When Dorothy was a little girl, she was fascinated by her goldfish. Her father explained to her that fish swim by quickly wagging their tails to propel themselves through the water. Without hesitation, little Dorothy responded, "Yes, Daddy, and fish swim backwards by wagging their heads."
Kada je Dorothy bila malena djevojčica, fascinirale su je njene zlatne ribice. Njen otac joj je objasnio da ribe brzo plivaju mašući repom da bi se pokretale kroz vodu. Bez oklijevanja, malena Dorothy odgovorila je "Da, tata, a ribe plivaju unatrag mašući glavama."
(Laughter)
(Smijeh)
In her mind, it was a fact as true as any other. Fish swim backwards by wagging their heads. She believed it.
U njenom umu, to je činjenica koja je istinita kao svaka druga. Ribe plivaju unatrag mašući glavom. Vjerovala je u to.
Our lives are full of fish swimming backwards. We make assumptions and faulty leaps of logic. We harbor bias. We know that we are right, and they are wrong. We fear the worst. We strive for unattainable perfection. We tell ourselves what we can and cannot do. In our minds, fish swim by in reverse frantically wagging their heads and we don't even notice them.
Naši životi puni su riba koje plivaju unatrag. Radimo pretpostavke i krive zaključke. Zadržavamo predrasude. Znamo da smo mi u pravu, a oni su u krivu. Bojimo se najgoreg. Težimo nedostižnoj savršenosti. Govorimo si što možemo i što ne. U našim umovima, ribe plivaju unatrag mašući glavama i mi ih ni ne primjetimo.
I'm going to tell you five facts about myself. One fact is not true. One: I graduated from Harvard at 19 with an honors degree in mathematics. Two: I currently run a construction company in Orlando. Three: I starred on a television sitcom. Four: I lost my sight to a rare genetic eye disease. Five: I served as a law clerk to two US Supreme Court justices. Which fact is not true? Actually, they're all true. Yeah. They're all true.
Reći ću vam pet činjenica o sebi. Jedna činjenica nije točna. Prva: Diplomirao sam s Harvarda s 19, sa diplomom iz matematike. Druga: Trenutno vodim građevinsku tvrtku u Orlandu. Tri: Glumio sam u TV seriji. Četiri: Izgubio sam vid zbog rijetke genetske bolesti. Pet: bio sam činovnik kod dva suca Američkog Vrhovnog Suda. Koja činjenica nije istinita? Pa zapravo, sve su istinite. Da. One su sve istinite.
(Applause)
(Pljesak)
At this point, most people really only care about the television show.
U ovom trenutku, većinu ljudi zanima samo tv serija.
(Laughter)
(Smijeh)
I know this from experience. OK, so the show was NBC's "Saved by the Bell: The New Class." And I played Weasel Wyzell, who was the sort of dorky, nerdy character on the show, which made it a very major acting challenge for me as a 13-year-old boy.
Znam to iz iskustva. Ok, serija je bila NBC-jeva "Spasilo ih zvono: Novi razred." A ja sam bio Weasel Wyzell, koji je lik šmokljana u seriji, što je za mene bio veliki glumački izazov, jer sam imao 13 godina.
(Laughter)
(Smijeh)
Now, did you struggle with number four, my blindness? Why is that? We make assumptions about so-called disabilities. As a blind man, I confront others' incorrect assumptions about my abilities every day. My point today is not about my blindness, however. It's about my vision. Going blind taught me to live my life eyes wide open. It taught me to spot those backwards-swimming fish that our minds create. Going blind cast them into focus.
Da li ste se mučili s brojem četiri, mojom sljepoćom? Zašto je to tako? Radimo pretpostavke o takozvanim invalidnostima. Kao slijepac, susrećem se sa netočnim pretpostavkama o mojim sposobnostima svakog dana. No, ja danas ne pričam o svojoj sljepoći. Pričam o svom vidu. Oslijepivši, naučio sam živjeti život širom otvorenih očiju. Naučilo me da uočim te ribe koje plivaju unatraške, koje naš um stvara. Oslijepivši, te ribe su došle u fokus.
What does it feel like to see? It's immediate and passive. You open your eyes and there's the world. Seeing is believing. Sight is truth. Right? Well, that's what I thought.
Kakav je osjećaj gledati? Neposredno je i pasivno. Otvorite oči i svijet je tu. Vidjeti je vjerovati. Vid je istina. Zar ne? Pa, to sam i ja mislio.
