Kathryn Shultz: Being Wrong

                              (Shultz)

Kathryn Shultz describes in her TED Talk that being wrong does not have any correlation to being idiotic and being wrong is part of the human nature.  The nature of every living thing is to be a fault at least every once in a while.  Otherwise, the food chain would not work because no animal would be wrong, leading to its digestive death.  However, humans are the only species that obsesses over irradiating every single fault that will occur.  Kathryn words this as, “…it's not some kind of embarrassing defect in the human system, something we can eradicate or overcome. It's totally fundamental to who we are. Because, unlike God, we don't really know what's going on out there. And unlike all of the other animals, we are obsessed with trying to figure it out. To me, this obsession is the source and root of all of our productivity and creativity” (Shultz).  What Shultz is describing, links in with what Daniel Pink is trying to convey to readers in A Whole New Mind.  Mistakes are some part of humans that appear like they should be part of Dan pink’s Philosophy, Symphony.  This is because one must balance their life with mistakes as well as productivity and success.  However, I think that this ties into the main idea what the philosophy “meaning” is trying to show. Mistakes are so ground into the human way and so “frowned upon” in nearly every culture, that all of the machines, inventions, and ideas that have been developed, are created to destroy every chance of a mistake.  But life does not always happen according to plan.  Machines break down, inventions never find the social foot hold to succeed, and ideas challenged to be found false.

            Kathryn Shultz’s presentation style was that in which she spoke clear and crisp, with next to no hints of being rushed or nervous.  This would be an extremely good thing to take away from this video because I am not the most confident of public speakers.  In general, Kathryn Shultz shows that mistakes are a part of life and are the teaching tool of being human.  For without mistakes, there is no drive to success or to learn.  And with a fast approaching future where the key to actually owning one’s life is authentic creativity and understanding, admitting to and learning from one’s mistakes can provide a future where one transforms into “a whole new mind”.

Works Cited

Shultz, Kathryn. "Kathryn Schulz: On Being Wrong | Video on TED.com." TED: Ideas worth Spreading. Apr. 2011. Web. 28 Apr. 2011. <http://www.ted.com/talks/kathryn_schulz_on_being_wrong.html>.