You're listening to TED Talks Daily, where we bring you new ideas to spark your curiosity every day.

I'm your host, Elise Hugh.

Every day you show up with some version of a plan, and everyday reality might have other ideas.

How you respond in that gap.

That's the track we drop, as concert pianist

and DJ Elu says. No matter what happens, no matter how improbable or absurd the load, we have to

bear it like the mythical Atlas. We have to keep those tracks spinning our life choices. We have to

keep everything going on. Elu, born Eric Lewis, is a rock jazz pioneer and one of the most inventive pianists today.

In this talk and performance, he traces the unlikely journey from classical prodigy to New York City

nightclub regular and shares what he learned along the way, the philosophy that changed how he plays,

how he thinks,

and how he moves through the beautiful chaos of everyday life.

That's coming up right after a short break.

And now our TED Talk of the Day.

My philosophy is that we are all DJs. No matter whether you're a school teacher or a neuroscientist or a VC genius or even a piano player. We're all DJs. I think that the

club that we exist in is called club reality. And the choices that we make are the tracks that

we drop and the perceptual entity that we identify with. That is us. We are the DJs. Now, every

day we approach with some sort of plan,

some sort of gentle idea that we're going to execute.

Well then, of course, club reality comes along,

and oftentimes, like with the flights, like with all other kind of things, sets everything on fire.

No matter what happens, no matter how improbable or absurd the load, we have to bear it like the mythical Atlas.

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