Kind: captions
Language: en
when you think of how we look at
evolution Charles Darwin everybody's
heard Charles Darwin but they don't know
what he said Charles Darwin did not say
it's the strong that survive he did not
say it's the smart that's what Charles
Darwin said which is so brilliant about
evolution what Charles Darwin said it is
those that are most capable of
adaptation everybody welcome to impact
Theory you're here my friends because
you believe that human potential is
nearly limitless but you know that
having potential is not the same as
actually doing something with it so our
goal with this show and company is to
introduce you to the people and ideas
that will help you actually execute on
your dreams all right today's episode is
a little bit different than normal it
was shot at Peter Diamandis is abundance
360 which is an incredible gathering of
some of the world's most profound
thinkers to look at the state of
technology and where Humanity is going
to be in the future and it brought
through some people that we've been
trying to get on the show but for
scheduling reasons haven't been able to
so we took advantage all right today's
guest is one of the most accomplished
inventors in US history he has over 440
patents to his name and he started
inventing when he was just five years
old and by the time he graduated high
school his inventions were netting him
roughly $60,000 a year which was more
than both of his parents made combined
while still in college he founded his
first company called Auto syringe which
made cutting-edge medical equipment
including the first wearable insulin
pump for diabetics the company was so
successful he was able to sell it to
Baxter international and then create
deca Research & Development a company
that was designed from the ground up
to foster innovation and generate
creative breakthroughs on a grand scale
he and his team at deca have already
revolutionized several industries
including human transportation
healthcare and bionics they've created
such game-changing technologies as the
advanced prosthetics used by DARPA the
Hydra flex surgical irrigation pump the
crown stent which is save millions of
lives and the first home dialysis
machine as well as a water filtration
device that can turn the world's
filthiest water into safe clean
drinking water they've also created such
ubiquitous staples as the iBot mobility
device which is the world's most
advanced wheelchair and the Segway he
was also recently granted a three
hundred million dollar contract to begin
work on regenerative medicine and for
this insane list of accomplishments he
was inducted into the inventors Hall of
Fame in 2005 awarded the National Medal
of Technology presented by President
Bill Clinton the lemelson-mit prize and
in 2011 he was named the laureate of the
Franklin Institute in mechanical
engineering so please help me in
welcoming the founder and chief
enthusiast of first which serves
hundreds of thousands of kids ages 6 to
18 in more than 60 countries around the
world the college dropout who is now a
fellow of the American Institute for
medical and biological engineering Dean
Kaman Dean thank you so much for joining
me today this has been for me at least
this has been an interview that I've
been hounding Peter to help put together
for a very long time and it is an honor
to be sitting here with you your
accomplishments are just astonishing but
what I find far more interesting about
you is the way that you bring humanity
into it and that collision to me is is
really really interesting and I want to
start earlier today actually when you
and I met for the first time you quoted
Einstein and you were talking about how
he said knowledge is less important than
imagination so why is it that you think
imagination is more important and what
does it really mean I think what he
meant when he said it and it's even way
more true now because while imagination
is more valuable than ever
knowledge is a commodity I mean you know
a hundred years ago if you wanted some
fact you might have to traipse to some
library if they add it and if you know
where to find it today a few billion
people are walking around with a thing
in their pocket that has access to all
the knowledge that's ever been
documented so knowledge is virtually
free and accessible instantly
imagination is what allows us to do the
next great thing imagination allows us
to say well I can take all this
knowledge that's what we have
today how do I make a better tomorrow
well what do you add to knowledge to
create the future you have to innovate
what's innovation innovation is taking
all the same facts that everybody else
has looking at the same problems that
everybody else is looking at but see
them differently
and say aha this is what we can do to
fix this problem
that's imagination and I think what
Albert Einstein was trying to say was in
his day surrounded by the great
physicists of all time they were stuck
in a model where they all had the facts
in the emerging field of you know
quantum mechanics and the emerging
fields of physics at the turn of the
20th century he was one by one literally
pulling out the pillars of what for a
few thousand years were the core of what
we thought was knowledge I mean he said
well time time isn't a constant time the
unit of time depends on your frame of
reference that's relativity he said mass
mass isn't what you think it is you
accelerate things their mass changes the
guy literally undermined the fundamental
pillars of what we all knew were the
