WEBVTT

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Two thousand, five hundred and forty six.

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Those are hours, by the way.

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Two thousand, five hundred
and forty six hours

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that I spent on making videos
with plastic bricks.

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Now picture this:

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it's a beautiful Saturday,

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the weather just couldn't be better,

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and all your friends
want to hang out with you.

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Instead, you spent the whole day
sitting inside, in a dark room,

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and you're essentially playing
with little plastic toy bricks.

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It starts out as just one Saturday,

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but then you keep going,

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and there goes another day,
another week, another month,

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and before you know it,

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you've spent most of your free time
with one particular thing.

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After all, this year we have
a very special anniversary, right?

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A ten-year anniversary.

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I mean, ten years ago,
I started making brickfilms.

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(Laughter)

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[Brickfilms]

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They're little animated movies

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created by using the stop-motion technique

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and plastic bricks, hence the name.

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It works like this:

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you have an object,
you take a photo of it;

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you move it just a tiny bit,
take another photo;

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move again, take photo, and so on.

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And then you end up
with thousands of photos,

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and when they're played at the fast rate,

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the illusion of movement is created.

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This is, of course,
a very time-consuming process.

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Therefore, it's not a strange thing
to spend a whole sunny Saturday with this.

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Together with my younger brother
Thomas and some friends,

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we've been doing this for a while now,

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but we aren't always
staying indoors in the darkroom.

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We've also been attending film festivals,

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even organized some,

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and we got to win awards
with our little movies.

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Now I'm also teaching children
how to make these films.

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I'm organizing workshops for them,

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some basically telling them,

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"Instead of going out on a sunny day,
stay inside and play with plastic bricks."

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(Laughter)

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So most of my free time in these 10 years

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has been dedicated
to make plastic bricks move.

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And this is all time
that I'll never get back.

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So I started to ask myself,

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"Is all of this wasted time?"

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I mean, all the hours
that I invested in this

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could have been used
for so many other things, right?

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[wasted time?]

NOTE Paragraph

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Well, I believe that it's not
a bad thing if you waste time.

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Therefore, it is OK if you waste time,

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and you should probably waste more.

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Some of you seem
very relieved with this info:

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"Waste more time, no problem.

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I can do that."

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It might be a bit confusing

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because, after all,
we're always being told

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to maximize our potential
to live life to the fullest,

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and oftentimes that seems
to include not wasting our time.

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I mean, we like scrolling
through social media,

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we like watching countless hours
of television shows,

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but sometimes we might blame
ourselves for that afterwards.

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We might feel guilty

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if we just binge-watch several episodes
of our favorite show.

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This comes from the fact

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that we don't consider these activities
to be part of our greater goals in life,

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like pursuing a career, forming a family.

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They're really just ways to pass the time.

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So when I started to ask myself
if I was wasting time,

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first I looked it up in a dictionary.

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It is defined as "to allow time to elapse
in an unproductive manner."

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OK.

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This can mean a few things.

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The first being you're unproductive,

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of course, when you're doing
absolutely nothing:

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maybe lying in bed,

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not watching anything, not even sleeping.

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Just doing nothing.

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Second way to view the term:

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you're unproductive

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when you're not achieving anything
or creating anything,

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like you're just going through
that social media.

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And the third way would be

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that you're committing
to low-priority activities

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instead of the things that you feel like
you should be doing.

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You're basically procrastinating.

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For example,

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I wouldn't consider
cleaning my room a waste of time,

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but it can be viewed that way

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if I should be working

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on an important paper
for university instead.

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I mean, of course,
this is very subjective.

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Maybe you do consider cleaning your room
more important than a stupid paper,

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but for me, this paper is part
of my greater goal in life.

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I finish the paper,

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it helps me finish university,

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I get a job, and so on.

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So why would I want to waste time

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with something that is not
part of that goal?

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So there are many ways to waste time
and also some benefits to gain,

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but still the question stands:

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"Can time go to waste?"

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[Can time go to waste?]

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Objectively speaking, "No, it can't."

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Time can't go anywhere, except forwards.

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So, no matter what you decide
to do with your day,

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time itself will just go on.

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So, as time itself cannot be wasted,

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why would you want to view
your time as wasted anyways?

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I mean, many studies have shown

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that you are more productive
and more creative

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if you occasionally allow yourself
to focus on something different

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or nothing at all.

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A study by Dijksterhuis in 2004
focused on something similar.

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He looked into the conscious
and unconscious thoughts

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when making decisions.

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In the form of experiments,

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he presented participants
with a decision-making problem

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and a few answers to choose from.

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He divided the participants
in three groups:

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the first ones had to give
their answers immediately;

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the second group could consciously,
actively think about the problem,

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and then they had to decide;

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and the third group
was distracted for a bit

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with a completely different task,

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and then they had to answer.

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The study concluded
that the unconscious thinkers,

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meaning the ones
who were distracted for a bit,

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made better and reasonable decisions.

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There are, of course,
many ways to waste time,

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and apparently some benefits to gain.

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My preferred activity
would be making brickfilms.

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Together with my brother
Thomas and friends,

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we've concluded that's our time
with this is far from wasted.

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I mean, even if we spend all these hours,

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we still don't regret any sunny Saturday
that we spent with this.

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And at this point, it has even become
a part of my identity,

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a part of who I am.

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People have even called me
Mr. Brick before.

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(Laughter)

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So, of course, even if you don't have
something to show off,

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like a movie, a product
of your wasted time,

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if you don't have that, it doesn't matter.

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I mean, maybe you like
scrolling through social media,

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maybe you like going for a walk
or meditate for an hour.

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These activities all offer
positive side effects,

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like you're learning
about your friends online,

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you're maybe getting
mentally and physically fit.

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And at the very least,

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these activities will allow yourself
to rest and focus on something different.

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In the beginning of my talk,

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I brought up the idea
that it's a good thing to waste time.

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Of course,

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if you waste 15 hours every day,

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it might not be more beneficial
than only one hour,

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but there's no golden rule

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when or how much time
you should waste to benefit.

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Maybe think of setting yourself

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a certain timeframe
to actively waste your time,

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and then move on with your duties.

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Because, after all, wasting time
remains a subjective term,

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and therefore, it's up to you
how you want to view this term.

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Don't let it be negative
or be guilty about it.

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Instead, be happy about wasted time.

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Look at all the joy and benefits

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that these activities
can bring to your lives.

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Because that

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is never a waste of time.

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Thank you.

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(Applause)