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Every time we embark on an adventure, whether it be traveling or learning a language...
exploring a new culture can open our minds. It can...
transform us. There is an important kind of transformation that takes place...
when we learn to choose how to interpret experiences.
So, the same way we pick a software in a computer...
in an Apple, in an iPad, we can choose how to process experiences and know...
this will greatly impact our quality of life, because we suffer...
running the wrong software. And this is what I will talk about today. I'll use...
some personal adventures to illustrate what I want to say. I was born in Vila Mariana.
It is nice to be back. When I was around that age, my dad, a photographer...
decided to move to Brasília to try his luck. We sold everything and left...
on our first adventure. It started there. That was all: Palácio da Alvorada.
1960. And it was a great adventure. It was positive, my dad was great.
His investments turned out just fine. He opened a bar.
Although it went well, he sold it and opened up a store...
for imported items, which was even better. He had status, influential friends.
He was the president of the Japanese community in Brasilia. Life was awesome.
I felt like a little prince in a fairy tale. We went on vacations...
twice a year, 30 days each time. My best friend in 5th grade was...
Oscar Niemeyer's grandson. I used to play in his house. In 7th grade...
My best friend was The Central Bank's president's son. Even Nelson Piquet...
who was just Nelsinho back then, used to come play with the race car set at the store.
I even went to the orthodontist, which was very unusual back then.
But the dreamy life, in 1968, when military dictatorship shut down the Congress...
That life was over, and we went on to our next adventure , which was...
the opposite. My dad was broke, we came back to S. Paulo. It would've been a shame...
to stay in Brasília. He had no credit, we had no money. He borrowed...
some money from relatives and opened a small bar...
in the suburbs, in Ferreira. We sold coffee, bread and butter.
At night, "cachaça" for drunk people who were always getting into fights.
For my dad, that wasn't life. Compared to what he had in Brasilia...
he couldn't take it. In less than one year, he gave up.
He didn't even try to sell the bar. He just walked away. A friend...
A friend of the family said that selling chicken would make us money
He borrowed more money and opened a poultry place in Bexiga.
We started selling chicken. I can debone a chicken in 2.5 minutes till today.
In this life, we had some tricks: you'd leave a little bit of blood...
in the scale platter to add 40, 50 grams per sale.
In the end of the month, that means $200 extra profit. But that...
for my dad, it was not the idea of success. And I agreed. Geez...
it was embarrassing. I was dealing with chicken blood. What would my friends...
think of me? And my dad gave up again. And that was it. A downward spiral...
until a day in September. I remember it was my last year in high school.
When we opened up the fridge, there wasn't much food. I had...
32 cavities and no money to treat them. My dad had tears in his eyes...
and felt like a failure. He said, "Enio, we can't pay your school."
"I'm sorry, son." In that school, if you didn't pay, you didn't enter, so...
I dropped out in my senior year. And we parted ways in our adventures.
I have moved to 16 different cities, in 4 countries. So, I've had...
many ups and downs. And I got to a point when I started thinking...
"My dad, in Sao Paulo, wanted the life he had in Brasilia.
He didn't want to sell chicken. But what about me? Did I change?
Have I learned? Have all these adventures helped me go through...
any significant change?" As I didn't know the answer, I decided to meditate in a retreat.
You stay there for 10 days. You sit to meditate 7 times a day, 1 hour at a time.
In the 5th day, they ask you to sit and try not to move.
I thought that would be easy. You sit in the position...
of full lotus. I thought it would be cool, but, after 27 minutes...
your knee hurts so much, you think your bone is going to break.
It's tough! It feels like it's burning. I hated the pain, felt like...
an idiot meditating. But I endured it. I didn't know why, but I took it.
The following day, after 5 days of vegetarian food...
tasteless food, on the 6th day, they serve Mexican food. I love spices!
I ate it. It was jalapenos, but I ate them! Finally, it was heaven...
a heavenly taste! Then, in the middle of the lunch, it hit me.
The pepper burnt my mouth the same way the meditation burned my knees.
It is like fire: it really burns. But, for the knee, I didn't like it.
That, I didn't want. For the mouth, I wanted more, I liked it.
It was just in my head! I realized my dad and I had suffered so much...
for not wanting what we had, thinking only other things were good. My dad remained...
in that vicious circle for 22 years, wanting what he didn't have...
that life in Brasília. And not wanting what he had going on...
in his life. He died after 22 years, depressed, feeling like a failure...
And I thought about my own life. Was it different? How was my life?
How has my life been? My life was... I always put things in charts.
