[Music]
[Applause]
so how many of you over here have always
wished that you were as smart as that
person if that is you then why don’t you
raise your hands or give me an A so that
I know that you know we have some people
in the house that feel like that
Wow well you know what I never wish that
I was never a grade A student and I was
never considered clever but a lot of you
sitting over here in this audience and
those of you that are watching TEDx at
home you’re probably going to go out
there and do some pretty amazing things
at which point you’re going to make my
youtube channel seem extremely frivolous
and I also hope that you do go out there
and get yourself a TEDx talk but unlike
you not me not my teachers not my
friends all my parents
no one ever considered me as smart in
fact if you ask my teachers they would
have told you what a smart ass I was I
was always taught get a job secure
yourself and everything else will work
out and I did just that I did my BA in
English literature got a job in radio
did a couple of TV shows in between and
then one day something happened I had a
problem with my computer and I asked my
brother if he could fix it
and he did and I was surprised because
he was just in school at that time and I
was really proud of him and I asked him
I said how did you just do that and he
said it’s really simple I googled it at
that point I realized that the only
thing that was allowing him to do it and
that was stopping me is that he was able
to jump out of this dimension of I don’t
know into let me figure it out now I
know being curious that is something
that is intrinsic in a lot of people’s
DNA but for me your cliched vogue Cosmo
reading girl who liked to party which I
still do by the way this was like a
turning point in my life suddenly I
stopped and I realized that some of the
most interesting people I knew they were
multi-dimensional in this really weird
way like there was this architect who
was writing songs there was my friend
who was interning at NASA who was a
theatre actor
and I realized that if I wanted to be
like these people if I wanted to break
down all these preconceived notions that
I had about myself then the only tool
that I could arm myself with is Google
googling something it’s like this ocean
of knowledge ideas thoughts and concepts
that is just waiting for you to explore
and it’s as simple as just saying let me
find out it’s not that difficult and
that’s how my journey with my youtube
channel whack began the only reason I am
standing over here in front of you today
is because I run a channel called as
whack and a lot of people today look at
me as a source of information and
knowledge and I’m going to tell you my
secret my journey with my youtube
channel it began like three years ago I
made my first video ten times I made it
again and again and again till I was
ready to share it with the rest of the
world your journey with your YouTube
channel from your signature words to
your endings to your hoaxes to your
voice that is something that you and the
channel take together what also happens
with that journey is that you realize
that it’s so easy for people to just
shoot a video and upload it especially
with mobile phones and by the way that
is how I made my first 40 videos just on
my mobile phone and I thought it’s all
of that is very easy but finding your
voice that is a beautiful journey and a
trial-and-error process so what I really
hope to achieve with a channel like this
besides the lights the views and the
subscribers which honestly I’m going to
tell you is pretty good doesn’t hurt the
ego at all but what I truly hope to
achieve with something like that is that
people like me not you who have decided
to limit their sources of information
to Facebook scoop poop and God forbid
Arnab Goswami will one day turn around
and say that there is so much more
happening in the world in the fields of
art music science other than just
Bollywood IPL and politics 65% of our
population is below the age group of 35
which means that we are going to have
one of the largest workforces in the
world a workforce that wants to be smart
and clever you can’t imagine the number
of people that write into me every
single day saying that they want to be
that person in the room that drops this
awesome fact and everyone’s like wow
that was so cool where did you hear that
maybe some of them might just say they
heard it on wack so be that person
be that person who realizes that there
is a lot happening in this world there’s
a lot happening other than just
Bollywood politics and sports I feel
like there are a lot of forces out there
that are trying to dumb us down whether
it’s in the mainstream media or whether
it is on the digital landscape but what
I really hope is that people also
realize which I do that there is another
side to this coin there are also people
out there that are working really hard
to tell the truth and where you focus
your attention that makes all the
difference so that was stopping me
boundaries the boundaries that I had
gone and created for myself until I
realized that there are no boundaries
there are only excuses I’m too old to
learn this it’s too late in life now but
you know what older learners they
actually have so many advantages they
have gone in creating stud created
studying strategies for themselves
mnemonic devices
which actually gives them a better
advantage and learning something new it
does fantastic things to your brain it
creates these new neural pathways new
connections and that can do an amazing
thing to a brain that has stopped
growing another thing that was stopping
me and could be stopping other people is
just motivation you just lost that
desire to learn something new but the
rate at which times are changing today
if you are that person then you are no
good than a granny who thinks that WTF
means well that’s fantastic
some of the smartest people I know today
are college dropouts and some of the
smartest people I know are doing their
masters in computer engineering and
working in tech giants in San Francisco
but the one thing that these two people
have in common is that they know how to
be smart so how can you be smart
SMA R T s self-awareness once you really
know what your limitations are then you
will be a lot more aware of what it is
that you can become Aristotle had said
that knowing yourself is the beginning
of all wisdom m multi-dimensional I feel
like gone are the days where you need to
be just a doctor or a consultant I
actually know the vice-president of a
banking company who professionally runs
full marathons I also know the CFO of a
financial company a big one here in
India who is a DJ he carries his own
console to all his events and he will
rock the party till 3:00 a.m. a ask the
right questions it’s not just about
asking questions it’s also about asking
the right questions because only then
you will get the right answers that you
need
our read read read read everything from
finance to history to cause to anything
the more you read the more neural
connections you will make and you will
be able to expand your mind one megabyte
at a time and T time it’s so important
for us to move with the times every big
company today is reinventing itself then
why can’t we as individuals I truly
think that once you have adapted these
there’s this great coming together it’s
like you have deciphered the code
deciphering the code it’s really not
that complex it’s as simple as just
saying let me find out thank you
[Applause]
[Applause]