Then, from age 12 to 25, my retinas progressively deteriorated. My sight became an increasingly bizarre carnival funhouse hall of mirrors and illusions. The salesperson I was relieved to spot in a store was really a mannequin. Reaching down to wash my hands, I suddenly saw it was a urinal I was touching, not a sink, when my fingers felt its true shape. A friend described the photograph in my hand, and only then I could see the image depicted. Objects appeared, morphed and disappeared in my reality. It was difficult and exhausting to see. I pieced together fragmented, transitory images, consciously analyzed the clues, searched for some logic in my crumbling kaleidoscope, until I saw nothing at all.
Onda, od 12 do 25 godine rožnice su mi propadale. Moj vid postajao je sve čudnija karnevalska kuća zabave sa ogledalima i iluzijama. Prodavač kojeg sam s radošću pronašao u trgovini bila je zapravo lutka. Pokušavajući oprati ruke, shvatio sam da sam ruke stavio u pisoar, a ne umivaonik, kada su moji prsti osjetili stvarni oblik. Prijatelj mi je opisao fotografiju u mojoj ruci i tek onda sam mogao vidjeti opisanu sliku,. Predmeti su bili izobličeni i nestajali su u mojoj stvarnosti. Bilo je teško i iscrpljujuće gledati. Spajao sam fragmentirane, prijelazne slike, svjesno analizirao tragove, tražio smisao u mom kaleidoskopu koji se raspadao, dok nisam vidio ništa,
I learned that what we see is not universal truth. It is not objective reality. What we see is a unique, personal, virtual reality that is masterfully constructed by our brain.
i naučio sam da ono što vidimo nije univerzalna istina. To nije objektivna stvarnost. Ono što vidimo je jedinstvena, osobna, virtualna stvarnost koju naš mozak vješto konstruira.
Let me explain with a bit of amateur neuroscience. Your visual cortex takes up about 30 percent of your brain. That's compared to approximately eight percent for touch and two to three percent for hearing. Every second, your eyes can send your visual cortex as many as two billion pieces of information. The rest of your body can send your brain only an additional billion. So sight is one third of your brain by volume and can claim about two thirds of your brain's processing resources. It's no surprise then that the illusion of sight is so compelling. But make no mistake about it: sight is an illusion.
Dozvolite da vam objasnim nešto o amaterskoj neuroznanosti. Vaš vizualni korteks zauzima oko 30 posto vašeg mozga. To je u usporedbi s otprilike osam posto za dodir i dva do tri posto za sluh. Svake sekunde, vaše oči mogu poslati vašem vizualnom koreteksu do 2 milijarde komada informacija. Ostatak tijela šalje samo još milijardu. Vid je jedna trećina mozga u volumenu i može zauzeti dvije trećine resursa za procesuiranje vašeg mozga. Onda nije iznenađujuće da je iluzija vida tako privlačna. Ali ne griješite: vid je iluzija.
Here's where it gets interesting. To create the experience of sight, your brain references your conceptual understanding of the world, other knowledge, your memories, opinions, emotions, mental attention. All of these things and far more are linked in your brain to your sight. These linkages work both ways, and usually occur subconsciously. So for example, what you see impacts how you feel, and the way you feel can literally change what you see. Numerous studies demonstrate this. If you are asked to estimate the walking speed of a man in a video, for example, your answer will be different if you're told to think about cheetahs or turtles. A hill appears steeper if you've just exercised, and a landmark appears farther away if you're wearing a heavy backpack. We have arrived at a fundamental contradiction. What you see is a complex mental construction of your own making, but you experience it passively as a direct representation of the world around you. You create your own reality, and you believe it. I believed mine until it broke apart. The deterioration of my eyes shattered the illusion.
Ovdje postaje zanimljivo. Kako biste stvorili iskustvo vida, vaš mozak referira se na vaše konceptualno shvaćanje svijeta, drugo znanje, kao sjećanja, mišljenja, emocije, pozornost. Sve te stvari i puno više povezani su u mozgu s vašim vidom. Ove veze rade u oba smjera, i najčešće se javljaju podsvjesno. Na primjer, ono što vidite utječe na to kako se osjećate, i to kako se osjećate može doslovno promijeniti što vidite. Brojne studije demonstriraju ovo. Ako vas pitaju da procijenite brzinu čovjeka u videu, na primjer, vaš odgovor će biti drugačiji ako vam kažu da mislite o leopardima ili kornjačama. Brdo je strmije ako ste upravo vježbali, i znamenitost izgleda dalje ako nosite težak ruksak. Stigli smo do fundametalne proturječnosti. Ono što vidite je složena mentalna konstrukcija vaše izrade, ali ju doživljavate pasivno kao direktnu reprezentaciju svijeta oko vas. Stvarate vlastitu realnost i vjerujete u nju. U svoju sam vjerovao dok se nije raspala. Propadanje mojih očiju razbilo je tu iluziju.