Always in twos: I want, I don't want, I have, I don't have.
If I want what I have, I'm happy. If I want what I don't have, unhappy.
If I don't want what I have, unhappy. If I don't want what I don't have, ok.
Then, I don't care. But my life was 25% in each one of these.
Statistically, I'm screwed! What am I to do? Then again...
do we have to live like this: I want, I don't want, this is good, this is bad?
And I started thinking about that life of ups and downs. If I could see my life...
in a slightly different perspective, if I could take that curve...
and look at it differently, it was interesting. I was a busboy, was spoiled.
I saw an orthodontist and had 32 cavities. I deboned chicken and worked at Apple.
I dropped out to live abroad, I became a PhD abroad. Interesting!
Is there a different way to see my chart? Some people say...
that the key to happiness is wanting what you have. OK, it seems...
like it works. However, things happen. People we love die.
We get sick. Let's say you suffer an amputation. It is hard to say: "Wow!
This amputation is exactly what I wanted! If I have to live according to that chart...
it is better to be ***. Mistreat me, give me what I don't want, don't give me...
what I want, and I'll be happy. Right? Does it have to be like this? Is there...
another solution? Eastern philosophy has an image I love. I love it. That is...
is an LP. If you're too young, this has music recorded in. So...
the music is in it and the stylus reads it. Joseph Campbell...
an American mythologist who inspired "Star Wars", describes this...
as a beautiful mystical experience: when people stop relating...
to the story of their own body and start relating to the idea they form...
about that body. It is a beautiful description. I love it, but I am a mere mortal.
How do we fit into this experience? How do I get into this cosmic thinking?
Thinking about it, I realized that I don't need to be...
enlightened. It is a matter of focus. I can choose my focus...
my north. Do I focus on what is happening now or on what...
I have in my memory? Daniel Kahneman is an awarded economist.
Nobel prize. He gave a talk on TED and asked a brilliant question.
Think about what he asked: let's say you will go...
on a trip, you have to plan a trip. In the end of the trip, you have...
to destroy all the pictures, videos, everything. And on top of that...
you have to take a pill to forget the whole trip. Would you choose...
the same trip? What's more important: the experience or the memory...
of that experience? As I sell artificial intelligence, I like to think...
we are cognitive machines. So, we are cognitive machines...
who process and memorize. We need both. We can't work without them both.
One doesn't work without the other. But the software we run on this machine...
we can choose. And there are some important kinds of software.
There is software to process new data entering our systems...
through our sense. Another kind of software processes data...
in our memory, in the database. And a dangerous kind of software...
is the one that compares. The most important thing is that we can choose...
the software we are going to run on our system, our cognitive machine.
Let me give you some examples on how this affects our quality of life.
I went to an Indian ashram to meditate once and, in the bedroom...
there was no bed, no mattress, just the floor. What can you do then?
I can take my LP, access my memory and say, "What's up with that?"
"I stay in the best hotels, I have an important job. I saw an orthodontist...
when I was a kid! I am not sleeping on the floor, dude!" Or you can choose...
a software that says, "Sleeping on the floor... Let's see". Another example.
This is harder, because we want records. I went in Istanbul this year.
Wonderful place. And it is interesting to see tourists. So many tourists are like...
Taking tons of pictures, filming. They don't experience...
what is right in front of them. They prefer to go back and say...
"I am from Sao Paulo, but I've been to Istanbul, and you?" And the experience?
Every time we live an adventure, it shows us how we interpret...
these experiences, which software we are running. They show us that...
gutting chicken, cleaning blood is different than what we imagine...
about chicken blood. You know, gutting chicken won't hurt, I promise.
Try, it won't hurt. What hurts is what I think my friends will think...
when they see me gutting chicken. And it's important to know we can choose.
We don't need to be enlightened to be able to choose, all it takes...
is the consciousness about the software we are running. So...
as a scientist, I see us as cognitive machines. As a human being....
and Brazilian in my heart, something that redeems me and inspires me...
is to think of my father. My dad is up above, seeing me in a different perspective.
A perspective that has helped him make sense of his own life.
He sees my life now, sees my ups and downs, and says...
"Look at Enio having an amazing adventure." This image reminds me...
I'm not just the recorded trip. I am a traveler! As a traveler...
I choose how to process my adventures. I can be the master...
of my own adventures. The reason why I do this job is that, everytime...
we prepare someone to travel, to learn a new language, to be exposed...
to a new culture, they have an experience that can be an adventure.
Enlightening. Thank you!
Thank you very much!
Thank you.
Thank you.