Isaac Lidsky: What reality are you creating for yourself? | TED

Summary

Isaac Lidsky shares a profound personal journey of living with blindness, which paradoxically sharpened his vision of life. He challenges the audience to recognize and confront their own 'backwards-swimming fish'—distorted perceptions shaped by fear and bias. Lidsky illustrates how sight is a mental construct, influenced by emotions and preconceptions, urging individuals to take responsibility for creating their reality and to embrace the empowering truth of their own vision.

Takeaways

• 🧠 Our perceptions are not objective realities but rather unique personal realities constructed by our brains.
• 🐟 The story of Dorothy and the goldfish illustrates the human tendency to make assumptions and believe in them without questioning.
• 🎓 Isaac Lidsky's achievements, including graduating from Harvard at 19 and starring on a TV show, demonstrate that one's abilities are not limited by disabilities.
• 🦄 The concept of 'fish swimming backwards' is a metaphor for the flawed beliefs and biases that people hold without realizing their inaccuracies.
• 👀 Isaac's experience of losing his sight taught him to live life with an open mind, recognizing and confronting the illusions created by his mind.
• 🧠 The visual cortex is a significant part of the brain, processing a vast amount of information and creating the illusion of sight.
• 🌈 Our emotions and mental states can influence what we see, as demonstrated by studies showing how mood can alter perception.
• 😨 Fear can distort reality, leading to a self-fulfilling prophecy where one's assumptions about the future become a reality.
• 💪 Living life with 'eyes wide open' requires discipline, self-accountability, and the courage to confront and overcome one's fears and biases.
• 👨‍👩‍👧‍👦 Isaac Lidsky's personal story of building a fulfilling life despite his blindness serves as an example of overcoming limitations and creating one's own reality.
• 🔮 Helen Keller's quote emphasizes the importance of vision over mere sight, suggesting that true vision comes from understanding and insight beyond physical sight.

Q & A

What is the main metaphor used in the beginning of the speech?

The main metaphor used is 'fish swimming backwards by wagging their heads,' which represents the assumptions and faulty leaps of logic that people make in their thinking.

What are the five facts the speaker shares about himself, and which one is not true?

The speaker shares five facts: 1) He graduated from Harvard at 19 with an honors degree in mathematics. 2) He currently runs a construction company in Orlando. 3) He starred on a television sitcom. 4) He lost his sight to a rare genetic eye disease. 5) He served as a law clerk to two US Supreme Court justices. The twist is that all of these facts are true.

How did the speaker's experience of losing his sight impact his perspective on life?

Losing his sight taught the speaker to live his life with eyes wide open, to recognize the assumptions and biases in his thinking, and to understand that what we see is a mental construction, not an objective reality.

What role does the visual cortex play in our perception according to the speaker?

The visual cortex plays a significant role in our perception as it takes up about 30 percent of the brain's volume and processes a large amount of information from the eyes every second.

How does fear distort our reality according to the speaker?

Fear distorts our reality by replacing the unknown with the awful, leading us to make assumptions and decisions based on our worst fears rather than reason or logic.

What is the term psychologists use to describe the act of fear replacing the unknown with the awful?

The term psychologists use is 'awfulizing.'

What advice does the speaker give for living life with eyes wide open?

The speaker advises holding oneself accountable for every moment and thought, seeing beyond fears, recognizing assumptions, harnessing internal strength, correcting misconceptions, accepting strengths and weaknesses, and opening one's heart to blessings.

How does the speaker's blindness affect his role as a CEO?

The speaker's blindness means he doesn't get visual feedback from people, which has led him to solicit more verbal feedback and communicate at a deeper level with his team, avoiding ambiguities and ensuring that team members know their thoughts matter.

What does the speaker believe is the key to overcoming the limitations imposed by fear?

The speaker believes that the key to overcoming fear is to confront the reality of it, to not let it dictate one's life, and to live beyond the tunnel of fear into uncharted territory.

What does the speaker suggest is the difference between sight and vision?

The speaker suggests that sight is the physical ability to see, while vision is the broader perspective and understanding of life, which can be achieved even without physical sight.

Outlines

00:00

🐠 Fish Swimming Backwards and the Power of Belief

The speaker begins with a childhood memory about a humorous misconception involving a goldfish, illustrating how people often make faulty assumptions and leaps in logic. The metaphor of 'fish swimming backwards' symbolizes the many misconceptions and false beliefs that shape our lives. The speaker then shares five surprising facts about himself, all of which are true, including graduating from Harvard at 19, running a construction company, starring on a TV show, losing his sight, and clerking for two US Supreme Court justices. This leads into a discussion on how blindness taught him to live with 'eyes wide open,' challenging the audience to recognize and overcome their own misconceptions and biases.

