I’m very hungover and I have a hundred
slides so this probably won’t work in
about I’ve been told that in 18 minutes
a red dot will appear on my forehead and
there’ll be a gunshot and my body will
fall into this stage and so that would
be the end of it in the meantime let’s
try and learn some stuff so I’ve noticed
from chatting to people today there’s
there’s some really interesting people
in this like families here there’s
people who support each other you guys
were telling me at dinner yesterday how
there’s this real community to the to
the whole you know the whole st. Gallen
University so I want you to look at the
people that you know in this room and
kind of just kind of send them a psychic
message of thanks for all the support
and all the things they’ve done to kind
of help you be the best version of
yourself thank you this is good and then
while you’re doing that I want you to
realize that according to statistics
global statistics you’re looking at the
people most likely to murder you and the
reason I say this it’s a trap right
you know those motivational talks and
those are cause you read on LinkedIn
about productivity and all those things
this is the satanic inversion of all of
that okay so please forgive me for
what’s to come
so basically I have done a TED talk
before and it was banned it was not
allowed to be shown they didn’t put up
on the internet they said that the ideas
in it were dangerous so let me present
to you the most dangerous group in the
world this is the most dangerous TED
talk in the world apparently okay so
let’s see what we can do with it so me
and my brother yes sorry about the hair
and my brother and I will have always
been complete losers and basically the
one thing that my dad would always say
to us was he’s Scottish so he sounds a
bit like Shrek you say boys even when he
loved us we just felt cold you know it
doesn’t feel like you love us with him
and so he’d say yeah boys remember a
joke it’s only a joke if both people
and honestly I’m in my 30s now and I
still fundamentally disagree with that I
think it’s much funnier if one person
thinks it’s funny and the other one
doesn’t so all we would do me and my
brother was play pranks and practical
jokes on each other constantly so this
is all we had the only skill we had was
this and we lived in situations like
this at University as we unleash er you
guys know this feeling and why is he at
a certain phase of our lives we think
it’s really awesome to collect a cone
and take it home I don’t I don’t
yeah I really resonated right and so you
know we lived in hell basically right
this was our house we lived in absolute
hell we were complete losers in every
possible way
our procrastination meters were through
the roof we didn’t do any workout sites
either you’re resonating with all this
stuff and what’s interesting is now my
job as you just heard is I have to teach
innovation right so it’s an amazing
situation I don’t know how this happened
well basically this complete loser is
now the guy that’s supposed to go and
tell you no and I’ve worked with the
biggest celebrities in the world the
biggest CEOs in the world and basically
I’ve realized that innovation is kind of
BS unless it comes down to change and
what’s interesting is if I can change
anybody on this planet can change okay
and so what my current job is now is
basically I go and meet with leaders you
know I’ve met with some of them you know
like I said some of the biggest CEOs and
the biggest celebrities in the world and
governments and politicians and I
basically go in and I they say can you
please change this person who just does
not want to change and but what’s
interesting and this is the kind of
serious point is that technology as Lulu
was saying a bit earlier technology is
growing at such a rate because of
Moore’s law and another another
incredibly exit you know extremely extra
thermic reactions to the way the world
is changing our human adaptability our
ability to change isn’t able to keep up
so this is actually why I think this
information I’m about to give you is
actually really really powerful and
important
because literally at this point in
history we cannot keep up with the rate
of change and it’s going to get faster
and faster and faster
now obviously this is worrying for you
know the mr. Burns’s and the CEOs of the
world but much more importantly it’s
worrying for every single business on
the planet and for every single human
being on the planet you guys are
probably training to do things that may
not exist in 15 years time I I do a job
now that you know my careers advisor
didn’t there was no such thing as being
the head of innovation anyway so it’s an
incredible moment but what we need to
think is how do we update our human
operating systems so that the rate of
change isn’t going to get ahead of us
ahead of us ahead of us and leave us in
a really bad situation so the common way
to do this and because it’s nearly
January is this right you know this one
don’t you
everyone’s like oh yeah that thing and
you sit down around January the first
you like this year it’ll be different
you get rid of the cone right no I don’t
need that anymore I’m growing out of
that and you write down all these goals
and all these things you want to achieve
right and then you’re told will power
will power will get you there and then
you say my name is will power for like
three days you are will power and you’re
walking around and whatever that thing
that you’re supposed to do is you did it
and the thing you’re not supposed to do
you don’t do and then suddenly you go ah
I’m gonna read some books and so you get
what the kind of success literature in
you go on LinkedIn and five productivity
hacks of Elon Musk and you go yeah
amazing it’s amazing
I’m absolutely killing life right and
then you get into this hacker mentality
and everyone is you know you read
Silicon Valley stuff you start eating
food that they grow on the moon and
anyway I’ve you can tell I was drinking
last night
and and then life comes along and just
goes bang because everybody has a plan
until they get punched in the face right
and so what we realize is you know this
is my contention I read every one of
those books I did everything apart from