You see, sight is just one way we shape our reality. We create our own realities in many other ways. Let's take fear as just one example. Your fears distort your reality. Under the warped logic of fear, anything is better than the uncertain. Fear fills the void at all costs, passing off what you dread for what you know, offering up the worst in place of the ambiguous, substituting assumption for reason. Psychologists have a great term for it: awfulizing.
Vidite, vid je samo jedan način na koji oblikujemo svoju stvarnost. Stvaramo vlastitu stvarnost na razne načine. Uzmimo strah kao jedan primjer. Vaši strahovi iskrivljuju vašu strvarnost. Pod iskrivljenom logikom straha, sve je bolje od nesigurnosti. Strah ispunjava prazninu pod svaku cijenu, mjenjajući ono čega se bojite za ono što vam je poznato, nudeći najgore u zamjenu za ono nejasno, zamjenjujući pretpostavku razumom. Psiholozi imaju odličan izraz za to: awfuzling.
(Laughter)
(Smijeh)
Right? Fear replaces the unknown with the awful. Now, fear is self-realizing. When you face the greatest need to look outside yourself and think critically, fear beats a retreat deep inside your mind, shrinking and distorting your view, drowning your capacity for critical thought with a flood of disruptive emotions. When you face a compelling opportunity to take action, fear lulls you into inaction, enticing you to passively watch its prophecies fulfill themselves.
Zar ne? Strah mijenja nepoznato užasnim. Sad, strah je samoostvarujući. Kada se suočite s najvećom potrebom da pogledate izvan sebe i razmišljate kritički, strah pobjeđuje povlačenje u vlastiti um, smanjujući i iskrivljujući vaš pogled, utapajući vaš kapacitet za kritičko razmišljanje sa poplavom disruptivnih emocija. Kada se suočite s prilikom za djelovanje strah vas uljuljka u nedjelovanje, potičući vas da pasivno gledate kako se proročanstva ispunjavaju.
When I was diagnosed with my blinding disease, I knew blindness would ruin my life. Blindness was a death sentence for my independence. It was the end of achievement for me. Blindness meant I would live an unremarkable life, small and sad, and likely alone. I knew it. This was a fiction born of my fears, but I believed it. It was a lie, but it was my reality, just like those backwards-swimming fish in little Dorothy's mind. If I had not confronted the reality of my fear, I would have lived it. I am certain of that.
Kada su mi dijagnosticirali moju osjepljujuću bolest, znao sam da će mi sljepoća uništiti život. Sljepoća je bila smrtna kazna za moju neovisnost. To je bio kraj postizanja za mene. Sljepoća je značila da ću živjeti nedojmljiv život, mali i tužan, i najvjerojatnije sam. Znao sam to. To je bila fikcija stvorena iz straha, ali vjerovao sam u nju. Bila je laž, ali moja stvarnost. Kao one ribe koje plivaju unatrag u umu male Dorothy. Da se nisam suočio sa stvarnošću mojih strahova, živio bih ga. Siguran sam u to.
So how do you live your life eyes wide open? It is a learned discipline. It can be taught. It can be practiced. I will summarize very briefly.
Kako živite život širom otvorenih očiju? To je naučena disciplina. Može ju se naučiti. Može se vježbati. Sumirat ću je kratko.
Hold yourself accountable for every moment, every thought, every detail. See beyond your fears. Recognize your assumptions. Harness your internal strength. Silence your internal critic. Correct your misconceptions about luck and about success. Accept your strengths and your weaknesses, and understand the difference. Open your hearts to your bountiful blessings.
Budite odgovorni za svaki trenutak, svaku misao, svaki detalj. Gledajte dalje od strahova. Prepoznajte svoje pretpostavke. Prikupite nutarnju snagu. Utišajte unutarnjeg kritičara. Ispravite svoje krive pretpostavke o uspjehu i sreći. Prihvatite svoje snage i slabosti, i shvatite razliku. Otvorite vaša srca vašim mnogim blagoslovima.
Your fears, your critics, your heroes, your villains -- they are your excuses, rationalizations, shortcuts, justifications, your surrender. They are fictions you perceive as reality. Choose to see through them. Choose to let them go. You are the creator of your reality. With that empowerment comes complete responsibility.
