For syv år siden, blev jeg kontaktet af en studerende, der bad mig investere i hans firma. Han sagde: "Jeg arbejder med tre venner, og vi vil forsøge at lave "disruption" indenfor en industri ved at sælge ting online" Jeg svarede: "OK, I har så brugt sommeren på det her?" "Nej, vi har været i praktik, hvis nu det ikke lykkes." "Men I har tænkt jer at arbejde på det fuld tid, når I er færdiguddannede?" "Nej. Vi har allesammen skaffet os jobs." Seks måneder går, det er dagen før firmaet skal lanceres, og der er stadig ikke en fungerende hjemmeside. "Altså, I er klar over, at firmaet er en hjemmeside? Det er bogstaveligt talt alt det er." Så, af indlysende grunde afslog jeg at investere.
Seven years ago, a student came to me and asked me to invest in his company. He said, "I'm working with three friends, and we're going to try to disrupt an industry by selling stuff online." And I said, "OK, you guys spent the whole summer on this, right?" "No, we all took internships just in case it doesn't work out." "All right, but you're going to go in full time once you graduate." "Not exactly. We've all lined up backup jobs." Six months go by, it's the day before the company launches, and there is still not a functioning website. "You guys realize, the entire company is a website. That's literally all it is." So I obviously declined to invest.
Og de endte med at kalde firmaet Warby Parker.
And they ended up naming the company Warby Parker.
(Latter) De sælger briller online. De blev for nyligt anerkendt, som verdens mest innovative firma og vurderet til over en milliard dollars. Så nu, er det min kone der styrer investeringerne. Hvorfor tog jeg så meget fejl?
(Laughter) They sell glasses online. They were recently recognized as the world's most innovative company and valued at over a billion dollars. And now? My wife handles our investments. Why was I so wrong?
For at finde svaret, har jeg studeret folk som jeg kalder "originaler." Originaler er anderledes, folk der får nye ideer og desuden kæmper for dem. Det er folk, der skiller sig ud og råber op. Originaler driver kreativitet og forandring i verden. De er folkene du vil satse på. Og de er helt anderledes end jeg forventede. I dag vil jeg vise jer tre ting jeg har lært om genkendelse af originaler og hvordan man bliver lidt mere som dem.
To find out, I've been studying people that I come to call "originals." Originals are nonconformists, people who not only have new ideas but take action to champion them. They are people who stand out and speak up. Originals drive creativity and change in the world. They're the people you want to bet on. And they look nothing like I expected. I want to show you today three things I've learned about recognizing originals and becoming a little bit more like them.
Første grund til at jeg afslog Warby Parker var at de var lang tid om at komme i luften. I kender alle indgående mentaliteten hos en overspringsperson. Og jeg har en indrømmelse til jer. Jeg er modsætningen. En forspringsperson. Ja, betegnelsen findes. Kender du panikken, du føler få timer inden en stor deadline, når du ikke har lavet noget endnu. Den følelse får jeg, bare et par måneder i forvejen.
So the first reason that I passed on Warby Parker was they were really slow getting off the ground. Now, you are all intimately familiar with the mind of a procrastinator. Well, I have a confession for you. I'm the opposite. I'm a precrastinator. Yes, that's an actual term. You know that panic you feel a few hours before a big deadline when you haven't done anything yet. I just feel that a few months ahead of time.
(Latter)
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Det begyndte tidligt; da jeg var barn, tog jeg Nintendo spil meget seriøst. Jeg vågnede klokken fem, gik i gang med at spille non-stop indtil jeg mestrede spillene. Efterhånden kom det så langt ud at en lokalavis kom forbi og lavede en historie om bagsiden af Nintendo, med mig som stjernen.
So this started early: when I was a kid, I took Nintendo games very seriously. I would wake up at 5am, start playing and not stop until I had mastered them. Eventually it got so out of hand that a local newspaper came and did a story on the dark side of Nintendo, starring me.
(Latter)
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(Applaus)
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Siden da, har jeg byttet hår for tænder.
Since then, I have traded hair for teeth.
