[Applause]
[Music]
[Applause]
hi guys how are you all today this is
awesome here we are in this amazing
creative space literally on the edge of
one of the busiest intersections in the
world where so many people are going on
tons of different adventures and we get
to have one right here all together so
on that note I would like to start by
asking you guys to get involved a little
social experiment of our own and I’d
love for you all to stand up everyone
can please stand up
excellent oh thank you okay
so now that you’re all standing up I’d
love for you all to please close your
eyes and we’re all going to take one
long deep breath excellent okay now I’d
like you all to imagine that you are
astronauts and keep your eyes closed and
you are about to take off into outer
space now you’re in your spaceship and
you’re taking off from Planet Earth
up into the sky through the clouds up to
the stars and you’re gonna go up to the
moon and soar around the moon and then
you’re gonna come back down and land on
planet Earth thank you please open your
eyes okay so how many of you guys were
wearing a spacesuit just give me a show
of hands okay that’s pretty good but
maybe 15% of you guys how many of you
one person two people three people okay
how many of you guys experience true
weightlessness while you’re up there
okay a few more if you aren’t excellent
thank you please be seated so this
example from the Stanford Design School
is one of my favorites because it
demonstrates how often as adults we tend
to follow instructions instead of
engaging our imagination so this really
brings up the question in our work and
in our lives
how often are we not following our
creative abilities and not using our
imagination but instead simply just
following instructions well there was a
time in my life where I was only
following instructions and was stuck in
an overly linear education model as a
child I struggled because I did not
learn the way the school system wanted
me to learn I was dyslexic and I was
hyperactive
and I could not learn by memorizing and
sitting still in a classroom no matter
how hard I tried but one day in the
fourth grade right before a dreaded
science exam I gathered my friends
together in the playground and I
encouraged them to make believe that we
were a bunch of primates and monkeys
going through the evolutionary process
now when we return to the classroom we
self-organized in a way that the teacher
simply could not refuse she let us
perform our skit and as a result we had
no time left for our science exam
in a way that play became our exam in
that moment I realized that I could
navigate my own education and I gave
myself the permission to learn through
authentic free play from then on today
I’m an entrepreneurial learner this
means that I learn through trying new
things as a result of that I’ve been
able to literally make believe my own
dream job into reality and you can too
when we give ourselves the permission to
play authentically and freely we are
tapping into our human driven ability to
innovate evolve and create the world
that we want to live in that’s why today
I’m here to talk to you guys about how
and why we can bring a free play into
our adult lives so what is free play if
not following instructions it’s not been
overly committed to outcomes so often
we’re afraid to share our work and our
ideas if they’re not perfect but
imperfection can lead to amazing things
plays getting lost in time and following
your intuition this can mean losing an
entire afternoon reading a book and not
playing it down plays voluntary and it’s
done for its own sake it can be very
hard work and is not always easy but
play motivated by itself can be an
amazing driver of high performance so
was it always like this
was there a time when play was a primary
driver and culture currently we are in a
very linear version of society that
typically does not encourage creative
development it went from men the knower
who made things based on what he knew
and then played based on what he made
historic examples show that we used to
imagine what was possible and then
create prototypes of our ideas and then
learn as a result of playing if you look
at this picture you’ll notice that
everybody is playing people are moving
their bodies interacting with each other
and trying new things
in ancient Greece they used to imagine
and then prototype what a modern city
could be over time the Romans and other
world leaders adapted some of their
ideas but ultimately this is a period
where we made everything up from high
streets to aqueducts the Mayans are also
another example Mayans used to throw
festivals before they built their cities
traditional Mayans were more surveyors
and builders than farmers only hundreds
of years later did they come back settle
so can you guys imagine what would
happen with all the creativity and the
ideas and the open source learning that
we have in this room today if we went
back to a mentality of plane and then
prototyping it would be amazing but what
our city looked like so how do we bring
FreePlay back into our lives the Magic
Circle
so the Magic Circle is a psychological
and a physical term that has existed for
centuries in various forms physically it
is a place that is not overly defined
but has a separate function to the home
or the office it is things such as the
library the dance floor the Italian
Piazza the coffee shop the dinner table
all of which are concentrated
playgrounds of their own psychologically
the Magic Circle is a place where