laws of nature and he said well Newton
sort of got it right it was an
approximation that sort of works but
just philosophically as well as based on
data that came from the experiments done
as a result of his theories but
philosophically he said nature is
actually more beautiful than it had been
depicted in the classical version of
physics and he changed it all but what I
think he was trying to say when he said
imagination is more important than
knowledge was he didn't incrementally
take all those ideas and then jump to
relativity or any of us I think it's the
other way around he had the imagination
to know the answer and then backed into
the proof to get us there because it was
also a brilliant physicist and
mathematician now do you think that you
can train people to think in that way I
know you've warned people about getting
stuck in their dogmatic beliefs and that
being an expert can actually be a trap
like what can people do to keep their
thinking fresh well you hit a couple of
things I think an expert is somebody
that because they've spent a lot of time
and energy on something and got to some
result that worked that's why they're
considered by their peers an expert is
now stuck with that fact with that truth
and the irony to me is truths things we
value are unfortunately transient and
most people once they spent the time and
the effort and the energy and the
frustrations to learn the hard way what
the truth is don't want to give that up
I mean think about an industry probably
in the year you were born the truth was
television is for everybody and it comes
over-the-air there were bunny ears and
there was NBC and ABC and CBS and
telephones in the year you were born I
had a wire on him because it was for
private conversation the truth was
television is through the air telephone
is over wires you ask a millennial today
television is called cable and a
telephone is something you carry any way
you want and they don't know what a
payphone looks like with a receiver
connected to a box now people weren't
lying in the 60s and 70s and 80s about
what the truth was but the truth changed
and the proof that being expert is
dangerous is who were the last people to
figure out that that changed the big
networks nearly went out of business
they didn't see that change they didn't
believe in that change it's ironic to me
that once you're big and have a lot of
experience and a lot of knowledge about
something that worked for you you don't
want to give that up it's unnerving
in fact we talk about things like
experience and judgment and all those
things that we value in a mature adult
as positives I think you might want to
say those things really represent
a fixed perspective of a changing world
and if you can't change with the world
those perspectives might be your
downfall I mean when you think of how we
look at evolution Charles Darwin
everybody's heard Charles Darwin but
they don't know what he said Charles
Darwin did not say it's the strong that
survive he did not say it's the smart
that survived what Charles Darwin said
which is what's so brilliant about
evolution what Charles Darwin said it is
those that are most capable of
adaptation what he said was if if an
animal can adapt to its environment it's
toast it's gonna go extinct well that's
true of people and ideas and cultures
and all I was trying to say was while
there were things that worked very well
for us when we had this level of
knowledge and this technical capability
this is the best we could do those
things change the point is as our
understanding of the world gets better
we have to change what we believe to be
is true what the norms of our behavior
ought to be and we're reluctant to do
that our education system today
looks like the education system of 150
or 200 years ago I used to say to people
the reason you need to put first in your
school is kids want to be interactive
they want project-based learning that's
why they love to be in school to do team
related things football and basketball
in cheerleading they don't like to be
lined up they don't need to get facts
anymore and I used to say like the
Industrial Revolution mentality of
training people to be workers at a
factory and I decided that was being too
kind to our education system it acts
like it was stuck in the age of the
Industrial Revolution I think it's stuck
in what was just before that the
agrarian age our schools still let kids
out for three or four months during the
summer I guess to go you know raise all
the crops and bring them in our
education system with the available
technologies that we now have
should make kids so excited to learn
whatever they want to learn music or art
or history or mathematics or physics
because we have the resources to do it
because they don't have to spend 10
hours a day in the field they don't have
to spend the summer harvesting we should
have the most exciting environment for
kids to learn relevant things and the
relevant things include teamwork tell us
a little bit about first and why you
developed it and primarily around this
idea that I love which is tell people
what it stands for cuz that notion of
inspiration is so critical to this so
first for inspiration and recognition of
Science and Technology I put together
now about almost 30 years ago
on a premise I said a few minutes ago
I'm an inventor
what do inventors do inventors look at
the same problems as everybody else but
see them differently my mom is a teacher
still is I talked to her this morning
