[MUSIC PLAYING]
EDWARD BURGER: Well, what a
treat to be with all of you.
You know, Brian mentioned,
in the introduction,
that I've created a
lot of math videos.
I'm assuming, by the
way, that there's
a lot of fans of
math and science
and engineering in
this room, I hope.
Well, maybe not.
OK.
This is a problem.
OK.
I will consider this
a hostile audience.
And I'm hoping that the
viewers in their offices
will be more friendly.
It's interesting, though,
I've made all these videos,
but they were not livestreamed.
We made them, and
then we promoted
them-- put them up later.
So it's very disconcerting to
know that the window could be
literally closed at any second.
And so my goal is to see if I
can keep on the office viewers.
You guys are locked in.
They locked the doors.
You're not going anywhere.
But the rest of
them-- they can close.
So I'm going to keep trying to
throw out these little prompts
like a cliffhanger-- stay tuned.
Don't go away.
This is going to
be really good--
and hope that that works.
We'll see.
Anyway, it's a real
delight to be here.
Google is a place that I
think should mirror what
is going on all around
us and, heretofore,
has not, which is creating
environments and spaces where
we can grow as individuals
and be more creative and more
imaginative and more
innovative and see solutions
that otherwise we might
miss and to be able to hear
different perspectives
and points of view,
not in a way that threatens
us, but that, in fact,
offers us an opportunity
to really stop
and think and say, gee,
what is going on here?
And what do I truly believe?
And how do I understand it?
So I wrote this book
that's based on a course
that I teach at
Southwestern University.
The course is called Effective
Thinking Through Creative
Puzzle-Solving.
And it tries to offer
the students that
take the class an opportunity
to practice ways of thinking
that allow us to be even more
creative and more imaginative
and to see things more deeply.
And so I tried to
write a book that
captures the spirit of that.
And so definitely feel
free to check it out.
I think it's going to be in
the library in the Google Talks
library.
You can check it out, or you
can see it online if you want,
or what have you.
So I thought, instead of
talking about the course,
I wanted to actually
give you some
of those prompts, some things
that I hope that you can
actually use,
today and tomorrow,
as you go about your
creative ventures,
both here at Google
professionally,
but also in your own lives
to amplify your own thinking
and your own creativity.
So let me tell you, first
of all, what they all are
and give you kind of
a thumbnail sketch.
But you can't close
the window, because I'm
going to give you
specific examples of what
to do for each one of these.
OK.
All right.
So they are the following.
First of all,
understand deeply--
which sounds so ridiculous
when you first think about it.
But if you ask a person--
if you leave here today,
and go off campus,
and ask someone, a "do
you understand" question--
do you understand this?
Do you understand
that? doesn't matter--
you'll get one of two
responses, yes or no.
Neither of them is correct
because understanding
is a spectrum.
And wherever we are
in our understanding,
we can, with intentionality,
understand even more deeply.
And I'll come back
and share with you
some actual mindful
prompts to provoke thought
that you can use to actually get
you to understand more deeply.
But that's the first one.
The second one, which
is my favorite one,
is effective failure--
to learn and to succeed through
a succession of mistakes
and failing things.
People talk about
this all the time now.
It's very hot.
But I think I was the
first teacher ever,
in the world, that thought of
it as being so important that I
would assess it.
5% of my students' grade
is based on the quality
of their effective failure.
And what is effective failure?
It doesn't mean fail the
exam, like, a student goes,
oh, I failed the math exam.
I'm doing great.
No, not so much.
But as an intermediate step
to get to someplace else--
that's really what
effective failure is.
So when we fail or
if we make a mistake,
instead of throwing
it away and saying,
I'm going to try something
else-- which is tenacity,
which is awesome--
instead, we need to hold on
to that mistake like a jewel,
which is very hard to do.
Because our society, we don't
like failures and mistakes.
So we try to quickly
shoo it under the rug
and pretend it didn't happen.
And this is a much
more mindful approach
where you hold it in your hand.
