- [Announcer] Welcome, everyone, to the Penny Sta (audience applauding) - Welcome, everyone, to the Penny Stamps Distinguished Speaker Series.

My name is Chrisstina Hamilton, the Series d Today we present truly a man for all seasons, scientist, technologist, artist and designer, John Maeda.

Today's event is presented with support from Design Core Detroit, the University of Michigan Arts Initiative and Series partners, Detroit Public Television, PBS Books, and Michigan Radio 91.7 FM.

A reminder to everyone, please do silence yo from your technology.

We will have a Q&A today follow here you'll see there's microphones at the ends of these aisles.

When that moment com line up and ask your question.

Hosting Dr. Maeda here in the series has been a decade long pursuit, which we're thrilled to finally realize.

And as I have often said to students here in our your sphere of influence is as great as your network.

So always look to your network when you need a door opened for you.

At U of M, we have an the right person to open the door to our esteemed guest, and we're honored to have him with us today and for all of the important work that he's doing to advance the Wolverine sphere of influence.

So for a proper introduction of our guest, please welcome, University of Michigan President Santa - Hello everyone.

Thank you.

Thank you.

It is really wonderful, really wonderful to see all of you here in this beautiful majestic th I hope you enjoyed the organ.

It's a really special thin And thank you, Christina, for introducing tonight's le I'm incredibly excited and I'm really grateful to the whole team at the Stamps School of Art and Design for making this possible.

I gotta tell you, I'm part and my son-in-law are both designers.

And so I know how important design and design thinki is for everything that we do as a civilization.

It's really fitting for both the great vision of its patronists, Mrs. Penny Stamps, and our ethos as a university to bring premier arts and culture offerings to the entire community.

And in fact, one of the very first things I ever did when I arrived here at the University o was to attend this amazing le And you're not going to be disappointed today.

We have a very special evening ahead.

And I gotta tell you, and listening to Chrisstina talk about networks, I met John Maeda first on Twitter, what was formerly called Twitter, now called X.

And I was amazed that he responded to me after I messaged him on X.

And I'm gonna tell you a little bit about John Maeda.

He doesn't need that much of an introduction 'cause a of you follow him.

But I think that he exemplifies at the University of Michigan: to be an exceptional comprehensive university that brings together the arts and the sciences and to be leaders in bringing those together in emerging transformative technologies such as artificial intelligence.

And for that reason, you probab as the Vice President of Design at Artificial Intelligence at Microsoft, a company that's really at the penetrating He's both a technologist and a designer who of business, design and technology.

And he's been doing this and pioneering in this field for a very long time.

His early work as an artist combine with traditional artistic techniques in addition to exhibiting one man shows in London, New York, and Paris.

His work is also in permanent collections at the Museum of Modern Art.

John, as you know, has been an author, a business executive, and he was the 16th president of the Rhode Island School of Designer, RISD, as it is affectionately known.

He's received numerous awards and honorary degr and Wired magazine declared Maeda is to design what Warren Buffett is to finance.

That's quite an accolade.

And I have to tell you that's true.

But more appropriately, John once describe as a humanist technologist, one who does not simply because it can be done, but who does so because he cares.

And you'll see that in him.

He truly is a humanist.

He truly cares about this university.

He truly cares about you, many of you as a next generation of leaders that will take this new platform and use it towards positive ends for society.

And it's for that reason as a university that we have embraced AI instead of rejected And we believe that we as a university, as a community can ensure that this technology is used for positive ends.

Yet for all of his achievements that I've mentioned, John has also faced challenges and difficulties like each and every o This evening he will share practical strategies for overcoming obstacles, rebounding from failures, and navigating life's many uncertainties.

We'll also hear his perspective on navigating the new array of AI uncertainties coming our way.

Perhaps most importantly of all, from my perspective, John is a proud parent of a Michigan Wolverine, to graduate very soon.

So would you please join me in welcomin to the Stamps lecture series.

Thank you.

- Thank you, President.

Thank you.

Hello.

I'd like to thank Pres It's quite an honor.

It's the other way around.

I've been a fan of his, and so to have him here to Th ank you, President Ono.

And I wanna thank my Wolverine is about resilience, and resilience is about being able to bounce back.

And I look to my daughters, as the reason why I've always been able to come back.

So thank you, Naoko.

All right.

So I don't talk very much, so if I'm at the wrong pace, just raise your hands and tell me to go faster, slower.

I also know this is a required class for some people, so I'm really sorry you're wet because of me.

And lastly, there are those of you who have to go to other classes later, wh I'm not bothered if you Th ere's a thing called YouTube where it sort of picks up and falls off quickly so I know how you ride.

This is, so what I've done is broken up this talk into a few sections and it may feel abrupt, but I think it's a way that may help to explain my story.

So first off, I am someone who's sat at the kind of boundary between design and computation.

I spent roughly 30 years sort of in this space of research and the practice of it.

And it's something that I keep wondering h People ask me like, wow, how did you do that?

And I will just tell you that I'm not sure what I'm doing because it keeps and it just keeps getting interesting.

And the thing is that I keep trying to understand how to do it in a way that is relevant to the times.

And so in the '90s I made different types of things for corporations, graphics, products, websites.

This was, my favorite piece was for Google a long time ago.

It's called the About Calendar, where it's sort of like relax.

And it says, oh, computer is like, oh, sorry abou Interesting.

Oh, one second.

Okay, there we go.

Whoa, it just jumped.

That was exciting.

Wow.

That's like new for you to do that, computer.

Okay.

Yeah.

Okay.

Yeah.

Oh I'm dyslexic, so when I change things, I apologize, but I got them mistaken.

Okay, I should be able to click this.

And there So I made an About Clock, it's like a California style It's never exact.

This is like in the '90s.

I would play with these types of things.

And what happens is, if you learn my story along the way, which I'll talk about briefly, is I came to realize that perhaps the most important thi for design to consider is inclusion.

And we will get back to this in a while.

Okay.

So I really like art and I saw this like bumper sticker that kind of like summarized it best for me.

Do you see the heart that flashed by, heart, art?

It's nice because art is in the word heart.

It's kind of cool, right?

It's lik And I like, I saw the bumper sticker that said, you can't spell the word Earth without art, otherwise you get eh.

So these kinds of patterns have struck Another thing is I've had the chance to travel to many airports and look for public art.

This, for those of you who have been ever stuck in Santa Barbara, it's a beautiful se yes, you can stare at this forever if you have to wait for An d so I have a collection of art from airports, photographs.

Particular, I found this one in the Boston Lo It is a kinetic sculpture that, isn't this gorgeous?

The men's bathroom.

And it was really trying har I have another collection from the men's bathroom.

You know how when you walk into a public bathroom when there's a toilet paper piece and you're like, o why is it inside the aluminum enclosure?

This could get dangerous.

And this was a bathroom where of this carefully to perhaps create an installation of a toilet paper.