she was a good teacher everybody I know
can think about some great teacher that
impacted their lives yet 30 years ago
and today in a culture that loves to
find blame and and one-liner solutions
to everything we decided back then and
today we have an education crisis if you
assume you have an education crisis we
need more books we need more standards
we need more teachers we mean don't
doubt it you might solve your problem
if you've misdiagnosed your problem in
the first place it's unlikely you're
gonna do anything to fix it so 30 years
ago I said you know while everybody else
is saying oh we got this crisis and
education change this change that like
teachers are incompetent to laziest like
who knows I said you know what let's
take the assumption we don't even have
an education crisis which is a good
thing because if we did since it's
already a massive piece of every local
budget it's not like you can easily add
a material amount of resources to it or
amount of time in the day or amount to
anything if it so I said let's take the
assumption we don't have an education
crisis at all it's not what we don't
have enough
teachers books resources it's what we
have too much of distractions from kids
wanting to learn let's assume it's not a
supply problem at all
it's a demand or lack of demand problem
we live in a culture it's a free culture
American that's what's great about it
and in a free culture you get the best
of what you celebrate and in this same
schools that all had an education crisis
even the inner-city schools that have no
budgets for anything in fact
particularly the inner-city schools
we're managing to make all the great
football players and basketball players
and stars or Hollywood well why is that
maybe it's because a little bit of real
desire and passion is worth a lot more
than the opportunity they throw at you
when they force you to go to school like
it's punishment and I said in our
culture by then 30 years ago we knew
certain things were really energizing
all kids no matter what the
socio-economic background all kids our
whole culture was obsessed and still is
with sports and entertainment that's not
bad I love sports and entertainment but
you got to understand that's the result
of having a rich enough Society to be
able to afford those things it is not
the cause of our wealth it's the result
of it I like ice cream but when you're a
little kid your mom says do you gonna
have the ice cream after you eat your
Brussels sprouts right it's great to
have sports an entertainment but kids
have to get an education that can give
them skill sets to build careers to
become successful for themselves and
their community in their country in the
world but I said hey I'm a good invent
or never invent something when you can
see something that already works and you
borrow it
you only invent the stuff that's missing
you don't invent the wheel to make a car
you just put four of them together right
you don't invent a wheel to make a
Segway so I said look here's the problem
we know kids all over this country are
rarely excelling in math and science
those are hard things to learn it takes
many years to do it compared to even the
developing world we was sliding that
bodes very badly for this country
maintaining a koala
a life a standard of living or even our
security but I said here's the thing we
know something that works that motivates
them that inspires them they recognize
as being something they can do the world
of sports and entertainment so I said I
never saw a kid running around cheering
I want to be second you know not in the
sport but they're willing to take math
pass/fail they're willing to not take
physics at all and you think wow in this
culture of ours that that creates role
models and superstars in a couple of
industries that very very few people
will ever have a career in but they'll
spend a lot of their time trying to get
there
these same inner-city kids that become
the superstars of basketball and
football all the other 90% or 99% of the
kids in that school have a pretty
marginal skill and they're not ready to
take on the exciting jobs and careers of
the future so I said given what we got I
don't need to reform education these
teachers are fine we've got schools
they're fine we spend more money on
education than the rest of world what I
need to do is change the attitude of the
kids so they'll make use of this
resource so I said well we know how to
get them passionate they like sports and
entertainment all I gotta add is the
sport they do has to give them a skill
set which isn't bounce bounce bounce
throw the skill set they're gonna pick
up is analytic thinking they'll learn
the power of mathematics of physics of
engineering of of what real logic is Oh
but let's package it up in the stuff we
know they really like in fact we justify
sports in school budgets all over the
country the big cities love the parquet
floors and the Sun we justify sports all
over because welding you know they learn
teamwork
well if teamwork so important in school
why when they do it in a classroom do
you call it cheating so I'm sitting
there thinking I'm sitting there
thinking they've nailed it the world of
sports and entertainment are the perfect
model for education it's engaging it's
involving it's a project-based situation
they do have to learn teamwork they have
to think on the fly it's a reason to get
together
now that everybody's got the internet
they don't need to get together to look
at facts they don't study football they
