Why Do We Build Sandcastles When We Know They Wont Last

[Music]

you know

that always scared me

that right there that’s endless

possibilities a blank

piece of paper

that could be

anything

and the difficult thing about anything

is

where do we start

what do we do what should we use

we got a pen pencil marker

should we solve it

you ever find it just easier to edit a

sentence than to write one

you know we have never had

as many technology or tools available to

us to create something as we do now

and the world has never been as

connected as it is now did you know it

took 46 years before there were 50

million users of electricity

it took 12 years before there were 15

million users of mobile phones you know

how long it took pokemon go to get 50

million users

19 days google it it’s true

so here we are the golden age of being

able to create something but first

we gotta get started on this

but why is that scary though right let’s

just pick the

pen and let’s start if it doesn’t work

out it doesn’t work out what’s the big

deal

but somehow it’s scary than that right

somehow it is a big deal

maybe we’re afraid that if we take a

path and we’ll go down one road we’re

excluding all the other options

it’s like the trevor noah joke right

even though he only takes 12 seconds to

download a movie still takes us 45

minutes to pick one

sounds about right

or is it that we’re afraid that if we

make a plan it’s a bad plan

may have an idea that’s a bad idea

and then yeah we’ll have to waste the

time and the resources on it but

what’s after that we have to face it

right

we have to explain what didn’t work

we’ll have to hear other people explain

it to us what didn’t work

we have to watch what we build disappear

i think deep down we all know those

feelings those are feelings we associate

with failure and uh we we don’t like

that feeling

i’m backing up for a second i should

introduce myself hi uh i’m david

uh and i’m a dad

uh here’s me and my family on vacation

and uh we build sand castles

uh we do this with this other family dan

angie sophie and ellie

now what’s really interesting about sand

castles

is that it kind of built itself with you

right i mean if the wind is blowing this

way you’re just gonna have to work on

the other side

if it decides to slope a certain way

that’s what you got to work with

another interesting thing about sand

castles

it’s one of the most brittle things in

the world right i mean think about it by

nature sand castles are not permanent

a bird could land on this right now i

could run into it

somebody could try to fix something do

something and you would break it could

ring

a lot of reasons why you could fall but

for sure it will fall it will break but

we’re not afraid of this

even though this sounds a whole lot like

what we just talked about earlier

in what we associate with failure

we even look forward to this

and i think it’s because when we accept

that sand castles are going to fall

we stop worrying about it

instead we focus on

what we can do with it to keep it

standing

and how long we can keep it standing

and while he’s standing what can we

build on top of it

and fundamentally that’s two different

things isn’t it

so i’m also the founder of our company

and uh we build things that work too

uh we’ll let you scan what you want to

change

design it to how you want it to look

and then we take you to the precise

spots in the real world to make your

digital idea come true

now a lot of people go on instagram and

go online look at pictures and have this

ideal image of what their environment

could look like

but they have trouble making it real why

because there’s a gap between idea and

execution

there’s a gap between how you want it to

be and how to make it happen we uh we

bridge that gap

so hearing all this what is all of this

really called right just uh we’re gonna

have to go through some acronyms first

just bear with me for a second this this

really won’t hurt

so you probably heard a lot of these

acronyms already vr ar mr

but he really falls under this big

umbrella called xr or spaceship

now r stands for the real world this

this right here

and x stands for anything that really

enhances it

so our version of it is that we’ll let

you see what you want to change let you

design it to how you want it to be and

then we take you so we can change it in

the real world

and we use this process to help people

decorate their homes plan their

landscapings all the way up to building

bridges and building roads and building

buildings

so we talked a lot about changes are

there any consonants in this

you know constant is a rare available

thing in our world there’s really only

two

are the first is that we know there’s a

digital world in the real world

there’s always been a push and pull

between the two and magic happens we can

combine it

and to do that is really just these

three things right it’s capture process

display

capture the object the scenario the

background whatever it is the person

a process of digitally adding

enhancements designing the however you

want

and feed that back in a way a display

system that best solves a problem for

the user whatever problem they’re trying

to solve

this is how we shape our roadmap for

products this is how we write our

patents this is our ticket to the dance

for the future

but other than these two constants all

the devices

all the instruments all the architecture

we build it on

are subject to change and we just went

through earlier is changing faster than

ever before and when that happens

all of our content all of our solutions

well they fall and need to be rebuilt

again

so how do you keep saying in a world

that’s changing like this well bill

watterson have a great quote for that

and it’s the truth is most of us

discover where we are headed when we

arrive

at that time