Again, these are moments Or is it we humans can see art in it, isn't it the inverse?

So how I began?

I began in Seattle, Washington.

My parents made tofu for a living in a time when no one knew what tofu was.

I grew up in an area of Seattle ca the International Distri It was a rebranded Chinatown.

And it was very simple beginnings.

There's now a Wonton House where my parents' store exists.

And it was a place that smelled really bad because it was all trash cans and very dirty all the time.

And it was a kind of life every day where I kind of thought that that's what life's about.

And I remember I was good at school because I hated working at the tofu store.

It was horrible.

And when I went into It was warm, Dad wasn't yelling at me, I could take a break...

It was fantastic.

And then I remember my parents went to the parent teacher conference and the teacher told my parents, John is good at math and art.

And then I was like, oh, the next day my parents are telling their friends something different.

They said, "John is good at math."

And I was like, okay.

Is art bad?

I don't know.

I'll be good at math.

And years later I went to MIT, a place called the Media Lab.

And then I came back as a professor and I did all kinds of things in the '90s that were visual, tactile, generative art as I call it today.

And that was a wonderful time to be there.

And also wrote a book called "The Laws of Simplicity", where I tried to understand how to make technology simpler.

And it was a time where, you know, I'd been in MIT for a while and there was a financial crisis occur in 2001 or so.

And then I remember all the financ and saying, "John, you're a creative pe so don't worry about the money."

And then three people said the exact same thing to me.

So I started worrying about the money.

I was like, why shouldn't I worry about the money?

Shouldn't I worry about the mone So I decided to get an MBA So I was like, how am I gonna do this?

Like how am I gonna pay for this?

Right?

So like my assistant at the time had gotten something called tuition as you know, a few thousand dollars to help pay for tuition.

I was like, oh, maybe I can apply for that.

So I went to the HR office and then I, they gave me this like two page form, and the form said something like, you know, like this is a requirement, this is a requirement.

But the person that gave me the form said, what do you need this form for?

You're already like a full professor, you'r What are you gonna become?

What will you become next?

'Cause on the form it says, what are you doing this study for?

What is your next role?

And I knew this person would stamp the fo and let me go or not.

So I wrote down President of MIT, yo just in case he doesn't pass the form, I was gonna come and get him later.

So he did pass the form as a hobby and I highly recommend any professor to be a student for a while because it changes, reshapes how you think teaching, it changed me as well, but it changed my curiosity for the world.

And so I had the opportunity to leave MIT to become president of Rhode School of Design in 2008, the year when the global financial crisis had not arrived yet.

I was there in summer, for the summ And I was very new, didn't know anything.

I was practicing being a president, not like a cool president, like President Ono I was trying to figure it out.

And I remembered, I read this bo and you know, this "First 90 Days" book, or "First 100 Days", you know, it It has all the answers in it.

It's like, for whatever you do, don't have a 'cause the vision should not come from you.

I was like, don't have a Bu t when you come into a place, Wh at's your vision?

What's your vision?

No, the book said don't have a vi So anyways, I had the high school program, the pre-college program was convening, and I thought I could like just test the ideas I have, you know, just test it out, no one's watching me...

So I showed up and this was the audience I was talking with and I said, hey, you know, I'm a new president.

I'm trying to figure out this vision.

I know I'm not supposed to h but let me test out some ideas.

So I tried one idea, it was something of ego driven, like become the next Damien Hirst, whatever.

And then it got like applause for like a dad or something.

You know, it was very tepid.

And I tried another on it was like that.

And then I thought, lemm It was building a justifiable case for creativity in the world.

And everyone got excited.

These are people with like fierce haircut and crazy their t-shirts.

And I was like, wow.

Eve And I didn't know why.

And I remember after that event I we We had a store for alumni, like cool things.

And there's a young woman there who was there and she said, "Oh, thank you for giving that speech."

And I said, "What did I say?"

And she said, "Well, I'm like a sophom I'm the art person, I'm the creative person.

No one takes me seriously, but you said you would fight fo I'm crying a little bit.

It was a very powerful moment.

And I remembered that that was what I should do.

And so everything I did was about that.

It drove me forward.

And what happened is I got really interested in knowing why my teleprompter doesn't work.

Oh.

So anywa Meanwhile, I was a controversial person because I was using this thing called X, now Twitter, and I was tweeting, et cetera.

And what happens is the media loved to it turned out.

This is The Chronicle of Higher Educatio "A College Unfriends Its Social-Networking Everyone was gunning for me because I was using this thing called social media, which I found a useful communicatio which your president uses so well.

And I thought that someday would become popular.

So many things occurred like that that taught me in Japan they have a phrase, the nail that sticks up gets hammered I think in general life is like that.

If you're trying to spark change, you better be ready.

You gotta be resilient.

So at the same time I met a young teacher, art teacher who was a RISD graduate.

And he told me that the kind of work that he realized the students that he had or like stuck out was work that involved making something to learn something.

And I love this idea that the arts are a way to learn, art is how we learn.

And so he inspired me to advance t we had in the United States at the time, which was that STEM education was kind of out of control because it was basically decimating art classroo Now, art class was an hour a week, down to five minutes like a week, down to barely any art at all in the classroom.

And so I began advocating in Congress for something called STEM to STEAM for three years And so I mentioned that I was unfriended but I suddenly became friended because I was figh the right cause, again, the vision comes from the people, you find out how to connect, and hopefully you can survive.

There was also these two strange alumni, Joe Gebbia, Brian Chesky that I met and in like six years, so my second year I met them in San Francisco.

They had this wild idea, they had this little company with six people in their apartment.

They were like, you kn someday in people's house and have breakfast, airbed and breakfast.

And I was like, oh, that's never gonna take off.

But then every year their company was like four times the size and I was like, what is that company?

That company is Airbnb.

So I became very interested in the startup e in Silicon Valley.

And so in my sixth year as to work in venture capital at Kleiner Perkins, a venture capital firm that launched co And I got to get close to design NBC, but specifically DE dollar sign design.

What is this value that companies like Airbnb was beginning to unlock is something that more companies were looking for?

So what I did is I analyzed all the companies and discovered one very simple pattern that is obvious in hindsight, because for the longest time no had like mobile phones everywhere.

Computing was tethered to the desktop.

And most people didn't use computers, it's sort of hard to believe.

Hard to remember tha when people owned computers and put a in their house, 'cause they were embarrassed.

It was a very rare thing.

But if you had a you would probably check email You'd do it once in the morning and once in the evening.

And if it was a terrible user experience, you didn't matter too much because yo Ouch in the morning, ouch in the evening.

But with smartphones, as we know, we love to like look at them all th And so user experience began to matter a lo because the plane of ouch couldn't be too ouchy.

So imagine it, a bad user experie consumers wouldn't tolerate it.

So we moved from UI, just to user experience.

