WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:04.000 So, imagine you're standing on a street anywhere in America 00:00:04.000 --> 00:00:07.000 and a Japanese man comes up to you and says, NOTE Paragraph 00:00:07.000 --> 00:00:09.000 "Excuse me, what is the name of this block?" NOTE Paragraph 00:00:09.000 --> 00:00:13.000 And you say, "I'm sorry, well, this is Oak Street, that's Elm Street. 00:00:13.000 --> 00:00:15.000 This is 26th, that's 27th." NOTE Paragraph 00:00:15.000 --> 00:00:17.000 He says, "OK, but what is the name of that block?" NOTE Paragraph 00:00:17.000 --> 00:00:20.000 You say, "Well, blocks don't have names. 00:00:20.000 --> 00:00:22.000 Streets have names; blocks are just the 00:00:22.000 --> 00:00:24.000 unnamed spaces in between streets." NOTE Paragraph 00:00:24.000 --> 00:00:28.000 He leaves, a little confused and disappointed. NOTE Paragraph 00:00:28.000 --> 00:00:31.000 So, now imagine you're standing on a street, anywhere in Japan, 00:00:31.000 --> 00:00:33.000 you turn to a person next to you and say, NOTE Paragraph 00:00:33.000 --> 00:00:35.000 "Excuse me, what is the name of this street?" NOTE Paragraph 00:00:35.000 --> 00:00:39.000 They say, "Oh, well that's Block 17 and this is Block 16." NOTE Paragraph 00:00:39.000 --> 00:00:42.000 And you say, "OK, but what is the name of this street?" NOTE Paragraph 00:00:42.000 --> 00:00:44.000 And they say, "Well, streets don't have names. 00:00:44.000 --> 00:00:46.000 Blocks have names. 00:00:46.000 --> 00:00:50.000 Just look at Google Maps here. There's Block 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19. 00:00:50.000 --> 00:00:52.000 All of these blocks have names, 00:00:52.000 --> 00:00:56.000 and the streets are just the unnamed spaces in between the blocks. NOTE Paragraph 00:00:56.000 --> 00:00:59.000 And you say then, "OK, then how do you know your home address?" NOTE Paragraph 00:00:59.000 --> 00:01:02.000 He said, "Well, easy, this is District Eight. 00:01:02.000 --> 00:01:05.000 There's Block 17, house number one." NOTE Paragraph 00:01:05.000 --> 00:01:07.000 You say, "OK, but walking around the neighborhood, 00:01:07.000 --> 00:01:09.000 I noticed that the house numbers don't go in order." NOTE Paragraph 00:01:09.000 --> 00:01:12.000 He says, "Of course they do. They go in the order in which they were built. 00:01:12.000 --> 00:01:15.000 The first house ever built on a block is house number one. 00:01:15.000 --> 00:01:18.000 The second house ever built is house number two. 00:01:18.000 --> 00:01:20.000 Third is house number three. It's easy. It's obvious." NOTE Paragraph 00:01:20.000 --> 00:01:23.000 So, I love that sometimes we need to 00:01:23.000 --> 00:01:25.000 go to the opposite side of the world 00:01:25.000 --> 00:01:27.000 to realize assumptions we didn't even know we had, 00:01:27.000 --> 00:01:30.000 and realize that the opposite of them may also be true. NOTE Paragraph 00:01:30.000 --> 00:01:32.000 So, for example, there are doctors in China 00:01:32.000 --> 00:01:35.000 who believe that it's their job to keep you healthy. 00:01:35.000 --> 00:01:37.000 So, any month you are healthy you pay them, 00:01:37.000 --> 00:01:39.000 and when you're sick you don't have to pay them because they failed 00:01:39.000 --> 00:01:41.000 at their job. They get rich when you're healthy, not sick. 00:01:41.000 --> 00:01:44.000 (Applause) NOTE Paragraph 00:01:44.000 --> 00:01:46.000 In most music, we think of the "one" 00:01:46.000 --> 00:01:50.000 as the downbeat, the beginning of the musical phrase: one, two, three, four. 00:01:50.000 --> 00:01:52.000 But in West African music, the "one" 00:01:52.000 --> 00:01:54.000 is thought of as the end of the phrase, 00:01:54.000 --> 00:01:56.000 like the period at the end of a sentence. 00:01:56.000 --> 00:01:58.000 So, you can hear it not just in the phrasing, but the way they count off their music: 00:01:58.000 --> 00:02:01.000 two, three, four, one. NOTE Paragraph 00:02:01.000 --> 00:02:04.000 And this map is also accurate. 00:02:04.000 --> 00:02:06.000 (Laughter) NOTE Paragraph 00:02:06.000 --> 00:02:09.000 There's a saying that whatever true thing you can say about India, 00:02:09.000 --> 00:02:11.000 the opposite is also true. 00:02:11.000 --> 00:02:13.000 So, let's never forget, whether at TED, or anywhere else, 00:02:13.000 --> 00:02:16.000 that whatever brilliant ideas you have or hear, 00:02:16.000 --> 00:02:18.000 that the opposite may also be true. 00:02:18.000 --> 00:02:20.000 Domo arigato gozaimashita.