so how many of you over here have always
wished that you were as smart as that
person if that is you then why don’t you
raise your hands or give me an A so that
I know that you know we have some people
in the house that feel like that
Wow well you know what I never wish that
I was never a grade A student and I was
never considered clever but a lot of you
sitting over here in this audience and
those of you that are watching TEDx at
home you’re probably going to go out
there and do some pretty amazing things
at which point you’re going to make my
youtube channel seem extremely frivolous
and I also hope that you do go out there
and get yourself a TEDx talk but unlike
you not me not my teachers not my
friends all my parents
no one ever considered me as smart in
fact if you ask my teachers they would
have told you what a smart ass I was I
was always taught get a job secure
yourself and everything else will work
out and I did just that I did my BA in
English literature got a job in radio
did a couple of TV shows in between and
then one day something happened I had a
problem with my computer and I asked my
brother if he could fix it
and he did and I was surprised because
he was just in school at that time and I
was really proud of him and I asked him
I said how did you just do that and he
said it’s really simple I googled it at
that point I realized that the only
thing that was allowing him to do it and
that was stopping me is that he was able
to jump out of this dimension of I don’t
know into let me figure it out now I
know being curious that is something
that is intrinsic in a lot of people’s
DNA but for me your cliched vogue Cosmo
reading girl who liked to party which I
still do by the way this was like a
turning point in my life suddenly I
stopped and I realized that some of the
most interesting people I knew they were
multi-dimensional in this really weird
way like there was this architect who
was writing songs there was my friend
who was interning at NASA who was a
theatre actor
and I realized that if I wanted to be
like these people if I wanted to break
down all these preconceived notions that
I had about myself then the only tool
that I could arm myself with is Google
googling something it’s like this ocean
of knowledge ideas thoughts and concepts
that is just waiting for you to explore
and it’s as simple as just saying let me
find out it’s not that difficult and
that’s how my journey with my youtube
channel whack began the only reason I am
standing over here in front of you today
is because I run a channel called as
whack and a lot of people today look at
me as a source of information and
knowledge and I’m going to tell you my
secret my journey with my youtube
channel it began like three years ago I
made my first video ten times I made it
again and again and again till I was
ready to share it with the rest of the
world your journey with your YouTube
channel from your signature words to
your endings to your hoaxes to your
voice that is something that you and the
channel take together what also happens
with that journey is that you realize
that it’s so easy for people to just
shoot a video and upload it especially
with mobile phones and by the way that
is how I made my first 40 videos just on
my mobile phone and I thought it’s all
of that is very easy but finding your
voice that is a beautiful journey and a
trial-and-error process so what I really
hope to achieve with a channel like this
besides the lights the views and the
subscribers which honestly I’m going to
tell you is pretty good doesn’t hurt the
ego at all but what I truly hope to
achieve with something like that is that
people like me not you who have decided
to limit their sources of information
to Facebook scoop poop and God forbid
Arnab Goswami will one day turn around
and say that there is so much more
happening in the world in the fields of
art music science other than just
Bollywood IPL and politics 65% of our
population is below the age group of 35
which means that we are going to have
one of the largest workforces in the
world a workforce that wants to be smart
and clever you can’t imagine the number
of people that write into me every
single day saying that they want to be
that person in the room that drops this
awesome fact and everyone’s like wow
that was so cool where did you hear that
maybe some of them might just say they
heard it on wack so be that person
be that person who realizes that there
is a lot happening in this world there’s
a lot happening other than just
Bollywood politics and sports I feel
like there are a lot of forces out there
that are trying to dumb us down whether
it’s in the mainstream media or whether
it is on the digital landscape but what
I really hope is that people also
realize which I do that there is another
side to this coin there are also people
out there that are working really hard
to tell the truth and where you focus
your attention that makes all the
difference so that was stopping me
boundaries the boundaries that I had
gone and created for myself until I
realized that there are no boundaries
there are only excuses I’m too old to
learn this it’s too late in life now but
you know what older learners they
actually have so many advantages they
have gone in creating stud created
studying strategies for themselves
mnemonic devices
which actually gives them a better
advantage and learning something new it
does fantastic things to your brain it
creates these new neural pathways new
connections and that can do an amazing
thing to a brain that has stopped
growing another thing that was stopping
me and could be stopping other people is
just motivation you just lost that
desire to learn something new but the
rate at which times are changing today
if you are that person then you are no
good than a granny who thinks that WTF
means well that’s fantastic
some of the smartest people I know today
are college dropouts and some of the
smartest people I know are doing their
masters in computer engineering and
working in tech giants in San Francisco
but the one thing that these two people
have in common is that they know how to
be smart so how can you be smart
SMA R T s self-awareness once you really
know what your limitations are then you
will be a lot more aware of what it is
that you can become Aristotle had said
that knowing yourself is the beginning
of all wisdom m multi-dimensional I feel
like gone are the days where you need to
be just a doctor or a consultant I
actually know the vice-president of a
banking company who professionally runs
full marathons I also know the CFO of a
financial company a big one here in
India who is a DJ he carries his own
console to all his events and he will
rock the party till 3:00 a.m. a ask the
right questions it’s not just about
asking questions it’s also about asking
the right questions because only then
you will get the right answers that you
need
our read read read read everything from
finance to history to cause to anything
the more you read the more neural
connections you will make and you will
be able to expand your mind one megabyte
at a time and T time it’s so important
for us to move with the times every big
company today is reinventing itself then
why can’t we as individuals I truly
think that once you have adapted these
there’s this great coming together it’s
like you have deciphered the code
deciphering the code it’s really not
that complex it’s as simple as just
saying let me find out thank you
[Applause]
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