sometimes in life we go, uh, to being a little fish in a very big pond

[kadioguy]

[From 1:21 to 1:42]

Gabe: Have you ever heard of that phrase, uh, that you're a big fish in a little pond?

Marie: Yes. That's exactly how I felt.

Gabe: So when you were growing up, you felt like the big fish in a little pond, right? There weren't that many other fish. But then sometimes in life we go, uh, to being a little fish in a very big pond, and we realize our limitations or what our limitations are.
-----
I think that he misspoke himself and that he could mean to say like:

(a) “But then sometimes in life we, uh, being a little fish in a very big pond ...”

or

(b) “But then sometimes in life we go in a very big pond being a little fish ... ”

What do you think?

 

[Rover_KE]

Leave out the ‘uh’ and its surrounding commas, and Gabe’s sentence is just fine.

Yours are ungrammatical.

 

[kadioguy]

Yours are ungrammatical.

(a) “... we, uh, being a little fish in a very big pond ....”

(b) “... we go in a very big pond being a little fish ....”

For (a) it's colloquial.
For (b) it means “... we go in a very big pond, being a little fish ....”

I don't see that they are ungrammatical. (a) is a pronoun plus a gerund phrase, and (b) contains only one verb.

 

[tedmc]

I think "go" in the context does not mean "move" but "become". The "fish in a fish pond" is used figuratively.
"

 

[5jj]

I don't see that they are ungrammatical. (a) is a pronoun plus a gerund phrase,

That doesn't work ...

and (b) contains only one verb.

... neither does that.

 

[5jj]

I think "go" in the context does not mean "move" but "become".
"

I don't.

 

[jutfrank]

The sense here is both 'move' and 'become', in a way, because when you change from one state to another, the metaphor is that you 'go' from one place 'to' another place.

We go from being a big fish in a small pond to being a small fish in a big pond.

blue = state 1
red = state 2

This is metaphorical movement. The real meaning is about changing state, or situation.