The unexpected benefit of celebrating failure | Astro Teller

"Great dreams aren't just visions," says Astro Teller, "They're visions coupled to strategies for making them real." The head of X (formerly Google X), Teller takes us inside the "moonshot factory," as it's called, where his team seeks to solve the world's biggest problems through experimental projects like balloon-powered Internet and wind turbines that sail through the air. Find out X's secret to creating an organization where people feel comfortable working on big, risky projects and exploring audacious ideas.
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[@rubikashree7724]

I so badly needed the motivation to get through the difficult phase of my research as a high schooler. I really gotta thank this guy, I will be excited to fail from now on!

[@jayfaisa6016]

With a name like Astro Teller, I'm surprised he hasn't run for president.

[@HiAdrian]

That would also be the right attitude for programming. Writing rigorous unit tests with _enthusiasm_ rather than the hope to find nothing so as to be done with it. His personality might not be everyone's cup of tea, but the message is good.

[@CyberiusT]

+Adrian That's the system the students around my year used at uni. We teamed up to competitively write and test our projects - kudos to the people who broke your stuff, and grades to you if they didn't. Worked well.

[@HiAdrian]

CyberiusT I only program as a hobby, so that's cool to hear!

[@CyberiusT]

Adrian You can always take it with you, dude - try to implement it in *your* school, or workplace. (ISTR some commercial teams having a sort of 'attack squad' as part of development.)

[@alicialanda1874]

What an amazing example of unconditional love and service to humanity.!! It brought tears to my eyes.

[@harinair3854]

Half a moonshot is no good at all, by leaps and bounds! Those who recognize this and end their project/s need to be recognized and rewarded. Thanks Teller...

[@CharonsNightmare]

"Sucking at something is the first step to become sorta good at something." - Jake the Dog

[@_____case]

I quote this on the regular.

[@AlexanderEmmanual]

Sounds like a really amazing culture at X. They've turned the table on the idea of failure to be rewarded instead of admonished. Failure is their success and everyone has to invest in that idea to prosper at X. "Enthusiastic scepticism is NOT the enemy of boundless optimmism. It's optimises perfect partner. It unlocks the potential in every idea"

[@MarioTomicOfficial]

Awesome talk, really enjoyed it!

[@TheRidRichard]

Now I've come to realise that my life is a fucking festival

[@andy4an]

"enthusiastic skepticism is not the enemy of boundless optimism" nice.

[@216trixie]

"Sometimes shifting perspective is more powerful than being smart".

[@SkrumpBumpky]

I saw this when it was broadcasted live in cinemas. Amazing talk.

[@dabidoe]

Astro Teller is the best fake name I've ever heard, even if it's his real name.

[@Surkee]

+dabidoe His name is actually Eric Teller. He just HAD to change the name so it would sound good with "moonshot" instead of... well.."project".

[@dabidoe]

AmateurKZbinr Hey, fine by me this guy's a visionary he can call himself king kong for all i care.

[@Surkee]

dabidoe Agreed xD

[@MacoveiVlad]

12:50 did he miss a applause moment for using metric there? Or because of mixing units? :) Probably he undersold the difficulty of flying a balloon high in the atmosphere with that precision.

[@SiimLand]

Just the type of thinking we need!

[@meandmymouth]

Steve Jobs said the same thing only better :- "Try, fail. Try again, fail again. Fail better !".

[@philg6757]

Great Ted talk,even better eyebrows.

[@MrPeterthepilot]

Hardly ever read the comments in a TED talk that isn't dominated by Trolls. Knew this would be a prime target. Interesting to see how people's (often limited) minds work!

[@omarperezr]

This is Popper perspective of all human endeavours. Nice.

[@oldcowbb]

the joy is real

[@tylerresto]

They have great ideas, but since our planet is in such a large environmental crisis, I think the energies of brilliant inventors should be focused of things that will actually matter in the next 10 years...

[@jpr422]

+Tyler Resto I'm really surprised that this thinking "outside the box" is not being applied to what is our greatest crisis. We need to solve this problem first, otherwise any future attempts in improving our lives is meaningless.

[@barry3518]

+Tyler Resto Everything is interconnected, and for all we know bringing the internet to remote villages in the Himalayas might just inspire a child to do something more with their life than care for a herd of animals and result in the cheapest and most effective CO2 scrubbing invention that reverses the global temperature increase. I would also direct you to an (admittedly somewhat dated) TED talk by Nick Bostrom called "Humanity's biggest problems aren't what you think they are", remind you that different people have different specialities, and suggest that X - along with similar companies - may well have groups working on solutions to many of these environmental crises.