And you keep looking
at it like a jewel
and see every facet
until you see something
that you hadn't seen before.
And you have one of
these aha epiphanies.
And now you see the
issue more clearly.
And now you can dismiss it and
now take another step forward.
So effective failure
is what you do
after you make a mistake
to build an insight
and to lead you to success.
Then there's the art of
creating questions, the art
of creating questions,
which, for those of you who
are engaged in working with
teams and groups or organizing
meetings, how do you
solicit questions?
It's not a matter
of asking questions.
So I'm not, right now,
coming to you and saying,
oh, you should ask
lots of questions.
It's the art of creating them,
whether you ask them or not.
This is an internal
experience where it changes us
from being passive
observers of what's
going on around us to active
participants in our life's
journey.
Because we're constantly
asking, what can I ask?
What can I ask?
What's not being said?
Why is that being said that way?
What do I see?
Whether you're at a museum
looking at works of art,
whether you're watching mindless
television on your device,
constantly be challenging
yourself to ask questions,
and you will just
be more engaged.
You'll be more engaged.
And then there's the practice
of seeing the flow of ideas.
This is something
that, maybe, Google
does better than anyone else.
And so this is something that
you just practice naturally,
whether you realize it or not--
that every idea came from
a previous idea, which
is a great way of learning.
So when you're trying
to learn something,
don't try to memorize it
like, on math, everyone's
trying to memorize formulas.
Why would you do that when,
in fact, everything can
be derived by previous ideas?
But what I find more exciting,
for us as non-formal students,
is that every new idea that we
encounter leads somewhere else.
And so every time we're
exposed to a new idea--
maybe we created the new idea.
Or maybe we're just searing it
for the first time ourselves,
and someone else
has created this--
to have a mindset of
saying, what comes next?
How can I take this idea
and move it forward?
How can I bridge this
idea to something
that no one's ever connected,
two disparate things that I
bring together and connect them?
That's this notion of
seeing the flow of ideas.
So that's a quick
overview of four
of these five practices
of effective thinking.
But I really want to
come back and give you
some concrete things.
That's almost like philosophy.
And you don't like
philosophy, right?
Yeah, exactly.
Someone's booing now.
Of course, we love philosophy.
It's basically applied math.
So of course, you like it.
But I want to give you very
concrete things that you can
do to provoke your own thought.
This book is to offer
things that you can do.
And the puzzles in
the book are there,
not for you to solve them.
I know you're all overachievers.
You want to get the answer.
This is not a course or a
book about solving the puzzle.
It's about using the puzzle
as a way of practicing
these ways of thinking.
Because if you practice them,
then they become part of you,
rather than just saying,
oh, here's philosophy.
And I'm going to move
on, but it hasn't really
changed you at all.
And so, in the
course, these students
are constantly solving kind of
easy puzzles, medium puzzles,
and then really hard puzzles.
But I don't care whether
they solve them or not.
It's for them to practice
these ways of thinking.
And if you try any of these,
including the ones I'm about
to describe to you-- so
don't close the window--
the truth is that,
when you start,
it's going to seem
very mechanical.
These are very mechanical things
that I'm going to suggest.
But it requires practice.
These aren't habits.
Habits are mindless.
You just do it without thinking.
Practices are mindful.
So it requires time
and a commitment
to really move
through a process.
And as a result, it
amplifies your own creativity
and your own thinking.
So I invite you to
try these things,
whether you take a look
at these puzzles or not--
see if these can
be helpful to you.
And if they are, you should
email me, by the way.
Or you can write
to me on Twitter,
and let me know how it goes.
OK.
So let me give you
a couple, so first
of all, with deep
understanding--
so I talked about how
understanding is a spectrum.
And so wherever you are in your
understanding about anything,
you can actually
understand it more deeply.
And one simple way
to do that is just
to declare that you don't
understand it fully.
And this is really hard to do.
So suppose you take
your strength here,
what your sweet spot
here at Google is--
so you know that little
corner of the world--
or maybe a massive
corner of the world--
better than anyone else.
You are the world's
expert on that thing.