(Latter)
(Laughter)
Men det gavnede mig på universitet, fordi jeg færdiggjorde min afgangsopgave fire måneder inden deadline. Og det var jeg stolt af, indtil for et par år siden. Jeg havde en studerende, der hed Jihae, som kom til mig og sagde, "Jeg får mine mest kreative ideer når jeg laver overspringshandlinger." Min reaktion var: "Det er da sødt, hvad med de fire opgaver du skylder mig?"
But this served me well in college, because I finished my senior thesis four months before the deadline. And I was proud of that, until a few years ago. I had a student named Jihae, who came to me and said, "I have my most creative ideas when I'm procrastinating." And I was like, "That's cute, where are the four papers you owe me?"
(Latter)
(Laughter)
Nej, hun var en af vores mest kreative studerende, og som organisationspsykolog, er det den slags ideer, jeg tester. Så jeg udfordrede hende til at skaffe data. Hun undersøger en bunke firmaer. Får folk til at udfylde spørgeskemaer om hvor ofte de laver overspring. Og får cheferne til at vurdere hvor kreative og innovative de er. Og ganske rigtigt, forspringspersonerne som mig, som skynder sig at lave alt tidligt bliver vurderet som mindre kreative, end folk der laver overspringshandlinger i moderat omfang. Så ville jeg vide, hvad der sker med de kroniske overspringspersoner. Hun svarede "Det ved jeg ikke. De udfyldte ikke mine spørgeskemaer."
No, she was one of our most creative students, and as an organizational psychologist, this is the kind of idea that I test. So I challenged her to get some data. She goes into a bunch of companies. She has people fill out surveys about how often they procrastinate. Then she gets their bosses to rate how creative and innovative they are. And sure enough, the precrastinators like me, who rush in and do everything early are rated as less creative than people who procrastinate moderately. So I want to know what happens to the chronic procrastinators. She was like, "I don't know. They didn't fill out my survey."
(Latter)
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Nej, her er vores resultater. Du ser rent faktisk, at folk der venter til sidste minut har så travlt med at lave ingenting, at de ikke har nogen nye ideer. Og modsat, folkene der går i gang med det samme er i en så oppisket, angst stemning, at de heller ikke har originale tanker. Der er et gyldent midterpunkt, hvor originalerne lader til at bo. Og hvorfor det? Måske har originalerne bare dårlige arbejdsvaner. Måske skaber overspringshandlinger ikke kreativitet.
No, here are our results. You actually do see that the people who wait until the last minute are so busy goofing off that they don't have any new ideas. And on the flip side, the people who race in are in such a frenzy of anxiety that they don't have original thoughts either. There's a sweet spot where originals seem to live. Why is this? Maybe original people just have bad work habits. Maybe procrastinating does not cause creativity.
For at få svaret, skabte vi nogle eksperimenter. Vi bad folk om at generere nye forretningsideer, og så fik vi uafhængige læsere til at evaluere hvor kreative og brugbare de var. Og nogen af dem bedes om at løse opgaven med det samme. Andre blev vilkårligt tildelt at lave overspringshandlinger, ved at lokke dem med Minesweeper i enten fem eller ti minutter. Og som forventet, er de moderate overspringspersoner 16 procent mere kreative end de to andre grupper. Altså, Minesweeper er fantastisk, men det er ikke kraften bag effekten, for spiller du spillet først inden du kender opgaven, styrker det ikke kreativiteten. Det er først når du ved at du skal arbejde på problemet, og du starter med overspringshandlingerne, stadig med opgaven aktiv i baghovedet, at du begynder at ruge på ideerne. Overspringshandlingerne giver dig tid til at overveje divergerende ideer, til at tænke ikke-lineært, til at lave uventede spring.
To find out, we designed some experiments. We asked people to generate new business ideas, and then we get independent readers to evaluate how creative and useful they are. And some of them are asked to do the task right away. Others we randomly assign to procrastinate by dangling Minesweeper in front of them for either five or 10 minutes. And sure enough, the moderate procrastinators are 16 percent more creative than the other two groups. Now, Minesweeper is awesome, but it's not the driver of the effect, because if you play the game first before you learn about the task, there's no creativity boost. It's only when you're told that you're going to be working on this problem, and then you start procrastinating, but the task is still active in the back of your mind, that you start to incubate. Procrastination gives you time to consider divergent ideas, to think in nonlinear ways, to make unexpected leaps.