[@risingmoon1928]

Great advertisement for X (Google X). You spent about 12 minutes talking about X accomplishments, maybe 2 minutes talking about Google X's work environment and less than a minute really delivering anything of value in regard to the power of embracing failure and how it leads to success.

[@gigisimbajon4625]

Interesting concepts.. I love the term 'killing the project'...It implies that they generate too many ideas to concretize...but they seem to have no clear objectives... vertical farming could be useful for other localities.. you don't kill a project just because you won't profit from them... you can sell your concept and gain instead...if you have ideas that may not be beneficial for yourself, then give them away that others may benefit from them.

[@DomsDocs]

*Great talk! - So awesome to hear people more successful than you...power of the internet - fucking love it!*

[@SupernaturalBeingsofEarth]

Never a problem. Always a solution.

[@DragonLineVlog]

omg I saw this one in the cinema livestream.

[@RedStefan]

Moon shots sounds like shots of Moonshine

[@aaaaaaaaooooooo]

With the Balloon cargo transport project, it seems to me that the perspective shift needed is: "All right, we can't do it because the first iteration takes too much money. So, to make this happen, what other uses are there for balloons so that we can first build up the experience/knowledge/production efficiency we need with balloons, but on a smaller-scale project?" I wonder if the Loon project was born from such a thought process. If it succeeds, it would double as an intermediate step to make the cargo transport balloon project become a more approachable project in the future. In a similar vein, I wonder if balloons could be used for the floating wind turbine to raise them into the air more efficiently. As for the vertical farming project, I am wondering why it had to be killed, if it was working for vegetables other than grain. Is there not a perspective shift of "What other uses are there for this tech other than producing grain that could make economic sense?" Do they stick to a system of one project=one goal? Do they just start up a different project if they find another spinoff goal?

[@ruusauugwanga6631]

So Far the Best I Have Watched...Great Minds I Like Their Persistence

[@LanceWinslow]

Did you try modifying the soil bacteria to suit the staple crops like rice, wheat, corn? I hope you share ALL the data when you fail and close a project, give what you learned to the world, someone else will figure it out, or save time and not fail next time.

[@Deviliumrei]

What a world that would be

[@hiamjanusz7354]

is fascinating

[@user-gt9bz7wy3z]

I have a question about what had happened to those who were in the project that had been killed?

[@Juvelqairth]

Failure in the beginning Success at the end

[@Juvelqairth]

- that's my motto

[@xXbudred123Xx]

+Jaret Jose Ulanday Unless you're a child actor.

[@Juvelqairth]

+budred123 - Bernie Sanders FTW - Thanks but don't matter for me whether I'm a child actor or the adult actor. The mean is "it's disastrous at first. Learning takes time and you can achieve it". :)

[@xXbudred123Xx]

Jaret Jose Ulanday I don't think you understood the joke. All famous child actors are always successful in the beginning, then usually develop a drug addiction and go completely mental.

[@Juvelqairth]

+budred123 - Bernie Sanders FTW - That is your joke. For me, `_____________` Your yoke ice knot pun-ny (edit)

[@sowonkun]

A nice talk about the unexpected benefits of celebrating thanks to you

[@majedahmed5410]

We human beings are what we have been for millions of years -colossally greedy, envious, aggressive, jealous, anxious and despairing, with occasional flashes of joy and affection. We are a strange mixture of hate, fear and gentleness; we are both violence and peace. There has been outward progress from the bullock cart to the jet plane but psychologically, the individual has not changed at all. so you all to human or future off humanity.... look at he fact as was and still are ...!

[@bestLetsplayer]

Better Title: Advertisement for Google X

[@Straylight4299]

+bestLetsplayer These days all TED talks are advertisements.

[@vaibhavgupta20]

+celeste AR ignore the fake sellout outrage.

[@viniciuschaves9736]

Fascinating talk, man. Thanks

[@crikxouba]

This is great, although it is also very unrealistic for most people and companies in the world. Most companies don't have the cash to sustain large amount of failures and foster projects that don't have (obvious) profitable outcomes. X is only possible thanks to Google's large amounts of spare cash. Still, amazing that Google spends money this way, most companies don't.

[@TZB2011]

Moonshot factory is a wonderful idea and celebrating the failure is excellent. Thanks for the eye-opening insights, Astro Teller!

[@ppereza1861]

Brilliant way of presenting how to think big, I liked that. However, with the balloons I wonder if those areas where there was no internet really need it, if it would be better to leave then as areas with no EMF where people can go a disconnect. I'm genuinely curious if that's solving a problem in all places where it's been deployed.

