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AntiFragile VIP – Point of View

Hello, this is A. J. and welcome to the Point of View stories for this month’s lesson.

Let’s talk more about Bubba. One thing you may notice in the mini story lesson is that I actually sometimes switched between the past and the present. This is so natural. In fact, sometimes I find it very difficult to stay with just one verb tense.

The truth is in real conversations we switch back and forth. We might talk about a story in the present to give a feeling that it’s happening now and some feeling of excitement, but then if we start asking questions about what happened or what we’ve told already, we might switch to the past.

I might say Bubba goes to a fat camp and then if I was in a real conversation I might say where did Bubba go? Because I just told them so, it kind of feels like now we’re looking to the past like it’s already happened.

Then I might switch back to the present as I start telling the story again – then after the fat camp he goes here. That’s very natural and you need to realize this. We don’t just speak in one tense through an entire conversation or even an entire story. It’s not really natural.

This is the problem with schools and grammar rules. You think that there are these rules you must follow, but in fact grammar is just a point of view. That’s why we call it Point of View.

Maybe you’re looking at the story and telling the story as if it’s happening right now. It gives a certain feeling, a certain point of view, looking at it as if it’s in the present right now.

Then we might change our perspective and change our point of view, and now we might be looking back at it like it’s happened already and now we’re going to talk about it in the past.

Then we might switch back again. This is very natural to do.

Let’s try some more. I have a question.

Some of you may know that Bubba’s an old friend and you may know about him already. You may have heard about Bubba many years ago. He was fat many years ago. He was big and maybe you wonder what has he been doing since you heard from his last? What has he been doing since the last story? Well, he has been sitting at home a lot.

Has he been working out and exercising? No, he hasn’t been working out and exercising. He has been sitting around at home a lot. Of course what else has he been doing? Between a few years ago up until this story, during that time period what has he been doing? He’s been sitting around and of course he’s been eating a lot of food. Who has been eating a lot of food? Bubba has been eating a lot of food?

When you heard about him last time many years ago up until this story, during that period he has been eating a lot of food. What else has he been doing? He has been sitting around being lazy. Has he exercised and eaten well? No, he hasn’t been exercising. He hasn’t been eating well. What has he been doing? He has been sitting around. He has been eating a lot. That’s what he has been doing.

Why are we saying has been doing, has been eating, has been sitting around? What’s the difference? What if we said he has eaten a lot of food since a few years ago until now? We could say that, but has been doing means that we don’t know if it’s finished or not. If you say he has eaten a lot of food since then, it has a feeling that it started in the past, it continued up until now and that it’s basically done now or that it may be finished.

Has been doing with an ‘ing’ has more of a feeling of we’re not sure. It’s been going for a while from the past until recently, until now, but we don’t know if it’s finished. Maybe it’s finished or maybe he’s still doing it.

He has been eating. He has been sleeping a lot too since a few years ago when you heard about him last time until this story. During that time he has been sleeping a lot. How many hours has he been sleeping usually each day? Usually he has been sleeping for 17 hours a day.

Usually Bubba has been sleeping for 17 hours a day, and usually he has been eating 150 pounds of food every day.

How many pounds of food has he been eating every day? He has been eating 150 pounds of food every day. How many hours has he been sleeping usually every day? He has usually been sleeping for 17 hours every day, and he has been sitting around a lot and not exercising at all.

What kind of food has he been eating every single day? Cat food? No, Bubba hasn’t been eating cat food every day. No, no, no. He has been eating pizza, pork chops, hamburgers and steak. What kind of food has he been eating? Pizza, pork chops, steak and hamburgers.

Yummy. He has been eating and eating and eating, and growing and growing and growing during that time right up until this story starts.

He’s been doing all these bad habits for a long time, all these bad things and all these unhealthy things. He’s been doing them for many years. Finally when the story starts, he decides he needs to change. He decides he needs to change, so he goes to Russia. He goes to the fat camp but it’s not his cup of tea.

They make him chop wood every day and then he goes to Southern California to the cutting edge, leading edge fat camp there, and he does like it there but he doesn’t get good results.

