TEDIndia 2009
Derek Sivers: Weird, or just different?
Filmed:
Readability: 2.5
3,629,976 views
"There's a flip side to everything," the saying goes, and in 2 minutes, Derek Sivers shows this is true in a few ways you might not expect.
Derek Sivers - Entrepreneur
Through his new project, MuckWork, Derek Sivers wants to lessen the burdens (and boredom) of creative people. Full bio
Through his new project, MuckWork, Derek Sivers wants to lessen the burdens (and boredom) of creative people. Full bio
Double-click the English transcript below to play the video.
00:15
So, imagine you're standing on a street anywhere in America
0
0
4000
00:19
and a Japanese man comes up to you and says,
1
4000
3000
00:22
"Excuse me, what is the name of this block?"
2
7000
2000
00:24
And you say, "I'm sorry, well, this is Oak Street, that's Elm Street.
3
9000
4000
00:28
This is 26th, that's 27th."
4
13000
2000
00:30
He says, "OK, but what is the name of that block?"
5
15000
2000
00:32
You say, "Well, blocks don't have names.
6
17000
3000
00:35
Streets have names; blocks are just the
7
20000
2000
00:37
unnamed spaces in between streets."
8
22000
2000
00:39
He leaves, a little confused and disappointed.
9
24000
4000
00:43
So, now imagine you're standing on a street, anywhere in Japan,
10
28000
3000
00:46
you turn to a person next to you and say,
11
31000
2000
00:48
"Excuse me, what is the name of this street?"
12
33000
2000
00:50
They say, "Oh, well that's Block 17 and this is Block 16."
13
35000
4000
00:54
And you say, "OK, but what is the name of this street?"
14
39000
3000
00:57
And they say, "Well, streets don't have names.
15
42000
2000
00:59
Blocks have names.
16
44000
2000
01:01
Just look at Google Maps here. There's Block 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19.
17
46000
4000
01:05
All of these blocks have names,
18
50000
2000
01:07
and the streets are just the unnamed spaces in between the blocks.
19
52000
4000
01:11
And you say then, "OK, then how do you know your home address?"
20
56000
3000
01:14
He said, "Well, easy, this is District Eight.
21
59000
3000
01:17
There's Block 17, house number one."
22
62000
3000
01:20
You say, "OK, but walking around the neighborhood,
23
65000
2000
01:22
I noticed that the house numbers don't go in order."
24
67000
2000
01:24
He says, "Of course they do. They go in the order in which they were built.
25
69000
3000
01:27
The first house ever built on a block is house number one.
26
72000
3000
01:30
The second house ever built is house number two.
27
75000
3000
01:33
Third is house number three. It's easy. It's obvious."
28
78000
2000
01:35
So, I love that sometimes we need to
29
80000
3000
01:38
go to the opposite side of the world
30
83000
2000
01:40
to realize assumptions we didn't even know we had,
31
85000
2000
01:42
and realize that the opposite of them may also be true.
32
87000
3000
01:45
So, for example, there are doctors in China
33
90000
2000
01:47
who believe that it's their job to keep you healthy.
34
92000
3000
01:50
So, any month you are healthy you pay them,
35
95000
2000
01:52
and when you're sick you don't have to pay them because they failed
36
97000
2000
01:54
at their job. They get rich when you're healthy, not sick.
37
99000
2000
01:56
(Applause)
38
101000
3000
01:59
In most music, we think of the "one"
39
104000
2000
02:01
as the downbeat, the beginning of the musical phrase: one, two, three, four.
40
106000
4000
02:05
But in West African music, the "one"
41
110000
2000
02:07
is thought of as the end of the phrase,
42
112000
2000
02:09
like the period at the end of a sentence.
43
114000
2000
02:11
So, you can hear it not just in the phrasing, but the way they count off their music:
44
116000
2000
02:13
two, three, four, one.
45
118000
3000
02:16
And this map is also accurate.
46
121000
3000
02:19
(Laughter)
47
124000
2000
02:21
There's a saying that whatever true thing you can say about India,
48
126000
3000
02:24
the opposite is also true.
49
129000
2000
02:26
So, let's never forget, whether at TED, or anywhere else,
50
131000
2000
02:28
that whatever brilliant ideas you have or hear,
51
133000
3000
02:31
that the opposite may also be true.
52
136000
2000
02:33
Domo arigato gozaimashita.
53
138000
2000
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Derek Sivers - EntrepreneurThrough his new project, MuckWork, Derek Sivers wants to lessen the burdens (and boredom) of creative people.
Why you should listen
Derek Sivers is best known as the founder of CD Baby. A professional musician since 1987, he started CD Baby by accident in 1998 when he was selling his own CD on his website, and friends asked if he could sell theirs, too. CD Baby was the largest seller of independent music on the web, with over $100M in sales for over 150,000 musician clients.
In 2008, Sivers sold CD Baby to focus on his new ventures to benefit musicians, including his new company, MuckWork, where teams of efficient assistants help musicians do their "uncreative dirty work."
Derek Sivers | Speaker | TED.com