WEBVTT

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Well, not many people know
that I'm 16 years old.

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Many of you might have been 16 once.

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(Laughter)

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You know, this is the age when
you're haunted by all kinds of problems.

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And one of those... Let's picture my day.

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You see, I cannot wake up by myself.

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It's a usual morning.

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My father wakes me up and says, "Osman,
good morning! What will you be?"

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That's fine, okay. I'm off to the kitchen.

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My dad gives me an omelet and asks,
"Osman, what will you be?"

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He sees me off to school and shouts,
"Study well. What will you be?"

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You know, this question
has bothered me for a while already.

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In fact, it's been like this
for several years.

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My father seems to have achieved his goal.
I finally began to consider his question.

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It happened some years ago.

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Like every teenager I decided,
what do I need parents for?

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Why ask them for advice?

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Why would I need a family and adults?
I went to my friend instead.

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I was in 9th grade back then.

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So, I came up to Kolya.
Kolya was an 11th-grader.

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I go, "Kolya, you're so smart, so mature.

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Maybe you could help me?
I've got this problem."

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He looked gravely down at me.

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"Yes, Osman, I'm smart. I can help you.

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You're going to need wits, hard work,
diligence, love, and alcohol."

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What? Why?

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I was of course expecting the alcohol,
but my father is here,

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so I'd better drop this topic.

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(Laughter)

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I hope you understand.

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(Applause)

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Then I was left with a challenge
of how to solve this problem by myself.

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And the obvious solution for me was
to try and predict the future.

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I think five years from now,
economists are going to be the bomb.

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I'll be rich; everyone
will want to be an economist.

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Everybody will need economists.
Economists will rule the world.

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But how could I really know?

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The world is changing so fast
that I know nothing about tomorrow.

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For instance, at the age of six,
I couldn't imagine

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that people would be able
to play video games

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and earn money from it.

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And what do we have now?
eSports, YouTube are getting bigger

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and people earn
a whole lot of money from it.

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Even kids go to computer clubs thinking,
"Let's play and make some money."

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That's how the world's changed.

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Then I thought of a second,
tentative approach - however you see it.

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So I think, I have just one year
left to study.

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My dad will certainly come to me
by the end of my 11th grade

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and say, "Osman, here is
a one-room flat for you to live in.

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We'll provide you with pickles,
some canned food; you'll be just fine."

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Excellent! So what? This is great.
I won't need to sweat.

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But that's not who I am, I wouldn't want
to be a burden to my parents.

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I think you wouldn't either.

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So for me, this is not an option.

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Then there is the third way:

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to do what I like doing.

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In fact, this was my motto
from the 1st to the 6th grade.

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(Laughter)

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Do you want to know how it worked?

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I'm in 1st grade, thinking,
"Aha! Basketball, basketball.

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I should take up basketball. I like it."

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I threw the ball once, threw it again.
A year went by, I quit.

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Look, Osman, you're as short
as you've always been.

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Why do you need it for?
I don't like it at all.

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Screw basketball.

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I decided to try music.

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I'll play something on the guitar.
Life of every party and all, as they say.

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So I played for a year, then another year.
Well, almost for three - and I quit.

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Why do I need it for?
I lost my motivation then.

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Then I took up some other sport,
swimming, I believe.

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And again, quit it after a year.

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This is exactly the flaw
in that method, for me.

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If I keep quitting everything I take up,

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everything I like now,
then it won't serve me in the future.

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Every one of you has probably faced it.

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I don't know about you,
but I don't have one passion in life

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to stick with for good.

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Then I decided that I needed
to get to the core of the problem.

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And how do you do that?
By going back to your childhood.

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Let's look at this little cube -
I hope everyone can see it.

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Let's call it "Osman."

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It's so nice and beautiful,
and it was born in 2000.

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What happens to it?

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Let's see, how was it again?

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He became one year old, then two, three.

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And what happened? He saw a TV.

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He's sitting on a carpet,
like this, watching TV.

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Wow, that's it!

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He is watching the movie
"Toy Story" and realizes,

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"This is my hero,
Buzz Lightyear! That's it!

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I want to be like Buzz Lightyear,
I'll become Buzz Lightyear."

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And at that moment, the little cube
of his life, the "Osman-cube," turns.

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Some ten minutes pass, he's watching
the cartoon "Well, Just You Wait!"

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He looks at the Wolf, at the Hare.
"I'm going to protect hares."

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The cube turns once again.

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Then he watches another movie,
the cube turns again.

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Another movie, and the cube turns again.

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It goes on like that until first grade,
when he's six years old.

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The Osman cube goes to school
and hears his friend Petya say,

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"Osman, basketball is cool!

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They get lots of money.

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Basketball players do.
Go into basketball."

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I think, "Well, fine" -
and I turn the cube.

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Then in ten minutes, at another break,
it hears another friend.

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"No, basketball is not at all cool,
they earn less than soccer players.

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Go for soccer," and the cube
turned once again.

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Then his parents signed him up
for music school, and the cube turned.

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It turns and turns and turns...
until he is in 11th grade.

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The cube is already messed up.
I don't even know how to solve it.

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And you know what scares me?
I'm in 10th grade now,

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and I imagine what will happen in a year.

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I'm at my prom. Everybody's happy
and all, I am wearing a suit...

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And the moment comes when I hear,
"Osman, go! Go and earn some money!"

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(Laughter)

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Well, you're laughing now, but...

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(Applause)

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But what prevents a CEO in some
technology company from saying,

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"Well, programmer, go, go.
Your job is extinct.

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Robots do it now. Go!"

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It can happen. And in that,
we are the same.

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Each of us is at a point, say point A,

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and is afraid that at a certain point, B,

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their profession
will no longer be relevant.

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I'm only 16, I've got time to experiment.

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(Laughter)

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(Applause) (Cheers)

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That's when I thought, "Osman,
you need to come up with a genius idea.

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Something so cool that you
and everybody else would like it."

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And that's when I got to thinking.

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Suppose, in a year or two, or maybe four,

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I'll get a degree in Economics.

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Do you see this side in front of you?
That will be my education in Economics.

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My summa cum laude,
or maybe just cum laude, I don't know.

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And if, having graduated,
I will keep working for several years

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as an economist, I'll be turning
this one side all the time.

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I'll keep turning and turning it
until my retirement.

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That's it. And what will I do next?

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I'm forgetting about this other part
of my cube that once played basketball,

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the guitar, went swimming and so forth.

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And a relevant topic now...

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I can give you a good example
of a relevant topic at this moment.

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There were these two guys some years ago,
I don't remember exactly.

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They worked in, say, economics.
Economics was one of their sides.

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Their other side was into neurobiology,
they were interested in it.

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And another, third side,
was interested in, say, psychology.

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And those guys combined
the three sides of their cubes

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and created a new science, neuroeconomics,

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which is now developing quite fast.

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New professions and new jobs appear.

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People value neuroeconomists,
they are in demand, they are needed.

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And by that I wanted to show you
that instead of looking for something,

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choosing a profession,
you can create your own,

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where you'll use every side of your cube

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with maximum efficiency.

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You will live up to your full potential.

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And by creating your own profession,
you will no longer need to choose.

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Thank you.

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(Applause)