[Music]
so i'm particularly excited
about this talk because it's happening
inside a university
and i'm i'm about to convince you
to quit it
today
awesome
[Applause]
that was it really
uh
it's it's a system that i'm about to
share that i've been experimenting
exploring for the past
seven years and it all started
from my own education now if you haven't
noticed
i'm indian
and just like every indian guess what i
studied
engineering
computer science engineering just so you
get your stereotypes right right
now
it's really crazy growing up in india if
you're growing up in india you're either
becoming a doctor an engineer or a
family disappointment
and i decided i'm going to do
engineering and not just any engineering
university i got in enroll in one of the
best
universities in the world uh in india at
that time the day i found the result my
family found the result they were so
happy i was getting calls from 50
different relatives congratulating me
saying congratulations gotham we are so
proud of you
this just so happy for you and i for the
first time i felt like wow i've made it
right and
a week later i received my tool for
success
my brand new first ever
dell inspiron laptop
that was a game changer
i played a lot of games on it
and
as i was entering my university at my
brand new laptop i had my newfound
freedom so many new people to look
forward to and a beautiful campus
super excited
but that excitement
didn't last very long
fast forward a year
i couldn't even wake up in the morning
i was so demotivated i i couldn't walk
into my classrooms
i would walk into my classroom and i
would feel like i'm entering a prison
the the classes were not uh i didn't
study i didn't think i was learning
something that was relevant to me the
classes were not engaging the lectures
were boring
and every single person around me was
focusing on memorizing everything
and blurring it out at the end of the
year in the examination
everybody saw it as a means to an end as
light at the end of a four year long
tunnel
which is a successful job as an engineer
it didn't gel with me i couldn't do it
first i felt like oh i'm maybe i'm the
weirdo in the class how many of you know
some weirdos in the class
there you go
first i felt that's that's who i was
then i felt maybe i've lost my edge and
maybe i'm not set for success
and then i did what any other student
would do i started immersing myself in
uh
cultural activities and extracurricular
activities student clubs just so have
something to show on my cv and i
stumbled upon this organization
called isec have you guys heard of
aiesec how many of you fantastic
aiesec is the world's largest youth run
organization that aims to develop youth
leadership
i joined isec and that hit home for me i
was
i mean it was incredible like i started
doing the thing that i loved i was with
the people that i loved i was doing
leadership training for some people i
was learning like people management i
was learning i was
like helping underprivileged kids on
some projects to fight discover their
own passion
right and i had a team of 12 different
people from india four of them are
family disappointments by the way
and
i started noticing something interesting
i started meeting incredible people
from different education backgrounds
engineers architects doctors
economic students art students
all of them were feeling somehow
education has failed them
for the first time i felt that i was not
alone
and
the more i questioned it
the more i realized
that this education degree would not be
of any use to me
if you have your smartphones if you
google right now
university makes me
if you google that right now you know
the first four automatic answers
anxious
depressed
feel like a failure
stupid
so
i started questioning why
why google by the way the tech giant
right
that happens to hire a lot of engineers
15 of their staff doesn't have a
professional college degree why
because our education system is outdated
it was built in the 1900s it was built
for the industrial age it was built for
people to prepare themselves
to live and have a creative life in the
industrial world
it's outdated now i can prove it to you
how many of you have a smartphone here
great how many of you had the same
smartphone two years ago
some older generation people
welcome back
if i had asked five years nobody would
raise their hand if i had said 10 years
you'd be like what are you crazy
we want the latest operating system in
our mobiles in our laptops
in our home appliances
but the the platform that impacts the
entire humanity
is more than 100 years old hasn't been
updated
we live in the information age
this education old standardized
education model is based on linearity
conformity and batching people it's
outdated i would say it's almost getting
obsolete right we live in the
information it's something that you
learn in the beginning of the university
is obsolete by the time you graduate
peter diamandis he said between 2016 and
2022 there will be as many technological