Now, you could sit
there and say, well, I
wonder if there's parts of this,
even though I wrote the code,
or even though I created
it, that maybe I don't quite
understand.
That's not enough,
because you're
giving the opening of,
no, I understand it all.
Instead, make a
declaration in your mind,
and do it authentically.
And say, I don't
understand this--
the thing that you
understand the most.
And that will now put you in
a mindset to say, OK, then
how am I going to
understand this more deeply?
And then, even on your
own, you can begin
to look for opportunities.
Well, I never, I guess,
thought about this angle.
And all of a sudden-- and
especially if you're working
on a team, then you can have
everyone share something--
all of a sudden, they say, wow,
I hadn't thought about that.
Now, another prompt
that you can use
is what I call "add
the adjective."
So this is one of
my favorite prompts
to provoke a thought,
which is what
this book is about-- is try
to provoke your own thinking.
And so when you're faced
with a difficult problem--
so if you're a
mathematician, as I am,
it turns out that
when we're faced
with a really difficult
challenge, we never do it,
because it's way too hard.
Math is too hard.
So instead, we create
easier questions.
And one way to do that
is to add the adjective.
So when you're faced with a
different-- big challenge,
whether it's here at Google
or at home, instead of trying
to face it head-on, which
will probably be impossible
or you won't be very effective
at it, before you even start,
just try to describe it.
Add as many descriptors to
the situation, the scenario,
the issue at hand
as you possibly can.
Every time you
label something, you
will see in a different way.
The situation is
there in front of you.
But in some sense, to
understand it fully,
it's invisible until
you give names to it.
Language matters.
So let me give you
a very quick example
and to show you that I'm
a Renaissance guy and not
just a math guy.
I'll give you a
historical example.
So at the very beginning
of the 20th century,
we were engaged in
a global conflict.
And when that global conflict
came to an end, in 1918,
it was called the Great War.
Other people called it
the War to End All Wars.
That was a particularly
stupid name in hindsight,
don't you agree?
But it was called the War to
End All Wars or the Great War.
It wasn't relabeled
World War I until when?
Exactly-- World War II.
Now, what if we go back to
1918 and add the adjective,
as that global conflict
was coming to an end?
We might say, well, that's the
end of the first World War.
That's an adjective
that's appropriate.
What does that
provoke in your mind?
AUDIENCE: [INAUDIBLE]
Right, exactly.
So when's the second?
See, it immediately
gives you the opportunity
to see it in a different way.
Just by saying first, you're
now attuned to the second.
You see it differently.
And that's the point
of all of these things
that I'm offering-- is to
see that stimulation that's
around you in a different way.
If you talk about my passion
and my world, it's education.
If you wanted to add
the adjective there,
you might say,
non-individualized education.
Isn't education
non-individualized?
Think about your own
education, right?
At all levels, you'd show
up in the same classroom
at the same time with a
bunch of other people.
You'd all sit in the same chairs
with the same little desk.
You'd be given the same
book, the same assignment
due on the same day,
and so forth and so on.
You can imagine there are
maybe 50 or 100 years from now,
people are going
to look back at us
and say, what were
they thinking?
Education is all about
uplifting an individual,
inspire them to be a better
version of themselves.
How do you do that generically?
But the moment you say,
non-individualized education,
it provokes a thought.
Huh, how can we make education
more personalized and more
meaningful to the learner?
So adding the adjective
is a great way,
in whatever you're doing, to see
things that otherwise wouldn't
be there.
OK.
And I'm getting very
close to the end,
so I want to give you
some more examples.
So let's talk about
the failing one, which
is, by far, the favorite because
this is something that I'm
sure you all hate to do.
Although now it's getting
more politically correct,
especially, I guess,
in Silicon Valley,
that failing is a
great way to go.
And by failing, in
fact, you can innovate.
But it's more than that.
It's a mindset.
And for those individuals who
are leading groups, sometimes
the groups themselves
don't feel comfortable
failing, because they go,
oh, I might get in trouble.
In fact, you want
to encourage that.
