WEBVTT 00:00:14.884 --> 00:00:16.984 I mean we've all got a story we like to tell, 00:00:16.984 --> 00:00:18.909 myself included, so here goes. 00:00:19.926 --> 00:00:22.276 As a kid, I sang in a pretty decent choir. 00:00:22.490 --> 00:00:25.429 We'd go around the world performing for popes and presidents. 00:00:26.089 --> 00:00:27.349 But upon turning teenager, 00:00:27.349 --> 00:00:30.708 I decided I was going to trade that in for a chance of being cool. 00:00:30.708 --> 00:00:34.056 So, for me, this meant cigarettes, skateboards, petty crime. 00:00:34.584 --> 00:00:36.404 I'm sure you can fill in the rest. 00:00:37.416 --> 00:00:39.886 I failed miserably at this particular brand of cool 00:00:39.886 --> 00:00:43.436 and then proceeded to become target 1A for bullies for quite some time. 00:00:43.436 --> 00:00:46.416 Until finally, I found a path to relevance 00:00:46.416 --> 00:00:49.986 by stumbling into a role with nearly universal high school importance: 00:00:50.425 --> 00:00:51.785 selling drugs. 00:00:53.423 --> 00:00:56.713 As I crossed into adulthood, that decision and those that came with it 00:00:56.713 --> 00:00:59.753 nearly cost me everything in my life, everything I'd worked for. 00:01:00.318 --> 00:01:02.553 But, as it happened, I was given a second chance 00:01:02.553 --> 00:01:05.373 by a woman I haven't seen in 14 years 00:01:05.373 --> 00:01:07.630 but who is out there in the audience today - 00:01:08.197 --> 00:01:11.303 Justice Mavin Wong, thank you. 00:01:13.047 --> 00:01:14.647 This is where my story begins. 00:01:14.647 --> 00:01:17.319 I'm sure, no doubt, you tell yours just as well. 00:01:17.807 --> 00:01:21.007 We are unbelievably skilled at telling our own story - 00:01:21.445 --> 00:01:23.405 the progression, the adversity, 00:01:23.405 --> 00:01:27.165 always managing to convey this sense of triumph in the present moment. 00:01:27.165 --> 00:01:28.795 And often, there's a hopefulness, 00:01:28.795 --> 00:01:32.025 sometimes even a confidence in what the future has in store for us. 00:01:32.339 --> 00:01:34.102 We're like these master storytellers, 00:01:34.102 --> 00:01:36.759 and we... we're our favourite story. 00:01:38.620 --> 00:01:40.521 But our stories are going to kill us. 00:01:41.982 --> 00:01:44.072 Already, I can tell you they limit us, 00:01:44.072 --> 00:01:46.202 they hold us down and constrain us. 00:01:46.658 --> 00:01:48.618 Sometimes they even suffocate us. 00:01:49.888 --> 00:01:52.484 To their credit, though, at least they're consistent. 00:01:52.484 --> 00:01:54.543 They all follow the same narrative pattern, 00:01:54.543 --> 00:01:56.928 what we've come to call the hero's journey. 00:01:56.928 --> 00:02:00.170 It's just that the hero's journey we see played out on the big screen 00:02:00.170 --> 00:02:02.907 teaches us that change happens inside the hero, 00:02:02.907 --> 00:02:05.372 while the world around them stays constant. 00:02:05.372 --> 00:02:08.244 Everyone effectively waits for the hero to be reborn. 00:02:08.783 --> 00:02:12.292 And every time I see this, I can't help but think to myself, 00:02:12.292 --> 00:02:15.815 how beautiful would it be if the world worked that way, 00:02:16.129 --> 00:02:18.689 if it waited for us to come around on our own time 00:02:18.689 --> 00:02:20.769 to fully embrace our new selves, 00:02:20.769 --> 00:02:22.484 and then step back into the picture 00:02:22.484 --> 00:02:25.019 with both feet firmly planted on the ground. 00:02:25.605 --> 00:02:27.302 Wouldn't that be nice? 00:02:27.302 --> 00:02:29.043 It's not at all how it happens. 