Why should you do something meaningless

[Music]

why should you do something meaningless

when people have ideas they don’t start

with the meaningless they start with

what makes sense

and today i will show you how to turn

something meaningless

into something meaningful and to show

you that

i need you guys to join me for a little

hike

has anybody here been hiking before

raise your hands

good then you already know some of the

things i’m going to say about hiking

today like what is the most important

thing to bring with you when hiking

it’s food

and when you finally reach the top of

the mountain some of you use this

boiling water takes forever

and if you guys are like me and don’t

have patience at all i highly recommend

to bring

[Music]

to bring a stove

my friend cooking here is timur he’s

from afghanistan and we always hike

together

when the food is finished cooking how do

you serve the meal

there’s only one way

remember when you let someone from the

middle east spice the meal

it doesn’t take a long time before you

have to go

to the toilet

and when you’re finished doing your

thing on the toilet the next step is to

just relax just take a moment and enjoy

the view

or if you think that’s really boring

then you bring your tv and playstation

and you might say

that’s not very social

and i know that’s why we sometimes bring

the poker table instead so we all can

play together

and we usually play for a while and we

forget about the time and it gets dark

and you don’t want to go down a steep

mountain when it’s dark outside that can

be dangerous

so instead

you spend the night

[Music]

huh

so you spend the night

and you wake up the next day

and some of you think it’s time to get

down from the mountain

and you think you can just walk down

that’s a big big mistake

you need to be warmed up first so you

avoid injuries

what is the best exercise to do on a

mountain you may ask

well first you should start off with

some spinning

and if it’s a really steep mountain

where you need to climb and use your

hands then you should do something with

your upper body as well

if you think this is a bit overkill to

bring the rack the weights and the

spinning cycle to the mountain an easier

solution for you would be to set up a

basketball coach

after playing basketball with your mates

you remember you have some important

work that needs to be done

today

since we have the opportunity for a home

office we don’t have to rush down from

the mountain we can just do the work on

top of the mountain

[Music]

now this is probably the most

meaningless and extreme hiking tour you

have ever seen

and i know that some of you wonder

how did they get all the things up there

everything you just saw has been carried

up by people which makes it even more

stupid and meaningless

and the hardest part with this project

has been to get people to actually join

these hikes

and convince them to think that bringing

a toilet to the top of a mountain is a

good idea

and to do that you must know what those

people need

and that’s when i found out there’s

always someone that’s looking for a new

profile picture on tinder

[Laughter]

yes

this is my friend luca

and he was really sold on the idea that

sitting in a couch in his rope 1000

meter above sea level would boost his

amount of matches

and since this is a ted talk i thought i

needed to include some graphs

you know to make it look scientific and

smart

so let’s take a look at the growth in

matches for luca

[Laughter]

[Applause]

now we can clearly see that after

posting this sofa picture he’s had some

extreme growth

good for him

this entire journey started with

something as simple as an idea with no

greater purpose or goal we simply wanted

to do something funny that we could post

on instagram

that’s when we first brought the

restaurant table to the mountain

and people would probably be finished

after that first concept

because the effort it took and the

result you got it doesn’t add up it

seemed meaningless

but i’m so glad we didn’t stop after the

first one instead we were looking for

something heavier

something that’s even more creative and

of course something that didn’t make

sense at all

[Music]

[Music]

[Music]

yes

[Applause]

[Music]

thank you

the advantage you get by starting with

the meaningless is that you really stand

out from the crowd when people see it

they get curious they start asking

questions like why are you doing this

and should we call a doctor because this

is so stupid

or

do you want to have your own ted talk

when they first asked me if i wanted to

speak at this event of course i said yes

but i didn’t really know what my message

was going to be

because there’s so many positive things

i can say about this project i built my

own identity my creative skills has

developed a lot all the people i met

and i found my passion for

filmmaking so what can i give you guys

that you can’t get from anyone else

money advice on life and all the

materialistic things is something you

can get from other people

and the only thing i have that you can’t

get from anyone else

is the story itself

and that’s the powerful thing with the

story it’s only yours and you get to

tell that story

we all have crazy ideas and i have the

unique story of actually executing one

of my crazy ideas and maybe

this story will inspire some of you guys

to execute your own crazy and

meaningless idea

because sometimes you can bring meaning

to the meaningless

[Music]

this is johannes

he was born in colombia 30 years ago and

has always been dependent on his

wheelchair

going to a mountain has been a dream he

gave up a long time ago

but we got in touch with each other and

we made it happen

and that is going from meaningless to

meaningful thank you

[Applause]

[Music]

you