Pop an ollie and innovate! | Rodney Mullen | TEDxUSC
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0:09 - 0:15(Music)
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0:20 - 0:25(Music)
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1:30 - 1:32(Music ends)
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1:35 - 1:41(Applause)
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1:43 - 1:45So, that's what I've done with my life.
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1:45 - 1:47(Laughter)
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1:47 - 1:50(Applause)
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1:50 - 1:51Thank you.
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1:51 - 1:55(Applause)
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1:56 - 1:59As a kid, I grew up on a farm in Florida,
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1:59 - 2:01and I did what most little kids do.
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2:01 - 2:04I played a little baseball,
did a few other things like that, -
2:04 - 2:07but I always had the sense
of being an outsider, -
2:07 - 2:09and it wasn't until I saw
pictures in the magazines -
2:09 - 2:12that a couple other guys skate, I thought,
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2:12 - 2:13"Wow, that's for me," you know?
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2:13 - 2:16Because there was no coach
standing directly over you, -
2:16 - 2:18and these guys,
they were just being themselves. -
2:18 - 2:20There was no opponent
directly across from you. -
2:20 - 2:24And I loved that sense,
so I started skating -
2:24 - 2:27when I was about 10 years old, in 1977,
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2:27 - 2:30and when I did,
I picked it up pretty quickly. -
2:30 - 2:34In fact, here's some footage
from about 1984. -
2:34 - 2:39It wasn't until 79
I won my first amateur championship, -
2:39 - 2:44and then, by 81, I was 14,
and I won my first world championship, -
2:45 - 2:47which was amazing to me,
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2:48 - 2:51and in a very real sense,
that was the first real victory I had. -
2:51 - 2:52Oh, watch this.
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2:52 - 2:55This is a Casper slide,
where the board's upside down. -
2:55 - 2:56Mental note on that one.
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2:56 - 2:58(Laughter)
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2:58 - 2:59And this one here?
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2:59 - 3:01An ollie.
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3:02 - 3:06So, as she mentioned,
that is overstated for sure, -
3:06 - 3:10but that's why they called me
the godfather of modern street skating. -
3:11 - 3:13Here's some images of that.
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3:13 - 3:16Now, I was about halfway
through my pro career -
3:16 - 3:20in, I would say, the mid-'80s.
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3:20 - 3:24Freestyle itself... we developed
all these flat ground tricks, as you saw, -
3:24 - 3:27but there was evolving
a new kind of skateboarding, -
3:27 - 3:32where guys were taking it to the streets,
and they were using that ollie, -
3:32 - 3:33like I showed you.
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3:33 - 3:36They were using it to get up
onto stuff like bleachers and handrails -
3:36 - 3:39and over stairwells
and all kinds of cool stuff. -
3:39 - 3:42So it was evolving upwards.
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3:42 - 3:44In fact, when someone tells you
they're a skater today, -
3:44 - 3:46they pretty much mean a street skater,
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3:46 - 3:50because freestyle, it took about
five years for it to die, -
3:50 - 3:56and at that stage, I'd been a "champion"
champion for 11 years, which... -
3:56 - 3:57Phew!
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3:57 - 4:01And suddenly, it was over for me,
that's it... it was gone. -
4:01 - 4:03They took my pro model off the shelf,
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4:03 - 4:06which was essentially
pronouncing you dead, publicly. -
4:06 - 4:08That's how you make your money, you know?
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4:08 - 4:11You have a signature board
and wheels and shoes and clothes. -
4:11 - 4:13I had all that stuff, and it's gone.
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4:14 - 4:18The crazy thing was, there was
a really liberating sense about it, -
4:18 - 4:23because I no longer had to protect
my record as a champion. -
4:23 - 4:24"Champion," again.
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4:24 - 4:27Champion sounds so goofy,
but it's what it was, right? -
4:29 - 4:31What drew me to
skateboarding, the freedom, -
4:31 - 4:33was now restored,
where I could just create things, -
4:33 - 4:36because that's where the joy
was for me, always, -
4:36 - 4:38was creating new stuff.
