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