play it they're involved so we got to
get him to play with math and science
and engineering and physics and what's
the game that you guys use so 30 years
ago having this epiphany hey we don't
have an education crisis we have a
culture crisis I said I'll form a
not-for-profit organization the simple
goal changed the culture of the United
States using sports and entertainment
create as much passion among kids to
develop the muscle hanging between their
ears as any of the others because it's
the most powerful muscle we got and the
perspective of kids comes from our
culture don't blame the Department of
Education for the fact that these kids
aren't working hard at math and science
because our culture doesn't show them
how particularly girls and minorities so
30 years ago I said I'm gonna form a
sport oh I said I'm gonna form a
not-for-profit that doesn't have the
word education in it because it's not
about education it's for inspiration and
recognition of Science and Technology
and make it fun and competitive so the
word first everybody in sports wants to
be first
so tell me a kid tell me a kid you've
ever met that doesn't want to be first
so I want all kids to be first so I go
out and I found about 20 CEOs of little
companies now IBM Boeing United
Technologies small electric but they're
all companies that desperately need the
next generation of tech capable people
and I said to all of them your own worst
enemies you complain about the education
system and think they're going to fix a
problem that you created because you
guys market to the world your products
but you are the biggest sponsors of all
the international sporting events and
all the international television you
know whether it's entertainment or
sports you're industries support them
and we get what we celebrate so I'm
begging you you need these kids what
they need you I said to these companies
if each one of your companies will lend
me one or two enthusiastic technology
people that can go to a school and be
there as the mentor not the teacher not
even me I'll give you a kits and they
can work with the teachers who might be
a little intimidated to do this on their
own and we'll just make it a fun thing
with no grades we'll do it in the same
way sports work they don't get they do
it and at the end of the season they
build a row but they don't get a final
exam they have a double elimination
tournament and they get trophies and
prizes and we'll bring the cheerleaders
and we'll bring the mascots and we'll
bring the school band and we'll
celebrate science and tech I'd love that
idea cuz and you've talked a lot about
that like you get what you celebrate you
said that just a minute ago but seeing
these events which you can now see on
YouTube it is pure insanity it's super
high energy it's robots playing
basketball thrashing each other I mean
it's something cool so think about this
in that first year I convinced I think
23 companies now that's a small number
but they were some of the biggest
companies in the world to lend me these
people and I connected him to 23 schools
I could really use a boost in their
perspective on TAC so the second year we
had about 50 teams the third year a
hundred teams the fourth year 200 teams
by about the fifth year some of these
whole high schools that had played year
after you had been transformed by this
thing they had more kids on their first
team and their football team this year
we have 55,000 schools we have over a
million kids we have 200 universities
little ones like you know MIT and WPI
and RPI that gave us 50 million dollars
in scholarships for these kids it's
incredibly will give out this year at
the championship we have over a hundred
thousand volunteer technology people
acting as the local mentors this program
brings together the technology community
the education community mom and dad
corporations that are desperately
meeting world-class kids what you put
together is is otherworldly I want to
put it in context you strut thank you
you struggled with dyslexia as a kid and
still do but I consider it an asset and
as actually what I wanted to ask you so
a
how does how does that become an asset
when you're a kid I'm assuming it
doesn't feel like an asset so how do you
shift your mindset to a becoming an
asset and how much does that play into
what you've done here I would have to
admit I didn't consciously believe that
I started first as a result of a life in
which part of my life is dyslexia but
early on other people have sort of
either asked me about that or through
their questions pointed out to me
they're probably not unrelated as a kid
I couldn't read very well did you feel
stupid yes that's the problem I couldn't
read and I was watching it I also would
sit in that classroom and the teacher
would be screaming along now I I think
it fundamentally unfortunately after
torture myself for probably six or seven
or eight years probably if you start
school at five or six I probably was in
like during high school getting Dyson
before I realized that their definition
of learning or knowing something knowing
something really meant being familiar
with it to me understanding something is
very different than being familiar with
it but you know in retrospect it's not
their fault you know they got a cover
all these I mean I remember sitting in a
classroom as a kid and we were doing
square roots by then fourth or fifth
grade and there were some easy square
roots I don't know the square root of
four is two in the square root of nine
is three