It's the entire ho with a computer basically all day long Now also when I was in Silicon Valley, I had an oops, I used to jog at 4:00 AM, those of you who are from Palo Alto know there's no like streetlights, it's kind of dangerous t Pro tip, the sidewalk is not flat.

If you are over 40, keep record of this.

You thought it was flat, it is not flat.

Sometimes it's not flat in a bad way.

So anyways, I was jogging and I had been rushing to a meeting or something, I wasn't thinking and I kind of that sidewalk there with... And then you're in that moment where like you hit it and you're like, uh oh, falling, not good.

And I basically caught the lip, broke my face, broke my arm, ever And it was a powerful experience because I was like, wow, this is not good to be And so I recommend anyone who's over 40 to get hurt because then you realize, not good to get hurt.

And after being hurt, that's when I actually do I began realizing that technology in general had to be more inclusive.

And so I supported the in the field on what inclusive design is about.

Now I wanna note that I also heard this thing called remote work.

And so I was at a company called Aut which was the HBR case study for remote work.

And I believe this was the first remote party ever online.

Now you all have something called FigJam, so it's no big deal.

But I was curious about how remote wor to it before the pandemic.

I wanna note that again, I'm saying good things but bad Th ere was a time where a Fast Company quoted me as saying design is not as important as we thi which was taken out of context, but it was incredible clickbait.

So for roughly two months I was hate which I always enjoy in a way, because I understand, you know, anything you do is met with friction.

And sometimes you can't hear people who are really angry.

And so I could like, oh, you think I came from privilege?

You just saw "Crazy Rich Asians."

I get it.

Not me.

But, you know, we have all of think and believe and the simplest story is the one we all repeat.

So it reteaches me how wh en you're doing well.

And if you're not doin So I went into consultancy, consultancy specifically to be tter user experiences, customer experiences.

I spent three years in an enterprise software company to address anything dangerous.

I was inspired by the pandemic to work on socially meaningful technologies, shoo wildfires, a company called Everbridge.

And I was a chief technology officer there.

And then what happened is my parents are in their late 80s and needed some support.

They happened to live in Redmond.

And I had to find a job in Redmond and I lucked out getting to work at Micro in the office of the chief technology officer, EVP of And that October when I announced I was working on artificial intelligence, everyone kinda laughed at me, that's never gonna happen.

And then November, December came and, wow, that turned out okay, all right.

Wouldn't you like to understand this AI revolution in terms where you can actually cook it yourself?

Well, that's what the Cozy AI Kitchen is for.

We're gonna deliver to you different easy ways to work with this magical semantic code stuff and orchestrate AI that tastes good to you.

Because the Cozy AI Kitchen is meant to be cozy, comfortable.

So tune in.

This is a little YouTube show we if you're curious how to build an AI and those are now available, the first one came out, the next one is gonna be Kevin Bethune, the third one's gonna be my dear friend... (indistinct) So if you're curious about how to make AI and you want a little bit sort of like a kind of like glitzy color type of stu check that out, please.

Okay.

Now people ask me, why And I'll tell 'em, I'm not really sure, but I always used to love going to a Chinese restaurant near and I used to always love the fortune cookie and my favorite fortune is this...

Range issue, this one.

That's exciting.

There we go.

Oh.

Now there we go.

It's Let's use space.

This is my equipment by th The great pleasure in life is doing what people say you cannot do.

I think this is kind of the, I guess the Michigan motto to like push the envelope.

I believe in that.

The other motto I like is b if you don't like change, you're going to like irrele So I believe the world is changing and I've been curious how to try to keep up with it, sort of.

Okay, now, you might be saying what the heck, the title talk was about resilience.

So what I prepared for you is a meal of resilie and let me check the clock.

Okay, so I'm gonna have to do that.

Okay, so I have collecte about resilience in roughly 40 images.

And these are all available online.

I'm gonna walk you through it, we through it, okay?

You're all fas Okay, so first off, resilience in general you have to be resilient in this technology age.

Why?

Is because thi like this thing here, 128 megabytes over here.

That's what it used to be.

Now it's like 128 gigabytes.

That's like 2005 to 2014.

That's unusual.

So the change we are experiencing in the information technology era is just weird And this is all in the context of something called the Fourth Industrial Revolution.

And the way it goes is like this.

There's the first one is steam engine an The third one is computing and the fourth is mobile social.

And of course mobile social includes the cloud and we're all taking selfies of ourselves.

This revolution, again, has happened so quickl to the past ones.

Now, when you think about how design I've labeled how there's three kinds of design.

One is called classical design.

The design of like my glasses or my coat, the design we all actually think is design.

And then there is design thinking.

Something that President Ono mentioned backstage about using it in hospitals and new ways to of make service design more comfortable, easy.

And lastly there is computational design, which until this year made no sense.

I wrote a book called "How to Speak Machine" to try to explain this before it landed.

But anyways, it is using computation as a medium.

Now, it turns out that all of this kind of design has a different emotional response.

So it turns out that design in the physical world, what is that about?

It's about like, oh, I like that, but inevitably change occurs.

So when something happens in your orga you get scared, and when you get scared, you get scared in three varieties.

One is no impact, lucked out.

Shock, oh no.

Or damage.

And so the reali is that when we experien it hurts sometimes, right?

Okay.

Now, if you thin I looked this up.

So the word resilience Th e word was meant to sort of like be like a ball, you bounce back.

At 1857 it became a way to d as unusually hardy, unusually resilient.

It was a physical property and then it became like a social kind of property, perhaps to again instill more people to be more robust as change became much more aggressive.

Now, again, we experienced the pandemic.

Some of you experienced in even worse ways.

I'm sorry to hear that if you fe But it was a big deal.

And instead of like actually like to do anything, we chose to take it on.

And I think that kind of bouncing back resilience is what we all experienced and is now built into actually this generation of studen than any other generation of students ever.

But again, you're in the world of the artificial intell And so if you notice, I like history.

I went back to the 1600s, that's like fa that's like a long time ago.

This is from 1966.

This is a program called Eliza.

And Eliza is a computer program that modeled a Rogerian psychotherapist.

It does a very simple trick.

The therapist is talking, you're talking to the therapist, the therapist repeats back You're saying certain words to the therapist, the therapist keys on certain words and repeats certain things back.

Like you start talking about yo "Tell me about your mother," Or it's like, ah, I had a really bad day.

Tell me about your bad day.

So it just repeats things back to And Joseph Weisbaum was an important figure in AI's history because he really invented this kind of autonomous chatbot.

And in the 1970s he wrote this book called "Computer Power and Human Reas And what I like is how he called out how what I had not realized is that extremely short exposures to a relatively simple program co delusional thinking in quite normal people.

It was sort of about Pandora's box really.

So we humans can't help believe that when are being typed at our face, that it's coming from a person.

We're wired that way.

And he gave us caution.

So want you all in this era to realize that this is a very long-term old caution.

And so remember that there isn't something human talking to you.

It is a machine, but your mind cannot hel but think, oh, but it's alive.