00:02:29.837 --> 00:02:33.437 Instead, while we're out legalising same-sex marriage in one moment, 00:02:33.437 --> 00:02:37.437 the very idea of a binary gender system or a two-spouse limit 00:02:37.437 --> 00:02:39.430 is being challenged in the next. 00:02:39.430 --> 00:02:41.726 I can assure you, what we call gay marriage today 00:02:41.726 --> 00:02:45.198 is going to seem like a traditional idea to us a couple of years from now. 00:02:45.198 --> 00:02:46.988 That's the world we live in. 00:02:46.988 --> 00:02:49.688 We don't get to experience change as this beautiful arc 00:02:49.688 --> 00:02:51.947 that moves at a pace we're comfortable with. 00:02:52.673 --> 00:02:55.323 Change comes quickly and without pause. 00:02:56.652 --> 00:02:59.080 And yet, studies show that our willingness to change 00:02:59.080 --> 00:03:00.540 goes down as we age. 00:03:00.540 --> 00:03:04.260 It's built right into our expectations of people at different stages of life. 00:03:04.803 --> 00:03:07.953 We expect our friends to understand concepts like white privilege 00:03:08.334 --> 00:03:11.594 but are satisfied if our parents can simply avoid stereotypes. 00:03:12.164 --> 00:03:14.840 And our grandparents, I mean, we hope for the best. 00:03:15.662 --> 00:03:17.292 (Laughter) 00:03:17.292 --> 00:03:20.726 But sometimes we resign ourselves to the fact 'old dogs, new tricks'. 00:03:21.892 --> 00:03:25.686 It's just that that's a card we're not going to get to play for much longer. 00:03:26.504 --> 00:03:29.783 You see, unlike my dear grandmother, who's managed to get through life 00:03:29.783 --> 00:03:33.153 without ever pumping her own gas or using a cell phone, 00:03:33.153 --> 00:03:34.953 my soon-to-be 14-year-old goddaughter 00:03:34.953 --> 00:03:37.883 will grow up with an incredible amount of technological change 00:03:37.883 --> 00:03:39.687 happening everywhere around her. 00:03:40.632 --> 00:03:43.794 And unlike our willingness to change, which decreases linearly, 00:03:44.312 --> 00:03:46.738 technology's rate of change is exponential. 00:03:47.570 --> 00:03:50.061 In fact, The Law of Accelerating Returns, 00:03:50.061 --> 00:03:52.668 that which governs technology's rate of change, 00:03:52.668 --> 00:03:55.379 is quick to point out that the amount of progress we saw 00:03:55.379 --> 00:03:58.858 in the whole of the 20th century was effectively repeated 00:03:58.858 --> 00:04:01.615 during the first 14 years of Jessica's life. 00:04:02.317 --> 00:04:06.317 And what just took us 14 years will take us only seven more from today. 00:04:07.512 --> 00:04:10.324 By 2040, when Jessica is 38 years old 00:04:10.324 --> 00:04:12.564 and beginning to consider children of her own, 00:04:12.564 --> 00:04:16.594 a 20th century-worth of progress will be happening multiple times a year. 00:04:17.368 --> 00:04:18.674 Think about that. 00:04:19.341 --> 00:04:21.997 What wisdom can we possibly impart to a young person 00:04:21.997 --> 00:04:24.445 about living in a world we can't even fathom? 00:04:25.585 --> 00:04:27.583 That's the nature of an exponential curve - 00:04:27.583 --> 00:04:30.117 it takes a long time to reveal itself, 00:04:30.117 --> 00:04:32.543 but when it does, almost nothing stays the same. 00:04:33.749 --> 00:04:37.402 And though we prefer to talk about drones and self-driving cars, 00:04:37.849 --> 00:04:41.109 historians tell us that it's actually technology's ability 00:04:41.109 --> 00:04:44.127 to deliver us new ideas, which in turn change our behaviour, 00:04:44.127 --> 00:04:47.704 which we most often underestimate and fail to predict. 00:04:48.548 --> 00:04:51.423 We're not only slow to predict them, we're slow to adapt 00:04:52.126 --> 00:04:53.969 because our stories weigh a ton. 00:04:54.777 --> 00:04:56.167 Let me give you an example. 