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."
Kad je Doroti bila devojčica, fascinirala je njena zlatna ribica. Njen otac joj je objasnio da ribe plivaju tako što brzo mašu repom kako bi se otisnule kroz vodu. Bez oklevanja, malena Doroti je odgovorila: "Da, tata, a ribe plivaju unazad mašući svojim glavama."
(Laughter)
(Smeh)
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 bila činjenica istinita kao i sve druge. Ribe plivaju unazad, vrteći svojim glavama. Verovala 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 su puni riba koje plivaju unazad. Pravimo pretpostavke i falične zamahe logike. Gajimo pristrasnost. Znamo da smo u pravu, a da oni nisu. Strahujemo od najgoreg. Težimo nedostižnom savršenstvu. Govorimo sebi šta možemo, a šta ne možemo. U našim umovima, ribe plivaju unazad mahnito mašući svojim glavama i mi ih ni ne primećujemo.
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 meni. Jedna od njih nije tačna. Prva: diplomirao sam na Harvardu sa 19 uz počasnu diplomu iz matematike. Druga: trenutno upravljam građevinskom firmom u Orlandu. Treća: glumio sam u TV sitkomu. Četvrta: izgubio sam vid zbog retkog genetskog oboljenja oka. Peta: radio sam kao pravni službenik u dva Vrhovna suda pravde u SAD-u. Koja činjenica nije tačna? Zapravo, sve su tačne. Da, sve su tačne.
(Applause)
(Aplauz)
At this point, most people really only care about the television show.
Sada većinu ljudi zaista interesuje jedino televizijska serija.
(Laughter)
(Smeh)
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. U redu, radi se o seriji sa NBC-ja "Zvono kao spas: novi razred". Glumio sam Vizela Vajzela, koji je bio nekakav tunjavi, štrebasti lik u seriji, zbog čega je to bio veliki glumački izazov za mene kao trinaestogodišnjaka.
(Laughter)
(Smeh)
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.
Sad, da li vas muči broj četiri, moje slepilo? Zašto je to tako? Pravimo pretpostavke o takozvanim invaliditetima. Kao slep čovek, suočen sam sa tuđim netačnim pretpostavkama svakodnevno o mojim sposobnostima. Međutim, svrha moje priče danas nije o mom slepilu. Već o mom vidu. Gubitak vida me je naučio da živim širom otvorenih očiju. Naučilo me je da primećujem ribe koje plivaju unazad, a koje tvore naši mozgovi. Slepilo ih je izbacilo na videlo.
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 osećaj videti? Trenutan je i pasivan. Otvorite oči i svet je tu. Verujete u ono što vidite. Vid je istina. Je li tako? Pa, tako sam 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.
Zatim su mi mrežnjače počele progresivno da propadaju od 12 do 15 godine. Vid mi je postajao sve bizarnija sala karnevalske kuće zabave od ogledala i iluzija. Prodavac koga mi je bilo drago što vidim u radnji je zapravo bio lutka. Posežući da operem ruke, iznenada bih uvideo da dodirujem bide, a ne lavabo, kad bi mi prsti osetili njegov oblik. Prijatelj bi mi opisao fotografiju u ruci, i tek onda bih mogao da vidim prizor na njoj. Objekti su se pojavljivali, menjali oblik i nestajali u mojoj stvarnosti. Bilo je teško i iscrpljujuće gledati. Lepio sam iskomadane, nepostojane slike, svesno analizirajući tragove, tragao sam za logikom u svom izmrvljenom kaleidoskopu, dok nisam skroz obnevideo.
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.
Shvatio sam da ono što vidimo nije univerzalna istina. Nije objektivna stvarnost. Ono što vidimo je jedinstvena, lična, virtuelna stvarnost koja je majstorski sazdana u našem mozgu.
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.
Objasniću vam to uz pomoć amaterske neuronauke. Vaš vizuelni korteks zauzima oko 30 procenata vašeg mozga. To je u poređenju sa otprilike osam procenata za dodir i dva do tri procenta za sluh. Svake sekunde vaše oči mogu da pošalju vizuelnom korteksu skoro dve milijarde jedinica informacija. Ostatak vašeg tela može poslati mozgu tek dodatnih milijardu. Dakle, vid je jedna trećina zapremine vašeg mozga i može da zauzme oko dve trećine resursa za obradu podataka vašeg mozga. Ne iznenađuje onda što je iluzija vida tako neodoljiva. Ali ne zavaravajte se: 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.
Evo šta je zanimljivo. Kako bi stvorio doživljaj vida, vaš mozak vas upućuje na konceptualno razumevanje sveta, druga saznanja, vaša sećanja, mišljenja, osećanja, mentalnu pažnju. Sve ovo i štošta više je u vašem umu povezano s vidom. Ove veze funkcionišu obostrano, i često se dešavaju podsvesno. Te, na prmer, ono što vidite utiče na to kako se osećate, a to kako se osećate bukvalno može da promeni ono što vdite. Brojna istraživanja to pokazuju. Ukoliko bi vam zatražili da procenite brzinu hoda čoveka na video snimku, na primer, na vaš odgovor bi uticala sugestija da razmišljate o gepardima ili kornjačama. Brdo izgleda strmije, ako ste upravo vežbali, a orijentir se čini daljim, ako nosite težak ranac. Stigli smo do temeljne protivrečnosti. Ono što vidite je složena mentalna konstrukcija čiji ste vi tvorac, ali doživljavate je pasivno kao direktnu predstavu sveta oko vas. Stvarate sopstvenu stvarnost i verujete u nju. Ja sam verovao u svoju, dok se nije raspala. Propadanje mog vida je razbilo 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 tek jedan od načina na koji oblikujemo našu stvarnost. Stvaramo sopstvene stvarnosti na razne druge načine. Uzmimo strah kao jedan od primera. Vaši strahovi izobličavaju vašu stvarnost. Pod izvitoperenom logikom straha, sve je bolje od neizvesnosti. Strah po svaku cenu ispunjava prazninu, podmeće vam vaše bojazni kao saznanja, nudi vam najgore, umesto nesigurnosti, menjajući pretpostavke za razum. Psiholozi imaju sjajan termin za to - užasavanje.