Now, I like this adversity calligraphy, 'cause if you turn it upside down, it reads as resilience, if you can do t But the idea is that adversity is what creates resilience, unfortunately, I do not wish adversity on anyone, but it is the key to becoming more resilient.

Some people have more privilege to be able to overcome resilience.

Some people have less.

So it is not a sig It is how some people are built or have been privileged to be able to recover from.

Are we following so far?

People sleeping yet?

Okay, good.

Checking.

Checking.

Okay, good.

All right.

Let We 19 minutes here.

Here we go.

All right.

Okay, let's s I've discovered that this has a range issue, but this is actually good.

Okay.

All right.

So again, the fact is that change is similar to how we experience grief.

And this is a grief curve I found, called the K#bler-Ross grief curve.

So when something happens, we think maybe it's good, plus valence, no it's not that good.

And then you're like, ah, maybe it's good?

And you're like, huh, lemme think about this.

And like, no, I don't like this.

And when you're down here in anger, then Very Yoda.

You know, don't get angry here.

Catharsis occurs.

How do you process it?

Sometimes you stay down here, misery and crisis.

But some people are able to rebound, but still you're not as good as before, you have to recover.

And some people are like super positive.

They're like, yes we can.

Didn't even notice it.

And that exists too.

But it's useful because we human And I love how the Ekman sort of emotion wheel, six canonical emotions.

You got fear, surprise, disgust, sad Enjoyment is only one sixth.

Why?

'Cause if you were happy all the time, we'd probably be dead.

We have to sort of survive.

We have these strong survivor of make sure danger, danger, danger.

So that's why change is somethin that triggers these things.

Okay.

And I have like a whole bunch of recipes t I think it is a Swiss one.

It's like a house of rooms.

When you're in a problem, ask yourself which room you're in of that room, okay?

Remember this, four rooms.

Room of contentment, life is good, room room of confusion, can I learn, room of renewal, risk a new path?

And then back to, I'm, okay.

So a Where are you in that?

Realize that there's more rooms.

Don't get stuck in that room, right?

Okay.

And then don't forget that there's like the panic room and the cellar of despair as well.

That's where you go when you get stuck.

So be Okay?

So again that I find very use There's another one called the four doo There's four doors.

There's four doors.

When something bad happens, you wanna ask yourse did you have it before?

Do you still have it a Don't have afterwards.

Business as usual doors.

And then there's two doors over here.

Ah, no.

Now, did you have it before?

No.

Don't have it after.

Let it go.

It's like let You know?

So four doors.

And the last one is didn't have it before.

Do have it after.

Go for it.

So the doors, the These are useful, okay.

I'm trying to be useful in this conversation with you 'cause I have so many of these and you will get bored very quickly.

But I haven't gone through them in so long and I could use them.

So selfishly, come with me.

Okay?

Now I'm gonna sh to get out of your depression.

But I wanna tell you something th By working for three years in the disaster category, I am not worried about things as much, right?

Yeah.

I'm like, wow.

That stuff happens all the time.

So I discovered this one fact at the planetary scale.

First off there's this thing called the Sun.

And the Earth rotates around the Sun.

And depending upon the axis of rotation, the seasons are different, right?

And so that happens.

And the reality is that this i Whether, it's dependent upon this, like so much is dependent upon this, right?

Just that fact.

Can anyone chang Nobody can change that here.

Ah, you don't have to wo Second fact, did you know that there's this thing called the Moon and the Moon goes around the Earth?

The Moon's like a, like pulls, it goes like gravity, like trying to, moves the water around 'cause it's a very, very, very, very tight skin around t Waves occur, you know, stuff like that.

Hurricanes, that set of patterns come from that.

This you cannot change too.

Third thing, the Earth is a spaceship with a burning molten core that's hot and dangerous.

It's also moving at 10,00 It is unstable.

It has these things called volcanoes.

I'm sure you've seen them.

You cannot change this as well, right?

It's a scary plac So when I realized this, I was like, oh, okay.

Right?

Easy.

Nothing you can do can change that.

Now I'm not saying don't give up, mind you, but perspective is a powerful thing.

My ear is not the correct size for this.

Excuse me.

Another method fro adapt, beginner's mind, control, A, B, C method.

Adapt is that point.

You know, change's gonna Be ginner's mind, this is my favorite phrase from Ray Kroc, one of the founders of McDonald's.

"I'd rather be green and growing instead of ripe and ready to rot," like a tomato.

Isn't that good?

If you're a Not good.

Lastly, control.

I like this phrase by Steven Covey.

You can't change everything around you, but you can always cha And so I find A, B, C method quite useful.

Okay, all right, that was section three.

We're going good.

Give us much material.

Now, some of you may that are somewhat dark because I am curious about life in general and how long I might live or any of us might live.

In my early thirties, I made something called the spring counter.

How many springs do you have left in life?

It's a little scary to type in actually.

Gray means the seasons you've lived.

Color means the season you've got left to live on the average.

But I use it to sort of So if you look for that motivation, it's available onlin Now, going back to the pandemic and disaster, you know, this is like a global death graph.

The reason why the pandemic was such a big deal is the million plus club is actually quite small, but it is significant.

So for those of you yo this was an unusual occurrence.

It was extremely unusual.

It's hard to sort of fathom when we watch like something on a big, big deal.

And again, we're still dealing with it today.

In that concept, remember the following, that maybe if it doesn't happen to you, it happens to others.

There are emotional responses that when people lose a loved one, things like that.

Fear, grief, anger, guilt is the most interest why am I spared versus why aren't others spared?

So if you ever have a kind of empathic sort of a deficit, like sometimes I do based upon my spectrum, I like looking at this graph to remember that we all experience loss in very diff And be careful how you think of that.

Okay.

Is this too dark for this day?

Is that all right?

Is it okay?

I wasn't sure.

Okay.

This is good news on how you die.

So like these are the different ways, different ways to die.

You know this is a sort of a death graph.

I wanna tell you some good news is that the top five causes of death actually ha to do with like motorcycle vehicles or whatever.

It's actually like the cardiovascular, cancer stuff, the lungs, whatever.

This stuff's that's actually go So, whew, right?

You know, that thing about like a shark off the, you know, a shark off the beach or whatever.

No one dies from a shark compared to Mosquitoes will kill you.

So, that's some context there.

Okay.

All right, how are we doing on death and time?

10 minutes.

Good.

All righ if you come with me on this a second.

This is, someone from the London Sch researched things that people before they're about to die say.

So I'm gonna go through each sentence.

I want you to read it out loud.

So let's start for a second.

I wish I had the courage...

Speak out loud.

I wish I had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me.

One second.

There we go.

I wish I had...

Okay.

I wish...

I wish... (audience speaking faintly) I wish...

I wish... That list I find very powerful because it reminds you, I should like, I'm alive now, I should like make those wishes happen.

Okay.

This is another A, B, C, D method.

First off, something's happened.