Again, I'm not talking about
missing a deadline for a client
or doing something that's bad.
I'm talking about as
an intermediate step
to produce something
that's even better--
that's even better than
you would have otherwise.
And so one way to
kind of wrap your mind
around this effective failure
as an intermediate step
is to think about it as--
this is a scenario.
So try to remember
this the next time
you're trying to go
out there on a limb.
Suppose someone gives us a
really daunting challenge.
We're supposed to work
together as a team, all of us.
And we have this
daunting challenge.
And so now we're
given that challenge.
And then we go off
into the corner.
And we start working on it.
And of course, we try something.
And of course, it's not
going to work because it's
a daunting challenge, right?
So what do we think
in our society?
Oh, we failed.
I hope we don't get fired.
I hope I don't have
to move back home.
If you're young, I'll
never go to college.
This failure business
is very negative.
And now we're paralyzed.
Now let's rewind that
and play that scenario
from the very beginning
with a different attitude.
So suppose now that we're
given this great challenge,
and we're all about to walk off
into the corner to work on it.
But before we get
there, the person
who gives us this challenge--
she calls us back and says,
hey, folks, get back here.
And so we all come back.
And she said, I
forgot to mention
that to succeed
with this challenge,
you will have to fail 10 times.
It is required that you
fail 10 times in order
for you to finally
resolve this effectively.
We hear that.
Now we go off to the corner.
We try that first thing.
It doesn't work.
What's our attitude now?
Yeah, right-- one
down, nine to go.
We've made progress.
And that's what
effective failure
is as a powerful
intermediate step.
It's about making progress.
Now, if you believe in this,
as I do, and you embrace this,
as you should, then you
realize that failing
is one of the most
powerful teachers that
are out there for us as we
continue to grow and learn.
And so, if you
really believe that,
then we should be doing
this intentionally.
So here's something that
you haven't heard of.
I encourage my students,
and I encourage
all of the creative people
in this room and all
the creative people that
are watching online,
that we should
intentionally fail.
Now, I'm not saying miss the
deadline or mess up or have
the code not work.
But rather, what I'm talking
about is as intermediate steps.
So consider extreme cases.
Look for break points in
what's going on with the issue.
And try to push it to its
extreme, and watch it break.
And then ask, why did it break?
Remove all constraints
from an issue.
You're trying to
figure this thing out,
but you're constrained
by all these things--
by finances, by personnel, by
whatever the issue is, by time.
Lift all the constraints.
And say, if we had no
constraints, what would we do?
Well, we would take a year to
work on this project that's
due tomorrow.
And then what would
you do in that year?
And then all of a
sudden, you go down
a scenario which is
clearly not going to work
because you don't have a year.
But you might now
provoke a thought.
Well, we actually could do this.
And we can do that by tomorrow.
And all of a sudden,
you've created
a new idea you otherwise
would have not have seen.
And that's so exciting.
So I get my students
to intentionally fail
as an intermediate step.
Now, fail is a
four-letter word starting
with F. I don't know if
I can say that or not.
So it's a bad word
in our society.
But really, we should
be embracing it.
It happens all the time, even
if we try to clean it up.
Think of people who write.
And we all write things.
But those who actually
write for a living
or write for a passion--
they're failing all
the time, right?
You write something.
And then what's the
very next thing you do?
You edit it.
What is editing?
Revision is just an example
that the first thing you did
was lousy.
You failed.
So now you're going
to make it better.
But you are working
off of something.
So I encourage my students, when
they're writing papers for me,
to write them really
poorly and really fast.
So there's something
you can actually use.
The next time you
have to write a report
or you're doing something
in PR, promotion,
whatever it is, even code--
if you're doing
something, write it
really fast and really crappy.
Just write junk.
But now, instead of
staring at a blank screen,
waiting for some kind
of divine inspiration,
you can react to
what's in front of you.
And if it's a written
thing that you're actually
writing something, like
a report or something,
you might realize
all sorts of things
that you otherwise
would have missed.
