Why the majority is always wrong | Paul Rulkens | TEDxMaastricht

Reminds me of the Monty Python bit where a big crowd says in perfect unison "Yes, we're all different." and then one guy in the crowd says "I'm not."

“A really bad idea, embraced by millions of people, is still a really bad idea.” ~ Tony Blauer

"When all think alike, then no one is thinking"- Walter Lippmann

“If you want to have results you’ve never had before, well, you need to start doing things you’ve never done before.” God I love that

Mark Twain once said: "When you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect."

The majority of this comment section entirely missed the point of the video. The majority is always wrong in the sense that the majority isn’t ever extraordinary. If the practice is done by the majority then it won’t be successful it will yield average results. If the question is how can I make a successful business, following what everyone else does won’t get you there. The majority can never be successful only average. Yes he basically said think outside of the box but he explained how, something you rarely hear. He explained that you have to recognize your boundaries and think of ideas that exist outside of them. Honestly it was very inspiring and great advice.

The first thing which came to my mind after watching that is actually, that this could go in two different directions. If you do what the majority is doing you will achieve normal results... if you do abnormal things, you will achieve abnormal results, but that doesn’t necessarily mean, that your results will be among the top 3% they may be among the bottom 3% as as well.

Having a brilliant idea is only the start. The next thing is to have the passion and commitment to follow that idea through when everyone tells you you're wrong, and being resilient enough to keep pushing through countless rejections until you finally get a breakthrough. Many examples of successful people in history had this experience.

Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect MARK TWAIN

"If I asked people what they wanted most, they would have told me " ~Ford

While there's no doubt that the content he presented was superlative, what I noticed is that he presented it flawlessly, without a single filler word..truly commendable

First class seminar, very well presented, right amount of humour and very thought provoking! Thank you for sharing..

What if the majority thinks that the majority is wrong

So when you think outside the box, you're actually thinking inside a bigger box?

I don't know how many times I've heard people say "think outside the box," and never understood what they meant but after watching this, I get it. I'm definitely coming back for this.

Nice talk thank you! 8 years later and YouTube build an even more complex box for me to live in. 8 years ago there was a man telling me about a box we live in. If I could tell a 2D person in this box to step over a line he or she could jump out of the box and explore the good stuff. Unfortunately, boxes are carefully created by industry and government today. Im living in different boxes with different purposes. It’s hard to be really free in thinking these days but it is still possible. Learn kids about integrity and give them the tools to always think for themselves first and then take the boundaries into account, sometimes break the rules of the boundaries and swallow the consequenties. But only break the rules if you can handle/win and survive the consequences.

I'm not following industry norms by watching this video at work instead of actually working

I loved his speech but most importantly he was a great speaker. He never stopped his speech with awkward “uuhs” or “likes” but told it comfortably without hesitation. And he clearly masters pauses.

"wo alle das gleiche denken wird nicht viel gedacht!" (Karl Valentin)

Following the crowd is the safe bet, doing something different is high-risk, high-reward