Articulate the adversity you've encountered.

Second thing, ask yourself how you are impacted, how you believe you're impacted.

Third thing, just consider what's gonna happe because of it, forcing dispute, like am I really like thinking that?

Is that gonna happen or not?

Be cri A, B, C, D method.

There's so many methods to deal wi Okay.

All right.

Lastly, too much resilience is not goo Another flip side, oh, I've gotta be resilient, I've gotta be stoic.

Surgeon-General's harmful to organizations and to society.

Examples, systemic exclusion or oppression.

So that's the other side.

Okay, you are all resilience experts.

O Congratulate yourself.

Adversity, resilience.

If it happens to you or you're going through it, I hope you'll be able to be more resilient too.

All right.

Okay.

Let's talk about AI now.

AI is like interesting, like the letters, they can go into all kind of pockets and places and I think it's like good stuff and bad stuff, you know?

And so what I've been thinking about with AI is that AI is not AI per se, it is not artificial intelligence per se, it's just computation.

And of course computation has the lett Computation being this medium that we have been able to use because of computing.

And AI is something that sounds really about intelligence, but it's a really fancy form of computation.

And computation is who writes software understands in The problem with computation is no one quit you're a computer science person.

So I spent six years writing "How and it was meant to be able to help more people who are non-technical to understand it.

I will tell you that nobody wanted this book four years of curious about it.

So it's for a dollar on eBay now.

But it is a book that I wrote beca by David Bowie.

- It is going to crush our ideas of what mediums are all about.

I don't think we've even seen the tip o I think the potential of what the internet is going to do to society, both good and bad, is unimaginable.

I think we're actually on the cusp of something exhilarating and - It's just a tool though, isn't it?

- No it's not.

No, it's an alien life form.

- What I mean when you think then about- - Is there life on Mars.

Yes, it's just landed - It's simply a delivery system there.

You are arguing about something more profound.

- Oh yeah, I'm talking about the actual context and the state so different to anything that we can really envisage at the moment.

- So when I saw this, I realized, He really was an alien.

And this alien life form has been evolving.

Anyone who's surprised by this new large language to look back in history.

This is a history of pre- that drive so-called LLMs today, as you know it.

On the left hand side is when they were sm and they grew up very quickly.

There's also a series of models called vision models and graph models that are also evolving.

We're seeing the first wave of those models with something called GPT-4V.

If you use ChatGPT Plus you'll see that as It's a model that combines images and language together fluidly.

And lastly, there's a sort of like new category of models called unified pre-trained foundation models that are multimodal, that go across differe and they have all kind of weird names that sound like COVID viruses, whatever.

But it's quite a important time for AI.

And so earlier this year, I named this the AI ketchup bottle moment.

You know the ketchup, you're like, ah, when's the ketchup, when's AI coming out?

Whoa, it all came out.

So that's the moment right now and that's where we're kind of like bewildered by it.

So I'm gonna close with a lesson on AI.

Time.

Good.

Okay.

So right this AI is interesting because there of AI models emerging at the same time.

Many of us are fascinated by generative AI.

Generative AI usually means like generating, right?

But there's actually two kinds of models that are from this large language model tree.

If you take your hands out for a second in front of you, it's easy to remember.

So sort of wave your right hand ov That's the completion engine.

Okay?

If you're writing, you're like, guess my, I love completion engi But the left hand, don't forget, that's a similarity engine, ok There's two engines at play and of course when they work together, they create amazing things like Le t me explain.

Okay.

So, okay, so the way the similarity engine works is, okay, is lemon similar to limon?

So if you're a computer you're like, oh yeah, that's like L-M-O-N that's like four out of five.

That's like, yeah, very similar, right?

Okay, I got it.

If you're a computer, and you're like, lemon, similar to orange?

It's like whoa, no, no, five letters, oh, six letters.

Maybe the E is similar?

The N?

No, not the same word, but we humans kind of like Is lemon similar to that sour taste?

Ah, that's impossible.

That's one word compared to three words.

Well in reality in today you're now able to calculate a numerical index that tells you is it 0.5, 0.3, 0.9 similar.

There's a similarity engine has emerged, it's incredible.

It compares sentences to words, sentences to paragraphs, paragraphs to books.

And that technology has emerged.

And your left hand's similarity engine.

The right hand is more popular with completion engine.

But if you think about it, it's quite clever.

I've bit into a lemon and... You're probably imagining what's gonna occur.

And based on statistics you'll say something that's very close to, and I made this face Ma ybe half of you thought that was gonna c Or like, let's describe a lemon.

It's, probably you thought yellow.

When I see the color yellow, I think depending how you grew up.

So fill in the blank The left hand is able to find things.

Ever know X-men Magneto?

X-men Magneto?

Okay, so I guess it's like a Magneto power to pull the similar things towards you.

It's a really cool hand.

The left hand.

Okay.

So the combination of these things is important.

So when I say when I see the color yellow, I think, blah, what happens is the similar engine finds similar things you have said in a chat session and it brings them into context of completio So it's this combination of these two things that are powerful.

When you remove the similarity an d I'm just saying I think, it has no it's gonna hallucinate, 'cause it has no context.

Context and the completion together.

That's why we're experiencing this moment.

And both models are evolving rapidly, practically every day.

Everyone loves hallucination.

Okay, wow.

Did we end on time?

Okay, so why wit there's so much to you know, you know... And actually in 2002 I was really stressed out and I wanna thank Naoko for making me less stressed out.

I know not 'cause of you, but I remember tha to the pool to kind of like chill out to swim once in a while.

And there wa when I told him like, oh I'm so concerned about the future.

I remember he told me this thing that changed m He said, "Relax, kid.

The world's always falling apart."

And that was a theme of the laws of simplicity, I found my chill place and began to build from that.

Okay, so I was just in Spain and Madrid and I got to see these incredible aqueduct.

I mean this has like been there fore Who's been here before?

Been he Yeah isn't it amazing?

It's like still there.

There's no like, you know, concrete or whatev It's like freestanding.

This is, I found some cookies from my da she made it as a kid.

Art is something we actually care about and that's why bot And I believe that in everything I've shared with you, even this art, I wish I could have kept it like this.

That is where the human spirit lives.

In the age of AI, so much change is how we feel for each other.

And I hope that this gathering, you'll have some nice dinner or whateve For a long time.

Thank you.

Go run, run to class, run to class.

And we have Q&A now for those of you can stay at Q&A.

For those of you who go to class, run as you can, hope you stay dry.

If you come forward, go ahead, ask your question.

- Hi.

- Oh microphone, go ahead.

Go ahead.

I hear you.

- I'm Zach, I'm also from Seattle.

So... - Hi Zach.

I'm from Seat - Yeah, glad to see a hometown hero.

- Hi.

- I was just wondering throughout your career, since it's been ve has there been lik that's come up time and time agai And how have you faced that?

- Question is what is a consistent challenge?

Thank you.