Så samtidig med at vi afsluttede eksperimenterne, startede jeg på at skrive en bog om originaler, og jeg tænkte: "Det er det perfekte tidspunkt til at lære mig selv at overspringe, imens jeg skriver på et kapitel om overspringning." Så jeg meta-oversprangshandlede, og som enhver anden forspringsperson med respekt for dig selv, vågnede jeg tidligt næste morgen og jeg lavede en to-do liste med overspringshandlinger.
So just as we were finishing these experiments, I was starting to write a book about originals, and I thought, "This is the perfect time to teach myself to procrastinate, while writing a chapter on procrastination." So I metaprocrastinated, and like any self-respecting precrastinator, I woke up early the next morning and I made a to-do list with steps on how to procrastinate.
(Latter)
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Og så arbejdede jeg flittigt på at nå mit mål om ikke at nå mit mål. Jeg påbegyndte kapitlet om overspringshandlinger, og en dag - jeg var halvvejs igennem det - lagde jeg det bogstaveligt talt fra mig midt i en sætning i månedsvis. Det var en pinsel. Men da jeg vendte tilbage til det, havde jeg alle mulige nye ideer. Som formuleret af Aaron Sorking, "Du kalder det for overspring. Jeg kalder det at tænke." Og undervejs opdagede jeg at en masse store originaler gennem historien var overspringspersoner. Som Leonardo da Vinci for eksempel. Han arbejdede on og off i 16 år på Mona Lisa. Han følte sig som en fiasko. Det skrev han direkte i sin dagbog. Men nogle af sidespringene han lavede indenfor optik forvandlede måden han modelerede lys på og gjorde ham til en meget bedre maler. Hvad med Martin Luther King, Jr.? Natten før den største tale i hans liv, borgerretttighedsmarchen mod Washington, sad han oppe og omskrev til efter tre. Han sidder blandt publikum og venter på at tale på scenen, og stadig skriver han noter og streger sætninger ud. Da han er på scenen, 11 minutter inde, afviger han fra sine forberedte kommentarer for at udtale fire ord, der ændrede historiens gang. "Jeg har en drøm." Det stod ikke i manuskriptet. Ved at udskyde opgaven med at afslutte talen til sidste øjeblik, lod han sig selv være åben over for flest mulige ideer. Og fordi talen ikke var skrevet i sten, havde han frihed til at improvisere.
And then I worked diligently toward my goal of not making progress toward my goal. I started writing the procrastination chapter, and one day -- I was halfway through -- I literally put it away in mid-sentence for months. It was agony. But when I came back to it, I had all sorts of new ideas. As Aaron Sorkin put it, "You call it procrastinating. I call it thinking." And along the way I discovered that a lot of great originals in history were procrastinators. Take Leonardo da Vinci. He toiled on and off for 16 years on the Mona Lisa. He felt like a failure. He wrote as much in his journal. But some of the diversions he took in optics transformed the way that he modeled light and made him into a much better painter. What about Martin Luther King, Jr.? The night before the biggest speech of his life, the March on Washington, he was up past 3am, rewriting it. He's sitting in the audience waiting for his turn to go onstage, and he is still scribbling notes and crossing out lines. When he gets onstage, 11 minutes in, he leaves his prepared remarks to utter four words that changed the course of history: "I have a dream." That was not in the script. By delaying the task of finalizing the speech until the very last minute, he left himself open to the widest range of possible ideas. And because the text wasn't set in stone, he had freedom to improvise.
At overspringe er en synd når det kommer til produktivitet, men det kan være en dyd for kreativitet. Det du ser med en masse store originaler er at de er hurtige til at starte men de er langsomme til at afslutte. Og det var det jeg overså med Warby Parker. Da de sneglede sig frem i seks måneder, så jeg på dem og sagde, "Altså, en masse andre firmaer er begyndt at sælge briller online." De gik glip af first mover fordelen. Men det jeg ikke indså var at de brugte al den tid på at finde ud af at hvordan man fik folk til at være trygge med at bestille briller online. Og det viser sig at first mover fordelen mest er en myte. Tag en klassisk undersøgelse af over 50 produktkategorier, der sammenligner first movere der skabte markedet, med dem der forbedrede og introducerede noget anderledes og bedre. Det du ser er at first moverne havde en fiasko rate på 47 procent, sammenlignet med kun otte procent for dem der forbedrede. Tag Facebook, der ventede med at bygge et socialt netværk til efter Myspace og Friendster. Tag Google, der ventede i årevis efter Altavista og Yahoo. Det er langt lettere at forbedre en andens ide end det er at skabe noget nyt fra bunden. Så lektien jeg har lært er at for at være original behøver du ikke være først. Du skal bare være anderledes og bedre.