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4:38 - 4:42The other thing that I had
was a deep well of tricks to draw from -
4:42 - 4:44that were rooted
in these flat ground tricks. -
4:44 - 4:47Stuff the normal guys were doing
was very much different. -
4:47 - 4:49So, as humbling and rotten as it was...
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4:49 - 4:51And believe me, it was rotten.
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4:51 - 4:55I would go to skate spots,
and I was already "famous guy," right? -
4:55 - 4:57And everyone thought I was good,
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4:57 - 4:59but in this new terrain, I was horrible.
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4:59 - 5:03So people would go,
"Oh, what happened to Mullen?" -
5:03 - 5:05(Laughter)
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5:05 - 5:08So, humbling as it was, I began again.
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5:08 - 5:12Here are some tricks that I started
to bring to that new terrain. -
5:12 - 5:17And again, there's this undergirding
layer of influence of freestyle... -
5:18 - 5:19Oh, that one?
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5:19 - 5:22That's, like, the hardest
thing I've ever done. -
5:23 - 5:24OK, look at that, it's a Darkslide.
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5:24 - 5:26See how it's sliding on the backside?
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5:27 - 5:30Those are super fun,
and, actually, not that hard. -
5:30 - 5:33You know, at the very root
of that, see, Caspers, -
5:33 - 5:34see how you throw it?
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5:36 - 5:38Simple as that, right? No biggie.
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5:38 - 5:41And your front foot,
the way it grabs it... -
5:43 - 5:46I'd seen someone slide
on the back of the board like that, -
5:46 - 5:47and I was like, "How can I get it over?"
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5:47 - 5:49Because that had not yet been done.
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5:49 - 5:52And then it dawned on me,
and here's part of what I'm saying. -
5:52 - 5:54I had an infrastructure.
I had this deep layer, -
5:54 - 5:57where it was like, oh my gosh,
it's just your foot. -
5:57 - 5:59It's just the way
you throw your board over. -
5:59 - 6:01Just let the ledge do that, and it's easy,
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6:01 - 6:04and the next thing you know,
there's 20 more tricks -
6:04 - 6:05based out of the variations.
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6:05 - 6:08So that's the kind of thing...
Here, check this out, -
6:08 - 6:10here's another way,
and I won't overdo this. -
6:10 - 6:12A little indulgent, I understand.
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6:12 - 6:14There's something called a Primo slide.
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6:17 - 6:19It is the funnest trick ever to do.
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6:23 - 6:24It's like skimboarding.
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6:25 - 6:28And this one, look how it slides
sideways, every which way? -
6:28 - 6:31OK, so when you're skating,
and you take a fall, -
6:31 - 6:34the board slips that way or that way;
it's kind of predictable. -
6:34 - 6:37This? It goes every which way...
It's like a cartoon, the falls, -
6:37 - 6:39and that's what I love the most about it.
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6:39 - 6:41It's so much fun to do.
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6:41 - 6:44In fact, when I started doing them,
I remember, because I got hurt. -
6:44 - 6:46I had to get a knee surgery, right?
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6:46 - 6:50So there were a couple of weeks
where I couldn't skate at all. -
6:50 - 6:53It would give out on me,
and I would watch the guys, -
6:53 - 6:56I'd go to this warehouse
where a lot of the guys were skating, -
6:56 - 6:57my friends, and I was like,
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6:57 - 7:00"I've got to do something new,
I want to do something new. -
7:00 - 7:01I want to start fresh."
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7:01 - 7:04And so the night before my surgery,
I'd watched, and I was like, -
7:04 - 7:06"How am I going to do this?"
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7:06 - 7:08So I ran up, and I jumped on my board,
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7:08 - 7:10and I Cavemanned, and I flipped it down,
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7:10 - 7:13and I remember thinking,
I landed so light-footed, thinking, -
7:13 - 7:16if my knee gives, they'll just have
more work to do in the morning. -
7:16 - 7:17(Laughter)
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7:17 - 7:19And so, when it was the crazy thing.
