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  • Good morning, ladies and gentlemen.

  • It's an honor to be here.

  • Thank you for having me at Google Hong Kong.

  • I hope today through this session

  • both parties can have a blast.

  • And at any time if you feel that you want to voice out or ask

  • questions, please feel free.

  • So when I first got the invitation

  • to come to Google Hong Kong, I was thinking to myself,

  • what the hell am I going to do at Google?

  • Seriously.

  • Because you guys are the people I go to when I look at my stuff.

  • Seriously.

  • It could be through the search engine.

  • It could be through maps.

  • I like to travel a lot.

  • I could throw on a backpack and just wander off somewhere into the world and see the world.

  • So I'm always navigating through maps.

  • And lately, actually, speaking of which,I've been trying to pick up on more Japanese.

  • So I do this a lot now every day.

  • Hey Siri-san.

  • I've been trying to pick up on more Japanese.

  • So lately I've made Google Translate my best friend.

  • So I've even...

  • I'm even forcing my smartphone to converse

  • in Japanese with me, because we only have 24 hours a day.

  • So yeah.

  • But I must say, sometimes the translations

  • are still a bit funky.

  • But 80% of the time it does the job very well.

  • So thank you for whoever out there that's

  • making my life a lot easier.

  • I do visit you guys very, very often every day.

  • But I'm not here to talk about what we can Google.

  • I think you guys out of everybody

  • knows best what we can search on the internet.

  • But maybe today we could touch on some other keywords where we

  • cannot fully understand through the internet.

  • Maybe keywords like creativity.

  • I think creativity for me, it's the biggest thing.

  • Either it be through my music, or my food shows, or movies,

  • or my business.

  • Because I think without creativity we cannot really

  • ensure our place in the market.

  • And eventually you will be left behind in the world.

  • Creativity comes in many different forms and styles,

  • I guess.

  • It doesn't have to be through movies

  • or that kind of artistry.

  • It could be through tennis.

  • It could be through agriculture, architecture, woodworking,

  • lecturing, whatever it may be.

  • It could be through programming or engineering.

  • I think if Google was not as creative when they were doing the algorithms back then,

  • it would not be what it is today.

  • So a lot of people would say, yeah,

  • I'm not the creative type.

  • No.

  • We all are.

  • We just have to find that one edge.

  • We have to find how we can synergize and capitalize

  • on that on our own strengths.

  • But it is getting harder and harder to be creative,

  • I think, in this world, because everyday we

  • are flooded by so much content in our phones.

  • All the blogs that we look at, all the comments,

  • all the likes, all the streaming, all the films.

  • Everything.

  • But unknowingly, unknowingly we are so almost

  • too inspired to a point where we are losing ourselves,

  • because we are taking in everybody else's ideas--

  • their thoughts, their voices.

  • Therefore, if we are not creative enough,

  • we tend to what we call--

  • we would ride on other people's ideas.

  • Let's twist.

  • Let's tweak.

  • Let's-- in Cantonese we would say...

  • But when we get into a habit of that,

  • we forget about being original, being really creative,

  • starting our own ideas.

  • And to me that is very, very dangerous, because if what

  • you put out is no different than the person next to you,

  • if what you contribute to the company

  • is just the same as everybody else in the room,

  • let me tell you something.

  • Next year you won't be here.

  • The company doesn't need you.

  • Eventually the market doesn't need you.

  • And the world-- they don't need you.

  • So constantly ask yourself how you

  • can contribute more than the person next to you.

  • I've been in my industry for more than 22 years now.

  • And I tell you, I ask myself that question every damn day.

  • Every day.

  • Through music, through film, through my shows,

  • through my business.

  • How do I be more creative?

  • That is very, very hard.

  • And maybe even in some fields, it's getting harder and harder.

  • Like in music, I would say that it is harder for me

  • now to compose a very good piece of music

  • than it was 15, 20 years ago, because the time

  • signatures or the combinations of the notes

  • are simply being taken up.

  • It is harder to write something original than now

  • and have it not sound like that it has been written by someone,

  • sometime, like some song back then.

  • Because it's been done.

  • But in our world, that's what is happening

  • is because all the ideas are being voiced up.

  • And we are seeing it.

  • So if we don't voice out loud enough, clear enough,

  • soon enough, we are actually behind.

  • So I urge you--

  • the first key word that I would want to touch on

  • is actually creativity.

  • Does anybody have anything to say?

  • Any other things that you want to talk about?

  • Another word I would say is--

  • a keyword for me is experience, especially--

  • well, experience in terms of the verb experience, not the noun

  • experience, especially for you lot

  • where your work requires you to sit

  • behind a desk and a computer the whole day, maybe

  • the whole year.

  • But I would say that it is very important

  • to get out there to the world and really experience it.

  • Because I think the phone still only brings you halfway.

  • And you must walk the other half.

  • You know, nowadays when I'm chatting

  • with a lot of the younger generation kids, what really

  • happens a lot is that maybe the topic would

  • be along the line of, man, I was in--

  • I was-- I was in Finland last weekend.

  • The Aurora lights, they were beautiful.

  • And then the kid would say something like, yeah.

  • I know.

  • I know.

  • I saw it on YouTube.

  • Or yeah, yeah.

  • That was really cool.

  • I saw it on Facebook.

  • Yeah.

  • OK.

  • Sure.

  • I'm sure it's an opening.

  • It's an idea.

  • It's a glimpse of what it really is.

  • But if that's how you see things,

  • you don't know...

  • Again, it's a great entrance to the world.

  • But it's halfway.

  • Please, when the opportunity allows, get off your butt

  • and walk the other half, which may be even more important.

  • Experience the world.

  • The phone is awesome.

  • The net is awesome.

  • But that is halfway, halfway.

  • Is it too early for you guys, because you

  • guys look kind of stale.

  • James, maybe we could start with a more Q&A.

  • If anybody wants, please jump in.

  • One of the things that is on our minds

  • is also giving back about creativity,

  • it's about experience.

  • A lot of that is because we're sort

  • of going through life through a screen,

  • and we're not interacting much.

  • Here at Google we spent a lot of time thinking about what

  • we're doing for Hong Kong, how we're supporting non-profits,

  • how we're providing services for schools--

  • training kids that code, for example.

  • What advice do you have for us, and also for the broader

  • millennial crowd who is interested in doing something