As long time readers of this blog know, I am fond of the map to the right and have used it on previous occasions to emphasize the idea that in order to unlearn we must often view the world from a different perspective.
I was pleased to see that Derek Sivers incorporated it into the end of his two-minute TED talk entitled “There’s a Flip-side to Everything.” (The entire video is posted below).
I especially liked Siver’s example of how in certain Chinese communities citizens pay doctors for each month they stay healthy!
And, although Sivers didn’t this example, as a professional futurist who frequently uses history to illuminate the future, I have always liked the story of the Peruvian Indian tribe whose members gesture with their hands in a forward motion when describing the past. (From their perspective, because you can “see” the past, the past is in front of them. The future, on the other hand, can’t be seen so it is behind them.
It may sound weird but, as Sivers say in his talk, “The opposite may also be true.”
