The beauty in disorder | Henry Li | TEDxAISG Youth
check okay so I just recently went on a vacation to New Zealand in this past winter break right and I mean it was great there was the Summer Wind there were the views and of course the Sheep uh the thing is we were there for 2 weeks and my mom has planned for what we were going to do in basically every single hour of those 14 days remember it was a road trip so she had every Hotel every attraction every Trail and how long every Trail took all compiled in this wondrous Excel sheet which looked perfect at first glance because now we knew where we were supposed to be in the next two weeks but that was the problem because this meant where we were supposed to be in the next two weeks and not necessarily where we wanted to be when we got to that part of the itinerary because due to a lot of uncontrollable factors this plan didn't follow through at one point there was rain so some attractions were just unavailable once we just spent too much time on a trail and we went way past schedule and once we just slept in late and didn't feel like it in the end we only followed around 40% of the plan and we were put under constant urge constant stress to follow this plan through to VIs visit all of those attractions and to make the most of our time there and that's the problem right we fell into this trap that we made for ourselves the plan was supposed to be a guide a helping hand so we could reference where we could go but It ultimately turned into a cage because we were pressured to follow it every every single day in the end things didn't go according to plan things went wrong and you can input that scenario into whatever aspect of your life you try to control I mean maybe you're trying to get into the varsity team and you develop this super specific training plan and you follow that through but then Senior priority kicks in and you get cut from the team maybe you've always want to be working in this one field this one industry and you get into your dream job but then you realize there are all these little things that your dream job has to deal with that you hate doing things went wrong moral of the story no matter how much you try to control your life things are going to end up differently somehow than how you originally expected it to be I'm not trying to curse you or anything this is simply the truth and we can't change the truth but we can try to live with it right and so let me introduce you to entropy which offers you a completely new experience and perspective into all of this okay entropy on its base level is a physics terms so there is a little science lesson hidden inside this talk so get ready entropy is the measure of how dispersed energy is in a system and thus how disordered it is Imagine liquid water evaporating into water vapor these are liquid water molecules all of them are connected they move in the same pattern they're organized and as water evaporates they slowly turn into whatever this is this particle is going this way that molecule's going that way it's unorganized it's unpredictable and as you watch this Orly fashion turn into a piece of chaos you can observe that things also went wrong for the water molecules but did they really because even though they've lost their organized State they turned into somewhat of a mess I think you can agree with me that this is simply a process of nature this is science this is entropy it's simply the truth and we can't change the truth but we can try to live with it right and so our ancestors they didn't see this as lost or escaped liquid water that they could have drank they saw opportunities they realized that by evaporating water and trapping that heat it could cook foods and it is now a culinary method that so many different cultures use as their primary cooking method we realize the concept of humidity and Air in the atmos water in in the atmosphere which allowed us to realize that in different regions you can grow different crops plants that died in drier places flourished in more humid conditions leading to the wide selection of plants and produce that we see around the world today and so you can see things didn't really go wrong for the water molecules they just went differently which yes closed some doors and eliminated some possibilities but opened other doors with other opportunities we adapted from this change to liquid water from liquid water to water vapor and made it useful for us so why don't we do the same with our expectations when something goes differently for you don't think it as something wrong don't give up expect another opportunity to arise maybe even a better one true story in seventh grade I tried out for the touch rugby team and I ultimately ended up in division 2 I mean I was devastated but I adapted with the team and we were able to pull off some incredible results in the last tournament of the season season our division one was playing against another team and we later played that exact same team our division one scored One Singular Point against them I mean fair to say they were demolished and we scored two points I mean we were still demolished but the thing is as the worst team we had the better result and guess what I scored both of those points after that tournament the division 1 coach asked for me to join them for one final tournament and so you can see things did originally go differently than I expected but I didn't give up I worked with what I had and it ended up being to this day the best season I've ever had and I wasn't even on the best Squad and because I was also playing with people who are willing to play and collaborate with me I improved a lot in my touch rugby skills as well so you can see things going differently for you not only gives you alternative opportunities but gives you valuable experiences to learn and grow I know all encompassing control and stability over your life sounds so tempting but being willing to embrace the unpredicted can lead to change and growth in ourselves thinking back to the vacation I had if we had 100% followed the plan we would have learned almost nothing because we would have learned everything from on the trip from the travel guide when we were making the plant oh maybe the travel guide said this restaurant had great food this place has great views or this church has an interesting history but because we veered off course we visited different restaurants and ate different foods looked at different views and visited different churches with different histories rounding off our very own experience of New Zealand and not someone else's with our own takeaways for example me I learn to never go back to beaches again because the wind will blow you away figuratively and literally I mean that was not on the Travel Guide so the important thing is never treat entropy as your enemy rather a friend finally think about it this way this is a garden right every single plant every single flower in this Garden has its own role it contributes to the same pattern they're trimmed down every single day to maintain this picture perfect standard unpredicted growth is not allowed here because if one flower grows then it will look misplaced and it will mess up the whole pattern however much smooth and organized this may look It ultimately lacks the authenticity and the true essence of a wild Meadow here plants are allowed to grow in different ways flowers bloom into all different sorts of sizes colors shapes it's messy yes but it is this beautiful disorder that makes the meadow appealing because it captures the true image of nature it captures the unpredicted in a sense the garden is us trying to control every single aspect of Our Lives not letting any of that unpredicted grow through and the meadow is US embracing that unpredicted living with it living with that entropy that inevitably bleeds into our lives here I encourage you to be that wild Meadow take risks try out a new career opportunity maybe let your kids do the things they want for once have a relationship ship without hiding your true personality all of these decisions will Bloom inside of you into new flowers of different sizes different colors different shapes and no matter the outcome you would have learned something and gained something from these experiences and they will all decorate your life in a beautiful disorder [Applause]