05:03

👀 The Illusion of Sight and Reality's Construction

The speaker explores the complex nature of sight and how it shapes our perception of reality. He explains that sight is not merely a passive reception of the world around us but a mental construction influenced by our emotions, knowledge, and memories. The speaker uses examples, such as how fear and physical exertion can distort our perceptions, to demonstrate that what we see is not objective truth but a personal virtual reality. The deterioration of his own sight led him to realize that sight is an illusion and that we actively create our own realities, which are often distorted by fears and assumptions.

10:04

🌟 Overcoming Fear and Shaping Your Reality

In this section, the speaker discusses how fear distorts our perception of reality, creating a 'warped logic' that substitutes fear for the unknown and leads to inaction. He shares his personal experience of facing blindness, initially believing it would ruin his life. However, by confronting and overcoming this fear, he learned to reshape his reality and build a fulfilling life. The speaker offers practical advice on how to live 'eyes wide open' by holding oneself accountable, recognizing assumptions, and challenging misconceptions. He emphasizes that we are the creators of our own reality and encourages the audience to take responsibility for their lives.

👔 The Challenges and Blessings of Being a Blind CEO

The speaker concludes by reflecting on his experience as a blind CEO, addressing the unique challenges he faces, such as the lack of visual feedback in meetings. He explains how this challenge has become a blessing, as it has led to deeper communication within his team and a culture where everyone's thoughts are valued. This experience has enriched his leadership and benefited his company, demonstrating that adversity can lead to unexpected strengths. The talk ends with a message of gratitude and a reminder that blindness has given him a new vision, both in business and in life.

Keywords

💡Assumptions

Assumptions refer to the presuppositions or beliefs that individuals hold without evidence or proof. In the context of this video, the speaker uses the childhood misconception of fish swimming backward by wagging their heads to illustrate how people often make assumptions that are not based on reality. The video's theme revolves around challenging these assumptions to perceive the world more accurately.

💡Faulty Leaps of Logic

Faulty leaps of logic describe the errors in reasoning where one draws a conclusion that does not logically follow from the premises. The script mentions this concept to highlight the common cognitive errors people make, such as the incorrect belief about fish swimming, which ties into the broader message of questioning our perceptions and beliefs.

💡Bias

Bias is a preference or inclination, often unconscious, towards one idea or another. The video discusses how individuals harbor bias, which can lead to a distorted view of reality. This concept is integral to the video's theme of recognizing and overcoming our innate cognitive biases to achieve a clearer understanding of the world.

💡Fear

Fear is an emotional response to perceived threats or danger. The speaker in the video uses fear as an example of how it can distort one's reality, leading to a self-fulfilling prophecy. Fear is portrayed as a powerful force that can prevent individuals from seeing the truth and taking action, which is a central theme in the video's message about confronting and overcoming our fears.

💡Perception

Perception is the process by which the brain organizes and interprets sensory information to give meaning to the environment. The video emphasizes that what we see is not an objective truth but a personal reality constructed by our brain. The concept of perception is central to the video's exploration of how our minds shape our understanding of the world.

💡Reality

Reality, in this video, is portrayed as not being a fixed, objective state but rather a subjective experience shaped by our thoughts, emotions, and beliefs. The speaker challenges the audience to recognize that the 'reality' they perceive is often a construct of their mind, which is a key point in the video's overarching message.

💡Blindness

Blindness is the lack of sight or the inability to see. In the video, the speaker's personal experience with blindness serves as a metaphor for the limitations of our perceptions and the potential for a deeper understanding of reality. It is also a literal fact about the speaker's life that adds a personal dimension to the theme of the video.

💡Vision

Vision, in this context, refers not to the physical ability to see but to the clarity of thought and foresight. The speaker discusses how going blind paradoxically gave him a greater 'vision' by forcing him to confront his fears and assumptions, which is a central narrative in the video about personal growth and understanding.

💡Personal Reality

Personal reality is the unique interpretation of the world that each individual constructs based on their experiences and perceptions. The video argues that this reality is not universal and can be influenced by various factors, including emotions and cognitive biases, which is a key concept in the speaker's message about the power of our minds to shape our experiences.

💡Accountability

Accountability is the willingness to accept responsibility for one's actions or decisions. In the video, the speaker encourages the audience to hold themselves accountable for their thoughts and actions as a way to live life with 'eyes wide open.' This concept is presented as a means to confront and overcome the limitations of one's personal reality.

💡Empowerment

Empowerment is the process of becoming stronger and more confident, especially in controlling one's life. The video concludes with the idea that recognizing and taking control of one's personal reality is an empowering act, which is a motivational aspect of the speaker's message about self-improvement and self-awareness.

Highlights

Dorothy's childhood misconception about fish swimming backwards by wagging their heads symbolizes the faulty assumptions we make in life.

