Reflections on TEDxUofM

I want to follow the footsteps of Jameson Toole and talk about a fantastic event that we were at recently. Last Friday (a week ago, already!), I was invited to speak at TEDxUofM, an independently organised TED event. TEDxUofM was completely student organised and executed. They did an absolutely amazing job. I want to thank Tom Crawford, Alex O'Dell, Kelsey Rhodes, Poonam Dagli, Alyssa Ackerman, Jane van Velden, Lia Wolock, Peter Kovits, and especially Victoria Johnson for all of the help and encouragement that they gave me leading up to and during the conference. I wouldn't have been able to do it without them. It turns out that it was the largest TEDx conference, ever. I am grateful for the opportunity they gave me; it was a wonderful experience, and the biggest honour I could imagine. The theme for this year's conference, staged at the Michigan Theater, was "Encouraging Crazy Ideas." Here is a beautiful video speaking about the event.

 

 Also check out the amazing intro video, all hand drawn, that was played at the beginning of the conference.

Michigan Theatre (from tedxuofm2011.posterous.com)

The speakers were absolutely amazing - doctors and musicians and illustrators and humans rights advocates. Donia Jarrar was one of the speakers. She's a musical composition student here, and she talked about her efforts in translating voicemail messages of people in Egypt during the recent revolution there. 

Donia Jarrar

Chris Van Allsberg talked about the story of the woman who decided to go over the Niagara Falls in a barrel.

Chris Van Allsburg

Jared Genser talked about his efforts to free prisoners of political dissent, all over the world. All of the speakers were current or former University of Michigan students or professors. Everyone had a connection to this incredible town, Ann Arbor.

I personally spoke about the power of individual action in combating large problems. Here is a picture that was put in The Michigan Daily. The "crazy idea" that I tried to communicate was that we don't need crazy ideas. We know all that we need to know to make huge strides towards treading lightly on this planet. (I will post the video as soon as it comes online.)

me

What was interesting about the topic of the conference, "Encouraging Crazy Ideas," is that each and everyone one of us is empowered to make the choice of truly committing to changing the status quo. This was reflected by all of the other speakers that spoke at the conference. Hopefully, such sentiments are the seeds that will grow into meaningful change in our world. As Erik Torenberg reflected in The Michigan Daily today,

"A completely student run event [like TEDx] is a crazy idea. Their phenomenal performances show what can happen when you put talented students from diverse backgrounds together for a common goal. There are more people who would like to make amazing things happen. Some were in the audience, some weren’t. 

At the reception following the lectures, I realized I wasn’t the only one who was inspired. Some friends and I talked about exciting things we could do within our organizations and on our own. We kept building off each other’s ideas, offering enthusiastic support and feedback. The energy was palpable. 

But what will happen next week when exams and papers consume our minds? What will happen when people tell us to be practical, and play it safe? Will this rekindled belief in our abilities to make something great happen fade? 

My friends and I spoke about this with some of the speakers and organizers of the event for more than an hour. How can we maintain this community of students, professors and alumni who want to make a big difference? Should it be organized formally or should it continue organically? How will we look back at TEDx in a few months? Will we see it as a genuine, perhaps revolutionary, call to action? Or merely a one-day performance?"


All I can say is that if you are willing to live the change, you will always find support, especially in a place like Ann Arbor.

On encouragement and reinforcement

It is natural for us to want to be told that what we are doing is good - hopefully, we want to be viewed as responsible, caring, loving and respectful to (at least some part of) this world. Some people will take this to mean that they will do whatever it takes to support their families, some may take this to mean that they will do whatever it takes to combat social injustice. Regardless, people want to be told that they are right, that they are doing good for themselves, their families and their communities, and hopefully our world. I would think that those interrogating new technologies want the encouragement of their peers and colleagues, even though to some of us those technologies as environmentally degrading. But it is clear that many if not most of our actions and behaviours are degrading the environment. How is it that people should be told that their actions are actually not in the best interest of the greater world outside of their families? How is it that we can change how people behave and change the social norms of what is acceptable?

Trash is a wonderful example of this. Many people may think that just making sure that your trash is thrown in a receptacle is good enough, and that that is the responsible thing to do. Putting trash in a receptacle means that you aren't littering, and that the containment of trash doesn't aesthetically degrade the surroundings. But trash is not a good thing, and the act of trashing is not a good thing. Poonam had the wonderfully simple idea of changing signage on trash cans - instead of having them say "Trash," she proposed that they should say "To Landfill." It seems like just a change of words would have a huge impact on people's behaviour and perception of their actions. I arrived at Georgia Tech just a couple of days ago, and one of the first things I noticed was this...