Finally he goes to San Francisco to the cross-fit gym. At the cross-fit gym, he finally gets some good results.

Now to version two, what has Bubba done since the last time, since several years ago until this story? What has he done? Of course he has eaten a lot of food. He has eaten and eaten and eaten every day. He has eaten 150 pounds of food. What has he eaten? He has eaten 150 pounds of food every day.

What kind of food has he eaten most days? Most days he has eaten pizza and pork chops and steak and hamburgers. During this time has Bubba exercised? No, he hasn’t exercised, not at all. What has he done instead? He has sat on his couch being lazy and sleeping. What has he done? He has slept almost 17 hours every day.

Has he exercised? No, he has not exercised. Has he done anything healthy since we heard about him last time many years ago? No, he hasn’t done anything healthy. He has only gotten bigger and bigger. Who has gotten bigger and bigger? Bubba has gotten bigger and bigger and bigger.

Of course in the second version, this time I’m saying has gone and has done instead of doing with an ‘ing.’ It’s very close in meaning. It just has a little bit more of the feeling that it’s done now and now we’re starting something else. We’re talking about something that was happening in the past right up until the start of this new story.

When we say he has eaten a lot of food every day, it’s a little bit of a feeling that something’s changed now and that situation is not so true anymore. If we say he has been eating a lot of food every day, then it’s a little more of a feeling that maybe it’s continuing into the present. It’s not as clear. It doesn’t feel as strong.

There’s not a right answer and there’s not a wrong answer. It’s just a feeling. It’s a prospective.

It’s a point of view. That’s all.

Let’s go one more time. This is version number three. In version number three, you’ve already heard the story. You already know the story. Now the recent story about the fat camps is now in the past. So let’s start again.

For several years before the story, what had Bubba been doing? What had Bubba done? Had Bubba been exercising a lot before the story started? No, he hadn’t been exercising a lot before the story started.

Had he been eating a lot of food in the time before the story started? Yes, he had been eating a lot of food every day. In fact, he had been eating 150 pounds of food every day. Had he been eating 150 pounds of cat food every day? No, he hadn’t been eating cat food every day. He had been eating steak, hamburgers and pork chops. Yummy.

Had he been exercising and working out every day? No, he had not been exercising. In fact, he had not exercised at all, not one single day. He had not exercised. From four or five years ago until the story started, he had not exercised at all. He had not eaten anything healthy at all during that time.

When the story started, what did he do? Of course everything changed. He went to Russia, and then he went to Southern California and then he went to San Francisco. Had he been doing those things in the past? No he had not, not before the story started, but then the story started and he went to Russia first.

Where did he go in Russia? He went to Siberia. He went to a fat camp in Siberia. What did he do in the fat camp? He chopped wood every day but it wasn’t his cup of tea. He didn’t like it.

Where did he go next? He went to Southern California next to a leading edge fat camp, a cutting edge fat camp. We can also say cutting edge. It has the same meaning as leading edge, at the leading edge, at the cutting edge. It’s the same idea.

Did he enjoy the Southern California fat camp? Yes he did. He enjoyed it a lot. Did he get good results? No he did not. He did not get good results at the Southern California fat camp. Where did he finally go? He went to San Francisco. He went to a cross-fit gym in San Francisco and yes he finally got results.

How about now? Now he’s smaller and lighter and healthier. Now Bubba finally is healthy. I’m happy for Bubba and I hope you are too.

In that third version of the story, everything happened in the past. The fat camps happened in the past and then of course everything before that happened in the past. Then when I was saying what had he been doing before the story, before the fat camps, we’re talking about the past and we’re talking about something that happened even earlier in the past. That’s when we say had been or had done or had been doing.

Don’t think about all the grammar rules. Just listen to these versions of the story again and again and again. Eventually you get the feeling for it. It becomes more and more natural.

Thinking about it will not help you. In fact, it will make you learn slower. Just listen and listen again and again. Enjoy all the versions of the story.

See you next time. Bye-bye.