[Applause]
the picture you see here is from 1875
and what you see in the picture is an
electric pen how many of you have an
electric pen in your bag or pocket now
raise your hand how many of you have a
non electric pen in your bag or pocket
thanks the electric pen that was
invented over 140 years ago was heavy it
was noisy the ink jam and the batteries
didn’t work very well it was a failure
based on the snap Pole we just did it’s
safe to say that the electric pen hasn’t
picked up as an idea since it still can
be called a failure many business ideas
inventions and life choices turn out to
be failures but many more do not even
reach the point of failure and why is
that because the fear of failure fear of
failure is very pervasive in our lives
according to one survey 37% of Finnish
adults said that they could see good
business opportunities in their
environments but they also said that
fear of failure prevents them from
pursuing those opportunities now in my
talk I want to tell you that failure is
actually the secret ingredient in
happiness and I also want to give you
the formula for happiness but you have
to wait for it just a little bit one
important factor in reducing your fear
of failure is to have your basic needs
secured which brings me to the finished
basic income experiment many of you have
probably heard about this already the
general idea is that the government is
testing whether it makes sense to hand
out free cash unconditionally for the
unemployed the general idea in the
experiment is that there are 2,000
randomly chosen unemployed persons
between ages of 25 to 58 for each
receiving a monthly sum of 560 euros
without any conditions from the
government there are two core arguments
that are often made in
defensive basic income firstly that
basic income provides an important
safety net for the vulnerable the rise
of platform economy autumn ization
artificial intelligence means that we’re
entering a completely new era of
uncertainty in work and education and in
India alone for example there which is
the world’s second most populated
country with 1.3 billion people the
World Bank has estimated that over 69%
of jobs are currently being threatened
by automation
the second argument often made is that
basic income encourages employment
entrepreneurial ISM and therefore
contributes to economic growth and this
is also the argument made by the
finished government on basic income but
I want to argue that there’s actually a
third argument that has been overlooked
in discussions on basic income and that
is happiness now leaving aside the
technicalities relation to the basic
income experiment in Finland the
experiment itself is groundbreaking in
many ways government and the political
parties in Finland have discussed about
the basic income idea for over 30 years
without them being able to break the
gridlock and move from idea stage to
action states and bringing
experimentation to the very core of
government has enabled the government to
explore this idea in practice and its
practicality in the future
post-industrial world but then what is
exactly is the relationship between
failure basic income experimentation and
happiness I wish it was as simple as
beer but there’s a little bit more to it
in a modern world we often conceive of
happiness as a subject as a subjective
state of mind a kind when one is saying
she’s happy when enjoying a cool beer on
a hot day or when one is out having fun
with friends
but for the ancient Greek happiness was
something very different Aristotle
suggests in his writings that happiness
or what he called eudaimonia is the
final end or goal that encompasses the
totality of one’s life
he writes happiness then is found to be
something perfect and self-sufficient
being the end to which our actions are
directed happiness on this view is not
something like pleasurable sensations
that can be gained or lost within few
hours time it is more a kind to the
ultimate value of your life measured up
to how well you have reached your full
potential as a human being so it’s a lot
bigger at the core of this understanding
of happiness there are experimentation
and learning it could be understood
metaphorically as something like
pursuing happiness it’s kind of like you
trying to break through your gray outer
shell and trying to reveal the shining
inner figurine that is inside of you
whatever that may be for so the secret
formula for happiness is actually very
simple it is experimentation plus
learning equals happiness failure is at
the very core of this understanding of
happiness you don’t know your full
potential before you experiment in the
world and explore it you have hypotheses
that you will test and you’re about to
fail sooner or later but our happiness
is not dependent on whether we fail in
particular instances or not it is
dependent on whether we learn from those
failures and whether we take those
lessons to our everyday life and
everyday being a basic income experiment
is important here because it is about
testing a vision of a universal and
unconditional welfare system that
enables personal experimentation in our
lives so potentially it could be seen as
a system that reduces our fear of
failure to pursue new business
opportunities but just as well it could
potentially encourage us to move to new
cities to explore whether we could
become scientists or rockstars or Ted
speakers there is important
qualification to the two the formula for
happiness that I’ve just presented here
and that is that experimentation
requires courage and it requires that
our fear of
failure won’t paralyze us in many TED
talks and a lot of these inspirational
talks it’s often said that we should
reconcile yourself or many people to
understand and reconceptualize are our
failures but for many others this is
easier said than done especially if your
basic needs are at risk so basic income
could be understood as an enabling
platform at a societal level that
enables experimentation and the pursuit
of happiness
thus basic income work in practice we
don’t know yet
the finished basic income experiments
started in 2017 and it will finish next
year what are the results of it we don’t
know yet depending on the criteria that
is used there’s a lot of discussion
about that whether this will be enough
that’s another question one thing seems
to be certain that whatever the results
are we will need bigger and bolder and
more courageous experiments on basic
income we before we can actually say
whether this is the right vision for the
globally for the world in the future
that’s the reality of the experiment but
one thing is very commendable already is
the fact that Finland has adopted an
experimental approach to governance it
means that you’re moving away from rigid
