This is a short YouTube talk by Vishen Lakhiani introducing the concept of the “culturescape” — the tangled web of shared subjective realities that shape behavior. He uses his own life (growing up Hindu in Kuala Lumpur, attending British school and University of Michigan, then working at Microsoft) to show how cultural rules (e.g., pressure to be a lawyer/doctor/engineer) can be “bullshit rules” that prevent pursuing passions. He recounts quitting Microsoft, joining a nonprofit, and exploring art, travel, and meditation, urging healthy skepticism toward societal rules to live an extraordinary life.
Chapters
I was working for Bill Gates. I was at Microsoft. Eleven weeks into Microsoft, I realized I was miserable. The culturescape is that tangled web of shared subjective realities that all of us are immersed in and all of us are influenced by the culturescape of our local group. So I grew up as a kid in Kuala Lumpur. And growing up there, my family was Hindu. So I was influenced by the shared subjective reality of Hinduism. As I grew up, I went to a British school, and then I came to America. I went to the University of Michigan. And as I get exposed to these different elements of the culturescape because of this diversity I was part of, I start realizing that not all shared subjective reality is true. So I realized that my belief that eating beef is bad was just that. It's a belief. It's neither true nor false. So what I write about in my book is how to study the culturescape, the shared subjective realities we are living in, and identify what rules help you and what rules are really rules or bullshit rules. Rules that hold you back from truly living your most extraordinary life. So let me give you an example of a bullshit rule. Right? So growing up in an Indian family, there's a lot of pressure to be successful. Your family pushes you to be a lawyer, a doctor, or an engineer. And if you're not any of that, you're a family embarrassment. So Indian kids grow up to be lawyers, doctors, engineers, or family failures. So in my case, I loved art. I wanted to study art. I love performing art. I loved getting on stage and acting. I loved photography. But when I went to school, I viewed artists. The idea of me being an artist as disappointing my family as the opposite of success. So I signed up for computer engineering classes so that five years later I could get a job at Microsoft. And now, boom, I was it. I was working for Bill Gates. I was at Microsoft. Eleven weeks into Microsoft, I realized I was miserable and I quit cold turkey. I basically got myself fired. I realized that for five years I was pursuing something that I had no interest in because the rules of the culturescape of being a good Indian kid said, be a software programmer. So I quit. I quit. I went, I joined a non profit. And that's really when my life began. I dabbled in different things, from traveling around the world to meditation to art. But it was through following these passions, it was through ignoring the bullshit rules of the culturescape, but really identifying what really drove me, what made me passionate, that I was able to build the life I have today. And that's really why I'm so adamant about teaching people through my work, through my books. To question everything. To question your religion, to question your societal rules, to question the idea of a college degree. And I don't mean being skeptical of everything. There's a difference. I mean healthy skepticism. Ultimately questioning the rules of the culturescape so we can stay true to our own inner identity. Thank you for watching. Don't forget to hit the subscribe button. And one more tip. I do a lot of writing. Follow me on Instagram at Vision to get tons of new insights directly on Instagram.