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7:19 - 7:22I don't know how many
of you guys have had surgery, but... -
7:22 - 7:23(Laughter)
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7:23 - 7:25you are so helpless, right?
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7:25 - 7:27You're on this gurney
and you're watching the ceiling go by, -
7:27 - 7:29every time, it's always that,
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7:29 - 7:32and right when they're putting
the mask on you before you go to sleep, -
7:32 - 7:35all I was thinking is,
"Man, when I wake up and I get better, -
7:35 - 7:38the first thing I'm going to do
is film that trick." -
7:38 - 7:43And indeed I did, it was the very first
thing I filmed, which was awesome. -
7:45 - 7:47I told you a little bit
about the evolution of the tricks. -
7:47 - 7:49Consider that content, in a sense.
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7:50 - 7:53What we do as street skaters is,
you have these tricks... -
7:53 - 7:55Say I'm working on Darkslides, or a Primo,
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7:55 - 7:57that you guys know this stuff now.
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7:57 - 7:59(Laughter)
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7:59 - 8:01What you do is, you cruise
around the same streets -
8:02 - 8:03that you've seen a hundred times,
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8:03 - 8:06but suddenly, because
you already have something -
8:06 - 8:11in this fixed domain of this target,
it's like, what will match this trick? -
8:11 - 8:14How can I expand, how can the context,
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8:14 - 8:17how can the environment change
the very nature of what I do? -
8:17 - 8:21So you drive and drive and drive,
and, actually I've got to admit, -
8:21 - 8:24just because I was struggling
with this because I'm here, -
8:24 - 8:27but I'll just say it,
is, I cannot tell you, -
8:27 - 8:28not only to be here in front of you,
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8:28 - 8:31but what a privilege it is
to be at US campus, -
8:31 - 8:35because I have been escorted off
of this campus so many times. -
8:35 - 8:38(Laughter)
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8:38 - 8:40(Applause)
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8:42 - 8:48So let me give you another example
of how context shapes content. -
8:48 - 8:51This is a place not that far from here,
It's a rotten neighborhood. -
8:51 - 8:54Your first consideration is,
am I going to get beat up? -
8:54 - 8:56You go out and... See this wall?
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8:56 - 9:01It's fairly mellow, and it's beckoning
to do bank tricks, right? -
9:01 - 9:03But there's this other aspect
of it for wheelies, -
9:03 - 9:05so check this out.
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9:05 - 9:07There's a few tricks, again,
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9:07 - 9:09how environment changes
the nature of your tricks. -
9:09 - 9:12Freestyle oriented,
manual down... wheelie down. -
9:12 - 9:15Watch, this one? Oh, I love this,
it's like surfing, this one, -
9:15 - 9:17the way you catch it.
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9:17 - 9:20This one, a little sketchy
going backwards, -
9:20 - 9:21and watch the back foot.
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9:23 - 9:24Oops...
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9:24 - 9:26(Laughter)
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9:26 - 9:27Mental note right there.
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9:27 - 9:29Again, we'll get back to that.
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9:29 - 9:30(Laughter)
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9:30 - 9:31Here, back foot, back foot.
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9:32 - 9:33OK, up there?
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9:33 - 9:35That was called a 360 flip.
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9:35 - 9:38Notice how the board flipped
and spun this way, both axes. -
9:40 - 9:43And another example
of how the context changed, -
9:43 - 9:47and the creative process
for me and for most skaters, -
9:47 - 9:50is, you go, you get out of the car,
you check for security, -
9:50 - 9:51you check for stuff.
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9:51 - 9:52(Laughter)
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9:52 - 9:55It's funny, you get to know
their rhythms, you know, -
9:55 - 9:56the guys that cruise around...
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9:56 - 9:58(Laughter)
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9:58 - 10:00Skateboarding is such
a humbling thing, man. -
10:00 - 10:03No matter how good you are,
you've still got to deal with... -
10:03 - 10:05So you hit this wall, and when I hit it,
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10:05 - 10:07the first thing you do
is you fall forward, -
10:07 - 10:09and I'm like, all right, all right.