freedom and connect
shouldn’t guide your decision-making
such as going for a walk and explore in
a new neighborhood or even talking to a
stranger the Magic Circle is a mindset
it’s a blank canvas and it’s a temporary
world within the ordinary world all
dedicated to the freedom and permission
to play so one wonderful example of a
Magic Circle as well as learning through
plain is of course Bernie men you guys
were asked earlier but I’d love to see
it again how many of you have been to
Burning Man
wow it’s about twenty percent of the
people in this room so Bernie men Black
Rock City in Nevada is a city that is
built by its 75,000 participants every
year
nothing is bought or sold and everything
disappears without a trace at the end of
the event
Burning Man is a place where not only
you can make whatever you want and you
have the permission to play but it’s
also a place where failure is a part of
the experience today we have regional
offshoots and cities all over the world
including here in Japan for those of you
who haven’t been let’s take a look at
this short clip
awesome okay so Burning Man may be an
but it is also a culture and a catalyst
for a more engaged sense of citizenship
in the last five years that I’ve lived
that I’ve worked with the Burning Man
nonprofit I’ve consulted with mayors and
innovation councils to develop her to
future reuse spaces to all kinds of
startups who all want to learn how to
apply the benefits of free play and
bottom-up emergent innovation into their
organizations and communities so what
are the benefits of play science shows
that when we are playing we are creating
new neural pathways in our brain and
when we go back to the office on Monday
we’re able to access new solutions play
is our inherent ability to evolve
through trial and error we don’t
innovate in the lab we test hypotheses
in a lab and play takes us to all kinds
of make-believe realities which are the
building blocks of future realities so
as I said to you guys earlier there was
a time in my life when I was stuck in an
overly linear system and play helped me
get unstuck and put me on my path as an
entrepreneurial learner to the extent
that free play still exists today is
because the magic circle still exists
today the more we make time to step into
the magic circle mindset the more free
play will live in our lives now coming
to events like TEDx
and creating spaces like this is just
the start play is a powerful tool that
we all have access to so what about you
guys
I want to challenge you to play today
I want you to bring it back into your
lives into your ritual and into our
shared culture because just like Burning
Man
we can co-create the world that we want
to live in we can even make it up thank
you you
[Music]
[Applause]
hi guys how are you all today this is
awesome here we are in this amazing
creative space literally on the edge of
one of the busiest intersections in the
world where so many people are going on
tons of different adventures and we get
to have one right here all together so
on that note I would like to start by
asking you guys to get involved a little
social experiment of our own and I’d
love for you all to stand up everyone
can please stand up
excellent oh thank you okay
so now that you’re all standing up I’d
love for you all to please close your
eyes and we’re all going to take one
long deep breath excellent okay now I’d
like you all to imagine that you are
astronauts and keep your eyes closed and
you are about to take off into outer
space now you’re in your spaceship and
you’re taking off from Planet Earth
up into the sky through the clouds up to
the stars and you’re gonna go up to the
moon and soar around the moon and then
you’re gonna come back down and land on
planet Earth thank you please open your
eyes okay so how many of you guys were
wearing a spacesuit just give me a show
of hands okay that’s pretty good but
maybe 15% of you guys how many of you
one person two people three people okay
how many of you guys experience true
weightlessness while you’re up there
okay a few more if you aren’t excellent
thank you please be seated so this
example from the Stanford Design School
is one of my favorites because it
demonstrates how often as adults we tend
to follow instructions instead of
engaging our imagination so this really
brings up the question in our work and
in our lives
how often are we not following our
creative abilities and not using our
imagination but instead simply just
following instructions well there was a
time in my life where I was only
following instructions and was stuck in
an overly linear education model as a
child I struggled because I did not
learn the way the school system wanted
me to learn I was dyslexic and I was
hyperactive
and I could not learn by memorizing and
sitting still in a classroom no matter
how hard I tried but one day in the
fourth grade right before a dreaded
science exam I gathered my friends
together in the playground and I
encouraged them to make believe that we
were a bunch of primates and monkeys
going through the evolutionary process
now when we return to the classroom we
self-organized in a way that the teacher
simply could not refuse she let us
perform our skit and as a result we had
no time left for our science exam
in a way that play became our exam in
that moment I realized that I could
navigate my own education and I gave
myself the permission to learn through
authentic free play from then on today
I’m an entrepreneurial learner this
means that I learn through trying new