you know what's the square root of three
that's a really weird no well 1.73 to
know 1732 oh that's the era George
Washington was born now the fact that
the square root of three happens to be
quick there are no later put your Sidney
experiment a minute ago you're doing
history and you saw the book and it said
seventy thirty two the next day square
what does that got to do with it and
then you're thinking about how bizarre
that isn't you're asked a question you
don't even know what they're talking
about you're accused of not paying
attention which I guess is true I wasn't
paying attention I was thinking but I
would sit in school and this fire hose
of information at any level you like a
teacher we're gonna do division on it
and you know I tried to do though you
know you learn
things you have to do by memory seven
times five is 35 and then you're gonna
do division and the teacher says well
division is exactly the same as
multiplication you do the opposite thing
they're the same and I'm thinking how I
up because 4 times 3 is 12 12 divided by
4 is 3 12 divided by 3 but I'm sitting
there thinking about this and I'm
thinking well division really can't just
be the opposite of multiplication
because I could take any two numbers or
again you're a kid you're not doing
irrational transcendental functions you
got numbers so I got a number and I
could pick a number 7 and I can pick
another number 3 21
you could take any two numbers
multiplying but if you take any two
numbers and divide him 21 divided by 7
is 3 21 divided by 8 or 9 holy mackerel
you got to get really lucky when you
want to do it backwards any two numbers
you multiply you get another number any
two numbers you divide not so much I'm
thinking that's really odd they're not
the same and then you hear on what we
had this rule any number divided by
itself is 1 well that makes sense I had
10 apples and I had 10 people 10 divided
by 10 they each get one if I had seven
people in seven Apple seven divided by
seven why so any number no matter what
it is divided by itself I'll buy that
and zero is zero so zero over one is
zero zero over 25 if you got none of
them and you got 25 people they all get
none if you got zero and you divide it
by 52 people so zero divided by any
number is zero one any number divided by
itself is one those are the rules they
gave us and I'm sitting there thinking
hmm what is 0/0 by the rule I heard
yesterday any number divided by itself
is 1 so 0 over 0 should be 1 but that
rule they gave me was zero divided by
one is always zero how do you divide 0
by 0 what do you get
I don't know so I asked the teacher said
well I don't know what the right answer
is but you gave me two rules that
are internally inconsistent one of
them's got to be wrong something you go
to library and you don't get a book for
a third grader you'll find out as you
look at this this is not you're not the
first guy that's worried about this
that's sort of the rudimentary process
of limit theory that's calculus oh well
if you sitting alone in a library no
matter how slow you read you can read it
and you can go read you know then they
went to physics and you know Newton's
laws F equals MA F equals MA by then I'm
probably in junior high school in
learning and I'm staying wait a minute
Isaac Newton the greatest physicist
greatest mathematician of all time gave
us this mathematical equation F equals
MA something is equal to something times
something then your first order
that's like saying well a equals B it's
probably true but it's pretty trivial
what are you gonna do with that okay
AE equal Z times sake something is equal
to something times a constant that's the
simplest mathematical statement you
could possibly make without being
trivial like a equals B equal to B times
cosine so it couldn't be that Isaac
Newton is recognized for those brilliant
mathematics there it's the simplest
equation that's not trivial there had to
be more to this story well he didn't say
a a was dp/dt the second derivative
upside and he was doing it in a way that
he was trying to figure out you know
projectile motion and he was and if he
was really such a great genius how come
that be cool I mean he got one paragraph
in a book that also had on the next
chapter is electricity the next chapter
so wait a minute I'm just some dumb kid
and I'm supposed to read in one
paragraph something that took the
greatest genius of all time his whole
life to do yeah this isn't gonna work
for me so I go to the library and I find
out he wrote a book it's called
Principia incredible but it's hundreds
of pages thick but if this genius wrote
this
thing which today we still have coal
Principia instead of feeling like an
idiot and not even understanding what's
so special about it why don't you read
what this genius ro well because they
can't in a school environment spend a
couple of years on that they got one
part of one 45-minute class to cover
that subject so to me school was like
being a firehose of knowledge is being
shoved at your head and you're drowning
in it yeah I don't even know what
subject they're on oh now we're doing
spelling you know knife I mean III don't
get it so I just didn't understand what
made sense and then I realize you
couldn't possibly learn all that stuff
that quickly and have it makes sense
what school was there to do is introduce
you to all these ideas and make you
familiar with them so on the test they'd
say what's Newton's law I think you got
it right that doesn't mean you
understand this remarkable relationship