00:04:57.117 --> 00:04:58.740 How many of us recall being nudged 00:04:58.740 --> 00:05:00.694 towards a good career when we were young - 00:05:00.694 --> 00:05:03.593 safe bets, like law or medicine or accounting? 00:05:04.146 --> 00:05:06.624 These were the careers to aspire to, we were told. 00:05:07.716 --> 00:05:10.047 They're also amongst the top of the chopping block 00:05:10.047 --> 00:05:11.827 when it comes to automation. 00:05:12.115 --> 00:05:14.495 Turns out machines don't need eight years of school 00:05:14.495 --> 00:05:16.295 to memorise facts and patterns. 00:05:16.854 --> 00:05:19.713 But will we seriously start teaching today's middle schoolers 00:05:19.713 --> 00:05:22.183 that they may want to avoid these at-risk jobs? 00:05:22.926 --> 00:05:24.876 Or are we wrapped in the warmth of a story 00:05:24.876 --> 00:05:26.765 that we've been writing for decades - 00:05:27.433 --> 00:05:29.501 that degrees always mean better jobs? 00:05:29.501 --> 00:05:32.641 Better jobs lead to better pay, better pay to better possessions, 00:05:32.641 --> 00:05:34.981 and better possessions afford us greater security. 00:05:34.981 --> 00:05:36.881 But how much security can there be 00:05:36.881 --> 00:05:40.894 if we're already spending two-thirds of our income on a single-family home 00:05:40.894 --> 00:05:43.351 because that's our version of a storybook ending? 00:05:43.351 --> 00:05:45.986 The truth is that the further we are into a story, 00:05:46.526 --> 00:05:49.099 the less likely we are to want to rewrite it. 00:05:49.684 --> 00:05:51.426 So we stick to the script. 00:05:53.399 --> 00:05:55.926 Now, at this point, I think I need to go on the record 00:05:55.926 --> 00:05:58.165 and tell you guys that I love stories. 00:05:58.165 --> 00:06:01.770 Really, I do. I've got a company in the business of telling stories even. 00:06:01.770 --> 00:06:05.776 But as we start to peer over the horizon, I think it's hard not to notice 00:06:05.776 --> 00:06:08.000 that what's needed here is something lighter, 00:06:08.768 --> 00:06:09.957 something easier to move, 00:06:09.957 --> 00:06:12.649 something malleable that can keep up with the pace. 00:06:14.283 --> 00:06:15.795 Like an idea. 00:06:17.120 --> 00:06:20.601 What would that look like, do you think? The 'idea of me'. 00:06:21.894 --> 00:06:25.232 Now granted, as far as psychological constructs go, 00:06:25.232 --> 00:06:27.829 at first, the two seem strikingly similar. 00:06:27.829 --> 00:06:30.662 The story of me, the idea of me. Almost like semantics even. 00:06:30.662 --> 00:06:32.520 I want to make sure you're with me here 00:06:32.520 --> 00:06:34.784 before I go any further down this rabbit hole. 00:06:35.328 --> 00:06:38.598 When I talk about a story, I'm talking about something we write once. 00:06:39.367 --> 00:06:42.385 But 'the idea of me' is something we rewrite every day. 00:06:43.548 --> 00:06:47.286 It's untying ourselves from these goals we have way out there 00:06:47.903 --> 00:06:51.713 that assume the world out there looks much the same as it does here today. 00:06:52.638 --> 00:06:54.991 So letting go of what should be for what is. 00:06:56.907 --> 00:06:58.347 So with that all squared away, 00:06:58.347 --> 00:07:01.887 I'd like to tell you the most recent time I had to rewrite my own story. 00:07:03.244 --> 00:07:05.804 It would have been just over two years ago now. 00:07:05.804 --> 00:07:08.356 After about a decade in the industry, at least for me, 00:07:08.356 --> 00:07:10.226 my partners and I achieved something 00:07:10.226 --> 00:07:12.916 most entrepreneurs consider to be a benchmark of success, 00:07:12.916 --> 00:07:14.457 especially in tech: 00:07:14.457 --> 00:07:16.117 we sold our company. 