policymaking and rigid policymaking that
doesn’t test what works ultimately fails
to recognize that governments exist for
the people and their well-being instead
of people existing for the government
and so what we’re seeing with the
experimental approach is a gradual shift
away from all politics where politicians
pretend they have a magical crystal ball
and that they know the future so what
we’re seeing is a gradual shift away
from this and this is US Treasury
Secretary Henry Paulson just months
before the global economic crisis being
very certain about things to a slightly
more modest approach
when mr. Prime Minister you have simpler
discussing about the basic income
experiment now I don’t believe that
Finland just happened to be the first
country in the world to have a
nationwide experiment on basic income
you may have heard that months ago
Finland was actually ranked as a
happiest country in the world and in
hundred years since its independence
Finland has explored different pathways
towards development and it has grown
from a very poor agrarian society to a
very modern affluent tech society that
also provides free health care free
education and a free very small home for
the basic income experiment board
broadly is about trying to address the
rapidly emerging gap between
productivity employment wages well-being
and ultimately happiness the world is
currently facing the fourth Industrial
Revolution and what lies around the
corner depends on humanity’s capability
to reach its full potential not as
individuals but as collectively what
we’re seeing that gradually is a shift
moving away from a default of certainty
towards expiration testing and
validating and this is an important step
towards pursuing new visions for the
post-industrial world and global
happiness in addition to Finland we’re
seeing country like UK exploring policy
experimentation increasingly as well as
Canada and many others are following the
example so what we’re seeing is some
beacons of hope that we’re testing the
vision for the next industrial society
instead of just going from top to bottom
and assuming that we know things before
we explore but so let’s go back to where
we started which is the electric pen the
electric pen was a failure and so was
this and this is the automatic voting
machine
but this was a success and this is a
first commercially viable light bulb and
the man behind the light bulb and the
man behind the electric pen and the man
behind the automatic voting machine is
this man mr. Thomas Alva Edison
mr. Edison was a persistent inventor who
explored the unknown horizons of
innovation and often met dead ends and
when asked about his failures and
inventions he famously said I have not
failed I have just found 10,000 ways
that won’t work so I want to finish with
an encouragement to the Finnish
government exploring basic income as a
vision for the next era the governments
around the world shifting towards an
experimental approach to governance and
to you in the audience exploring new
life choices coming up with business
ideas coming up with inventions that you
don’t know yet whether they work or not
so you may have found already your
electric pen and your automatic voting
machine but keep exploring because
around the corner there may be a light
shining happiness for you thank you very much
the picture you see here is from 1875
and what you see in the picture is an
electric pen how many of you have an
electric pen in your bag or pocket now
raise your hand how many of you have a
non electric pen in your bag or pocket
thanks the electric pen that was
invented over 140 years ago was heavy it
was noisy the ink jam and the batteries
didn’t work very well it was a failure
based on the snap Pole we just did it’s
safe to say that the electric pen hasn’t
picked up as an idea since it still can
be called a failure many business ideas
inventions and life choices turn out to
be failures but many more do not even
reach the point of failure and why is
that because the fear of failure fear of
failure is very pervasive in our lives
according to one survey 37% of Finnish
adults said that they could see good
business opportunities in their
environments but they also said that
fear of failure prevents them from
pursuing those opportunities now in my
talk I want to tell you that failure is
actually the secret ingredient in
happiness and I also want to give you
the formula for happiness but you have
to wait for it just a little bit one
important factor in reducing your fear
of failure is to have your basic needs
secured which brings me to the finished
basic income experiment many of you have
probably heard about this already the
general idea is that the government is
testing whether it makes sense to hand
out free cash unconditionally for the
unemployed the general idea in the
experiment is that there are 2,000
randomly chosen unemployed persons
between ages of 25 to 58 for each
receiving a monthly sum of 560 euros
without any conditions from the
government there are two core arguments
that are often made in
defensive basic income firstly that
basic income provides an important
safety net for the vulnerable the rise
of platform economy autumn ization
artificial intelligence means that we’re
entering a completely new era of
uncertainty in work and education and in
India alone for example there which is
the world’s second most populated
country with 1.3 billion people the
World Bank has estimated that over 69%
of jobs are currently being threatened
by automation
the second argument often made is that
basic income encourages employment
entrepreneurial ISM and therefore
contributes to economic growth and this
is also the argument made by the
finished government on basic income but
I want to argue that there’s actually a
third argument that has been overlooked
in discussions on basic income and that
is happiness now leaving aside the
technicalities relation to the basic
income experiment in Finland the
experiment itself is groundbreaking in
many ways government and the political
parties in Finland have discussed about
the basic income idea for over 30 years
without them being able to break the
gridlock and move from idea stage to
action states and bringing
experimentation to the very core of
government has enabled the government to
explore this idea in practice and its
practicality in the future
post-industrial world but then what is
exactly is the relationship between
failure basic income experimentation and
happiness I wish it was as simple as
beer but there’s a little bit more to it
in a modern world we often conceive of
happiness as a subject as a subjective
state of mind a kind when one is saying
she’s happy when enjoying a cool beer on