that tells you all about the motion
whether it's subatomic particles or
galaxies you have equals MA is a pretty
powerful all-encompassing statement but
it wasn't just the algebra it was the
concept and to understand the concept
takes a lot of time at least it did for
me but what I found was I'll go to
school it's a blur I can't keep up with
them and then I'll look at what seems
like it must have been really
interesting there and then I'll go off
by myself go get the book and even if it
took me hour after hour to read it
reread it try again and reread I'd
finally get to where I thought I really
understand some of this stuff it sounds
like curiosity really saved you which is
amazing and I think that a lot of people
don't have that and definitely don't get
saved well it's worse than they don't
have it I think it gets knocked out I
think every kid shows up at school as a
question mark and goes out as a period
because you've got to take what they
gave you it right away and then
regurgitate it and again this is not a
wrap on schools as I said I love
teachers my mom's a teacher this is the
process we have of what the education
system is done and instead let school be
a place where they can work with each
other to understand
some of these concepts and again first I
think the reason kids like sports as
they can practice it get better at it
work with these there's all sorts of
reasons and it's not judgmental and if
they don't do well they don't get it
have it and if they do well they get
recognition but I said let's take all
the ideas so everything we know about
science the laws of the universe the
power of mathematics to write them the
language of sciences mathematics give
kids that language that tool give them a
sense of this incredible stuff and then
let them see how to apply all that
science through technology and
engineering and feel that they're
competent in it and that they're moving
positively in that world and it'll just
take them over because there is no other
sport they can do that is as empowering
to them as learning how to develop the
muscle and empowering is what I really
want to ask you about so how did you if
you're dyslexic you're feeling done the
school isn't exactly helping how did you
build self-esteem so what I finally did
and it's not probably not the most proud
of this is I reached a point where I
just said yeah these teachers will keep
giving me bad grades and ridiculing me
and telling me I'm not paying attention
but I finally realized they just have a
different set of standards so I'll sit
there but I won't let it I won't take it
personally they have a job to do which
is to give me an F because I couldn't
finish reading the whole thing or I
would sit there and there'd be this
multiple-choice question I used to love
those tests you'd sit down like the SAT
kind of thing and you read the question
and then you had to pick the best answer
and they'd say the best answer a B C or
D well you'd read a and it's ridiculous
it's almost funny B huh I bet that's
almost right but it's subtle and it's
not right before that's a bad thing
because you could almost think it would
work so it's sort of reinforcing a
tricky but wrong answer C yeah that's
probably the answer they won d no but
I'd look at him and think well of the
answers they gave those four they
probably want
but they said what's the best answer I
think there's got to be a better answer
and I'd sit there look at that question
and try to think of a better answer I
got a better answer but so the hours up
I didn't do anything but I got a better
answer and you fail right but I said
that's fair they're playing their game
with their rules and in that game I
probably wouldn't do very well but I
would just learn that then I can go and
think and learn at my own pace much
which is slow and I focus deeply on
something and then I would go and find
people that can help me and I said
school is probably an efficient way to
get everybody to a baseline if they're
good at taking it in in regard my older
brother is a brilliant guy you know he
he was an MD PhD faculty member and Yale
I mean he's a brilliant guy needs to say
to me Dean why do you talk to yourself
just give them what they want and then I
say boy it's not like I'm I can't just I
don't weep that I can't give them what
they want
so I either have to sit him and decide I
really am just dumb or I have to just
not be offended by not doing well
playing their game I'll play my game and
in the end I'll let history answer
whether I could add value my way and so
when I was 14 or 15 I started a little
company making electronic stuff and I
said if people want this and they'll buy
it from me and I can add up the cost of
making it and add something to that for
my time in my effort and sell it and
make money doing that it proves a I knew
something B I could create something
that people want because they freely
parted with their money to get my thing
and off I went and by the time I got
into high school I was making a lot of
stuff and making a lot of money and I
turned my parents little basement and my
little electronics production facility
and by the time I got to college I was
making insulin pumps for diabetics
because my brother was then at the med
school I was making all sorts of things
that people needed and I was using the
faculty there as advisors I love
learning I think people said boy you
were a terrible student and you hated
school no those are two different
statements
I love learning to me that's why life is