Procrastinating is a vice when it comes to productivity, but it can be a virtue for creativity. What you see with a lot of great originals is that they are quick to start but they're slow to finish. And this is what I missed with Warby Parker. When they were dragging their heels for six months, I looked at them and said, "You know, a lot of other companies are starting to sell glasses online." They missed the first-mover advantage. But what I didn't realize was they were spending all that time trying to figure out how to get people to be comfortable ordering glasses online. And it turns out the first-mover advantage is mostly a myth. Look at a classic study of over 50 product categories, comparing the first movers who created the market with the improvers who introduced something different and better. What you see is that the first movers had a failure rate of 47 percent, compared with only 8 percent for the improvers. Look at Facebook, waiting to build a social network until after Myspace and Friendster. Look at Google, waiting for years after Altavista and Yahoo. It's much easier to improve on somebody else's idea than it is to create something new from scratch. So the lesson I learned is that to be original you don't have to be first. You just have to be different and better.
Men det var ikke den eneste grund til at jeg droppede Warby Parker. De var også fulde af tvivl. De havde backup planer, og det fik mig til at tvivle på om de turde være originale, fordi jeg forventede at originaler skulle se nogenlunde sådan her ud.
But that wasn't the only reason I passed on Warby Parker. They were also full of doubts. They had backup plans lined up, and that made me doubt that they had the courage to be original, because I expected that originals would look something like this.
(Latter)
(Laughter)
Altså. på overfladen, virker en masse originaler selvsikre, men bag facaden, føler de samme frygt og tvivl som resten af os. De håndterer det bare anderledes. Lad mig vise et eksempel. Dette er en illustration af hvordan den kreative process fungere for de fleste af os.
Now, on the surface, a lot of original people look confident, but behind the scenes, they feel the same fear and doubt that the rest of us do. They just manage it differently. Let me show you: this is a depiction of how the creative process works for most of us.
(Latter)
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Igennem min forskning opdagede jeg, at der er to forskellige typer tvivl. Der er selvtvivl og ide-tvivl. Selvtvivl er lammende. Den får dig til at forstene. Men ide-tvivl skaber energi. Den motiverer dig til at teste, eksperimentere, raffinere, præcis som MLK gjorde. og derved er nøglen til originalitet blot et simpelt skridt, at undgå springet fra trin tre til fire. I stedet for at sige, "Jeg stinker", siger du, "De første skitser stinker altid, og jeg er bare ikke i mål endnu." Hvordan når du så dertil? Det viser sig, at der er en ledetråd, i internet browseren du bruger. Vi kan forudsige din præstation på jobbet og din forpligtelse kun ud fra at vide hvilken web browser du bruger. Og nogen af jer vil ikke kunne lide resultaterne af undersøgelsen.
Now, in my research, I discovered there are two different kinds of doubt. There's self-doubt and idea doubt. Self-doubt is paralyzing. It leads you to freeze. But idea doubt is energizing. It motivates you to test, to experiment, to refine, just like MLK did. And so the key to being original is just a simple thing of avoiding the leap from step three to step four. Instead of saying, "I'm crap," you say, "The first few drafts are always crap, and I'm just not there yet." So how do you get there? Well, there's a clue, it turns out, in the Internet browser that you use. We can predict your job performance and your commitment just by knowing what web browser you use. Now, some of you are not going to like the results of this study --
(Latter)
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Men der er gode beviser for af Firefox og Chrome brugere klart overgår Internet Explorer og Safari brugere. Ja.
But there is good evidence that Firefox and Chrome users significantly outperform Internet Explorer and Safari users. Yes.
