Ted Talks

[Alock1]

TED is a nonprofit devoted to spreading ideas, usually in the form of short, powerful talks (18 minutes or less). TED began in 1984 as a conference where Technology, Entertainment and Design converged, and today covers almost all topics — from science to business to global issues — in more than 100 languages.

There's over 1900 talks available, which you can find at their site, on youtube and even netflix. They also do a weekly podcast, which usually picks an over-arching topic and uses 3/4 talks as a structure for them.

There are some topics that I'm interested in and actively look out for, the issue of privacy being one. I've listened to talks from quite a few people on this, including Edward Snowden and separately Glenn Greenwald - the Guardian journalist who Snowden leaked all those documents to.

I've found it to be really good to just pick a podcast episode at random though and go with it, and have generally found them all to be really interesting so far. One I listened to yesterday was talking about the nature humans have with money - they considered some experiments where the concept of money/buying had been introduced to apes, and how linguistic differences between languages are potentially affecting our typical spending/saving patterns.

Wondered if maybe others have any talks they'd recommend?

 

[Mockney]

The Ken Robinson one on education is a universal fav.

 

[Oggmonster]

I've seen a couple, they can be interesting. There's a load of shorter ones (I don't think they're classed as proper TED Talks though.) My favourite to watch is the one below though.

 

[Alock1]

The Ken Robinson one on education is a universal fav.

Which one? I've just been to have a look and there's a fair few. I assume you meant the 'do schools kill creativity?' one? I'll give all a watch anyway, cheers.

I've seen a couple, they can be interesting. There's a load of shorter ones (I don't think they're classed as proper TED Talks though.) My favourite to watch is the one below though.

Cheers for that, enjoyed it. Any others you'd recommend?

 

[Oggmonster]

Cheers for that, enjoyed it. Any others you'd recommend?

No worries glad you liked it, I quite liked these other short 2 below, both only about 3 minutes long:


http://www.ted.com/talks/bobby_mcferrin_hacks_your_brain_with_music

This one is interesting to, although a bit longer than the rest, worth a watch though if you've got the time.

 

[Alock1]

I really don't want to watch that last one from the still used for the video.

 

[Organic Potatoes]

The one on misconceptions is good, if only for the bit with Malcolm Gladwell about David and Goliath.

 

[Adebesi]

I got into TED talks a year or so ago but I had to stop as it took over my Netflix, everything is was recommended was TED and it felt like a wall of TED talking was closing in on me, bludgeoning me with ideas that, while worth thinking about, ought to be thought about with a little more moderation than I was in fact thinking about them. In the end I was unable to interact with my family unless they communicated with me via 7 minute presentations and I had to go TED-turkey and it took several months for some semblance of order to be restored on my Netflix account and my marriage was able to get back on track.

We rarely even talk about it anymore. But it's always there, like a dark cloud hovering above the family.

 

[Sweet Square]

There's a great Hacker one somewhere on the net.

 

[villain]

I've seen a couple, they can be interesting. There's a load of shorter ones (I don't think they're classed as proper TED Talks though.) My favourite to watch is the one below though.

This was fantastic, really enjoyed it especially the end. I know when he did it, but I still cant figure out how he managed to do it!

Ted talks are great, but I do have to take them in moderation it's so easy to start binge watching them.

 

[Alock1]

There's a great Hacker one somewhere on the net.

I'm planning on giving it a watch later.


Here for anyone who hasn't seen it.

I got into TED talks a year or so ago but I had to stop as it took over my Netflix, everything is was recommended was TED and it felt like a wall of TED talking was closing in on me, bludgeoning me with ideas that, while worth thinking about, ought to be thought about with a little more moderation than I was in fact thinking about them. In the end I was unable to interact with my family unless they communicated with me via 7 minute presentations and I had to go TED-turkey and it took several months for some semblance of order to be restored on my Netflix account and my marriage was able to get back on track.

We rarely even talk about it anymore. But it's always there, like a dark cloud hovering above the family.

Brilliant. Classic Adebesi too! What were your favourites, or don't you like to reignite those flames that once burned so brightly?

 

[Leg-End]

That's the one I was gonna post, quite interesting albeit a bit old now.

Watching an Andy Dick impersonator talk about hacking credit cards is more interesting than expected.

 

[Stobzilla]

Graham Hancock and Rupert Sheldrake's banned talks are worth a watch.

The talks are great but TED as an organisation suck.

 

[Adebesi]

@Locka To be completely honest I dont remember much about the specifics as I put these collections they have on Netflix on and just caned through them, many of them kind of blurred into each other and a lot of the time I had no idea who the person talking actually was. I remember that the collection I enjoyed most of the ones I watched (which actually wasnt all that many) was the Capitalism Paradox and within that the single talk / idea I remember most was this one by Stefan Sagmeister called The Power of Time Off, I thought he came up with a genuinely brilliant solution to the problems of our aging population, the unaffordability of pensions, the idea that education is wasted on the young and the observation that many people end up in careers they dont care about completely by accident. Barry Schwartz on the Paradox of Choice was also very interesting, as was Matt Ridley's When Ideas Have Sex.

Conversely I thought Richard Dawkins' one was relatively disappointing. Id like them to get John Ralston Saul to do one, I think that would be very good.

 

[Nanook]

 

[Ballache]

My friend is organizing one of these at Stockholm University, they seem to be interesting.

 

[Olly Gunnar Solskjær]

 

[Raoul]

The Ted talk on Sleep is very good.

 

[SmashedHombre]

I love these. I use them in my lessons. They always make for some great conversations and debates.

 

[Shyftyy]

I really like most of the ted talks. This one is one of the better known ones and one of my personal favorites: http://www.ted.com/talks/simon_sinek_how_great_leaders_inspire_action?language=en.

 

[Chorley1974]

Have only seen them used corporately, and those have been pretty cringe.

 

[Olly Gunnar Solskjær]

 

[Theafonis]

I love the one on the dark web


On the olympics and pushing limits

 

[steve zizou]

Dan Areily's talks are always fun to watch. Insightful also.

 

[swooshboy]

I love this one - it's only short but a fantastic example of how to tell a story with impact:

https://www.ted.com/talks/mark_bezos_a_life_lesson_from_a_volunteer_firefighter?language=en

 

[horsechoker]

Are these still any good?

 

[Mickson]

Does anyone have any recommendations for self-care/motivation etc podcasts, can be a TED talk but can be from a famous podcaster too.