Vaši strahovi, vaše kritike, vaši heroji, vaši zlikovci -- sve su to vaše isprike, racionalizacije, prečaci, opravdanja, vaša predaja. To su fikcije koje prihvaćate kao stvarnost. Odaberite da gledate kroz njih. Odaberite da ih pustite. Vi ste kreator vaše stvarnosti. Sa tim osnaživanjem dolazi potpuna odgovornost.
I chose to step out of fear's tunnel into terrain uncharted and undefined. I chose to build there a blessed life. Far from alone, I share my beautiful life with Dorothy, my beautiful wife, with our triplets, whom we call the Tripskys, and with the latest addition to the family, sweet baby Clementine.
Odlučio sam iskoračiti iz tunela straha u teren koji nije mapiran niti definiran. Odabrao sam tamo izgraditi blagoslovljen život. Nisam bio sam, svoj život dijelim s Dorothy, mojom ženom, našim trojkama koje zovemo Tripskys, i sa najnovijim dodatkom našoj obitelji, malom bebom Clementine.
What do you fear? What lies do you tell yourself? How do you embellish your truth and write your own fictions? What reality are you creating for yourself?
Čega se bojite? Koje si laži govorite? Kako odbacujete vlastitu istinu i pišete vlastitu fikciju? Koju stvarnost stvarate za sebe?
In your career and personal life, in your relationships, and in your heart and soul, your backwards-swimming fish do you great harm. They exact a toll in missed opportunities and unrealized potential, and they engender insecurity and distrust where you seek fulfillment and connection. I urge you to search them out.
U vašoj karijeri i osobnom životu, u vašim vezama, i u vašem srcu i duši, vaše ribe koje plivaju unatrag čine vam veliko zlo. Naplaćuju vam putarinu u promašenim prilikama i neostvarenom potencijalu, i one utjelovljuju nesigurnost i nepovjerenje gdje tražite ispunjenje i povezivanje. Pozivam vas da ih potražite
Helen Keller said that the only thing worse than being blind is having sight but no vision. For me, going blind was a profound blessing, because blindness gave me vision. I hope you can see what I see.
Hellen Keller rekla je da je jedina gora stvar od sljepoće imati vid ali ne imati viziju. Za mene je sljepoća bila istinski blagoslov jer mi je sljepoća dala viziju. Nadam se da možete vidjeti ono što ja vidim.
Thank you.
Hvala vam.
(Applause)
(Pljesak)
Bruno Giussani: Isaac, before you leave the stage, just a question. This is an audience of entrepreneurs, of doers, of innovators. You are a CEO of a company down in Florida, and many are probably wondering, how is it to be a blind CEO? What kind of specific challenges do you have, and how do you overcome them?
Bruno Giussani: Isaac, prije nego odeš s pozornice, samo pitanje. Ovo je publika poduzetnika, činitelja, inovatora. Ti si direktor tvrtke u Floridi i mnogi se pitaju, kako je to biti slijepi direktor? Kakve specifične izazove imaš i kako ih prevladavaš?
Isaac Lidsky: Well, the biggest challenge became a blessing. I don't get visual feedback from people.
Isaac Lidsky: Pa, najveći izazov postao je blagoslov. Ja ne vidim reakcije ljudi.
(Laughter)
(Smijeh)
BG: What's that noise there? IL: Yeah. So, for example, in my leadership team meetings, I don't see facial expressions or gestures. I've learned to solicit a lot more verbal feedback. I basically force people to tell me what they think. And in this respect, it's become, like I said, a real blessing for me personally and for my company, because we communicate at a far deeper level, we avoid ambiguities, and most important, my team knows that what they think truly matters.
BG: Kakva je to buka tamo? IL: Da Na primjer, na timskim sastancima vodstva, ne vidim geste ili izrae lica. Naučio sam tražiti više usmenih povratnih informacija. U osnovi tjeram ljude da mi kažu što misle. I u tom smislu, postalo je, kako rekoh, pravi blagoslov za mene i tvrtku, jer komuniciramo na puno dubljem nivou kako bi izbjegli dvosmislenost, i najvažnije od svega, moj tim zna da ono što misle jest zaista bitno.
BG: Isaac, thank you for coming to TED. IL: Thank you, Bruno.
BG: Isaac, hvala ti što si došao na TED. IL: Hvala tebi, Bruno.
(Applause)
(Pljesak)