(Applaus)
(Applause)
De bliver forresten også i deres job 15 procent længere. Hvorfor? Det er ikke en teknisk fordel. De fire browser grupper har i gennemsnit ens tastehastighed og de har også samme niveau af computerfærdigheder. Det handler om hvordan du fik browseren. Bruger du Internet Explorer eller Safari, var de forinstallerede på din computer, og du accepterede standardvalget givet dig. Ville du have Firefox eller Chrome, måtte du tvivle på forinstalleringen og spørge, er der et andet valg derude, og så være lidt ressourcestærk og downloade en ny browser. Folk hører så om undersøgelsen og tænker, "Super, hvis jeg vil blive bedre til mit job, skal jeg bare opgraderer min browser?"
They also stay in their jobs 15 percent longer, by the way. Why? It's not a technical advantage. The four browser groups on average have similar typing speed and they also have similar levels of computer knowledge. It's about how you got the browser. Because if you use Internet Explorer or Safari, those came preinstalled on your computer, and you accepted the default option that was handed to you. If you wanted Firefox or Chrome, you had to doubt the default and ask, is there a different option out there, and then be a little resourceful and download a new browser. So people hear about this study and they're like, "Great, if I want to get better at my job, I just need to upgrade my browser?"
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Nej, det handler om at være typen, der tager initiativet til at tvivle på standardindstillingen og se efter et bedre valg. Og gør du så det, så åbner du op for det modsatte at déja vu. Det kalder man vuja de.
No, it's about being the kind of person who takes the initiative to doubt the default and look for a better option. And if you do that well, you will open yourself up to the opposite of déjà vu. There's a name for it. It's called vuja de.
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Vuja de, er når du ser på noget du har set mange gange før og pludselig ser det med friske øjne. Det er tekstforfatteren, der ser på et filmmanuskript, der ikke er blevet godkendt i mere end et halvt århundrede. I alle tidligere udgaver, har hovedpersonen være en ond dronning. Men Jennifer Lee begynder at stille spørgsmålstegn ved logikken i det. Hun omskriver første akt, genopfinder skurken som en plaget helt og Frozen bliver den mest successfulde animerede film nogensinde. Der er et simpelt budskab i i denne historie. Når du er i tvivl, så lad det ske.
Vuja de is when you look at something you've seen many times before and all of a sudden see it with fresh eyes. It's a screenwriter who looks at a movie script that can't get the green light for more than half a century. In every past version, the main character has been an evil queen. But Jennifer Lee starts to question whether that makes sense. She rewrites the first act, reinvents the villain as a tortured hero and Frozen becomes the most successful animated movie ever. So there's a simple message from this story. When you feel doubt, don't let it go.
(Latter)
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Hvad med frygt? Originaler føler også frygt. De er bange for at fejle, men det der adskiller dem fra os andre, er at de frygter, ikke at forsøge endnu mere. De ved, du kan fejle ved at startet et firma der går fallit, eller ved slet ikke at starte et firma. De ved at i det lange løb, er det ikke vores handlinger vi fortryder, men gangene vi ikke handlede. Det vi ønsker vi kunne gøre om, hvis du ser på videnskaben, er chancerne der ikke blev taget.
What about fear? Originals feel fear, too. They're afraid of failing, but what sets them apart from the rest of us is that they're even more afraid of failing to try. They know you can fail by starting a business that goes bankrupt or by failing to start a business at all. They know that in the long run, our biggest regrets are not our actions but our inactions. The things we wish we could redo, if you look at the science, are the chances not taken.
Elon Musk fortalte mig for nyligt, han ikke regnede med at Tesla ville lykkes. Han var sikker på at SpaceXs første opsendelser ikke vil nå i omløb, eller overhovedet nå tilbage, men det var for vigtigt til ikke at forsøge. Og som for så mange af os, når vi har en vigtig ide, forsøger vi ikke engang. Men der er godt nyt. Du vil ikke blive bedømt på dine dårlige ideer. Det tror mange. Hvis du kigger på forskellige brancher og spørger folk om deres største ideer, deres vigtigste forslag. Så sagde 85 procent ikke noget. De var bange for at gøre sig til grin, for at se dumme ud. Men ved I hvad? Originaler får masser af dårlige ideer, tonsvis, faktisk. Tag nu for eksempel fyren der opfandt den her. Tager I jer af at han opfandt en talende dukke, så uhyggelig at den skræmte både børn og voksne? Nej. I hædrer Thomas Edison for opfindelsen af lyspæren.
