The next TED talk I watched was Weird or Just Different by Derek Sivers. Derek Sivers tells the story of a Japanese man coming to America and asking what block number a collection of houses are. The American man asks if he meant the street name and the Japanese man leaves confused. Meanwhile in Japan a American asks what the name of a street is and a Japanese man asks if he means the block number.
Derek Sivers gives a perspective of how something on one side of the planet could be considered normal while the complete opposite is considered weird. One example he gives is of an upside down map. The map is completely accurate yet considered weird to most people.I believe that weird shouldn't hold such a negative connotation. Weirdness is just difference something that people just don't understand. In our current society weird is commonly used as a synonym for wrong. When in the truth the word weird merely means different than what you are used to.
Derek Sivers message of understanding weirdness is an important lesson for everyone to have. Instead of honoring the things that are not what we call them undesirable, wrong. Weirdness is more of a synonym to
uniqueness than it is to wrongness and Derek Sivers message is that we should accept this.
Weird isn't wrong. Just different.
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