changes as many as we had between 1900s
and 2000
that's more than 2 000 growth
and that's just the beginning of the
exponential curve
many of the interesting jobs today that
we have didn't exist five years ago
what do we do
we don't live in the age of
standardization we live in the age of
customization let me tell you a story
do you guys know this guy
kevin systrom
so this guy worked in a marketing job
during the day he would work in a
marketing agency and he will come back
home take out his computer and start
with his computer start programming
right and he got so good at programming
he built an app called bourbon
he later after a few iterations called
that app
instagram
at the age of 28 he sold that app for a
billion dollars to
facebook
mark zuckerberg
a college dropout
we live we don't live in the age of
standardization we live in the age of
customization and everybody can teach
themselves no two people are the same
how many of you have siblings
how many of you have siblings perfect
did your parents ever come up to you and
said hey come here uh remind me
which one are you
again
never happens even if you're indian
doesn't happen there's half a billion
people there
doesn't happen
no two people are the same and neither
should be the education journey
i had an uncle once
i mean i still do
i hope
after i tell you this story
my uncle who's also an engineer
obviously
his face resembles
one of the biggest bollywood actors amir
khan
pretty cool right so i'm sitting at home
with my friend and my uncle walks in and
my my friend looks at him wow you look
like amir khan
and to that he says oh no no
he looks like me
we all want to be unique at least the
original copy right and we are unique
start designing your unique education
and it's never been easier
did you know that all the classes that
mit students are taking today you can go
online and take the same classes for
free
not just mit you can go on edx.org
there's mit harvard berkeley some of the
best universities in the world pick the
courses you like take them
do you guys know udemy you can go on you
to me and learn basically everything
from programming to photography
right turn your passions into your
professions you can do that most of the
courses are less than two hundred
dollars i've purchased courses in their
promotion for fifteen dollars right
you can do that start
educating yourself and that's the first
key just the only one
the next one here's how you take it to
the next level
how many of you know this guy elliot
bisno
no one great so this guy was a young uh
american entrepreneur living in u.s
starting out as a digital entrepreneur
at the age of 24. he felt really lonely
he didn't have uh
he had a lot of unanswered questions
what he did he picked up his phone
started calling uh successful digital
entrepreneurs in u.s and said hey guys
i say in utah i'm inviting a lot of
digital entrepreneurs why don't you come
hang out with me
and you know what i will pay for it
he took 50 000 on credit card debt and
invited 50 different entrepreneurs for
one trip but then he was on to something
next year 200 people came and they paid
the year after 700 people came and they
paid
today he gave birth to what we call the
summit series
people like richard branson speak at
that event today
and he was voted as the coolest
entrepreneur by inc magazine in 2009
right you know what he was doing he was
bringing together people with similar
interests similar pain points
and similar lifestyles
and that's the key
find your tribe
we are social animals we are naturally
inclined to connect with people who are
like a similar value similar interest
similar belief system
right and we thrive in that environment
right that's that's the that's where you
share the latest practices that's where
you learn and you teach each other you
learn and grow with each other together
as a tribe
and it's never been easier to find your
tribe if you're a programmer today
you can go on topcoder.com and they
basically turn programming into a
massive online multiplayer game
yes you can they're competing they're
still making money but they're learning
and growing with each other with the
technologies and platforms we have today
there's a try for practically anything
it doesn't matter if you're a coder
or if if you're someone who just likes
to get high on marijuana
not kidding
there's a tribe called vbhi.org that
supports international travelers to find
safe ways to buy marijuana all over the
world
don't make notes it's illegal
okay
so there's a try for everything on a
serious note you gotta find your tribe
and when you find your tribe something
interesting happens
on may 28 2017 i landed in barcelona
about four months ago
and i joined
400 people from 50 different countries
that said we will relocate to barcelona
for one month and we go deep into
personal transformation
we got together and we had some of the
most incredible teachers in the world
teaching us and having workshops every
single day