Maybe you don't quite
understand the issue
that you're trying to deal with.
In fact, maybe you
end your screed
in a different position
from where you started.
So maybe you're not even
clear on what your position is
or what you're trying to do.
So it allows you, it frees
you to identify weaknesses
in your own understanding
and, therefore,
can understand more deeply.
So I tell my students, never
stare at a blank screen,
metaphorically or actually,
in terms of writing.
So start something, engage,
and get it out there.
And I'll offer you one more.
And that's under the guise
of creating questions
for your consideration.
When you want to try to create
questions to be more engaged,
it's a way of
being more involved
in that which is around you.
You should never be
a passive observer.
So one thing I do when I'm
teaching, or otherwise,
is I pick official questioners.
So at the beginning
of the class,
I'll pick out a few
people at random and say,
you're official questioners.
Your job, before the
end of this session,
is not to answer a
question, but to create one.
That is so hard.
One time I did this at a
school I was teaching at.
And the first day of class, the
student was put on the spot.
And she asked a question.
It was great, seemed fine.
A couple of days later, she
came to my office hours.
And I said, oh, well,
were you honored to be
the first official questioner
of the semester, thinking she
would laugh.
And she didn't, which was sad.
But instead, she said,
no, I wasn't honored.
And in fact, I was
petrified that, out
of all the students
in the class,
you picked out my
name card randomly.
She said, and then I had to sit
there at the edge of my seat
and listen to every
single thing you
said to figure out a question.
But that's exactly the reality.
It changes our inner
life experience
because we're more engaged.
And that's what happens
when we're constantly trying
to connect with questions.
So the prompt that
I offer all of you
is that, when you're
in a group, and you're
talking about things,
whether it's project-based
or whether you're
leading a meeting
or leading a discussion,
never ever ask,
are there any questions?
That's wrong.
You are assuming that
you're surrounding yourself
with bright, talented,
creative, open-minded people,
so there are
definitely questions.
So never ask, are
there any questions?
Instead, the prompt
should be, in my opinion,
what are your questions?
And then, if you want to be
a little softer about it,
you could say, what are
your questions that you'd
like to share with the group?
So I'm going to assume that
you all have questions.
But maybe you don't
want to share it,
and that's fine because this
is an internal experience.
Now, if you're trying
to brainstorm or get
a team to be even
more creative, you
might actually want to have
them engage with each other.
And so I often break up groups
into teams of two or three.
And then right
there, on the spot,
they have to create
a bunch of questions.
And then I go right
through each team.
And then they have to say
one of their questions.
It creates a dynamic
that really is amazing.
Now, I don't have
time to talk to you
about specific things you can
do to see the flow of ideas
and to create new vistas.
But I want to conclude by just
sharing what this is all about.
All of this is about
taking where we are
and trying to get us to
become even better, which,
at its very heart, should
be what formal education is
and should be what our
lifelong learning is all about.
And I want to conclude by
actually thanking all of you
in this room and all of you who
are still watching because you
didn't close that window.
I know because you're
watching me right now.
You didn't close the window.
You see, if they would
have closed the window,
they wouldn't have
heard me say that.
OK, good.
But here's what I
want to thank you for.
I want to thank you for what
Google has done to transform
the world and its societies.
Because education, which
is formal education, which
is entirely broken at
basically all grade levels
once you get beyond
second grade--
kindergarten and first
grade are great, actually.
You're playing.
You're enjoying.
You're saying, oh, look.
I've learned something.
And then second grade--
at least the math--
is start memorizing,
start memorizing.
And it becomes a
mindless mimicry
rather than making meaning.
And Google is finally
challenging society
to think about
what education is.
Because now, just in my
pocket, I can look up any fact.
And I can engage with any
preconceived notion that's
out there.
And Google helped drive that.
So now I can look things up.
So then, what's the
value of formal education
if I can look up how to take
a derivative of something
or if I can look
up a stress point
or look up what
exactly Descartes said?
Well, now we have
to make meaning,
which is a very human thing.