A consis can you get back up again?

One of my favorite phrases is from the late Nelson Mandela, don't judge me by my successes, judge me by how every time I failed I got back up aga So that's the only thing, can you get back up again?

And you can do it with friends and family, if you'r Thank you.

Question.

- Hi.

With all of your development wh at are your thoughts on AI generators of like images like DALL#E and all that with like potentially stealing from or What are your thoughts on that?

- The question is on copyright.

With these types of image generating ima they're based upon data from the internet, how do I feel about it?

I think these first generation of m of that, but we're learning how to reduce that.

So over time it'll change.

- Thank you.

- Go ahead.

Wow.

- Hi, I wanted to know, so you spoke about emotions.

I wanted to know what's the way forward in order to understand a person's emotions and how can we somehow gather that information?

- Ah, good question, is how to so I should tell you that many companies are trying to measure your emotions to figure out what you will buy.

That's a thing.

So that technology does exist.

I would just say as young technologists, howev or builders in general, I would suggest you feel hang out with more people, build more relationships.

That's how we're gonna improve the technology.

Thank you.

Good.

- Hi, I'm Selena.

I feel really related to your experience, 'cause when I wanted to do science an the adults told me, no, you can only choose one.

And then I have changed my major for three times.

So definitely with your like very abundance like career plan and no vision, it's definitely me.

And I'm wondering because for some weird I was actually listening to a podcast about the origin of internet and how it's kind of generated from like a purpose for defense and military communication, which caused a lot of problem because the way it was designed initially.

Do you think, but this black boxing really has some change the potential like problem or the existing problem?

Do you think an AI would solve the problem that the previous internet has?

- Sure.

Yeah.

Well we has a positive and negative Ma ny of you have heard of something called the Nobel Peace Prize?

Oh, Alfred Nobel invented dynamite, which was the number one technology that was able to enable miners to stop dying in the mines.

Dying sort of big sort of... Digging those mines was very dangerous.

So dynamite was an awesome technolo It also is reputated to kill, have killed more people during war at the same time.

So technology always comes with these two questions, we have to ask them critically.

Thank you.

- Hi, I'm Selena.

I have two v First of all, I love your bo I actually brought it with me.

Yeah, I was wondering if you c That would- - Of course.

Yeah, yeah.

What's it?

Yes.

Yeah.

What's the question?

- Yeah, let's go.

Thank you.

And also the second question is I was wondering how do you balance design and like computing, like programming and UX design?

How do you balance that?

- How do y how do you balan It's very hard because wh your brain has to change a little bit to be there.

And when you're in design space, you have to change a lot too.

Good news though I like to say that engineers like to introvert, but designers like to introvert together.

So there's something about that, introvert nicely across.

Thank you.

Go ahead.

- Hi.

I'm Vero a university student.

- Yeah.

- And I have read your book and and I have lots of question, but I have asked ChatGPT and he have answered me really Bu t I have one question that he can't answer.

Can I have a selfie with you?

- Oh.

Yeah, yeah.

Okay, let's go quickly.

All right, thank you.

Next qu Thank you.

- Okay.

- All right, next questi I'm a big fan of yours.

I did a st I really love the Reactive Books.

My friend Adriana too was with me on that project.

So my question is, I'm a UX wo rking to be a UX designer.

So my question is, how do you see AI influencing - Oh, I see AI changing how we do a lot because AI can enab a journey view of things.

Because remember, this is a kind of a narrative intellige It used to be that when you build so a cockpit, dials and everything, but as you know, UX is more of a story, a narrative that changes like a mo So it's gonna make us, make it much more f Good.

All right, go ahead.

- Hi, I am And I was wondering if you could sign "The Laws of Simplic - [John] Yeah, go ask a qu - And second is, I'm wonde we talk a lot about access in UX design.

- Yes.

- But how have you explored and connection within UX and user experience?

- Well, I'm heartened by the fact that, oh sorry, I've been trusting this thing over here.

Summary.

I find that inclusion is a topic that people who have been excluded really care about.

And if you have teams that have, I once asked someone, how many times have you felt excluded?

And one person said, I've never felt excluded.

You can guess.

- Yeah.

- So I think it's a matter of people who have fel that exclusion to build these kind of products.

I think that's a sea of change.

Thank you.

All right.

Yes.

- Hi, my name is M I've been really inter as it becomes more common.

The people who think it's a threat, who think it's a w the people who think it might be s kind of on both sides...

I was wondering if there's like a common misconception that you think or be re-perceived in the future.

- So I believe that misconceptions are hard to change.

That's why that's a good word, good branding, misconception.

It's because we humans like the simplest story.

The simplest story is hard to break.

It's gone through your TSA detector so fast that you don't think about it.

I hope that people who are lucky to have education can actually work to sort of that down for others to understand.

Not because they are slow, it's because they're busy Th anks.

Okay.

Hi.

- Hi, I'm Maddie So I just wanted to say a quick thank you.

A bunch of students here from College of Creative Studie We... Hello.

- Hi.

- So something that we had to do as graphic designers is use your content to all make "Laws of Simplicity" books.

So we have a bunch of these.

- Wow.

- But, yeah, you have been a talk of the town for years and years.

Our program has done this for years now since the book has come out.

And it's j to hear you talk tonight.

If you could sign this... - Oh yeah, o - This would be nice too.

- Thank you.

Wow, it's so pretty - But one question that I indeed have is a lot of are really infatuated with these, the shoe collaboration that you did... - You know about that?

- Yes, of course.

What... Yeah, with Reebok.

- Reebok, yes.

- Yeah.

So what was the concep - So, I was lucky to be asked to des of shoes and apparel for Reebok.

What was behind that?

I think it was just people I was a strange person who could write co and make graphics.

It was only, it was as Bu t I know when I did it, I knew nothing about sneaker people.

And I'm glad that some people have it in their collections now, I Bu t I was the wrong person to design sneaker because I didn't appreciate them as much as I shou So I feel that, that's my regret.

Sorry.

- Yeah.

- Thank you.

All right, I'm here.

- Hi John.

And yeah and for your presentation.

I think I'm the only MBA student here.

I'm lost here.

- Oh, wow.

- Very excited.

And I just had Like, you talk a lot about resilience, about like this, what's important in lif You must have a routine like in the morning, in the night...

I'm very curious about it.

- Oh.

How do I manage my time?

I don't sleep very much, so I mismanage my time is the answer.

I have not been good at that.

It's one of those like things on my New Yeah.

Bad at that.

Yea - Hi, my name is Brooke and I also very much th e kind of art and For my own work, I work with videos and t so like I take circuits and stuff and co and like generate really cool vis And I've been told in the past that it's not And I was wondering what your opinion is in term and technology and what the line is between the generative art being the code and being product of the artists themselves.

- Yeah.

Important question.

So like, I r when I was doing things across c it was really, I was like, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, People hated me.