[@minimaxhall]

This was great. Thanks for the share :)

[@zhangkaichao5254]

I'm surprise by project loon,it's crazy and I like it!

[@Esabelle]

I wish I could convince my dad that failure has benefits.

[@rubenssiomusic]

Thank You!

[@eusouagua]

I LOVE all of this!

[@TheAnnoyingGunner]

I always become sceptical when long-term solutions are based on helium...

[@stanyu9989]

i love this guy's accent

[@grrr1351]

Where's the "Paranormal Ted Talk"? Did you guys ban it to be uploaded

[@venugopalbandlamudi]

Superb!

[@IU-no5xf]

So inspiring!

[@user-nk9yw7jj8p]

awesome

[@NunoBalseiro]

thumbs up

[@callyama]

it's nice how positive this all is, but how many companies have so much capital to play with... who is this talk geared toward? some people have more at stake to lose lol

[@kianrahbari8410]

Me in 20 years

[@whatthefunction9140]

Is that jason sudeikis' dad?

[@Nitesh43306]

awesome...........!

[@gelato147]

Bravo!

[@jcsmit0822]

Astro Teller looks like Jason Sudeikis' hippy uncle

[@AsmitDasLife]

Doesn't he looks like Jason Sudeikis with beard?

[@memoryhero]

Minor gripe. You're using the word Moon Shot all over the place, and in your own words, it describes the following: "Number one - we want to find a huge problem in the world..." In 1969, the lunar landing was doubtless an amazing achievement and a watershed moment for humanity, but the "problem" that this Moon Shot solved was nothing beyond the fact that we hadn't been to the Moon before, which, I gotta tell you, in the grand scheme of problems, is fairly low grade.

[@viktor8316]

thats a zeppelin 4:05

[@hrishikeshwaikar251]

I hope A hurricane doesn't kill the Loon Project

[@solomonnorthup7188]

Perfect

[@zuilok]

Why would you make an "internet baloon" when we have sattelites?

[@isurumdev]

+Dantick09 They are testing project loon in my country Sri Lanka. it's a big thing here.

[@IU-no5xf]

+Isuru Madusanka wow.!

[@DavidsonLoops]

I wonder if this man realises or accepts that the problem is not that these ideas aren't amazing and completely essential, it's that there is a lack of appreciation and enthusiasm to invest into the solutions that these concepts address. It's great that we can get wifi in the sahara desert now, but either you think that it's a trivial achievement, or you accept that in the event you are in the sahara desert, will you say "Bloody desert, why haven't they got WiFi here?" People will only appreciate a solution to address what they have come to expect and no more. It's a poor mentality that inhibits our progression. The world is not in lack of good ideas, that is not the limiting factor, it's the mentality.

[@QuickTalks]

Hold up there Astro... So what happens when the floating balloon runs into the floating wind turbine?

[@AegisNova]

The SEO hits the fan. 😉

[@shreyasp3287]

I would like to work here What should I do

[@rafaelpiai]

Subtitles Portuguese PLEASE!

[@catchychuckles]

Those eyebrows tho.

[@sc38converter]

yah, because we need to save every single person when our numbers are 7.8 billion people as it is,, humanity is forging its own slow death together .

[@boonping4696]

how is the balloon gonna survive a storm ?

[@sereudipity]

Why do people who work for Google always talk in the exact same voice?

[@zimmermanlandscape9287]

All these experts are dreaming up technology that we hope will one day make trimming eyebrows possible...

[@DeeP-_PerspectivE]

I'm gonna make a Ted talk on how every one of these smart speakers has an autisitic sense of humor. Thinking things are funny when they aren't even remotely...

[@emy7971]

Where can i sign in this Moonshot factory??

[@jomgelborn]

How come it took so long to kill Google Glass?

[@selfelements8037]

"Enthusiastic Skepticism".

[@ndirjura]

His name can't be real.

[@merciergovan7870]

here dc

[@JRLeeman]

"A lighter than air, variable buoyancy cargo ship" - So...a submarine? Did you just word it like that to seem intelligent

[@TheGerogero]

Astro Teller tells astronomy.

[@illfaptothis333]

astro teller, hmm? not your best, ted. not your best.

[@julesprince3639]

So.. his name is Astro Teller?

