetary support towards a cause of their choosing.
As Unmetric's CEO, he leads a team of 70 people distributed across the company's operations in Chennai and New York City.
Outside of work, he is a perpetual learner of various things -- from origami and molecular gastronomy to stand-up and improv comedy. He enjoys reading obituaries and other non-fiction and watching documentaries with bad ratings. Narayan makes time every year for trekking in the Himalayas or scuba diving in tropical waters, and once he learns to fly, he hopes to spend more time off land than on it.
Lux Narayan | Speaker | TED.com