00:07:16.567 --> 00:07:19.674 We didn't just sell it to anyone, but to the next great chapter 00:07:19.674 --> 00:07:22.048 in Canadian technology history, 00:07:22.048 --> 00:07:24.696 a company whose IPO you might have followed this year. 00:07:25.070 --> 00:07:27.500 I got to tell you, it's a pretty great story. 00:07:27.831 --> 00:07:30.231 I don't think I could have written a better script. 00:07:31.385 --> 00:07:35.808 Sure enough, so the story goes, roughly six months later, I was let go. 00:07:36.664 --> 00:07:38.634 Who am I kidding? We're all friends here. 00:07:38.634 --> 00:07:40.574 Six months later, I was fired. 00:07:40.574 --> 00:07:41.914 (Laughter) 00:07:41.914 --> 00:07:44.634 After a decade of writing my story as a tech entrepreneur, 00:07:44.634 --> 00:07:48.412 I was fired by the top act in town. It's a long fall. 00:07:48.961 --> 00:07:51.591 While it wasn't immediately obvious to me in the moment, 00:07:51.591 --> 00:07:55.799 there was something beautiful about having the rug pulled out from under me that day. 00:07:55.799 --> 00:08:00.737 Like a lightness that came from realising I didn't actually vanish 00:08:00.737 --> 00:08:02.910 by virtue of losing my story. 00:08:03.954 --> 00:08:08.114 That there, in the empty space, was an idea of who I might be next. 00:08:09.759 --> 00:08:12.731 At the same time, it was deeply unsettling. 00:08:14.088 --> 00:08:18.371 I found the switch from story to idea really challenged my sovereignty. 00:08:18.371 --> 00:08:22.097 You see, my story had one author with veto power and final say 00:08:22.097 --> 00:08:24.948 on the interpretation of all the events in my life. 00:08:25.286 --> 00:08:27.336 When it's a story, that's kind of how it is. 00:08:27.336 --> 00:08:29.536 We get to choose how we perceive those events, 00:08:29.536 --> 00:08:31.516 and we do so in a way that best suits us, 00:08:31.516 --> 00:08:34.478 that leaves the story as much intact as possible. 00:08:34.872 --> 00:08:37.243 Got bullied as a kid? You pick the reason. 00:08:37.523 --> 00:08:40.799 Got let go? Ultimately, you're going to decide why that was. 00:08:41.537 --> 00:08:44.090 Stories force us into these either/or choices, 00:08:44.090 --> 00:08:47.743 where either it fits the script we have for ourselves or it doesn't. 00:08:48.708 --> 00:08:50.334 But 'the idea of me', 00:08:51.569 --> 00:08:55.874 I quickly realised 'the idea of me' isn't built on an either/or at all. 00:08:57.069 --> 00:08:58.771 It's built on 'and'. 00:08:59.920 --> 00:09:03.280 Instead of getting caught up with whether we're a success or a failure, 00:09:03.280 --> 00:09:05.390 whether we're right or we're wrong, 00:09:05.909 --> 00:09:07.779 'and' reminds us that both are true. 00:09:09.525 --> 00:09:13.109 In fact, all things new are born this way by standing at the intersection 00:09:13.672 --> 00:09:16.940 and holding the tension between two choices that already exist 00:09:16.940 --> 00:09:19.120 so that a third can emerge. 00:09:20.673 --> 00:09:23.143 And it isn't just true for 'the idea of me', 00:09:23.143 --> 00:09:24.633 this is true for all ideas. 00:09:24.633 --> 00:09:26.113 When you start to tune into it, 00:09:26.113 --> 00:09:28.833 you can start to see ideas being added to everywhere. 00:09:29.993 --> 00:09:33.286 Gender, privacy, mental health, democracy: 00:09:33.286 --> 00:09:35.288 take any one of these as ideas for a moment 00:09:35.288 --> 00:09:38.548 and ask yourself whether you remember a time when they were simpler. 00:09:38.548 --> 00:09:39.878 I know I do. 00:09:40.251 --> 00:09:42.841 When I was growing up, gender used to mean boy or girl. 00:09:43.620 --> 00:09:45.427 If you go back just a couple of years, 00:09:45.427 --> 00:09:48.617 mental health used to only imply there was something wrong with you. 00:09:49.506 --> 00:09:51.186 But then these ideas got bigger. 