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10:09 - 10:10As you adjust...
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10:12 - 10:14you punch it up,
and then when I would do that, -
10:14 - 10:16it was throwing my shoulder this way...
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10:17 - 10:22which as I was doing it, I was like,
"Oh wow, that's begging for a 360 flip," -
10:22 - 10:24because that's how
you load up for a 360 flip. -
10:25 - 10:28And so this is what I want
to emphasize that, as you can imagine, -
10:28 - 10:32all of these tricks are made
of submovements, -
10:32 - 10:33executive motor functions,
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10:33 - 10:36more granular to the degree
to which I can't quite tell you, -
10:36 - 10:38but one thing I do know is,
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10:38 - 10:42every trick is made of combining two
or three or four or five movements. -
10:42 - 10:45And so, as I'm going up,
these things are floating around, -
10:45 - 10:48and you have to sort of
let the cognitive mind rest back, -
10:48 - 10:49pull it back a little bit,
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10:49 - 10:52and let your intuition go
as you feel these things. -
10:52 - 10:54And these submovements
are kind of floating around, -
10:54 - 10:57and as the wall hits you,
they connect themselves to an extent, -
10:57 - 11:01and that's when the cognitive mind:
"Oh, 360 flip, I'm going to make that." -
11:01 - 11:03So that's how that works
to me, the creative process, -
11:03 - 11:05the process itself, of street skating.
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11:07 - 11:08So, next... Oh, mind you...
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11:08 - 11:10(Laughter)
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11:10 - 11:11Those are the community.
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11:11 - 11:13These are some of the best
skaters in the world. -
11:14 - 11:17These are my friends...
Oh my gosh, they're such good people. -
11:18 - 11:21And the beauty of skateboarding is that,
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11:21 - 11:23no one guy is the best.
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11:23 - 11:26In fact, I know this is rotten to say,
they're my friends, -
11:26 - 11:29but a couple of them actually don't look
that comfortable on their board. -
11:29 - 11:34What makes them great is the degree
to which they use their skateboarding -
11:34 - 11:36to individuate themselves.
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11:36 - 11:38Every single one of these guys,
you look at them, -
11:38 - 11:41you can see a silhouette
of them, and you realize, -
11:41 - 11:43"Oh, that's him,
that's Haslam, that's Koston, -
11:43 - 11:45there's these guys, these are the guys."
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11:46 - 11:50And skaters, I think
they tend to be outsiders -
11:50 - 11:53who seek a sense of belonging,
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11:53 - 11:56but belonging on their own terms.
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11:56 - 12:01And real respect is given
by how much we take what other guys do, -
12:01 - 12:06these basic tricks, 360 flips,
we take that, we make it our own, -
12:06 - 12:08and then we contribute
back to the community -
12:08 - 12:11the inner way that edifies
the community itself. -
12:12 - 12:14The greater the contribution,
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12:14 - 12:17the more we express
and form our individuality, -
12:18 - 12:22which is so important to a lot of us
who feel like rejects to begin with. -
12:22 - 12:24The summation of that
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12:25 - 12:28gives us something we could never
achieve as an individual. -
12:29 - 12:30Truly.
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12:32 - 12:33And that forms...
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12:35 - 12:36I should say this.
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12:36 - 12:38There's some sort of beautiful symmetry
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12:38 - 12:40that the degree to which
we connect to a community -
12:41 - 12:43is in proportion to our individuality,
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12:43 - 12:45which we are expressing by what we do.
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12:46 - 12:47Next,
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12:47 - 12:52these guys, very similar community
that's extremely conducive to innovation. -
12:52 - 12:53(Laughter)
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12:53 - 12:56Notice a couple of these shots
from the police department. -
12:57 - 12:59But it is quite similar,
I mean, what is it to hack, right? -
12:59 - 13:03It's knowing a technology so well
that you can manipulate it -
13:03 - 13:07and steer it to do things
it was never intended to do, right? -
13:07 - 13:08And they're not all bad.
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13:08 - 13:12You can be a Linux kernel hacker,
make it more stable, right? -
13:12 - 13:14More safe, more secure.
