English, baby!

简体
connect the dots
理清头绪

Date: Oct 20 2011

Themes: Tech

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Quote

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“You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. You have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future.”

- Apple co-founder Steve Jobs talking about his life philosophy in a speech at Stanford University. (NPR)

Definition

1. Definition - Study the definition.

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understand the relationships or connections

2. Use - Learn how the slang is used.

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Steve Jobs helped start Apple and created revolutionary products like iTunes and the iPhone. He became one of the most successful businessmen and inventors in the world and tragically died of cancer earlier this month. But when he was a young man, he didn’t know what he wanted to do. He couldn’t connect the dots and predict where the future would take him.

At a speech to new college graduates at Stanford University, Jobs talked about how it’s impossible to know where your life is going to take you. Only later are you able to connect the dots and see how one decision led to another, eventually bringing you to your current place in life.

The expression connect the dots comes from a game where there are a lot of numbered dots on a page, and you have to draw lines between the dots in order to reveal a picture of something, like an animal or a person’s face. When you start the game, you have no idea what image is going to appear. Only at the end of the game, once you’ve connected the dots, do you realize how all the dots fit together to create a picture. In the same way, when you connect the dots in life, you understand the connections or relationships between different things. You understand how different pieces fit together to create a whole.

Can you connect the dots and explain how you reached your current place in life?

Examples

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“It took me a long time to connect the dots, but now I finally understand why my best friend was spending so much time with my brother. They’re in love!”

“I hope Jesse doesn’t connect the dots and realize we’re planning a surprise party for him.”

“If you think about the problem long and hard, I’m sure you’ll be able to connect the dots and find a solution.”

Winners

1. Winners - See who guessed the slang definition correctly.

	Looking back the past and connect what you've learned or perceived to make it in the present by cubi1604
	To figure something out based on multiple pieces of evidence. by Talia Do
	At a certain moment of your life you can ask yourself: I've done a lot in my life but now what?, what is all that for?.. connecting the dots means that everything you have done in your life, finally makes sense by alixjohanna
	connecting the dots means to understand certain relationship between the events or things by Jeyran
	To understand the relationship between different events. I love this quote! by Julissita

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Comments

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dreamscoming

Tunisia

our life is made of dots , we have always to connect the dots in order to go forward .for example , studying is an important step once fulfiledl we surely will find ourselves in another step