The speaker's personal anecdotes of being a Harvard graduate, TV actor, construction company owner, and law clerk, all of which are true, demonstrate the power of challenging preconceived notions.

The experience of going blind taught the speaker to live life with eyes wide open and to recognize the illusions our minds create.

Sight is not an objective reality but a personal virtual reality constructed by our brain.

The visual cortex processes a significant amount of information, making sight a compelling illusion.

Our conceptual understanding, knowledge, memories, and emotions are linked to our sight, influencing what we perceive.

Studies show that our emotions and preconceived notions can alter our perception of reality, such as estimating walking speeds or perceiving distances.

Fear distorts reality by filling the void with the worst-case scenarios and self-fulfilling prophecies.

The speaker's personal battle with fear and the realization that his fears were not reality but fiction.

The importance of holding oneself accountable for every moment, thought, and detail in order to live life with clarity.

Recognizing and challenging one's assumptions is crucial for personal growth and overcoming biases.

Harnessing internal strength and silencing the internal critic are key steps in living life with eyes wide open.

Correcting misconceptions about luck and success is vital for personal empowerment.

Accepting one's strengths and weaknesses and understanding the difference is essential for self-awareness and growth.

The speaker's journey from fear to empowerment, building a beautiful life with his family despite his blindness.

The call to action for the audience to search out their own 'backwards-swimming fish' and the potential harm they cause in missed opportunities and unrealized potential.

Helen Keller's quote about the difference between being blind and having sight but no vision, and how the speaker's blindness gave him a profound vision.

The unique perspective of being a blind CEO, leveraging the lack of visual feedback to foster deeper communication and meaningful input from the team.

Transcripts

When Dorothy was a little girl,

she was fascinated by her goldfish.

Her father explained to her that fish swim by quickly wagging their tails

to propel themselves through the water.

Without hesitation, little Dorothy responded,

"Yes, Daddy, and fish swim backwards by wagging their heads."

(Laughter)

In her mind, it was a fact as true as any other.

Fish swim backwards by wagging their heads.

She believed it.

Our lives are full of fish swimming backwards.

We make assumptions and faulty leaps of logic.

We harbor bias.

We know that we are right, and they are wrong.

We fear the worst.

We strive for unattainable perfection.

We tell ourselves what we can and cannot do.

In our minds, fish swim by in reverse frantically wagging their heads

and we don't even notice them.

I'm going to tell you five facts about myself.

One fact is not true.

One: I graduated from Harvard at 19 with an honors degree in mathematics.

Two: I currently run a construction company in Orlando.

Three: I starred on a television sitcom.

Four: I lost my sight to a rare genetic eye disease.

Five: I served as a law clerk to two US Supreme Court justices.

Which fact is not true?

Actually, they're all true.

Yeah. They're all true.

(Applause)

At this point, most people really only care about the television show.

(Laughter)

I know this from experience.

OK, so the show was NBC's "Saved by the Bell: The New Class."

And I played Weasel Wyzell,

who was the sort of dorky, nerdy character on the show,

which made it a very major acting challenge

for me as a 13-year-old boy.

(Laughter)

Now, did you struggle with number four, my blindness?

Why is that?

We make assumptions about so-called disabilities.

As a blind man, I confront others' incorrect assumptions

about my abilities every day.

My point today is not about my blindness, however.

It's about my vision.

Going blind taught me to live my life eyes wide open.

It taught me to spot those backwards-swimming fish

that our minds create.

Going blind cast them into focus.

What does it feel like to see?

It's immediate and passive.

You open your eyes and there's the world.

Seeing is believing. Sight is truth.

Right?

Well, that's what I thought.

Then, from age 12 to 25, my retinas progressively deteriorated.

My sight became an increasingly bizarre

carnival funhouse hall of mirrors and illusions.

The salesperson I was relieved to spot in a store

was really a mannequin.

Reaching down to wash my hands,

I suddenly saw it was a urinal I was touching, not a sink,

when my fingers felt its true shape.

A friend described the photograph in my hand,

and only then I could see the image depicted.

Objects appeared, morphed and disappeared in my reality.

It was difficult and exhausting to see.

I pieced together fragmented, transitory images,

consciously analyzed the clues,

searched for some logic in my crumbling kaleidoscope,

until I saw nothing at all.

I learned that what we see

is not universal truth.

It is not objective reality.

What we see is a unique, personal, virtual reality

that is masterfully constructed by our brain.

Let me explain with a bit of amateur neuroscience.

Your visual cortex takes up about 30 percent of your brain.

That's compared to approximately eight percent for touch

and two to three percent for hearing.

Every second, your eyes can send your visual cortex

as many as two billion pieces of information.

The rest of your body can send your brain only an additional billion.