00:09:51.739 --> 00:09:52.979 We kept adding to them. 00:09:52.979 --> 00:09:54.359 They expanded. 00:09:55.652 --> 00:09:58.833 Maybe the most prescient example from the past year is racism. 00:09:59.550 --> 00:10:01.841 This is an idea going through an expansion. 00:10:02.637 --> 00:10:05.397 You see, racism started out as a struggle for equal rights, 00:10:05.397 --> 00:10:08.844 but the achievement of equal rights didn't dispel the idea of racism, 00:10:08.844 --> 00:10:10.488 it just expanded the conversation 00:10:10.488 --> 00:10:13.543 to include all of racism's less obvious expressions. 00:10:14.724 --> 00:10:16.300 Today, when we talk about racism, 00:10:16.300 --> 00:10:18.533 we talk about an idea that's many layers deep. 00:10:19.218 --> 00:10:21.668 We talk about that which we can't always point to 00:10:22.124 --> 00:10:25.134 or that's not necessarily propagated by any one group or person. 00:10:25.134 --> 00:10:26.345 But it's there. 00:10:27.037 --> 00:10:28.270 It's there in privilege. 00:10:28.270 --> 00:10:30.790 It's there in access. It's there in protection. 00:10:30.790 --> 00:10:34.027 We talk about racism as being systemic, a system we're all a part of 00:10:34.027 --> 00:10:36.290 but only a fraction of us benefit from. 00:10:36.290 --> 00:10:38.750 This is how an idea gets bigger with time. 00:10:40.207 --> 00:10:43.894 And if, in turn, you choose to see yourself as an idea, 00:10:43.894 --> 00:10:47.937 then hearing you might be the beneficiary of a still racist system is not a threat - 00:10:48.592 --> 00:10:50.984 it's a chance to expand your own idea, 00:10:50.984 --> 00:10:53.161 to add in that new perspective. 00:10:54.840 --> 00:11:00.006 But if we're a story, we're going to find ourselves at an either/or impasse, 00:11:00.006 --> 00:11:03.433 where either we protect the part of the script that says we're not racist 00:11:03.433 --> 00:11:05.424 or we'll have a lot of rewriting to do. 00:11:06.248 --> 00:11:09.351 Stories are how we've come to construct our identity. 00:11:10.475 --> 00:11:13.067 And we're terrified to lose track of who we are. 00:11:13.744 --> 00:11:17.505 But I've got to tell you, I think this is where we're getting it terribly wrong. 00:11:18.165 --> 00:11:22.075 When you build your identity on a story, it becomes a once and for all discovery. 00:11:22.075 --> 00:11:24.755 We even talk about people before and after 00:11:24.755 --> 00:11:27.705 this elusive moment where they 'found themselves'. 00:11:29.171 --> 00:11:33.245 But if you believe yourself to be an idea, then identity becomes a moving target, 00:11:34.415 --> 00:11:36.155 a never-ending discovery. 00:11:36.973 --> 00:11:39.533 Not just because the idea of you is always expanding, 00:11:39.533 --> 00:11:42.243 but so too are the ideas all around you. 00:11:42.243 --> 00:11:44.243 Every moment becomes this wonderful chance 00:11:44.243 --> 00:11:47.990 to recalibrate, to revisit your relationship to another idea. 00:11:48.352 --> 00:11:51.494 It's an acknowledgement that 'I'm not racist' is a temporary state, 00:11:51.494 --> 00:11:53.776 just like 'I'm a capitalist' or 'I'm a feminist', 00:11:53.776 --> 00:11:55.140 or frankly, 'I'm straight.' 00:11:55.140 --> 00:11:58.623 This is the practice, this is growth, this is what growth is. 00:11:59.302 --> 00:12:01.565 And so rather than fearing the fast-paced future 00:12:01.565 --> 00:12:02.804 hiding in plain view, 00:12:02.804 --> 00:12:05.825 why not choose to see it as the force bringing us into alignment 00:12:05.825 --> 00:12:07.535 with the rest of life? 00:12:08.781 --> 00:12:11.839 Everywhere we look, our systems are wired for growth. 