(Laughter)
(Smeh)
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.
Tačno? Strah zamenjuje nepoznato užasom. Sad, strah je samoevidentan. Kad ste suočeni sa najvećom potrebom da pogledate izvan sebe i razmišljate kritički, strah pobeđuje utočište duboko u vašem umu, skupljajući i izopačavajući vaš vid, potapajući vašu sposobnost kritičkog mišljenja poplavom nekontrolisanih emocija. Kada ste suočeni sa izazovnom šansom da delate, strah vas uljuljkava u nedelanje, mami vas da pasivno posmatrate kako se njegova proročanstva obistinjuju.
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.
Kad mi je dijagnostikovana bolest slepila, znao sam da će mi slepilo uništiti život. Slepilo je bilo smrtna presuda za moju nezavisnost. Tu je bio kraj mojim postignućima. Slepilo je značilo da ću da živim, beznačajan život, skučen i otužan i da ću verovatno biti sam. Znao sam to. To je bila fikcija rođena iz mog straha, ali sam verovao u nju. To je bila laž, ali je to bila moja stvarnost, baš kao i te ribe koje plivaju unazad u umu malene Doroti. Da se nisam suočio sa stvarnošću mojih strahova, proživeo bih ih. U to sam siguran.
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.
Pa, kako da živite svoj život očiju širom otvorenih? To je disciplina koja se uči. Može da se nauči. Može da se praktikuje. Sažeću je veoma 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.
Smatrajte sebe odgovornim za svaki trenutak, svaku misao, svaki detalj. Gledajte mimo vaših strahova. Prepoznajte svoje pretpostavke. Upregnite unutrašnju snagu. Utišajte kritičara u vama samima. Ispravljajte vaše zablude o sreći i o uspehu. Prihvatite svoju snagu i svoju slabost, i razumejte razliku među njima. Otvorite vaša srca za obilje blagoslova.
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 - oni su vaši izgovori, racionalizacije, prečice, opravdanja, vaša predaja. Oni su fikcije koje doživljavate kao stvarnost. Voljno ih prozrite. Voljno ih se rešite. Vi ste tvorac vaše stvarnosti. S tim osnaženjem 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.
Voljno sam iskoračio iz tunela straha na neistražen i neodređen teren. Izabrao sam da tu sagradim blagosloven život. Nimalo usamljen, delim svoj divni život sa Doroti, mojom prelepom suprugom, sa našim trojkama, koje zovemo Tripskijima i sa najnovijom porodičnom prinovom, preslatkom bebom Klementinom.
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 plašite? Koje laži sebi govorite? Kako ulepšavate vaše istine i pišete sopstvene fikcije? Kakvu stvarnost kreirate 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 vašim karijerama i privatnom životu, u vašim vezama, i u vašim srcima i dušama, vaše ribe koje plivaju unazad vam nanose veliku štetu. Ostavljaju danak u propuštenim šansama i u nerealizovanom potencijalu, i uzrokuju nesigurnost i nepoverenje, tamo gde tražite ispunjenost i povezanost. Pozivam vas da ih istražite.
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.
Helen Keler je rekla da je jedino gore od slepila imati vid, ali ne videti. Meni je slepilo bilo istinski blagoslov jer mi je slepilo podarilo vid. Nadam se da vidite isto što i ja.
Thank you.
Hvala vam.
(Applause)
(Aplauz)
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 Đuzani: Isače, pre nego napustiš scenu, samo jedno pitanje. U ovoj publici su preduzetnici, delatnici, izumitelji. Ti si izvršni direktor firme, dole u Floridi, i verovatno se mnogi pitaju kako je to biti slepi izvršni direktor? Koji su to specifični izazovi koje imaš i kako ih savlađuješ?
Isaac Lidsky: Well, the biggest challenge became a blessing. I don't get visual feedback from people.
Isak Lidski: Pa, najveći izazov je postao blagoslov. Ne dobijam vizuelne povratne informacije od ljudi.
(Laughter)
(Smeh)
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.
BĐ: Kakva je buka tamo? IL: Da. Pa, na primer, na sastancima ekipe rukovodilaca, ne vidim izraze lica ili gestove. Naučio sam da tražim što više verbalnih povratnih informacija. U suštini primoravam ljude da mi kažu šta misle. I u tom smislu, to je postalo, kao što sam rekao, istinski blagoslov za mene i moju firmu jer komuniciramo na daleko višem nivou, izbegavamo dvosimslenosti, i što je najvažnije, moja ekipa zna da je njihovo mišljenje uistinu važno.
BG: Isaac, thank you for coming to TED. IL: Thank you, Bruno.
BĐ: Isače, Hvala što si došao na TED. IL: Hvala tebi, Bruno.
(Applause)
(Aplauz)