eat the food from the moon because that
doesn’t even exist and it just honestly
does not work right it’s time to take a
breath and accept
but it is another trap this whole
billion dollar success literature
industry the whole I have to say 95% of
TED Talks everything about hacking and
changing and trying to alter yourself
from the inside it doesn’t work okay
sorry to bear this news and you can see
why Ted have not decided to publish
previous TED Talks
and and you know why it’s a function of
time in the film interstellar there’s a
great line where you notice the old the
old scientist has asked you know who’s
your enemy essentially what you afraid
of me says I’m afraid of time this is
going to get a little bit conceptual but
we constantly think that this person
that it’s going to do all these things
that the five productivity hacks that we
read on LinkedIn said to do is to get
this person that we’re going to be
tomorrow right
but tomorrow is this place this
fictional land where 99% of all human
productivity happens but when it
actually comes it’s just the now again
and we’re the same person
so this version of ourselves
so we set ourselves up with like I’m
going to be this person I’m going to go
to the gym I’m going to stop collecting
cones I’m gonna do whatever it is right
but when that moment comes it’s for now
and we’re the same person
so we think with this guy but we’re this
guy and what’s really interesting is
we’ve been told you know this is the
information age we’ve been told that
more information can solve this problem
so we read more and we think I’m going
to download more audiobooks and then
I’ve got friends that listen to
audiobooks at like three times the speed
so they can consume more information so
they can learn more so they can change
but that doesn’t create change as
anyway so we’re really in this and I
fundamentally believe it’s a trap and I
think it’s a very profitable trap for a
lot of people so we’re told if you
consume more information if you read
that other book I’ll have you read then
you stop oh yeah well if you read the
other one the long long tail I don’t
know you
you’ve got to read this one well and I’m
not saying don’t read I mean I’ve never
done any reading number doing me any
harm but whatever but the point is it’s
a fundamental situation when we have to
accept that we don’t need any more
information I’ve learnt from teaching
celebrities CEOs governments you know
even politicians how to change and how
to move with technology is they don’t
need me to come in and tell them more
stuff they know what they’ve got to do
like you all know what you need to do to
pass through exams and all the things
you need to do to do the be the people
you are the question is will you do them
so at certain point you’ve got to kind
of fess up to this it’s you versus you
and I’m not certain that the version of
you that you think you want to be and
the version of you that acts in the way
that you’re not so happy with I’m not
sure that those two can honestly be said
to be the same continuous self over time
it’s more actually I think we might be
modelling this wrong and I think
economics the economic paradigm has
given us this Homo economicus kind of
you know transient preference all doing
they call it it’s basically the same
person now as we will be at 2 o’clock in
the morning you’ll see at 2 o’clock in
the morning at the after party I will
not be the same person so I’m just going
to be totally honest with you I went
through a period where I was very very
very affected by this I was reading
everything there was to read I was
really getting into all this stuff and
it wasn’t working for me I was my
procrastination me it was through the
roof roof as I said and I really
honestly began to sell flows I thought I
knew I could and I knew what I needed to
do but I just wasn’t doing any of it and
instead of doing it I would read more
and so actually I started to get to the
point what I was suffering from
unbelievable anxiety and and panic
attacks and I’d be sitting there and it
was basically because I literally
chronically was building up this
expectation of who I was supposed to be
or what I was supposed to do and
never ever delivering on that
expectation and I hope this is therapy
because I think we never talked about
this we’re told that we’re supposed to
always feel like yeah we’re moving
forward and the BS that we tell each
other was yeah you know it’s not going
well actually but I think that we’re
building this anxiety and the moment
that it really kind of changed for me
was my Nana you can see in the middle
here and you can see my brother and me
and my family running around this is my
family so you can see kind of where I’m
coming from really and my Nana was
diagnosed with cancer and I’ll never
forget this my mum I’m a Nana had a chat
and the Nana said she would love when
she’s in the hospital to have a little
tape back in the day of music so you
know she couldn’t use iTunes doing this
stuff so my brother and I said we will
make you this tape and we will get it to
you in your hospital bed and my mum
phoned of a couple of tensions at Nana’s
really looking forward to that tape it’s
gonna be great like can you can you can
you hurry up though because you know
she’s not well and we said yeah yeah
went out on another night out got Conan
Doyle at home and went crazy and did
other things and kept procrastinating
kept the crass name kept putting it off
kept putting it off
remember Nana sent him on the phone
loved that tape I’m literally in this
hospital room all on my own all the time
is you know really appreciate that tape
yeah sure we’ll definitely do it
tomorrow
absolutely you know what’s gonna happen
right one day
mum called and said Nana’s gone no don’t
worry about the tape and that was the
final straw me and my brother just went
this is it we have procrastinated our
way through 95% of our life we’ve sucked
both suffering from crippling anxiety
and now the one person that we
absolutely loved that we owed something
– we didn’t do because we were caught in
the in the moment and it was going to be
this future self that was going to do it
that never arrived
so this mixtape really changed things
and we really tore apart in the middle
