Placeholder Image

Subtitles section Play video

  • Good morning, John. I would like to tell you about my giant robot suit.

  • Credit where it's due:

  • This analogy was brought to me by the remarkable Patrick Rothfuss, the author of "The Name of the Wind",

  • Which is up there somewhere. In his imagination, everyone on the Internet is walking around in this *place*.

  • They're hanging out in one neighborhood or another, they're having conversations and discussions and arguments and

  • Everyone is wearing a robot suit.

  • And people's robot suits are different. They have different abilities. They're different sizes.

  • But the really weird thing is you can't see your own robot suit.

  • Like, if you look at a mirror, you just see skin.

  • You can only learn about your robot suit by watching other people's reaction to it.

  • You can't see it, but it's real and if your robot suit is super big,

  • but you're pretending it isn't real, you might be walking to the store one day and crush a building.

  • Someone might be yelling up at you,

  • just hoping beyond hope that maybe you'll someday hear them, but to you,

  • it feels like they're standing right in your face with the spit

  • hitting you in the skin.

  • And if your robot suit's real big, maybe somebody throws a stone at you thinking it could never do anything

  • but maybe chink your armor,

  • and to you

  • it feels like you got hit with a rock.

  • And then when you respond with a rock of your own, if you don't know the strength of your own robot suit

  • you might have

  • accidentally thrown a boulder.

  • And you do more harm than you wanted to and maybe more harm than you ever even realize.

  • You might signal bad behavior to a lot of other people, you might ultimately become a destructive force in the world,

  • and you might also hurt yourself.

  • But having a giant robot suit is amazing.

  • Maybe you can broadcast your message to millions of people, you can make money with it,

  • you can change lives with it, you can change culture with it.

  • But it also has bad parts.

  • People are always watching you and if you screw up, you do it in public.

  • Lots of people think things about you,

  • sometimes they say things that aren't true and then other people believe those things

  • because you're there for everyone to look at and think about.

  • The responsibility of trying to do the right thing with your robot suit can be a big weight

  • and that can be annoying.

  • People might see you as so big and powerful that they can do anything or say anything to you

  • and it has no chance of hurting you

  • It might make people feel really good and powerful to have any impact on you at all,

  • no matter what that impact is.

  • But you can't have the good parts without the bad parts.

  • All of the influence and power and money comes from the same giant robot suit

  • that makes it really easy for you to do more harm than you intend,

  • and makes you look impervious to harm.

  • If you're tempted to say that the giant robot suit is only perception,

  • yeah, but so is everything on the Internet.

  • So while we can and should ask that people everywhere are thoughtful and kind,

  • we also need to recognize that the powerful

  • have power

  • and should be careful and thoughtful with it.

  • Is there a 10 step guide on how to do that?

  • No.

  • But there is a 1 step guide:

  • Look in the mirror of other people's eyes and see your power for what it is.

  • Let it give you the confidence to handle criticism without feeling victimized,

  • even if that criticism is not kindly meant or kindly delivered.

  • And let it remind you to be more careful - not to stop moving, not to cease engagement -

  • but to step lightly, take care, and be kind.

  • As fame has fractured

  • and more and more people are being fitted for their own giant robot suits of various kinds,

  • I think this is an important thing to talk about.

  • Whether we're inside the robot suit or just witnessing one from street level,

  • maybe this metaphor will give people a more accurate understanding of reality

  • and a tool with which to understand this very new world.

  • This is all stuff that I'm still thinking about, lessons that I'm still learning.

  • Mistakes have been made in my life.

  • I have to live with the harm that my missteps have caused

  • and the weight of the responsibility of my influence.

  • I have to live with those things.

  • But if that's the price for a very cool life,

  • I'm happy to pay it.

  • John, I'll see you on Tuesday.

Good morning, John. I would like to tell you about my giant robot suit.

Subtitles and vocabulary

Click the word to look it up Click the word to find further inforamtion about it