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
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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