And now, we finally get a chance
to wonder, how can education
make us better?
And that's an exciting future.
Thank you so much everybody.
Thank you.
[APPLAUSE]
Thank you.
So we have time
for some questions.
And I'm hoping that maybe either
our live viewers from far away
or our live viewers
right here in the room
will want to share
some questions.
So what are the
questions that you'd
like to share with all of us?
AUDIENCE: Hi.
About adding an
adjective to something,
is that to provoke an idea?
Or is it post-having an idea?
Because, for the
examples, describing
the World War as
the first, that's
kind of like in retrospect.
And also, in describing
the education
as non-individualized,
that's after you
thought about education,
you added the adjective.
So which way does it go?
Does it provoke the thought?
Or does it come after?
EDWARD BURGER: It goes
both ways, in fact.
It goes both ways.
First of all, it helps you
understand more deeply,
which is kind of that first
element of effective thinking
is to understand more deeply.
So yeah, so now you understand
maybe this global conflict
better.
You think about formal
education in a different way.
But what's more exciting to me,
in the spirit of flow of ideas,
is it inspires you to
think about what's next.
But the moment you
say, first World War,
now you start to wonder, what
can I do today to put off
an inevitability in the future?
How can we work
with other countries
or think about
political constructs
to see if we can actually change
the course of future history?
And with education
as the other example,
non-individualized education,
you started saying, well,
how can we make education
more individualized?
So the idea is to provoke
a thought, ideally,
into the future.
But you're absolutely right.
It can also be used to
understand more deeply
that which we're
currently experiencing
or that's already
happened, both.
Yeah, thank you.
Thank you.
Yes.
AUDIENCE: I'm also having
trouble with this concept.
Can you give two examples?
Can you give an example
just for this talk?
Can you add an
adjective to this talk?
EDWARD BURGER: Boring
lecture, right?
And so now you immediately
wonder, how could this
have been more dynamic?
Should it have been
more interactive?
Should there be things that the
audience had a chance to do?
It's a puzzle thing.
How come I didn't give you
a puzzle to actually work
on and try these things?
The answer to that,
by the way, is I just
have time constraints, right?
If we had an hour together,
I would have done just that.
But any adjective--
gosh, it's hot in here.
Maybe you don't experience
it, but I'm hot.
I mean temperature-wise,
not, you know--
OK.
So what does that do?
Does that make me want to
go to sleep and take a nap?
Or does it make me
feel uncomfortable?
And how is that enriching
this human conversation
that we're having?
And so, in the future,
if I'm holding a meeting,
what should the right--
things that, literally,
as silly as that--
the idea is just describe that--
I mean, it's a
very mindful thing.
All of this stuff,
basically-- if any of you
have practiced
mindfulness or meditation,
this is just about
being aware of what's
around you abstractly,
but also physically.
And by being aware
and calling it out,
in the add the
adjective, you will then
see things that otherwise
were not there, not visible.
How about this side?
Oh, here's something.
How about we'll
go to this person,
and then we'll go
to that person.
AUDIENCE: You talked about
the idea of effective failure.
One of the things that I've been
trying to do is be fearless.
There are too many fears that
I experience every single day.
Now, being a failure is a
very blanket statement for me.
I think of it as I'd probably
be a failure as an individual.
I'd probably be a failure as
a teammate, as a girlfriend,
as a daughter.
As not an individual, it is very
difficult to fail at that time
unless every single person in
my life is on the same page.
And how do you tell
students or how
do you teach people in their
life to be OK-feeling when
there are other lives at stake?
EDWARD BURGER: Yeah.
So how do you get
everyone in a community,
whether it's at Google
or just your area
or just your family or my
class, to buy into that?
Because you're right.
You have to be supported.
It has to be a safe space
where failure is appreciated.
And so, by grading it--
5% of their grade is
based on the quality
of their effective failure--
that helps a lot.
Because whatever you measure
in students, they will do.
So if you build
it, they will come.
So you say, failure counts.
Well, now they're all
going to start to fail
in an imaginative, good way.