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13:14 - 13:16You can be an iOS hacker,
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13:16 - 13:19make your iPhone do stuff
it wasn't supposed to. -
13:19 - 13:22Not authorized, but not illegal.
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13:22 - 13:24And then, you've got
some of these guys, right? -
13:24 - 13:27What they do is very similar
to our creative process. -
13:27 - 13:30They connect disparate information,
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13:31 - 13:36and they bring it together in a way
that a security analyst doesn't expect. -
13:37 - 13:39It doesn't make them good people,
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13:39 - 13:41but it's at the heart of engineering,
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13:41 - 13:46at the heart of a creative community,
an innovative community, -
13:46 - 13:49and the open source community,
the basic ethos of it -
13:49 - 13:52is, take what other people do,
make it better, -
13:52 - 13:54give it back so we all rise further.
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13:54 - 13:57Very similar communities, very similar.
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13:57 - 13:59We have our edgier sides, too.
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13:59 - 14:00(Laughter)
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14:00 - 14:02It's funny, my dad was right.
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14:02 - 14:03These are my peers.
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14:07 - 14:09But I respect what they do,
and they respect what I do, -
14:09 - 14:12because they can do things,
it's amazing what they can do. -
14:12 - 14:14In fact, one of them,
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14:14 - 14:18he was Ernst & Young's Entrepreneur
of the Year for San Diego County, -
14:18 - 14:22so they're not... you never know
who you're dealing with. -
14:23 - 14:25We've all had some degree of fame.
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14:25 - 14:30In fact, I've had so much success
that I strangely always feel unworthy of. -
14:30 - 14:33I've had a patent, and that was cool,
and we started a company, -
14:33 - 14:35and it grew, and it became the biggest,
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14:35 - 14:38and then it went down,
and then it became the biggest again, -
14:38 - 14:41which is harder than the first time,
and then we sold it, -
14:41 - 14:42and then we sold it again.
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14:43 - 14:44So I've had some success.
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14:45 - 14:47And in the end, when you've had
all of these things, -
14:47 - 14:49what is it that continues to drive you?
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14:49 - 14:51As I mentioned, the knee stuff
and these things, -
14:51 - 14:53what is it that will punch you?
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14:53 - 14:55Because it's not just the mind.
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14:55 - 14:58What is it that will punch you
and make you do something -
14:58 - 15:01and bring it to another level,
and when you've had it all, -
15:01 - 15:04sometimes, guys, they die on the vine
with all of that talent, -
15:05 - 15:08and one of the things
we've had, all of us, is fame... -
15:08 - 15:10I think the best kind of fame,
because you can take it off. -
15:10 - 15:12I've been all around the world,
-
15:12 - 15:15and there will be a thousand kids
crying out your name, -
15:15 - 15:17and it's such a weird,
visceral experience. -
15:17 - 15:19It's like, it's disorienting.
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15:19 - 15:21And you get in a car, and you drive away,
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15:21 - 15:24and 10-minute drive, and you get out,
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15:24 - 15:26and no one gives a rat's who you are.
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15:26 - 15:27(Laughter)
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15:27 - 15:30And it gives you that clarity
of perspective of, man, I'm just me, -
15:30 - 15:33and popularity, what does that
really mean again? -
15:33 - 15:35Not much.
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15:35 - 15:37It's peer respect that drives us.
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15:37 - 15:39That's the one thing
that makes us do what we do. -
15:39 - 15:43I've had over a dozen bones,
this guy, over, eight, 10 concussions, -
15:43 - 15:46to the point where it's comedy, right?
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15:46 - 15:48It is actually comedy, they mess with him.
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15:48 - 15:50(Laughter)
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15:50 - 15:51Next,
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15:51 - 15:54and this is something deeper.
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15:56 - 15:59I think I was on tour when I was reading
one of the Feynman biographies. -
15:59 - 16:01It was the red one or the blue one.
