Angela Barbella (Angylla) - Why I Stopped Waiting for Permission to Build the Future

Imagine this scene. A room packed with people, the background voices buzzing with brilliant minds, and in front of you a group of engineers, mathematicians, economists— the people who, with their projects and algorithms, analyze and design our future. And then there's me. Exact. About a year ago, I showed up not wearing a lab coat, nor did I have a laptop full of algorithms, but I was known simply because I was the only girl in a bright yellow coat.

And what happens? I was called there to coordinate a team where apparently the only language was that of numbers, so I was the only note played, I felt inadequate and imperfect. So what happens? that by working together, in short, with this team I discover an incredible truth in that world that was alien to me. The truth is that life is a continuous self-discovery and that above all the most incredible places, indeed the richest paths, are precisely the unusual ones.

And so, in short, this journey of mine began, one that has deep roots here in this villa and also in the land where I come from. Leave my yellow coat hanging there on that chair in that room with all the mathematicians and engineers for a moment now, and come with me for a moment, let's take a journey back in time of about 400 years. You see, I come from Angri. Angria is a city located between Naples, Salerno and the Amalfi coast and in the beating heart of my city there is a noble palace, the Palazzo Doria. And today I am here speaking in this villa which is the Villa Doria d'Angri, but this is not a coincidence, this is there is a thread.

Because the Dorias came here from Genoa, they were a family of merchants, a family of bankers, they were men of the sea, but they were strangers in this land. We could say the yellow coats a little, okay? They had lots of yellow coats, but what did they do? Did they perhaps just buy a piece of land and take charge? No, they did something more important.

They built bridges. But I'm not talking about stone bridges now, I'm talking about invisible bridges. They had connected the economy of the North with the agriculture of the South. They didn't speak the same language, the same cultural language, the same social language here in the South. Yet they had built this bridge, they had forged these connections, and in my opinion they are proof that when a foreigner arrives in a land and tries to bring together seemingly irreconcilable worlds, they leave a legacy that lasts for centuries.

But this to say what? For me, the Dorias have somehow traced the path for us. And yet it seems like we're not following it because we live in a world where, um, they kind of lead us down beaten paths, right? there eh and there somehow eh they categorize or you have to follow a path, that road that leads you to reach that place, that goal. Yet I believe so much in the beauty of contamination, so I don't believe in it so much.

It's true, we're taught that on one side of our brain we have creativity, on the other side we have logic. And yet, in my opinion, the fusion between these worlds, in my opinion, the fusion between a literature graduate who shows up in a partnership full of engineers, economists, guided there, ready to lead that team there, in my opinion can bring some beauty. And another thing, then women, that is, we know, 16.8% have a degree in STEM compared to 37% of men and in my opinion these are not just numbers, they are also stereotypes and often we prevent ourselves from being able to have experiences just because we think we are not cut out for that world. And then I'll go back to where I was with that yellow coat.

I mean, what was I doing in that room with so many people who actually lived in worlds so different from mine? I asked questions that no one was asking. I was wondering, "But who is behind these algorithms?" That is, who is this project we are doing aimed at? What story are we telling?

And so I discovered that empathy is not just a soft skill, it is the architecture, the scaffolding of a project that can be successful. So my yellow coat was no longer a symbol of inadequacy, that is, I felt I was in the right place to be able to create those invisible bridges that didn't exist. And so that coat for me, that yellow coat for me had almost become like a new uniform, a new armor to say "Okay, I'm here to build bridges and when you come home, you can't just have this new uniform and put it there in the closet" and so I decided and I thought that something had to be done. So I returned to Angry and, together with a group of about 25 young, passionate, talented people, we brought a TED Talk event to our city for the first time, a global event that somehow made my dream of connecting worlds that don't speak to each other come true. Now, maybe everyone doesn't know what TEDEX is, it's a global conference, it was born in 1984 in America and it's a conference that connects worlds: technology, design, entertainment.

So what did we do inside that Oria palace? We brought new voices, we explored those voices that hadn't yet been heard, that no one had actually ever heard. Um, TED X is obviously this conference that happens every year all over America and X means that there are young people who organize it independently and then it is published on a global platform and is seen by the whole world. But for me, this format has something powerful, and that power lies in the fact that it forces you to connect worlds that seem irreconcilable. So in the same afternoon, on the same stage, for 12 minutes you can listen to someone talk to you about blockchain.

For another 12 minutes immediately after that there is a poet and even after that you can find a carpenter who has centuries of experience in the work he does. So for me this is kind of the extraordinary thing, you know, about this project we did and I'm really excited, you know, about what we managed to do. In short, I would be happy if any of you would like to join our team, to participate in this project of ours. But what am I actually doing here today? I came wearing a yellow dress, I feel exactly like that and right now I'm thinking, but what do I actually have to do with this ?

But compared to a few years ago I feel less inadequate, I still feel a bit like that bridge builder, don't I? And so let's say let's look for connections where it seems that it is actually impossible to build them. And the message I'd like to leave today for you, who are actually builders of our future, is that every now and then, while you're behind your computers, creating decentralized architectures—that is, behind your algorithms— look up a little and ask yourself, who will be looking at this project of mine? I mean, who are the people behind the algorithms? How will my grandmother, a literature graduate, or a baker read it?

So, how will they actually understand what I'm talking about? So today this is kind of the message I want to leave you and above all to continue, in short, to be curious, to explore the world and not to feel inadequate, even if it is a note played in the symphony. Thank you.