So sight is one third of your brain by volume

and can claim about two thirds of your brain's processing resources.

It's no surprise then

that the illusion of sight is so compelling.

But make no mistake about it: sight is an illusion.

Here's where it gets interesting.

To create the experience of sight,

your brain references your conceptual understanding of the world,

other knowledge, your memories, opinions, emotions, mental attention.

All of these things and far more are linked in your brain to your sight.

These linkages work both ways, and usually occur subconsciously.

So for example,

what you see impacts how you feel,

and the way you feel can literally change what you see.

Numerous studies demonstrate this.

If you are asked to estimate

the walking speed of a man in a video, for example,

your answer will be different if you're told to think about cheetahs or turtles.

A hill appears steeper if you've just exercised,

and a landmark appears farther away

if you're wearing a heavy backpack.

We have arrived at a fundamental contradiction.

What you see is a complex mental construction of your own making,

but you experience it passively

as a direct representation of the world around you.

You create your own reality, and you believe it.

I believed mine until it broke apart.

The deterioration of my eyes shattered the illusion.

You see, sight is just one way

we shape our reality.

We create our own realities in many other ways.

Let's take fear as just one example.

Your fears distort your reality.

Under the warped logic of fear, anything is better than the uncertain.

Fear fills the void at all costs,

passing off what you dread for what you know,

offering up the worst in place of the ambiguous,

substituting assumption for reason.

Psychologists have a great term for it: awfulizing.

(Laughter)

Right?

Fear replaces the unknown with the awful.

Now, fear is self-realizing.

When you face the greatest need

to look outside yourself and think critically,

fear beats a retreat deep inside your mind,

shrinking and distorting your view,

drowning your capacity for critical thought

with a flood of disruptive emotions.

When you face a compelling opportunity to take action,

fear lulls you into inaction,

enticing you to passively watch its prophecies fulfill themselves.

When I was diagnosed with my blinding disease,

I knew blindness would ruin my life.

Blindness was a death sentence for my independence.

It was the end of achievement for me.

Blindness meant I would live an unremarkable life,

small and sad,

and likely alone.

I knew it.

This was a fiction born of my fears, but I believed it.

It was a lie, but it was my reality,

just like those backwards-swimming fish in little Dorothy's mind.

If I had not confronted the reality of my fear,

I would have lived it.

I am certain of that.

So how do you live your life eyes wide open?

It is a learned discipline.

It can be taught. It can be practiced.

I will summarize very briefly.

Hold yourself accountable

for every moment, every thought,

every detail.

See beyond your fears.

Recognize your assumptions.

Harness your internal strength.

Silence your internal critic.

Correct your misconceptions about luck and about success.

Accept your strengths and your weaknesses, and understand the difference.

Open your hearts

to your bountiful blessings.

Your fears, your critics,

your heroes, your villains --

they are your excuses,

rationalizations, shortcuts,

justifications, your surrender.

They are fictions you perceive as reality.

Choose to see through them.

Choose to let them go.

You are the creator of your reality.

With that empowerment comes complete responsibility.

I chose to step out of fear's tunnel into terrain uncharted and undefined.

I chose to build there a blessed life.

Far from alone,

I share my beautiful life with Dorothy,

my beautiful wife,

with our triplets, whom we call the Tripskys,

and with the latest addition to the family,

sweet baby Clementine.

What do you fear?

What lies do you tell yourself?

How do you embellish your truth and write your own fictions?

What reality are you creating for yourself?

In your career and personal life, in your relationships,

and in your heart and soul,

your backwards-swimming fish do you great harm.

They exact a toll in missed opportunities and unrealized potential,

and they engender insecurity and distrust

where you seek fulfillment and connection.

I urge you to search them out.

Helen Keller said that the only thing worse than being blind

is having sight but no vision.

For me, going blind was a profound blessing,

because blindness gave me vision.

I hope you can see what I see.

Thank you.

(Applause)

Bruno Giussani: Isaac, before you leave the stage, just a question.

This is an audience of entrepreneurs, of doers, of innovators.

You are a CEO of a company down in Florida,

and many are probably wondering,

how is it to be a blind CEO?

What kind of specific challenges do you have, and how do you overcome them?

Isaac Lidsky: Well, the biggest challenge became a blessing.

I don't get visual feedback from people.

(Laughter)

BG: What's that noise there? IL: Yeah.

So, for example, in my leadership team meetings,

I don't see facial expressions or gestures.

I've learned to solicit a lot more verbal feedback.

I basically force people to tell me what they think.

And in this respect,

it's become, like I said, a real blessing for me personally and for my company,

because we communicate at a far deeper level,

we avoid ambiguities,

and most important, my team knows that what they think truly matters.

BG: Isaac, thank you for coming to TED. IL: Thank you, Bruno.

(Applause)