we turn around and say

yes this is obviously where i was going

all along

it’s a good idea to try to enjoy the

detours of the scenery on the detours

because you’ll probably take a few

now i love this quote because first i

obviously knew where i was going all

along right and i got a ted talk out of

this

but seriously and more importantly

it’s a great reminder that these changes

things being built falling being rebuilt

these detours

this is the creative process itself

now i don’t know if you heard this story

but

the ones with this group of game

designers and as game designers do

they try to create a game

that had a very unique feature to the

genre that really hasn’t seen before

now they love this game this wasn’t just

a project they loved this game

and that’s what got them to push forward

when there was so much things pushing it

back

and this went on for a while they pushed

it forward got pushed back they fixed as

best they could

but as much as they loved the game he

came to a point where they had to have

the conversation of

should we still do this

and i always imagined it like in the

movies right it’s just a bunch of heroes

sitting around and saying this is a

fight that we might not win but should

we still do it

and like like the movies the music will

crescendo or lens will zoom in you will

focus on them as they say hey look one

more try

but unfortunately we don’t live in the

movie so that game didn’t work out but

they did discover

the app they wrote

to help various team members that live

around the world to communicate while

working on this game

but there’s something special about that

and they say hey maybe let’s take a

harder look at that instead

now looking back to last year with all

the lockdowns the work from homes the

virtual learnings you or someone you

knew probably used that program is

called slack

this is a true origin story of slack by

the way this is how slack became slack

and it’s the perfect example for me

in that just like how cn castle shapes

itself

along with your input

that’s what the creative process is like

is ideas shaping itself along with you

and on that process we often come across

something that is symbolized by this

this is what we call the first coat of

paint on a wall

this is where regardless how much you

hated the color on the wall before this

now look worse

this is going to take a step back and

say

you know maybe i should have just left

it alone

this is where your solution has

officially become worse than the problem

and earlier when we’re talking about

failure

this is what that failure you feared

look like

except that’s crazy right i mean this is

only a failure if you stopped

look i’m not introducing a new concept

here everybody knows the first coat of

paint on a wall is going to look

terrible it’s going to look worse than

before but that has never stopped

anybody from painting a wall yet that

sentiment stops us

when we want to create something new

look the first few tries

in a new way to solve a problem will

probably look worse than the problem

itself

the beginning of a sand castle is a

giant hole in the ground with the mound

of sand next to it

this is only a failure if you stop

now this this is where all of what we do

came from this is the sword of democracy

this is the very first set of

head-mounted display system by mr ivan

sutherland

and you look at this and you think from

today’s user experience perspective

and this is a challenge right i mean

you’re literally attached to this

ceiling

but you keep this in mind when apple

introduced their sleek ar glasses

you keep this in mind and you’re trying

to catch charmander on the sidewalk in

pokemon go because none of that would be

able to happen if we didn’t have this

first

you know in a way we all live in the

sand castle analogy

because with the new technology being

a new policy being changed

something happens in the world and our

world changes

and you think that you changed fast

before with the way technology is going

and the way that we are connected is

only going to change faster

sand castles are always going to fall

and need to be rebuilt

it’s what you can do with it while it’s

still standing

it’s not stopping when you hit that

first coat of paint

it’s realizing the process is what’s

important

and that’s what enables us to face that

blank piece of paper and start and this

this is not a failure because it doesn’t

exist anymore

because we haven’t stopped

awesome all inspiring words and quotes

okay so we have come to that part of a

ted talk uh thank you for staying with

me this far

awesome awe inspiring words and quotes

let’s see uh if it isn’t written write

it yourself friends kafka

you don’t know how strong you are until

being strong is the only choice you have

bob marley

i really like that one

or in the words of dan angie sophie and

ellie who we build sand castles together

with every year

you’re not going to be judged if sand

castle falls apart is expected to

it’s what you build that didn’t exist

before that will be remembered

now this is the last sandcast that we

built before a covey hit in the world

changed uh

it’s got a fort on the top those look

great in the sunset

the stairs look beautiful but they’re

actually really hard to do that’s all

angie

you see that ditch right there that’s

that’s the mode that’s my mode that’s

actually one of my better modes

but even as we’re taking this picture

it’s beginning to fall and by the next

day

you’ll be completely gone

now it isn’t a failure that this wasn’t

the perfect sand castle

or that eventually fell

failure would be if i didn’t build this

with my kids in the first place

so let’s not worry about if a sand

castle will fall and let’s embrace all

sand castles will fall

and there’s absolutely nothing scary

about that

let’s go build some sand castles

thank you