How wonderful! Not only are words being used, but pictures, impactful ones, are being used to hopefully get people thinking about their actions. I contacted the building manager, and he has now put me in touch with the administrator in facilities and operations to see what it took to do this, and how this change has affected behaviour of people using the receptacles.

I do believe that it takes "negative" images and thoughts and problems to encourage us to action. That is not a surprise. But how might we be open to criticism in our responses to these problems? This is a fundamental issue with environmentalism. In a technologically driven world, in a world based on natural resource extraction, our approaches to solving environmental and social issues are founded on these very principles. By encouraging these approaches and making people "feel good" about them, we reinforce ideas that just aren't sustainable. I struggle with this, and I wonder where the balance lies between the positive forms of encouragement ("What you are doing is good.") to negative forms of encouragement ("What you are doing is not good."). How do you tell people? How do you convince people? 

First of all, of course, I must be open to such criticisms, and if you have any, please, please tell me.

Reflections on the year: Who I am surrounded by

Experiences come in two forms, shared and personal. Yet it seems to me that unless you live in solitude, even the most personal experiences are necessarily shared. There is no way to stop all of the external forces that influence your thoughts and your actions. There is also no way to stop your influence on those around you. In some sense, no experience is personal. To me, the only experiences worth having are those that are common, shared and mutual.

I started this project close to a year ago with little idea of what it might mean to me. I undertook it solely as a way to see how far I could go in walking my talk, or to see how much further I needed to go; I thought this a personal project. But the credit for the birth of this blog goes to others - Andrew and Margo, who convinced me to start writing late last spring during a conversation on a beautiful day on the Diag. Furthermore, most of what has been written about has in some way been sparked by conversations with other people about at times seemingly unrelated things. I can therefore in no way take credit for everything that you may have read - the people that surround me that have provided constant encouragement and meaning and provocation. Clearly, there is much further to go in though and action, because I realised things and learned about things that I didn't think existed. Writing about this project has really made me more aware of my surroundings, and the ways in which humans influence their environment.

If you are thinking of a project of your own, don't hesitate to get it underway. You will be surprised by the enthusiasm others will share with you.

I am hoping that you will continue to share your thoughts with me and with others. And thanks.

The Self-Repair Manifesto and proxies

I have written a few times (here, here and here) on the notion of proxies, i.e. how we manage to have other people do for us many of the things that either we should know to do ourselves (What does it take to grow the food we eat? What does it take to mend a torn shirt?), or how we manage to have other people take care of things in such a way that we lose sensitivity to them (Where does our trash go? What happens to it?). What ends up happening is that we lose control over things that should be under our control, because the people and entities we give proxies to (many times) don't make decisions for our (and our planet's) well-being. They make decisions for their well-being (Who thought it would be a good idea to plant monocultures? Why can't we stop other people's trash coming into our backyards?). It is time to take back these proxies, so that we can live knowing confidently that no carcinogenic chemicals are applied to our foods and that no e-waste has to dealt with by poor people.

One way of doing this is knowing how to fix things ourselves. Indeed, if we know how to fix things, we don't have to rely on mechanics and companies to do the jobs for us, with at times exorbitant costs that make it cheaper (monetarily) in some sense to buy a new item. Arnab introduced me to the Self-Repair Manifesto, which is a free repair manual anyone can edit. There are instructions on how to repair computers, game consoles, phones, vehicles, cameras, and household appliances. Here is what the website says:

• Repair is better than recycling - making our things last longer is both more efficient and more cost-effective than mining them from raw materials.
• Repair saves the planet - Earth has limited resources and we can't run a linear manufacturing process forever. The best way to be efficient is to reuse what we already have!
• Repair saves you money - fixing things is often free, and usually cheaper than replacing them. Doing the repair yourself saves you serious dough.
• Repair teaches engineering - the best way to find out how something works is to take it apart.
• If you can't fix it, you don't own it - repair connects people with devices, creating bonds that transcend consumption. Self-repair is sustainable.

The point of this Manifesto is self-empowerment and encouragement. We can do things ourselves, avoiding waste and trash and environmental and social harm. Furthermore, as the last bullet item states, investing in something connects you to it, and makes it less likely that you will trash something, which may increase in value to you the more you invest in it. (Lia will be writing more about this soon - objects, sentimentality and trash.)