a hot day or when one is out having fun
with friends
but for the ancient Greek happiness was
something very different Aristotle
suggests in his writings that happiness
or what he called eudaimonia is the
final end or goal that encompasses the
totality of one’s life
he writes happiness then is found to be
something perfect and self-sufficient
being the end to which our actions are
directed happiness on this view is not
something like pleasurable sensations
that can be gained or lost within few
hours time it is more a kind to the
ultimate value of your life measured up
to how well you have reached your full
potential as a human being so it’s a lot
bigger at the core of this understanding
of happiness there are experimentation
and learning it could be understood
metaphorically as something like
pursuing happiness it’s kind of like you
trying to break through your gray outer
shell and trying to reveal the shining
inner figurine that is inside of you
whatever that may be for so the secret
formula for happiness is actually very
simple it is experimentation plus
learning equals happiness failure is at
the very core of this understanding of
happiness you don’t know your full
potential before you experiment in the
world and explore it you have hypotheses
that you will test and you’re about to
fail sooner or later but our happiness
is not dependent on whether we fail in
particular instances or not it is
dependent on whether we learn from those
failures and whether we take those
lessons to our everyday life and
everyday being a basic income experiment
is important here because it is about
testing a vision of a universal and
unconditional welfare system that
enables personal experimentation in our
lives so potentially it could be seen as
a system that reduces our fear of
failure to pursue new business
opportunities but just as well it could
potentially encourage us to move to new
cities to explore whether we could
become scientists or rockstars or Ted
speakers there is important
qualification to the two the formula for
happiness that I’ve just presented here
and that is that experimentation
requires courage and it requires that
our fear of
failure won’t paralyze us in many TED
talks and a lot of these inspirational
talks it’s often said that we should
reconcile yourself or many people to
understand and reconceptualize are our
failures but for many others this is
easier said than done especially if your
basic needs are at risk so basic income
could be understood as an enabling
platform at a societal level that
enables experimentation and the pursuit
of happiness
thus basic income work in practice we
don’t know yet
the finished basic income experiments
started in 2017 and it will finish next
year what are the results of it we don’t
know yet depending on the criteria that
is used there’s a lot of discussion
about that whether this will be enough
that’s another question one thing seems
to be certain that whatever the results
are we will need bigger and bolder and
more courageous experiments on basic
income we before we can actually say
whether this is the right vision for the
globally for the world in the future
that’s the reality of the experiment but
one thing is very commendable already is
the fact that Finland has adopted an
experimental approach to governance it
means that you’re moving away from rigid
policymaking and rigid policymaking that
doesn’t test what works ultimately fails
to recognize that governments exist for
the people and their well-being instead
of people existing for the government
and so what we’re seeing with the
experimental approach is a gradual shift
away from all politics where politicians
pretend they have a magical crystal ball
and that they know the future so what
we’re seeing is a gradual shift away
from this and this is US Treasury
Secretary Henry Paulson just months
before the global economic crisis being
very certain about things to a slightly
more modest approach
when mr. Prime Minister you have simpler
discussing about the basic income
experiment now I don’t believe that
Finland just happened to be the first
country in the world to have a
nationwide experiment on basic income
you may have heard that months ago
Finland was actually ranked as a
happiest country in the world and in
hundred years since its independence
Finland has explored different pathways
towards development and it has grown
from a very poor agrarian society to a
very modern affluent tech society that
also provides free health care free
education and a free very small home for
the basic income experiment board
broadly is about trying to address the
rapidly emerging gap between
productivity employment wages well-being
and ultimately happiness the world is
currently facing the fourth Industrial
Revolution and what lies around the
corner depends on humanity’s capability
to reach its full potential not as
individuals but as collectively what
we’re seeing that gradually is a shift
moving away from a default of certainty
towards expiration testing and
validating and this is an important step
towards pursuing new visions for the
post-industrial world and global
happiness in addition to Finland we’re
seeing country like UK exploring policy
experimentation increasingly as well as
Canada and many others are following the
example so what we’re seeing is some
beacons of hope that we’re testing the
vision for the next industrial society
instead of just going from top to bottom
and assuming that we know things before
we explore but so let’s go back to where
we started which is the electric pen the
electric pen was a failure and so was
this and this is the automatic voting
machine
but this was a success and this is a
first commercially viable light bulb and
the man behind the light bulb and the
man behind the electric pen and the man
behind the automatic voting machine is
this man mr. Thomas Alva Edison
mr. Edison was a persistent inventor who
explored the unknown horizons of
innovation and often met dead ends and
when asked about his failures and
inventions he famously said I have not
failed I have just found 10,000 ways
that won’t work so I want to finish with
an encouragement to the Finnish
government exploring basic income as a
vision for the next era the governments
around the world shifting towards an
experimental approach to governance and
to you in the audience exploring new
life choices coming up with business
ideas coming up with inventions that you
don’t know yet whether they work or not
so you may have found already your
electric pen and your automatic voting
machine but keep exploring because
around the corner there may be a light
shining happiness for you thank you very much
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