this is vishen lakhyani founder of
mindvalley he's teaching us on advanced
goal setting
this is lisa nichols
the star of the documentary the secret
she's been on oprah many times she's
teaching us the art of storytelling
some of the most incredible speakers
uk's number one hypnotherapist the guy
who sold 20 million books the cmo for
billion dollar company guy who trains
hollywood uh hollywood actors on fitness
and the guy the monk
he trained the star cast of doctor
strange
these are the kind of workshops that we
were having and get this in the evenings
and on the weekends we partied in the
streets of barcelona right we connected
with our tribe right we had spaces to
connect deeply and meaningfully
with our people
and we call this experiment mind valley
university now what if this was part of
your university would that be exciting
yeah
these are what i call deep immersions
deep immersions are like are like you
know have you guys been to disneyland
yeah have you noticed at the end of at
the end of the day kids are really sad
some are crying some parents are trying
to drag them off and they're gonna no
daddy no
you know why that happens because they
just experience a deep immersion deep
emotions are powerful they are like
high in highly inspiring fun exciting
moments that you experience and the deep
immersions are basically when you come
together with your tribe and go deep
into a particular topic for a very short
period of time it could be from like one
day to like five days and then stir some
emotions have a lot of fun and create a
lot of lasting memories
right
and these are your conferences your
events your summits your tedx
is a deep immersion you come together as
a tribe
right your deep immersions are extremely
important and that's the third key
and your deep immersions
go
back add into self-education when i came
back from barcelona i came back with a
list of seven different books three
different online courses and three
classes i'm taking in kuala lumpur right
now
because i got i got those things called
those ideas right add it back into my
self-education and this becomes the
wheel of modern education
self-education my tribe and deep
immersion
and here's the thing
the smartest people in the world
the outliers the game changers the
moonshot takers they never quit their
education
they simply escape the outdated
education system
these are your mark zuckerbergs these
are your elon musk these are your
richard branson these are your mark
twains these are einsteins
and we code them we admire them we want
to be like them and then we go back into
our old classrooms
right
think about this how could university be
only for four years how could learning
end after four years
how could learning ever end
einstein
is one of the greatest minds of our time
said when you stop learning you start
dying it's not just an esoteric code has
a physiological application has a
psychological
funnily enough he's also the one who
said this
the only thing that interferes with my
learning
is my education
and it's about time we change that
it's about time
we become the dean of our own
never-ending university
and that we can do with the wheel
of modern education now here's the thing
this is a template that you can apply in
your life today
like this is mine i'm a digital marketer
i'm i'm learning digital marketing i
have six seven books on it there's many
online courses increasing learning
capacity because i'm a learning freak
and then i took a course on udemy that
statistically increased my learning
capacity by 80
you can do that it's a 20 course learn
french
i'm 21 fluent in french right now
three years ago
that thing was learned spanish then what
happened i fell in love with the french
woman she's right there
i changed it
[Applause]
because i can and that's the whole idea
these are all the things that help me
personally professionally or both these
are my tribes these are my people these
are the ones i find everywhere my deep
immersions my a-fest mind valley
university the example that i gave you
burning man internet summit business
freedom academy these are the
environments that i learn in up until
2017.
and this
is the wheel of modern education and
this is a template take it apply it put
it in your own form you can start
anywhere
right
but here's my pain point
if you look at most of the students
today like majority of the people in the
world
the depression by the way student
depression has increased by 37 in the
last decade the suicide rates are
increasing year after year after year
and it's because of the gap that people
are feeling more and more every single
year
right and
i think we need to change that that
should be our moonshot
right
with this wheel when you take control
and sit in the driving seat of your own
education it never ends
your education becomes a game
and your world becomes your playground
and you become like that kid in
disneyland of education who never wants
to leave
and this sign
you won't have to
thank you
you