things as a result of that I’ve been
able to literally make believe my own
dream job into reality and you can too
when we give ourselves the permission to
play authentically and freely we are
tapping into our human driven ability to
innovate evolve and create the world
that we want to live in that’s why today
I’m here to talk to you guys about how
and why we can bring a free play into
our adult lives so what is free play if
not following instructions it’s not been
overly committed to outcomes so often
we’re afraid to share our work and our
ideas if they’re not perfect but
imperfection can lead to amazing things
plays getting lost in time and following
your intuition this can mean losing an
entire afternoon reading a book and not
playing it down plays voluntary and it’s
done for its own sake it can be very
hard work and is not always easy but
play motivated by itself can be an
amazing driver of high performance so
was it always like this
was there a time when play was a primary
driver and culture currently we are in a
very linear version of society that
typically does not encourage creative
development it went from men the knower
who made things based on what he knew
and then played based on what he made
historic examples show that we used to
imagine what was possible and then
create prototypes of our ideas and then
learn as a result of playing if you look
at this picture you’ll notice that
everybody is playing people are moving
their bodies interacting with each other
and trying new things
in ancient Greece they used to imagine
and then prototype what a modern city
could be over time the Romans and other
world leaders adapted some of their
ideas but ultimately this is a period
where we made everything up from high
streets to aqueducts the Mayans are also
another example Mayans used to throw
festivals before they built their cities
traditional Mayans were more surveyors
and builders than farmers only hundreds
of years later did they come back settle
so can you guys imagine what would
happen with all the creativity and the
ideas and the open source learning that
we have in this room today if we went
back to a mentality of plane and then
prototyping it would be amazing but what
our city looked like so how do we bring
FreePlay back into our lives the Magic
Circle
so the Magic Circle is a psychological
and a physical term that has existed for
centuries in various forms physically it
is a place that is not overly defined
but has a separate function to the home
or the office it is things such as the
library the dance floor the Italian
Piazza the coffee shop the dinner table
all of which are concentrated
playgrounds of their own psychologically
the Magic Circle is a place where
freedom and connect
shouldn’t guide your decision-making
such as going for a walk and explore in
a new neighborhood or even talking to a
stranger the Magic Circle is a mindset
it’s a blank canvas and it’s a temporary
world within the ordinary world all
dedicated to the freedom and permission
to play so one wonderful example of a
Magic Circle as well as learning through
plain is of course Bernie men you guys
were asked earlier but I’d love to see
it again how many of you have been to
Burning Man
wow it’s about twenty percent of the
people in this room so Bernie men Black
Rock City in Nevada is a city that is
built by its 75,000 participants every
year
nothing is bought or sold and everything
disappears without a trace at the end of
the event
Burning Man is a place where not only
you can make whatever you want and you
have the permission to play but it’s
also a place where failure is a part of
the experience today we have regional
offshoots and cities all over the world
including here in Japan for those of you
who haven’t been let’s take a look at
this short clip
awesome okay so Burning Man may be an
but it is also a culture and a catalyst
for a more engaged sense of citizenship
in the last five years that I’ve lived
that I’ve worked with the Burning Man
nonprofit I’ve consulted with mayors and
innovation councils to develop her to
future reuse spaces to all kinds of
startups who all want to learn how to
apply the benefits of free play and
bottom-up emergent innovation into their
organizations and communities so what
are the benefits of play science shows
that when we are playing we are creating
new neural pathways in our brain and
when we go back to the office on Monday
we’re able to access new solutions play
is our inherent ability to evolve
through trial and error we don’t
innovate in the lab we test hypotheses
in a lab and play takes us to all kinds
of make-believe realities which are the
building blocks of future realities so
as I said to you guys earlier there was
a time in my life when I was stuck in an
overly linear system and play helped me
get unstuck and put me on my path as an
entrepreneurial learner to the extent
that free play still exists today is
because the magic circle still exists
today the more we make time to step into
the magic circle mindset the more free
play will live in our lives now coming
to events like TEDx
and creating spaces like this is just
the start play is a powerful tool that
we all have access to so what about you
guys
I want to challenge you to play today
I want you to bring it back into your
lives into your ritual and into our
shared culture because just like Burning
Man
we can co-create the world that we want
to live in we can even make it up thank
you you
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