-
16:01 - 16:05And he made this statement
that was so profound to me. -
16:09 - 16:13It was that the Nobel Prize
was the tombstone on all great work, -
16:13 - 16:17and it resonated because
I had won 35 out of 36 contests -
16:17 - 16:21that I'd entered over 11 years,
and it made me bananas. -
16:21 - 16:23In fact, winning
isn't the word, I won it once. -
16:23 - 16:25The rest of the time,
you're just defending, -
16:25 - 16:28and you get into this,
turtle posture, you know? -
16:28 - 16:31Where you're not doing...
It usurped the joy of what I loved to do -
16:31 - 16:34because I was no longer doing it
to create and have fun, -
16:34 - 16:36and when it died out from under me,
-
16:36 - 16:38that was one of the most
liberating things, -
16:38 - 16:39because I could create.
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16:39 - 16:44And look, I understand that
I am on the very edge of preachy, here. -
16:44 - 16:45I'm not here to do that.
-
16:45 - 16:48It's just that I'm in front
of a very privileged audience. -
16:48 - 16:51If you guys aren't already
leaders in your community, -
16:51 - 16:54you probably will be,
and if there's anything I can give you -
16:54 - 16:57that will transcend what I've gotten
from skateboarding, -
16:57 - 17:00the only things of meaning,
I think, and of permanence, -
17:00 - 17:02it's not fame, it's not all these things.
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17:02 - 17:06What it is, is that there's
an intrinsic value in creating something -
17:06 - 17:08for the sake of creating it,
-
17:08 - 17:12and better than that,
because I'm 46 years old, or I'll be 46, -
17:12 - 17:16and how pathetic is that
I'm still skateboarding, but there is... -
17:16 - 17:22There is this beauty in dropping it
into a community of your own making, -
17:22 - 17:25and seeing it dispersed,
and seeing younger, more talented, -
17:25 - 17:29just different talent, take it to levels
you can never imagine, -
17:29 - 17:30because that lives on.
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17:30 - 17:32So thank you for your time.
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17:32 - 17:39(Applause)
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17:42 - 17:44Kristina Holly: I have a question for you.
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17:44 - 17:48(Applause)
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17:48 - 17:52So you've really reinvented yourself
in the past, from freestyle to street, -
17:52 - 17:55and, I think it was about four years ago
you officially retired. -
17:55 - 17:58Is that it? What's next?
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17:59 - 18:02Rodney Mullen: That's a good question.
KG: Something tells me it's not the end. -
18:02 - 18:06RM: Yeah. Every time you think
you've chased something down, -
18:06 - 18:09it's funny, no matter how good you are,
and I know guys like this, -
18:09 - 18:12it feels like you're polishing
a turd, you know? -
18:12 - 18:15(Laughter)
-
18:15 - 18:17And I thought, the only way
I can extend this -
18:17 - 18:19is to change something infrastructural.
-
18:20 - 18:24And so that's what I proceeded to do,
through a long story, -
18:24 - 18:28one of desperation, so if I do it,
rather than talk about it, -
18:28 - 18:30if I do it, you'll be the first to know.
-
18:30 - 18:33KG: All right, we won't ask you any more.
RM: You'll get a text. -
18:33 - 18:36KG: Right, thank you, good job.
RM: Thank you. Thank you. -
18:36 - 18:41(Applause)
- Title:
- Pop an ollie and innovate! | Rodney Mullen | TEDxUSC
- Description:
-
The last thing Rodney Mullen, the godfather of street skating, wanted were competitive victories. In this exuberant talk he shares his love of the open skateboarding community and how the unique environments it plays in drive the creation of new tricks -- fostering prolific ingenuity purely for passion's sake.
- Video Language:
- English
- Team:
- closed TED
- Project:
- TEDxTalks
- Duration:
- 17:46
TED Translators admin edited English subtitles for Pop an ollie and innovate! | Rodney Mullen | TEDxUSC | ||
Ivana Korom edited English subtitles for Pop an ollie and innovate! | Rodney Mullen | TEDxUSC | ||
Ivana Korom edited English subtitles for Pop an ollie and innovate! | Rodney Mullen | TEDxUSC |