VIP Class Notes (Nicholas)

only we three / only the three of us

Pronunciation

catastrophe / KUH-TAS-TRUH-FEE

e.g. The trip was a catastrophe. (NOUN)

catastrophic / KAH-TIS-STROFIC

e.g. The trip was catastrophic. (ADJ)

Vocabulary

ride sharing / DiDi / Kuaidi / Uber

Aggregate / To add all together

e.g. The data is aggregated by a sophistiated alogoritihm.

candidly / 坦率

He talks to his customers and audience very candidly on Twitter.

e.g. to be candid vs. to act candidly

polarizing / extreme / you either love him or you hate him/her/thing.

e.g. Obama is a very polarizing figure.

socially awkward / social awkwardness / smart person, but they have difficulty with people

e.g. Elon Musk is intelligent but socially awkward.

he went rogue / he went crazy and acted independently by himself, and was not responsible to anyone

there’s a large chasm between the rich and the poor

incentivize vs. disincentive / encourage vs. discourage

e.g. We need to incentivize smart people to have more babies — give them money.

e.g. We need to disincentive stupid people from having big families.

cog in a wheel / you just play your role, don’t do anything special

e.g. Societies make people that are just cogs in a wheel.

stagnates / the growth is slow / stagnation 

successors / the leaders that come after in business or government

descendants / the family members that come after you

we will reach a point-of-no-return / the point where you cannot go back, it’s a huge decision

Grammar

(company) his opponent is too strong / their opponents were too strong / the competition was too strong

was no good to both parties / didn’t benefit either party

“it begs the questions…” / I heard this information and thought of THIS question immediately

“Have you had this experience…”

What I talked about / What I mentioned

One of my experience / One of my experiences

extremely clever / extremely gifted

I agree with him / I share his sentiment

apply it to human / apply it to humans

e.g. The mad scientist went rogue.

the whole academic will abandon him / the whole academic community will abandon him

is so prosperous country / is such a prosperous country