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Derek Young

Thinker and Experimenter,

TEDCRED 30+

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If you could learn or unlearn one thing, what would it be?

Something that you wish you had the time for, but don't have such luxury. Be as detailed as you like.

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    Liza Plummer

    • +2
    Jun 13 2012: I would unlearn the idea that I should be rich. With that I wouldn't expect so much from my efforts, I would live for the living rather than the having. I would live within a decent budget and find comfort in staying inside of it rather than sadness from having to restrain myself.
    I would learn to be happy with what I have and what I can do.
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    Letizia Schmid 50+

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    TED Attendee
    Jun 13 2012: I would love to learn to write with my left hand - I like to hold a book with my right but then am forced to switch it to the other hand when I want to take notes. sigh.

  • Terry Haynes

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    Jun 13 2012: I would like to un-learn the process of embalming a dead person. Let me explain. A couple of years ago I was in a waiting room to see my doctor when a man in the room explained to me how they embalm people right down to the last detail. Like I really wanted to know. Well anyway after that learning experience I have decided to be cremated instead.

  • NotReally MyName

    • +1
    Jun 13 2012: Learn: The Meaning of Life
    Un-Learn: [probably] The Meaning of Life (after having just learned it)

    ;-)

  • Shahnawaz Usmani

    • 0
    Jun 13 2012: I wish i could unlearn technology that has made me do this job that i absolutely hate.

  • yehuda weil

    • +1
    Jun 13 2012: I wish I could learn how to dare.

  • Xiao Zhi

    • +4
    Jun 13 2012: I would unlearn the self-doubt that sometimes inhibits me from acting on whim.
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      Derek Young 30+

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      Jun 13 2012: I empathize with you and have thought of the same. =)

  • Daria Busset

    • +1
    Jun 13 2012: When I get an opportunity, I will definitely learn to sing. I think it will reconnect my body and my soul and will improve my overall wellbeing and add presence. (I promise I won't sing all the time... just every now and then)

    I know there is an "or" between learn / unlearn in the question, but I will still add what I'd unlearn - the habit of trying to align to others and to seek approval. Quite a destructive habit that is an obstacle to true creativity and leadership. Work in progress.
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      Derek Young 30+

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      Jun 13 2012: I like your learn and your unlearn.

      How rebellious of you to respond to both! Haha.

      Ps: Daria, I really should have added an "and/or" between learn / unlearn, but I am glad you made your choice. =)

      • Daria Busset

        • +1
        Jun 13 2012: I don't care if you like or unlike it anyways! ;) ... work in progress
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    Srini Srinivasan 50+

    • +2
    TED Attendee
    Jun 13 2012: The art of communication, especially "when to" and "when not to communicate". It is not that people dont know how to communicate, but often times one finds that they wish they had not communicated they way did, in a given situation. This is true for both personal and business situations.
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    Edwin Nazarian 10+

    • 0
    Jun 13 2012: Latin

    This will be one thing I want to learn more than anything else

  • Inderjot Uppal

    • 0
    Jun 13 2012: To live simply in the present

  • Marisa Marques

    • +1
    Jun 12 2012: To play the piano.....to go trough the world helping children, as a full time "job"..... maybe someday.....in another life:).... for now I´m learning to be a scout helping the children nearby, maybe next year I´ll try to learn music, so in a feeeewwwwww years I´ll be able to begin the piano:).... The import is that if we want something very bad, there´s always a way, maybe not the perfect one, but there´s always a way.....
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    Verble Gherulous 20+

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    Jun 12 2012: Even the lessons I didn't want to learn have proved beneficial to me, but if I were to learn something in the time I have remaining, it would be how to play the lute and all those Engliah and Scottish ballads from the Middle Ages, and not just those chivalric sagas, but also those bawdy drinking songs.
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    Debra Smith 200+

    • 0
    Jun 12 2012: Maybe that talk on ugly penises? I could have lived the rest of my life without knowing about elephant penises. yep.

  • Richard Horowitz

    • +1
    Jun 12 2012: I love art
    but cannot draw a line
    I am afraid if I learned to paint,
    like Narcissus,
    I would fall in love with my own creation, and die.

