TED talks

[Finlam]

I've heard a lot about these talks and I am curious as to what the Playground's view is on them.

Generally, I hear people talk about TED like it is this (http://calnewport.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2007/10/einstein.jpg)or this (http://www.rjgeib.com/thoughts/socrates/socrates.jpg), but every time I watch one it's closer to this (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-oRnhrOf0r0).

Has anyone found any good talks or actually attended a TED talk?

[Morph Bark]

I've seen only a handful, but most were very inspiring speakers simply talking about how to keep going through life, and one speaker talking about some kind of app that looked interesting.

Isn't there a site for this?

[Grinner]

I get the same impression. Sometimes.

Sometimes, I find one that's insightful. I remember one of Ze Frank's later presentations being fairly good.

Other times, the speaker's subject is only tangentially related to whatever the theme was supposed to be. I remember this one woman's talk. The subject of her talk was mathematics. She ended up talking about a knitting project she had undertaken, the products of which just happened to reflect some mathematical formula.

Oftentimes, the speakers end up just advertising whatever projects they've been working on. The TED Talks certainly don't strike me as being technical in any respect.


Isn't there a site for this?

Why yes there is. (http://www.ted.com)

[Meeki]

Look on NPR's site instead:

http://www.npr.org/programs/ted-radio-hour/

Only podcasts are available, but well worth the listen. Plus NPR doesn't allow the super crazies in.

[Teddy]

Has anyone found any good talks or actually attended a TED talk?

I haven't attended any TED Talks, no, but I've seen one of the most famous discoursers, Hans Rosling (http://www.ted.com/talks/hans_rosling_shows_the_best_stats_you_ve_ever_seen .html), live, and I can attest to his greatness. And as for the TED Talks I've seen on television, most have held a good quality.

[kurokotetsu]

Da ****?

Okay, that was one of the most non-sensical videos I've ever seen. He has no idea of math, physics, biology or chemestry. Or at least his idea holds no water whatsoever.

But TED Talks are variable for me. I'm not a great fan (a lot of speakers already have a forum) but some interesting things come out of it. Maybe some previous background checking should be donde, as some "hypothesis" are presented as if they were proven "theories" (I think Gates presented some doubtful numbers, if it is the one I remember). But sometimes throwing ideas around to an audience may have some postive effect, after all I think that having a platform to spread your thoughts (even the not so brilliant ones) can help to make discussions and finally develop something interesting.

[Emmerask]

Here is one I REALLY liked:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rrkrvAUbU9Y

[MoonCat]

I attended a TEDx conference some years ago that I was quite enamoured with, although it had a specific topic, meaning you might not be as interested. I liked this one http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gj8IA6xOpSk, and as well the one here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=86x-u-tz0MA.

EDIT: Also, that painting's the death sentence of Socrates for having said what he had to say. Not quite fitting. :smalltongue:

[Socratov]

well, the problem with ted talks is the same as it's charm: they var far and in between. Sure some will be more to your liking then others.

some of them are boring, some exciting. Some are sientifically sound, some are iffy at best. Most of them are, however, interesting ideas to think about. It's not a science fair, it's a speakerbox where people can talk about what keeps their grey matter busy.

My personal favorites were: the 8 billion dollar iPod, some guy on the gay agenda and it's political rammifications (warning political and fabulous), a man on stage who has designed his own replacement organ of some sort (most of these I watched a long time ago so I can't find what I watched back then) and last but not least a man explaining what parenting rules are rubbish and why.

Some TED talks are quite impressive or well worth watching.. .It's finding those that are a quest in itself...

[Finlam]

EDIT: Also, that painting's the death sentence of Socrates for having said what he had to say. Not quite fitting. :smalltongue:
But a rendition of Socrates teaching would not have been half so recognizable. =P

[Kyberwulf]

Totally NOT what I was thinking about, when I seen TED talks... I was thinking of Quotes from the movie TED.

[Karoht]

I watched a bunch of them on Netflix, primarily the ones about food and robotics and space.
The food talks are all pretty good. Jamie Oliver was invited to talk about his school lunches programs, there was a fellow talking about a signifigantly less cruel way to get fois gras, a revolutionary fish farm that was once a wasteland in spain, General Tsu's Chicken, and a few others.

World Hunger is by far a more solveable problem than one might think, and the benefits of solving it are huge.
-Better education results.
-Lower health care costs. Stronger immune system, less health problems related to obesity/malnutrition.
They demonstrated the impact of being malnurished in the first 3 years of one's life. The prounounced effect it has on brain development alone is staggering. Never mind how much harder it is to work or to learn when you're hungry.


The robotics/space talks are all interesting, if you are intersted in that kind of thing. I didn't realize how big a deal the cassini space probe mission was until I saw a talk about it. There was also a really cool demonstration for quantum locking and superconduction. I don't recall if the presentation on 3D printing was a TED Talk or just a presentation by a TED Talk presenter, but it was good either way.

[yougi]

Given that I'm both a teacher and a researcher in the field, I greatly enjoy TED talks about education, and particularly those from Sir Ken Robinson, whose speeches are both insightful and entertaining. I also greatly enjoyed the slam poem about what teachers make.

But overall, yes, there are truly great ones, but also some that leave you scratching your head as to what the organizers thought was so great about these ideas.

[Tsriel]

I've nearly seen them all. I get a major nerd-on almost everytime. Granted, some speakers are about as entertaining as dirt to listen to, which is expected since these people are usually scientists after all, but then there are some that are really good speakers. You feel inspired to hear them talk, like what they're saying is so obviously simple that it's mindbogling that we as a race haven't done this yet.

Personally, I don't think there is a bad TED talk. Just find a subject of interest and watch it. :smallcool:

[Bhu]

I like the 'banned' one.

[Karoht]

Which one is this 'banned' talk?
Or by banned do you mean banned by this forums rules type banned?

[Bhu]

Just google 'banned ted talk' and look for nick hanauer. Should be the first result.