Imperfect Future: the value of chaos.

An extended-version of the open stage talk by Andres Colmenares, co-founder of wabi·sabi lab, given at Lift Conference 2014 in Geneva.

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Empty your mind...

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Thanks to the LIFT team for this opportunity.

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When I told my mother I was giving this talk, she gave me one advice...

Begin with a quote from someone smart

Related article by Quote Investigator

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but my mother also said trust your intuition, so I want to start with my own quote..

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"The best way to predict the future is to Google it".

- Andres Colmenares

Internet heavy-user

@ Lift 2014.

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Today I want to share with you some questions, stories and a challenge about the imperfect future and the value of chaos.

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What is the imperfect future???

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A random friday in 2008 I was in my chaotic hometown: Bogotá. Some friends took me to a japanese restaurant called wabi·sabi. I had no idea what wabi·sabi meant, but I was really curious. 

So I google it and read about wabi·sabi on Wikipedia… 

“the beauty that is imperfect, impermanent and incomplete”

It is actually a lot more complex than that,

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but still I fell in love with the concept, 

(Tattoo by Jack Cheng - Tattly)

More about Wabi-Sabi by Jack Cheng

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wabi·sabi lab, a company that explores the imperfect future to build better ones,

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also a wabisabian manifesto, 

The Wabisabian Manifesto from wabi-sabi lab on Vimeo.

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and a beautiful relationship around it. ---> @lucy8688

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Back to the (imperfect) future...  there are three key elements that can help us define it...

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Imperfect Future = RANDOMNESS

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Imperfect Future = CURIOSITY

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Imperfect Future = CHAOS

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Let’s see the definition of chaos according to Edward Lorenz, pioneer of chaos theory:

"When the present determines the future, but the approximate present does not approximately determine the future".