all about I just don't do it in a way
that's schools are not a very efficient
way for me to get information I have a
different bard rate I want to understand
things at a deeper level perhaps so from
a different perspective and some of the
stuff they're teaching I don't really
care about at all so I can't pay
attention to it
and if I need to I'm gonna learn it
later so that's a long way of saying I
finally get 25 26 years ago to a place
where I have lots of Engineers my
company now I have 500 engineers but
back then I was looking for smart people
and I was listening to this public
debate oh there's an education crisis
and I said boy there's got to be a lot
of people out there that given the
opportunity particularly girls that
don't see how much fun tech is and I
said if I can make it a sport like every
other sport except kids that play it
even one season will say it's more fun
it's more accessible it's more rewarding
than any of the other stuff I did will
change their perspective and will change
their life choices while they're still
young enough to take a different career
and sure enough we started it and my
belief was there may be kids that are
great academically in school and they'll
be on the team they'll be the the
organizer the president of the team
that's fine and then there'll be kids
that didn't do well in school that don't
do very well at multiple-choice tests
but give them a box of junk and say what
could we do with this box of junk to
turn it into something that's gonna be
better at getting balls over that wall
than the other guy
well whether you were good academically
or not you might have a really good shot
at shining in participating on that team
and then that kid instead of feeling
inadequate or stupid would say huh I
just have a different skill set I just
learn a different way but there's a
place for me I love that
all right sadly I've got to get to my
last question but before that where can
these guys find you online I would
suggest everybody goes to first first a
spy
I love to get more support for first any
way I can and if it's a parent we'll
figure out to get it wherever they live
these days as you can see we'll get a
somebody from first to help them
organize a team for their school if it's
a company or an engineer that's willing
to step in and be the role model and the
mentor if it's a school that says yeah
we need a team no matter who you are in
our society the kid the parent the
teacher the company everybody that gets
involved in first gets more out of it
than they put into it and they put in a
lot I don't know how to get enough media
attention behind first because there's
about two kinds of schools there's the
ones that have been transformed by first
and there's the ones that have never
heard of us what if we could get all the
kids in the world on first names because
the language of tech is the same
everywhere F equals MA everywhere what
if these kids around the world could
learn how to communicate and cooperate
and be on teams helping each other build
a future instead of learning from their
parents how to destroy each other this
could be the first generation due to
technology of kids on this planet that
could grow up saying we're all on the
same team we still competing but we're
all on the same team we're competing all
of us with global warming with access to
food and cybersecurity and health care
what if this generation of kids said
instead of the mindless never-ending
self-inflicted wounds of one tribe to
another what if we get to them young
enough to get them on first teams and by
the way at first we don't call it a
competition it's called a coopertition
because the kids all work together
the robots some of them lose but all the
kids win and we say you're in a
coopertition and you have to exhibit
what we call gracious professionalism
you have to be as competitive as you can
to raise the bar to make it exciting to
feel good about competition and winning
but you can never do it at the expense
of the other people
it's gracious professionalism and it's a
way to build a world
that if we don't do it right you're not
gonna want to live in I love that Dean
thank you so much for coming on the show
that was absolutely incredible
guys this is somebody whose world you
were going to want to dive deeply into
it is absolutely astonishing what he's
done with his life and I absolutely love
the way that he set that question up
that in school he felt stupid he felt
like he was being beaten down by the
system a fire hose and knowledge in his
face he didn't know what to do he's
going to the library he's trying to
learn and ultimately realizes he can't
give them what he wants and his only
solution is to either see himself as
stupid or let history be the ultimate
judge and from that begins to look at
the world in terms of the way of saying
I can develop a certain skill set that
skill set has value and can I create
enough value that people will get things
from me that will improve their lives
and when you look at the laundry list of
things that he's invented I think the
answer isn't equivocal yes
so to everybody watching I hope that
this story inspires you to look at
yourself that way to look at yourself
and say what can I do what skillset can
I gain go out execute against and become
whatever I want to become so guys if you
haven't already be sure to subscribe and
until next time my friends be legendary
take care hey everybody thank you so
much for watching and being a part of
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