Elon Musk told me recently, he didn't expect Tesla to succeed. He was sure the first few SpaceX launches would fail to make it to orbit, let alone get back, but it was too important not to try. And for so many of us, when we have an important idea, we don't bother to try. But I have some good news for you. You are not going to get judged on your bad ideas. A lot of people think they will. If you look across industries and ask people about their biggest idea, their most important suggestion, 85 percent of them stayed silent instead of speaking up. They were afraid of embarrassing themselves, of looking stupid. But guess what? Originals have lots and lots of bad ideas, tons of them, in fact. Take the guy who invented this. Do you care that he came up with a talking doll so creepy that it scared not only kids but adults, too? No. You celebrate Thomas Edison for pioneering the light bulb.
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Ser vi på tværs af brancher, er de største originaler dem der fejlede mest, fordi de også forsøgte mest. Tag for eksempel klassiske komponister, de bedste af de bedste. Hvorfor får nogle af dem flere sider i leksikonerne end andre og får deres kompositioner genindspillet oftere? En af de bedste indikatorer er antallet af kompositioner de har genereret. Jo mere du producerer, jo mere variation får du og jo bedre er dine chancer for at falde over noget helt originalt. Selv de tre ikoner indenfor klassisk musik - Bach, Beethoven, Mozart - måtte generere flere hundreder af kompositioner for at skabe et meget mindre antal mesterstykker. Og så undrer du dig måske, hvordan blev den der fyr stor uden at lave specielt meget? Jeg ved ikke hvordan Wagner slap afsted med det. Men for de fleste af os, hvis vi vil være mere originale, bliver vi nødt til at generere flere ideer.
If you look across fields, the greatest originals are the ones who fail the most, because they're the ones who try the most. Take classical composers, the best of the best. Why do some of them get more pages in encyclopedias than others and also have their compositions rerecorded more times? One of the best predictors is the sheer volume of compositions that they generate. The more output you churn out, the more variety you get and the better your chances of stumbling on something truly original. Even the three icons of classical music -- Bach, Beethoven, Mozart -- had to generate hundreds and hundreds of compositions to come up with a much smaller number of masterpieces. Now, you may be wondering, how did this guy become great without doing a whole lot? I don't know how Wagner pulled that off. But for most of us, if we want to be more original, we have to generate more ideas.
Da grundlæggerne af Warby Parker skulle navngive deres firma, havde de brug for noget sofistikeret, unikt, uden negative associationer til at bygge deres forhandler brand, og de testede over 2000 muligheder inden de endelig satte Warby og Parker sammen. Så lægger du alt dette sammen, vil du se at originaler ikke er så anderledes end resten af os. De føler frygt og tvivl. De overspringer. De får dårlige ideer. Og til tider, er det ikke til trods for de kvaliteter men på grund af dem at de lykkes.
The Warby Parker founders, when they were trying to name their company, they needed something sophisticated, unique, with no negative associations to build a retail brand, and they tested over 2,000 possibilities before they finally put together Warby and Parker. So if you put all this together, what you see is that originals are not that different from the rest of us. They feel fear and doubt. They procrastinate. They have bad ideas. And sometimes, it's not in spite of those qualities but because of them that they succeed.
Så når du ser disse ting, så lav ikke same fejl som jeg gjorde. Affærdig dem ikke. Og når det er dig selv, så affærdig heller ikke dig selv. Vid at det at være en hurtig starter men langsom afslutter kan styrke din kreativitet, at du kan motivere dig selv ved at tvivle på dine ideer og ved at gribe angsten for at ikke forsøge, og at du behøver en masse dårlige ideer for at få et par gode.
So when you see those things, don't make the same mistake I did. Don't write them off. And when that's you, don't count yourself out either. Know that being quick to start but slow to finish can boost your creativity, that you can motivate yourself by doubting your ideas and embracing the fear of failing to try, and that you need a lot of bad ideas in order to get a few good ones.
At være original er ikke let, men jeg er helt sikker på dette: Det er den bedste måde at forbedre verden omkring os.
Look, being original is not easy, but I have no doubt about this: it's the best way to improve the world around us.
Tak.
Thank you.
(Applaus)
(Applause)