But what it does is,
it creates a space
where people feel that
they're making contributions.
So we're talking about
something, let's say.
And someone says
something that's wrong.
Now, what a well-meaning
instructor might say is,
oh, that's so good.
Good try there, Johnny.
Who else has a guess?
That is an example of
ineffective failure
because you're leaving that
failed attempt right there
on the table.
Instead, you grab him
and say, Johnny, boy, you
could not have been more wrong.
Woo, are you wrong.
OK.
Now why is Johnny wrong?
Now, the moment you
ask that question,
this becomes a
moment of learning.
And what I will do
is not only celebrate
when we figure out
why Johnny was wrong.
But when we figure out the
correct principle, theorem,
formula, principle,
whatever it is,
I will often
actually attribute it
to the person who got it wrong.
And we'll call it Johnny's
Theorem or Johnny's Theory
or Johnny's Formula.
And so now it's
a point of pride.
Oh, I got something named after
myself because I got it wrong
that helped us to figure
out the right way.
That now inspires this process.
Remember people think about
failure as an end point.
And that's why I don't
want to fail as a person
or as an employee
or as a colleague
or as a family member.
I'm not saying that I want
you to end with failure.
But I'm saying, as a
powerful intermediate step
to become even
better than you are,
we have to learn
from those missteps.
And so when you create a space
where everyone's on board
and you value it--
so when people make
mistakes in front of me,
I get so excited because here's
an opportunity for learning.
It's like, wow, we're going
to learn something right now.
How great is this?
Well, now that person
feels appreciated.
And so everyone in that
group, in that room, wherever,
has to kind of
embrace that attitude.
If you're going to be
thinking, oh, gosh,
Ed just made a mistake.
What a dummy.
I'm not going to promote him,
then it becomes problematic.
So it's a cultural
thing that you all
have to agree that we're safe.
And we're running a
little bit short on time.
So I want to come to
this gentleman here.
And then maybe we can
go to you up here.
AUDIENCE: When I read the
title was Talk About Puzzles,
I thought it was going to
be about Sudoku or Scrabble.
EDWARD BURGER: Oh, I see.
AUDIENCE: But it looks
like you are talking
about looking at your work,
looking at the project,
very well, for
years, and saying,
I don't understand how it works.
Is that right?
EDWARD BURGER: Exactly, yes.
And so it's interesting.
People talk about
problem-solving, right?
That's a very hot phrase, right?
I hate that phrase.
In fact, if you want to embrace
a little practice of mine,
never use the phrase
"problem-solving."
Let's see if we
can clean that up.
Because who likes problems?
In your life, do
you go, oh, yeah.
I want more problems in my life.
This is great.
No, of course not.
But there are puzzles in
our lives, professionally,
and also personally.
And they are asking
for solutions.
And the bad ones are
problems, that's right.
But there are also
great ones that
are open to opportunities to
have you create something,
whether at Google
or on your own,
that you hadn't explored before,
hadn't thought about before.
And these practices
of thinking allow
you to open up that
kind of possibility
to see the world with
a big, big screen
that you might not have
been because you were just
focusing on this stuff.
And so these are
trying to provoke
that thought to take
any puzzle in your life
and look for
interesting solutions.
And the ones that
are not so good,
yeah, then you're
problem-solving.
But I'm talking about
puzzle-solving in the broadest
sense, absolutely.
Can we come to this
gentleman right here?
Then we're almost done.
AUDIENCE: Hi.
Thank you.
EDWARD BURGER: Sure.
AUDIENCE: So all
of these strategies
you described make you more
effective at whatever you're
doing.
I'm wondering about it in
the context of politics
because politicians
are under such scrutiny
and have to play so many
different games that it's
really hard to imagine them
being able to embrace failure,
for example.
What sort of changes can we
make institutionally in order
to cultivate more of that?
EDWARD BURGER: Yeah.
I mean, if you look at
the political discourse
in our world and in this
country, for example,
it's really distressing.
First of all, people aren't
listening to each other.