00:12:12.178 --> 00:12:15.248 From our words and concepts to the neuroplasticity of our brain. 00:12:15.550 --> 00:12:18.370 From the evolution of our species to the universe at large. 00:12:18.370 --> 00:12:21.367 When it's change out there, we feel excitement, 00:12:21.367 --> 00:12:23.859 we feel a hopefulness about a tomorrow that is bigger 00:12:23.859 --> 00:12:25.768 and more full and more inclusive. 00:12:25.768 --> 00:12:29.768 We chase after it with our art and our science and our debates. 00:12:29.768 --> 00:12:34.066 When it's out there, we demand change, we see the possibility for it everywhere - 00:12:34.066 --> 00:12:37.517 everywhere except in the way we talk about ourselves. 00:12:38.312 --> 00:12:43.499 Only there do we write the story once and expect the future to obey. 00:12:45.330 --> 00:12:47.540 The good news for us is that it never does. 00:12:49.687 --> 00:12:51.575 Whether an arrest or getting fired, 00:12:52.305 --> 00:12:54.322 divorce, disease, the death of a loved one, 00:12:54.322 --> 00:12:56.113 maybe a failure of some kind, 00:12:56.113 --> 00:12:58.424 we've all seen our stories interrupted. 00:12:58.424 --> 00:13:01.468 We don't write these tragic bits into the original script, 00:13:02.077 --> 00:13:07.582 they're wrenches that are thrown our way that force us to rewrite again and again. 00:13:08.892 --> 00:13:11.442 And I think that's what 'the idea of me' needs to be - 00:13:11.442 --> 00:13:13.985 a commitment to that rewriting every day. 00:13:15.397 --> 00:13:18.860 Not because we have to, because we want to. 00:13:19.581 --> 00:13:23.384 Because we love to create, and it is infinitely easier to do so 00:13:23.384 --> 00:13:25.695 without a story dragging along behind. 00:13:27.418 --> 00:13:30.772 You know, Bob Dylan knew this when he famously said, tongue in cheek, 00:13:31.697 --> 00:13:35.010 'Do not create anything' because 'it will not change' - 00:13:35.797 --> 00:13:38.663 implying, of course, that the world might love what you make, 00:13:39.105 --> 00:13:41.572 but you'll be different by the time they do. 00:13:42.797 --> 00:13:45.648 As an artist, he refused to get married to his own mythology, 00:13:45.648 --> 00:13:48.674 the story of Dylan, the folk singer or the voice of protest. 00:13:49.868 --> 00:13:51.082 Steve Jobs knew this 00:13:51.082 --> 00:13:53.705 when he continuously cannibalised Apple's product lines. 00:13:53.705 --> 00:13:55.515 He knew falling in love with the story 00:13:55.515 --> 00:13:59.179 that Apple was the best at computers, the best at phones, the best at tablets, 00:13:59.179 --> 00:14:00.366 was a death sentence, 00:14:00.366 --> 00:14:03.524 in that it meant the end was just around the corner. 00:14:04.535 --> 00:14:06.972 He knew creating was an act of letting go. 00:14:08.339 --> 00:14:10.920 And now, after quite a few rewrites, 00:14:10.920 --> 00:14:13.739 and though sometimes kicking and screaming, 00:14:13.739 --> 00:14:15.808 I'm beginning to see this for myself. 00:14:16.821 --> 00:14:19.111 And I think it's something we should all embrace. 00:14:19.924 --> 00:14:22.997 Because creating isn't reserved for artists and entrepreneurs, 00:14:23.483 --> 00:14:26.020 it's the natural state in all of us. 00:14:27.574 --> 00:14:31.594 All technology ever does is put that power to create squarely in our hands 00:14:31.594 --> 00:14:33.844 because it knows something about us 00:14:33.844 --> 00:14:36.735 that we're still not quite ready to admit - 00:14:38.448 --> 00:14:43.430 that more than being our favourite story, we'd rather be our greatest creation, 00:14:44.812 --> 00:14:46.420 an idea waiting to happen. 00:14:47.469 --> 00:14:48.929 Thank you. 00:14:48.929 --> 00:14:51.739 (Applause)