"1. Gather between six and twelve people around a table, ideally over dinner.

"2. The group can consist of good friends, individuals you are meeting for the first time, or any combination thereof.

"3. Someone happily agrees to be a notetaker.

"4. Through conversation, endeavor to find a collection of autobiographical statements that are equally true for each and every member of the group.

"5. While it may begin with one person tossing out questions ('Does everyone like flannel?'), soon enough everyone will be chiming in, energy will escalate, and questions will bounce around in pinball fashion.

"6. You'll know when to wrap it up. Maybe you will do this for 30 minutes. Maybe for a couple of hours. You'll know when to map it up.

"7. Assemble your statement.

"8. Call it your Short, Collective Biography."

*Short Collective Biography was originally launched as a collaboration between conceptual artist Lenka Clayton and Amy Krouse Rosenthal as TED/Active 2015.

Here is the Short, Collective Biography of Diane Bond, Emily RK Chester, Teri Cicurel, Jim Clark, Ann Kim, Krista Varsbergs, and Amy K R. created over dinner on Saturday night, August 15, 2015. Imagine it read by all seven people in unison.

"I was born in the 20th century in the United States of America east of the Mississippi.

"I have, at one point or another, been to New York City, dipped my toes in the Atlantic, owned a pet, and had an awkward autocorrect experience.

"I have seen a full moon.

"I have cried at a movie, messed up the lyrics of a song, am scared of death, and have burned toast.

"I have started something that I did not finish, and mistakenly shrunk something in the wash.

"I have forced myself to hydrate, gotten a scar, gotten a bad haircut, and said something that I've regretted.

"I have never been followed by the pararazzi.

"I have read Green Eggs and Ham, stayed up on an election night, walked in the rain, played on an Etch-a-Sketch, and watched at least half of The Sound of Music.

"I have blushed, fallen in love, and pulled a pebble from my shoe."