Lawlessness at TEDxSF

“Take control of your own narrative,” Jonathan Abrams, the founder and former CEO of Friendster, told us on Tuesday night at California Academy of Sciences during TEDx San Francisco.

It was appropriate advice from an entrepreneur who describes his venture into a failed social networking enterprise as a roller coaster ride. Abrams, brushing off references to Facebook and Twitter’s success, had kept investing and decided to keep creating new companies.

Personal and professional stories of devastating loss followed by a triumphant return livened the night’s theme of Courage and Resilience at TEDxSF.  Independently organized, TEDx events are meant to capture the essence of the annual TED conference held in Long Beach, in a smaller, local community setting. This TEDxSF brought together TEDsters and other-like minded people to exchange ideas, conversations, and network.

Every speaker stressed that you should (and can!) define your own path despite knock-outs (literally in the case of professional Fighter Nathan Quarry) or set backs (financially in the case of Guitar Hero co-founder Charles Hunag). But the two talks that I found most engaging were by conservationist and founder of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society Captain. Paul Watson, and author David Shenk.

It was like someone opened up the pages of Moby Dick when Captain Paul Watson took the stage and began to recount his tales of battling illegal Japanese whaling ships in order to save the endangered species on the high seas. Watson, who only allows people who are “willing to die for a whale” onto his crew of volunteers, believes that governments and large organizations aren’t going to drive change in the conservationist movement;  it will ultimately be the passion of individuals. He enforces international laws, saying countries do no have the will or resources to enforce them. His goal is to bankrupt and sink whaling ships in order to preserve the diversity of the oceans (he means financially sink, although he has led controversial missions).  Despite being called an “eco-terrorist” Watson said that he has built “an immunity to criticism” in his quest to satisfy his clients: whales.

Although Watson often uses inflammatory statements-saying worms are more important than humans to point out that worms can survive without humans but humanity cannot survive without them or any other complex ecological habitat-it is his zealous determination to build his own policy within a system of  unchecked international law, that is inspiring. This is a lesson for all whose passions are thwarted or put on pause by bureaucracy or traditional institutions unwilling to foste r new ideas or structures.

David Shenk, author of The Genius in All of Us, entered the stage toting a completely different persona. Although shy and nerdy at first, his humorous analysis of cloning (even if a cloned cat has exactly the same genes as the original, he will look completely different) and his optimistic presentation on gene expression: Epigenetics, Courage, and Resilience, were a lesson in how we can navigate our own success by training our genes. David demystifies traditional notions of gene expression and explains our genes are “activated” and designed to adapt to environmental circumstances. While many already knew we influence our genes with our behavior, David emphasized that we must understand our behavior and our own processes to fulfill our ultimate goals. Just as Watson and the other speakers stressed that we can control the laws of our lives, David is optimistic that we are able to recover from any type of unwanted inheritance (others refer to misfortune, David, of course, is speaking of DNA), "Our lives actually impact our genes. To me, there's no more encouraging, or inspiring, idea out there."