1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:04,000 So, imagine you're standing on a street anywhere in America 2 00:00:04,000 --> 00:00:07,000 and a Japanese man comes up to you and says, 3 00:00:07,000 --> 00:00:09,000 "Excuse me, what is the name of this block?" 4 00:00:09,000 --> 00:00:13,000 And you say, "I'm sorry, well, this is Oak Street, that's Elm Street. 5 00:00:13,000 --> 00:00:15,000 This is 26th, that's 27th." 6 00:00:15,000 --> 00:00:17,000 He says, "OK, but what is the name of that block?" 7 00:00:17,000 --> 00:00:20,000 You say, "Well, blocks don't have names. 8 00:00:20,000 --> 00:00:22,000 Streets have names; blocks are just the 9 00:00:22,000 --> 00:00:24,000 unnamed spaces in between streets." 10 00:00:24,000 --> 00:00:28,000 He leaves, a little confused and disappointed. 11 00:00:28,000 --> 00:00:31,000 So, now imagine you're standing on a street, anywhere in Japan, 12 00:00:31,000 --> 00:00:33,000 you turn to a person next to you and say, 13 00:00:33,000 --> 00:00:35,000 "Excuse me, what is the name of this street?" 14 00:00:35,000 --> 00:00:39,000 They say, "Oh, well that's Block 17 and this is Block 16." 15 00:00:39,000 --> 00:00:42,000 And you say, "OK, but what is the name of this street?" 16 00:00:42,000 --> 00:00:44,000 And they say, "Well, streets don't have names. 17 00:00:44,000 --> 00:00:46,000 Blocks have names. 18 00:00:46,000 --> 00:00:50,000 Just look at Google Maps here. There's Block 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19. 19 00:00:50,000 --> 00:00:52,000 All of these blocks have names, 20 00:00:52,000 --> 00:00:56,000 and the streets are just the unnamed spaces in between the blocks. 21 00:00:56,000 --> 00:00:59,000 And you say then, "OK, then how do you know your home address?" 22 00:00:59,000 --> 00:01:02,000 He said, "Well, easy, this is District Eight. 23 00:01:02,000 --> 00:01:05,000 There's Block 17, house number one." 24 00:01:05,000 --> 00:01:07,000 You say, "OK, but walking around the neighborhood, 25 00:01:07,000 --> 00:01:09,000 I noticed that the house numbers don't go in order." 26 00:01:09,000 --> 00:01:12,000 He says, "Of course they do. They go in the order in which they were built. 27 00:01:12,000 --> 00:01:15,000 The first house ever built on a block is house number one. 28 00:01:15,000 --> 00:01:18,000 The second house ever built is house number two. 29 00:01:18,000 --> 00:01:20,000 Third is house number three. It's easy. It's obvious." 30 00:01:20,000 --> 00:01:23,000 So, I love that sometimes we need to 31 00:01:23,000 --> 00:01:25,000 go to the opposite side of the world 32 00:01:25,000 --> 00:01:27,000 to realize assumptions we didn't even know we had, 33 00:01:27,000 --> 00:01:30,000 and realize that the opposite of them may also be true. 34 00:01:30,000 --> 00:01:32,000 So, for example, there are doctors in China 35 00:01:32,000 --> 00:01:35,000 who believe that it's their job to keep you healthy. 36 00:01:35,000 --> 00:01:37,000 So, any month you are healthy you pay them, 37 00:01:37,000 --> 00:01:39,000 and when you're sick you don't have to pay them because they failed 38 00:01:39,000 --> 00:01:41,000 at their job. They get rich when you're healthy, not sick. 39 00:01:41,000 --> 00:01:44,000 (Applause) 40 00:01:44,000 --> 00:01:46,000 In most music, we think of the "one" 41 00:01:46,000 --> 00:01:50,000 as the downbeat, the beginning of the musical phrase: one, two, three, four. 42 00:01:50,000 --> 00:01:52,000 But in West African music, the "one" 43 00:01:52,000 --> 00:01:54,000 is thought of as the end of the phrase, 44 00:01:54,000 --> 00:01:56,000 like the period at the end of a sentence. 45 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: 46 00:01:58,000 --> 00:02:01,000 two, three, four, one. 47 00:02:01,000 --> 00:02:04,000 And this map is also accurate. 48 00:02:04,000 --> 00:02:06,000 (Laughter) 49 00:02:06,000 --> 00:02:09,000 There's a saying that whatever true thing you can say about India, 50 00:02:09,000 --> 00:02:11,000 the opposite is also true. 51 00:02:11,000 --> 00:02:13,000 So, let's never forget, whether at TED, or anywhere else, 52 00:02:13,000 --> 00:02:16,000 that whatever brilliant ideas you have or hear, 53 00:02:16,000 --> 00:02:18,000 that the opposite may also be true. 54 00:02:18,000 --> 00:02:20,000 Domo arigato gozaimashita.