and said write never again
and we basically found through research
research this global subculture of
people who actually this was back in the
days of the dark web and you could get
on there quite easily and do sorts of
things and anyway that’s enough now and
I’ll submit to am and and what we
realized was that from Silicon Valley to
Shanghai there are people with a system
that doesn’t run anything like the
system we talked about just a min ago
and this system is called locking and I
want to give you this this is a
dangerous idea okay this is this is the
dangerous bit lock-in is one of those
things where if you want to go down the
rabbit hole you can go all the way down
so this is kind of cover your ears if
you don’t hear anymore
lock-in takes the idea that we are not
the same person over time very very
seriously and it basically says that the
person you are at time a is a very
fundamentally different person that you
could be at time be because of your
preferences and the way that you’re set
up and basically those as I said you
know you have a critical self a self
knows you’ve got to make that tape for
your Nana and knows you’ve got to do
that work knows you’ve got to do your
TED talk tomorrow and not go out on the
night before like I did and an
experienced yourself that wants to live
in the now
so this future self this critical self
that knows what it needs to do and
consists consider time and this myopic
experience yourself that wants to
maximize in the present moment and they
as I said are not friends this is a very
famous footballer George best you can
see him having his experience himself on
the left-hand side here and his critical
self was the one that paid so you have
this moment where you have something
that’s what we call in law a
distributional issue of justice over
time well that basically means is that
you maximize so much at one moment that
you completely take from the futures
that and the person you take from is
yourself in the future so smoking
drinking all these things they
essentially take from someone but that
someone is someone that you don’t have
any relationship with yet but it’s you
so this becomes this really metaphysical
thing and it was really interesting when
George Best’s died he you know he
literally wrote this this this thing
saying don’t do this and so we started
researching this and going really deep
into this and there’s actually this
thing in demonology where in in Judaism
is this demon called the yet sir
and the yet sir basically pulls you away
from the self that you could be into
this this this more this this far lower
self that actually tears your life apart
so actually we started to take this idea
really really seriously and if you look
at it personal decisions are now the
leading cause of death and you have this
situation where whatever it is that
there was this distributional issue of
justice that we have to deal with it’s
causing so much angst so much pain and
now with the economy changing so fast if
we can’t find a way to upgrade ourselves
we’re in deep deep deep trouble so
that’s what I thought now is the time to
bring this idea out and it makes sense
because we’re foraging animals right we
literally maximizing the moment because
of our evolutionary psychology and like
you know the classic example of this is
Adam and Eve Adam and Eve got chucked
out the Garden of Eden they got chucked
out of paradise for an apple I mean
maybe there’s a metaphor there which I
haven’t got but you know there’s an
Apple right and look they look like they
fell out mom dad I’ll come on like but
so what you end up is is it is this
moment wait we forage we take what we
can eat drink and be merry for tomorrow
we may die so we’re constantly
maximizing the present moment so how do
you escape this demonic trap you’ve got
to find a way to lock in your critical
self yourself that knows what time what
time is gonna is gonna require of it and
lock in so when that werewolf self
starts to come out you can’t let it
control you and Ulysses is the classic
example of this so Odysseus knew that
the sirens were going to be calling him
and he tied himself to the mast and told
his men to completely ignore everything
he said and this is this is game theory
so in game through it’s all about mutual
assured destruction it’s all about
changing the payoff matrix so you’ve got
to make it really expensive really
painful and massively consequential if
you don’t do what you know you must do
so these things don’t work these things
do and we built the world on contracts
we built the commercial world that we
live in on contracts I can contract with
you about sorry about this but I can
contract with you about anything almost
right and we accept that there are
penalties and punishments and
enforceability to that contract
consequences if I don’t come through
with what I’m supposed to do but there’s
no such thing as that with promises that
you make to yourself so we started to
say what if we support each other what
if my brother makes a promise and I
enforce it because promises without the
sword are nothing but words and so this
is the kind of Apocalypse Now if you’ve
got to make fear your friend
so you’ve got to be so afraid of not
achieving that the cortes when he
arrived in south america burnt all the
ships so there was no way back for the
men he made fear their friend there’s
now ways of self excluding yourself from
casinos so the you literally can’t get
in and what will happen is this other
version of yourself will try and fight
back it’ll be like an exorcism right but
eventually it’s gonna finish with this
if you embrace the fact that it’s more
terrifying to fail than it is to succeed
you will achieve insane things and this
was me at buckingham palace collecting
an award this is my brother don’t to
Harvard and and we only achieve this
stuff through this and I just want to
say if we can achieve anything and
update the human operating system that
fast
I think there’s something in this for
everyone and hopefully we can use this
get a bit more specific about it and
build into a system and actually try and
try and update ourselves as far as
technology is having us to update
ourselves thanks so much guys Cheers [Applause]