  • Shruti Lahoti

    • 0
    Jun 12 2012: I would like to learn how to invest my time in constructive works which would then help me to grow professionally and want to unlearn the habit of not listening to others.

  • maha ashraf bera

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    Jun 11 2012: i want to learn the experience of living life.. and don't want to learn the drawbacks of living life.
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    Sean Brother

    • +3
    Jun 11 2012: I'd like to learn the complete art of listening. To know how listening to the people and not thinking about what I'll respond. I'd like also to learn about hoy to enjoy listening the others.

  • Myles Horton

    • 0
    Jun 11 2012: Learn: Something completely new.
    Unlearn: Does emotions count? Reliving all emotions for the first and following few times would be great.
    If not emotions, entertainment. I'd love to relive all jokes, movie endings, songs and ect.
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    pranoy sundar 20+

    • 0
    Jun 11 2012: i want to learn the art of speech.
    nothing to unlearn
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    Aneida Bajraktari

    • 0
    Jun 9 2012: I think you should never loose your will to learn new things. If someone has no curiosity to learn and experience new things, he is living just physically. Discovering new worlds around you is wonderful. If I had the time I would go to all possible universities, attend all possible classes, learn new skills because knowledge makes our life easy.

  • P C

    • +1
    Jun 9 2012: Learn: how to better reach across cultural and political divides to raise the level of empathy and humanity on both sides.

    Unlearn: exposure to the depths of human depravity via the online environment and "entertainment'; of man's inhumanity to mankind. Look into the void and it looks back. It's getting so bad that it's no longer fringe videos on YouTube but in major films coming out of Hollywood. The violence, blood, guts, and gore in action movies is becoming so realistic that I walk away feeling Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder along with the desensitization that one would experience in war. There are some things I'd be perfectly happy going to the grave never knowing or seeing.

  • Quindolyn Sheriff

    • 0
    Jun 9 2012: I really want to learn how to stop being indecisive... : )
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    Conrado Bojórquez

    • 0
    Jun 9 2012: To Learn: Myself and what I'm capable of.
    To Unlearn: nothing, even the bad things I learned have helped to shape who I'am.
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    Stuart Woods 10+

    • +1
    Jun 8 2012: I think humans have a limitless capacity to learn and as I tell my students 'WHATEVER you want to learn, learn it deeply and with conviction..find the joy learning something beyond the shallow, that way fulfillment lies. Yes, we have limited time to make our impact but you know what?, we somehow always find time to learn what matters. The secret to learning is find out what matters...... to you.'

    To unlearn feels unnatural. I believe learning is any (relatively) permanent change in behaviour that occurs as a direct result of experience and as such only goes in one direction:forwards. learning involves GAINING something and as such is a positivist endevour.
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    Erik Richardson 500+

    • +3
    TEDx Organizer
    Jun 8 2012: I would love to learn what it would be like to see the world and each other through everyone's eyes at the same time.
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      Derek Young 30+

      • 0
      Jun 8 2012: That would be supernova of emotions and experiences at once. Amazing to have, but scary to think of the reprocussions.
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        Erik Richardson 500+

        • 0
        TEDx Organizer
        Jun 9 2012: I have to hope that if we really saw through their eyes we would have empathy and understanding beaming out of every pore in our body.

  • Roger Morris

    • +1
    Jun 7 2012: Learn; An unambiguous, testable theory of everything. :)
    Unlearn; The experience of growing up in a conservative, abusive, and intellectually suffocating childhood.
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      Derek Young 30+

      • 0
      Jun 8 2012: Our experiences make us who we are, but unfortunately the environments and the experiences aren't always good ones. They do have their upsides though.
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    Aja Bogdanoff 20+

    • +1
    TED StaffHostTED Attendee
    Jun 6 2012: I'd like to learn to play the steel drums. No, seriously! I know I'll never have the time, though. And my neighbors probably wouldn't appreciate it. :)

    Unlearn... tough, since even the unpleasant things I've learned were still valuable...

    You know how some people vacation in Thailand and take cooking classes there? Maybe someday I'll take a vacation somewhere where you can learn to play steel drums. On the beach. With some sort of coconut/tiny umbrella drink. ;)
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