And if you and I disagree,
then I'm just evil
and that's the end of it.
And this country was
built on debate, right?
Look at Congress.
I mean the way it's
supposed to work abstractly.
There's supposed to be debates.
It's supposed to be all
about debating issues.
And we held differing points
of view and that's exciting.
But now politics have made
us extremely polarized
and very, very much on
the edge and on extremes.
And so as you move off to the
extreme, now you're entrenched.
One of the things I talk about--
I mean, I only shared a
couple of things here.
But one of the things that
I talk about in the book
is embracing doubt.
And this is the
advice that I would
give to all leaders, and
especially people in politics.
When someone has a change
of heart, what do we say?
That's a negative, right?
They changed their mind.
So you're a flip-flopper.
And so, all of a
sudden, it's bad.
So now you have to
stay entrenched.
Well, in fact, you
want people that
are so open-minded that, when
they're convinced otherwise,
instead of being
stubborn, they're
actually going to change.
This book, the title
itself, captures that--
"Making Up Your Own Mind."
It's the creation of
you, the creation of you
by creating your mind,
which means that, over time,
that's going to change.
That's what it's all about.
So I talk about doubt
and how important
it is that, no matter
on what the issue,
whether it's a personal
one, a political one,
a professional one, that
you should never, ever be
100% certain of anything.
You should leave a little space.
So the opposite of certainty--
I'm sorry.
Certainty is, in fact, another
way of saying close-mindedness.
And so you don't want
to ever be certain.
So I am really strong
on this issue 97%.
And then you, who have a
different point of view--
you and I now have
a conversation.
And we get a cup of
coffee, and we're talking,
and it gets hot and
passionate, and we're arguing,
and it's getting really fierce.
But we do it respectfully.
And I'm actively
listening, which
is something else I talk about
in the book-- how important is
for both of us to listen to
each other and be empathetic.
You don't have to
be sympathetic.
And that's another problem
we have in this country--
that people have confused
sympathy and empathy.
Sympathy means that we agree.
We're aligned.
Empathy means that we
don't have to agree.
But I can at least understand
how you could get there.
Even if I'm offended by
that particular perspective,
I can understand.
Maybe it's fear.
Maybe it's just, whatever.
I can give reasons.
I can add the adjective and
try to describe it, right?
So at the end of
our debate, I still
might be entrenched
in my point of view,
but maybe now only 91%.
So you've moved me.
So that doubt gives us
a little flexibility
without changing our
minds fully and saying,
OK, now I'm completely on
your side of the issue,
although that could
happen as well.
But at least we're giving
a little flexibility
in saying, well,
that's a good point.
You've never seen this.
I'll close with
one final thought.
You watch these things on cable
that are supposed to be news,
but it's basically a
whole bunch of pundits
yelling over each other.
Really, it's just wrestling
without the tights.
Have you noticed that?
Because it's just
arguing back and forth,
sometimes only two, but
sometimes as many as five
in different windows,
and they're not
even in the same room.
They're not even having
a human experience.
They're all in
different studios.
And they're yelling
over each other.
It doesn't matter what
station you watch.
It could be Fox on one
hand or CNN or MSNBC.
It doesn't even matter.
They're all just
yelling at each other.
When have you ever seen
one of those programs
where one pundit says
to the other one,
OK, you got me there.
That's a good point.
I'm going to think about that.
I'm coming back next
week or tomorrow night.
I'm going to come back, and
I'm going to have a response.
But for now, OK, right?
I mean, isn't that exactly
what's supposed to happen,
that someone is to
provoke thought by having
these human experiences?
They're not human.
And as long as
we're not actively
listening to each
other, as long as we
don't have doubt,
the future, in terms
of that social dynamic
and the political dynamic,
is really bleak.
We just keep getting pulled to
the poles, the polar opposites.
And the moment we can start
to listen to each other--
and I'm not saying you
have to agree, but to try
to understand one another and
be open to whatever it is--
that thoughtful conversation can
really potentially bring people
together.
Thank you so much, everybody.
[APPLAUSE]