[@virtualuniverse4861]

I just came across this talk, and I got to say thanks for reminding people that failure is not the end of the project. There are sometimes ideas that will never generate profit or careers. For example: ' Building A Universe Competition! #BAUniC baunic.blogspot.com ' gathering talents from all transformative stages between idea and rendering a fractal universe in a computer. It may change the world and our understanding of physics, but no profit in sight for directly involved people and expertise. #BAUniC is attacked by feasibility disbelievers, early give-up-ers, ideological disbelievers, status-quo keepers and sometimes even profit driven entrepreneurs who mark it as a waste of time. Well, we aim to change the world, and that is more than enough. But you can help, or watch. As long as you don't actively try to stop us, we will fail and get up again and again till we succeed or prove impossibility. We have not found any problem we can't handle, yet. Yay!

[@XD8DISTURBED8XD]

This guy looks like a school councilor.

[@notoriouswhitemoth]

Does it occur to anyone else that using wind as a power source contributes to climate change?

[@undershortmayhem]

+notoriouswhitemoth so... windmills have been around since at least a thousand years and back then they were used all around the world so... why did that not make an impact? also, the blades are moved by the wind and in order to make them more efficient, they have to move more requiring the least amount of wind possible, so they don't stop or modify atmospheric circulation.

[@notoriouswhitemoth]

+fede the mango Air pressure being redirected from equalizing difference in air pressure to moving large heavy wooden vanes at a high enough speed to crush wheat seeds into a fine powder has absolutely no effect on the movement of air whatsoever? So much for the conservation of energy, one of the basic assumptions that the school of thought generally known as "science" is based on.

[@notoriouswhitemoth]

+celeste AR 1. who said anything about direction? 2. My point is that wind power contributes to climate change, and that, consequently, all this technology based around using wind to move things is going to affect the environment in the long run.

[@notoriouswhitemoth]

+celeste AR You ask the questions, you answer them; what do you need me for?

[@notoriouswhitemoth]

+celeste AR We're pulling energy out of the air, using natural changes in air pressure as a power source. That means we're slowing down the wind, causing high pressure and low pressure regions, slowing down changes in temperature and pressure. The energy those turbines and propellers generate has to come from somewhere. The results might not be immediately apparent, but the more we exploit a natural resource, the bigger the impact's going to be in the long run.

[@thecolorred1823]

Dr. Love

[@admujkic]

Dude electric light did not come from the improvement of candles

[@depthoffield4744]

Bring Deepak Chopra!

[@WaffleWaffles]

The video reminds me of Idiocracy, where the scientists work on cures for baldness while the world becomes rapidly more stupid.

[@WaffleWaffles]

***** Astro Teller is very likable, Talking about lots of dreams and cool stuff while at the same time demographics and collapsing levels of intelligence are the big problems around us. We're doomed if we don't fix the growing population of low IQ breeders.

[@WaffleWaffles]

***** www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/22/people-getting-dumber-human-intelligence-victoria-era_n_3293846.html Do you not see this happening around you; the smart people with careers having few, if any kids?

[@WaffleWaffles]

***** You are moving the goal posts, the most common tactic used by people who lose an argument. No matter what will be presented to you, you will continually shift the goal posts. Google the actual study if you have a problem with that link. But no, it turns out you have a problem with how IQ is measured also. So what this argument will come down to is that you think intelligence is somehow not decreasing, without any proof, because of your feels, and it doesn't matter what's presented to you, you'll stand by this belief.

[@WaffleWaffles]

***** I didn't mention "fallacy". It sounds like you could be the sort of person who is called out on fallacies a lot. It's your opinion that the source "sucks", because you know, scientific studies are worthless aren't they, and your opinion is superior. How did you form your opinion? My position on this subject comes from a combination of various studies, an understanding of biology, studying behavior, nature, modern history and what I observe with my own eyes. You could prove that society is getting more intelligent if you're confident that it's true. That should be easy if it's obviously true? If you want me to explain the reasons why humanity is becoming more stupid then we can talk about biology next.

[@WaffleWaffles]

***** >over sensitive about being called out on a fallacy >falsely accuses me of using ad hominem fallacy An ad hominem would be me saying to you "everything you say is bullshit because you're stupid"

[@PrisB94]

5:17

[@aakashaich]

Does he look like an aged Jason Sudeikis to anyone?

[@varunrajput8083]

+Aakash Aich No I don't think so.

[@thomasapt]

baloon internet are faster then brazil internet..

[@LeonidasGGG]

When you have money to throw around... You throw money around a lot. 😆

[@zahyravaldez554]

genial

[@murad3460]

Any students preparing for Owlypia?

[@zzasdfwas]

Now put the balloons on Venus

[@kalik6]

tesla pushes a million driving miles of data everyday. lol

[@Juvelqairth]

Nolol for me

[@64adamw64]

13:48 is that a dig at Elon Musk's nano management and intolerance for idiots by any chance?

[@jeromealan4818]

8100

[@IvanDubois2]

To much killing...