I remember like I was at this d this fancy dinner, art dinner, and I sat down and we're all in and then they're like, "What's your name?"

I'm John Maeda.

And that I can't stand what you're talking because computer code looks like mathematics.

It looks soulless compared to traditional arts.

But over time it's changed, slightly, and it's gonna change slightly even more.

I would just recommend that people who are at that intersection to sort of notice that it's a very special skill, it's only gonna get more in Thanks.

All right.

- Hi.

I just w and me and my friend, we drove three h - Whoa.

- And through all the rain and traffic - Oh, you made it.

- I know.

We final All right.

- That's - My question is, with all this trial we just went through, how do you stay motivated?

- Oh, how do I stay motivated?

I'll tell you that I think it's hard for like anyone here who gets up in the morning and tries to do what they do.

It's hard.

I t I'm grateful that I can function.

Like when I busted my face and whatever, it was an amazing moment.

'Cause I was like, whoa, Oh no, I'm gonna hit something bad.

Oh no, it happened.

And then like, I still have the concussion ringing in my head from that moment.

But I remember like on it was 4:00 AM, I was like dripping in blood, I didn't have my phone.

I had my Apple watch, So it was useless.

Hello.

And I didn't have my wallet, you know, and I was like, oh, not good, because it's a subur So there's no people, I wasn't gonna be found.

So I thought, the Mars rover somehow was able to ge to base to charge itself.

Because I'm a Mars rover.

Okay, be a Mars rover.

So like, I kind of got up, and when I got up the Mars I'd have to sit down again.

So I was like, oh, okay, so I can move So I was doing this for like 12 blocks.

And that was a moment where I love grass, I love lawns.

I'd be like, oh, this feels so good, you know?

And then get up, get up.

And then I got to the Airbnb, ca She found like a hospital.

I called the Uber.

Luckily it was so dark I got in, got out, and then like, you know, when you go to these places by yourself, you know, have someone helping you, they'r And I was like, I'm a right hand person...

But everybody's gotta fill out the So I was like, it's like An d I wait two hours and the doctor finally comes, or someone's doctor-like comes, do you know what I mean?

Like, are you a doctor?

You're a doctor for me.

And the doctor looked at me and he said, "You look ter What happened to you?"

It was like, you know, I kind of And he said, "Well, can you move your neck?"

And I said, "Yeah."

And he s I said, yeah, I am lucky, that could've gone the wrong way.

And then an hour later the nurse comes in and l at me and says, "Oh, you look terrible.

What were you doing?"

"I was jogging."

Jogging's not good for you, An d then they said like, were you wearing what you were wearing?

I was wearing like bla I was like, "You cou weren't you wearing a vest?"

And I was like, yeah, I could've b This could have been much worse.

So anyways, long way of saying, I think that when you find how to be grate you can sometimes find the way.

- Awesome.

- But every day is a struggle, isn't it?

Sometimes, r - Am I right?

Okay.

- [Audience Member] Well, I' with the Mars rover.

So can I have All right.

Hi.

Thank you.

All right, next one.

Here we go.

- Hi John-- - I'm sorry For ke Please g - Hi, John.

It's suc My name is Zoe and like lo I'm also a student UX designer.

- Ooh.

Yeah.

- So my question for you is, you know, aside from all the thi you know, know all of your UX research meth the back of your palm, do your wire frames, prototypes, and get prestigious internships.

What else do you think an entry leve such as myself, what can we do?

What can we learn or do to become a better, more well rounded designer?

- Well, I think the most important thing is similar to a question I tried to answer wh ich I failed at, which is really is to learn how to work with other people.

You know, classes are a simulation of that.

The clubs are a better simulation of that.

Working on campus is a simulation, is a better simulation of that.

Working with other people is the most important wh o is in a company or startup, whatever, you're working with other people, you're working with the customers, Ok ay.

Yes.

- So President Ono introduced you as a And with that in mind, I wanted t of this era can do in the future to help people and things that you don't think people are paying enough atte - Yeah, I think that, so if you follow how th ey're built with a triangle.

You've got the product business person, you've got the engineer pers you've got the design person.

I think design people have a so than the other crafts.

And sort of bringing that into the equation is because if people don't care, they're not gonna move.

But one third of triangle can actually inflect it.

- Thank you.

- Thanks.

Yeah.

- Hi.

First, big fan of - Oh, thanks.

- Looking sharp.

And so I was wonderi as AI has shown to hav and accomplishing some of the steps in the design process, how in your industry does that affect some of the that have traditionally done those steps that it's looking to, you know, be - Yeah, good question.

I think that we have to wh en you use AI UX, there's a little kind of tiny fine writing in some cases, sometimes b It says this was generated by some kind of transformative AI technology.

Do not believe that it's 100% true.

It should be in there.

If it's not there, it' We need people who are good at what they do because for that 5% that matters, So I think quality still matters.

That said, though, for the large mass of things that require low quality, high volume, this is a very good technology.

Thanks.

Yeah.

Hi.

- My name is Emily.

I'm also a student at the College for Cr - Yeah.

- Big fan of your book.

Studied it all the way t And it's really part of our So it's just amazing being here, seeing But, so my question was, I'm just like a graphic design like student, I don't really have a specific focus yet.

So my question was that with the growth and the development of the UI, like UI/UX industry, do you think these changes in development, it's killing the fine print making aspect of designing?

- Oh?

- Like screen versus print?

- So the question about are the fine a to be preserved in this big shift?

I think that if you look at the arts and crafts movement, the so-c where there were Luddites, anti-technology, there was the textiles were made by hand, made by loom instead, there were the so-called frame breake The arts of crafts movement is important because it wasn't anti-technology.

It was humans asking how do we make things that machines cannot make?

So I believe that many of the crafts are gonna act have to improve in some way to show how they are more human made than ever before.

Which I think is gonna lead to renaissance in the f Thank you.

Of course.

Yeah.

This is a new generation.

Okay, our next question.

Oka Thank you.

Next question.

- Yes.

First of all-- - Ha - Thank you.

- What happens if peopl It doesn't stay ther - Okay.

- It doe I wanted to first of all say thank you I think to your point, in a time of change, it's more important now than ever bef - Yeah.

- So thank you, 'cause I at least a room full of people, if And going forward, I think it's safe to say you're a vivid thinker.

And I'm curious, how do y of the pursuits and causes and things that are important to you when there are so many to choose from and that you can influence?

- Well, this turns t I'm really excited about this kind of AI and how to write software with it.

I think, 'cause I'm designin to save time for myself.

I wasn't able to finish the soft but I'm making a way to make presentations wit that I'm excited about showing sometime later this year.

Thank you.

- Also hoping you could- Yeah.

Thank you.

Next questio - I kind of have two questions, i - Go for it.

- So as you said, technology has solved many prob but it's also caused many l and an epidemic of loneliness.

How do you think AI will affect the amount of disinformation and lack of media that there exists?

- So one thing that gives me hope is there was this startup, when I was at Kleiner Perki is there's a company called Newsela.

And the thesis was, this is before the AI boom, that in a given classroom, public school classroom, everyone is at a different level.

But when you give everyone the same reading, one student can fall behind, one student can't go And so the thesis was, if the same material is to the different reading levels, people can move forward together.

So I think that kind of customization wi and care and notion of how to do that well, that gives me hope for information that is quality.

Now back to disinformation though, the Joseph Weizenbaum's work and he was my AI professor in 1985.

And I was a student who thought, ah, I got that instructor?

I wanted that one there.

And then years later I re he invented the chat bot.

He's important because he fl And the reason why he didn't commercialize this technology in 1966 is he asked 'Cause he asked questions.

If the b they start to believe it's a hu Yes, it most likel So I believe this generation of technologists and builders, we're gonna have to ask question for how do we break the spell?

Otherwise it's gonna get much more confusing Question, second question you said.

- Sorry, and then I we are at a constant battle with nature and technology and we're starting to see the detrimental effects of climate change.

So how do you thin into this new technology is gonna impact the clima - I think definitely anything that uses energy is a balance kind of thing.

This technology, however, as we begin to learn how to use it with less energy, it does help us think differently, think better perhaps in the future.

And it may help us actually make a d I'm hopeful of that.

Thank you.

Yeah?

- Hey, I What's your favorite color?

- Favorite color is blue.

Thank you.

Yeah.

- Hi.

- Hi.

- We have some m we've just been studying you and really app the work that you do and have been ins - Thanks.

- We all have our books.

- Oh.

- And I was just wondering if you could sign a few of the - Yeah.

Yeah, of cours Okay.

Whoa.

Oh, my goodness.

Thank you.

Thank you.

All right.

Yeah.

Thanks.

- Selfie Yes.

Young peopl Okay.

Okay.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Yes.

Next question.

Where are you going?

Multitask - Hi, I'm Eva.

Thank you so much for your I was just wondering, you touched a little b and how crucial that is and I was w how young artists and designers can put an d what advice do you have?

- [John] One more time q - What advice do you have to put themselves out there as young artists and designers in regards to networking?

- In the darkness of... That sound - What advice do you have for young artists and designers in regards to networking and how to put themselves out there?

- Oh my So young artists networking, very hard.

Lemme explain the following.

Sorry, again, those of you h I was a happy introvert who didn't want to talk to anybody.

I love making my stuff, you know?

And I had this producer, Naomi Enami, who funded this series of books called "The Reactive Books."

And we were at some event and I wanted to go to my like room that evening and like just write code and design some pamphlet, whatever.

And he said to me, "You have to go to the party."

And I said, "I don't wanna go to the party."

A month later, Mr. Enami went into a c and he never recovered.

And I realized, wait, I gotta go to So out of necessity I realized that I needed to be a part of that world.

And so I think as an artist you of build, heads down and then have a party and then build, heads down.

But if you count on heads down to work out, it doesn't work really well.

Unless they have a trust Th ank you.

- Can I also have - I just wanna let you know- - Time - Five minutes.

- Five m Thank you.

Hi.

- My name is Lyric.

I'm anothe currently working on that project that eve is working on.

- Yeah.

- You touched on going to yo u've already completed it.

How long did y of going back after technology has improved so much?

- Oh, well, I did my MBA online just when it was coming out.

And it taught me, for anyone who's a teacher, I strongly advise you to be a student, because you're getting it wrong.

Like I was getting it wrong.

I probably wasn't a wh o's still here.

'Cause you learn that the student is much smar They know you're making stuff up.

And I was like, oh, this profe I do that sometimes.

Do people notice that?

Whoa.

So I think that is useful as well.

Thank you.

- Thank Yeah.

Next question.

Seven minutes.

Tha Five minutes.

- But mo So back in 2008, I was at RISD pre-college program and I was ther - I know you!

- Studied industrial design, but I come more with a recommendation.

I don't know what your vision is for your role at Microsof But I do highly recommend that you work with a biomimicry team, specifically who is the director of biomimicry and their development of data centers that work better with natural systems.

So I just offer that.

- Yeah.

Thank you for the idea Edna Lawrence Nature Lab.

Okay.

Are we, you're... Hello.

Yeah.

- I just wanted a se - Selfie.

- I'm a big fan.

- [John] This - Take a picture.

- Okay.

There we go.

Oka Thank you.

Yes.

- Hi.

I don't really h I just wanted to say thank you for th I think that your general worldview, it was really inspiring.

- [John] What was useful?

- Everyone dies and like don't like... - Yeah.

- Yeah.

And like don't And I think that is like a really impor And also, could you sign my sketchbook?

- Of course.

Yeah.

Th Yeah, yo Thank you.

All right.

Y - Not really- - A good point.

Yes.

- Not really a serious questio but as someone you know who's you know, science and technology, what is your favorite like science fic like movie or piece of media?

- "Arrival."

"Arrival."

Oh my gosh.

Thank you.

- That's Thank you.

Oh, I got kudos from a y Yes!

- My que what do you lo - What I look for in someone who wants to work for you, I don't know why anyo I like people that are nice people.

Sounds kind of So I think nice people.

'Cause nice people...

They don't have to be nice all the time, but some, why are you so nice?

'Cause I... yo I like that.

You know Find the helpers.

I love helpers.

Ye - [Audience Member] Can I actually with you - [Audie - Oh yeah, go ahead.

Yeah.

Ri Our next - Just wanted to say than It was really entertaining.

And I was wo - Oh yeah, go ahead.

Wow, this is Okay.

Yes.

Next que - Okay.

- Okay.

Here we go.

- I actually want I'm actually a senior.

- [John] D Please go ah - Okay.

I'm actu but as I said, I switched major for three times.

I'm just looking for like a program you, like, what is some characteristic I could look for as a very creative but interdisciplinary person?

- It's all about having one good professor out there that gets you.

Photo, quick.

- - Thank you.

Okay, let's go, one more l - Sorry, this is maybe So I know you have your book and you for people who maybe don't understand technology, w like one of your books.

- Oh, thank you.

- What are other peopl what are other things that peop a little bit lost in the tech world, but want to understand like, what c And also, can I take a selfie with you?

- Oh, I can't emphasiz with this stuff.

Because anyone who and has a critique of it doesn't full That's why the two hands are important.

Not even with two hands.

When you start build this is a different kind of material.

It's a different kind of programming.

Especially when you add the multimodal par You're like, wow, okay.

So what can I do that's meaningful in a good with this versus people who are like kind of imagining what it does, or read a paper of a paper of a paper or someone just told them, could you, can even be And you're like, yeah, I could believe it.

It sounds like a good story, but when you sta you realize I actually c - Okay.

- Or it's good at that.

So please make with it - Thank you.

- - Can I take Thank you.

Okay.

Fine.

Thank you for staying longer.

Everyone go home.

Thank you.

(people chattering)