TED: Ideas Worth Spreading

oh yeah there def is, I have a thread bout it: rolling online education thread

--and (xpost) the social side, as far as meeting other people with the same interests and way of learning, getting inspired, etc.

In another way, it's in the 19th-century American bootstraps tradition of Emerson, Thoreau, etc.

I got halfway through that Hans Rosling talk, which seems to be the most universally-lauded TED talk ever, when I got pissed off by the same glib bullshit that permeates the rest of TED. Specifically when he's talking about differences between African countries, and he mentions "Sierra Leone humanitarian aid, Uganda development aid, Ghana time to invest, and Mauritius you can go on holiday" as if he had just described the natural lifecycle of African development. Only it's total bullshit, even if those were well-defined stages of development there's no evidence that foreign aid helps countries make those transitions (and some evidence that it does the opposite.)

I know, it's not the point of the talk, it was just a nice way to illustrate a point, blah blah. Don't sweat the details, just absorb the glittering vision, right.

TED provides you with the experience-high of learning without the experience-low of having to remember anything you heard 5 minutes later / doing homework...the details aren't very important

i liked the chimamanda adichie talk about the danger of a single story. iirc there were no graphs, though.

"TED is not simply “engaging” and “entertaining” but a specific type of entertainment that is increasingly out of touch and exclusionary."

http://thenewinquiry.com/essays/against-ted/

(not but what i think that thing i just linked never puts together the really solid critique that i know is possible)

yeah i think there's something about the notion in which not learning but rather experiencing an event where exceptionally intelligent people discuss ideas is in itself learning, never mind that any quiz the next day on what was discussed would result in a failing grade.

TED talks linked on facebook allow people to let others do the heavy lifting for them. 'hey here is some food for thought, not prepared by me but enjoy nonetheless.'

i say facebook b/c i feel like every week i see a new one posted.

i see no evidence that ted is trying to replace school or w/e, its a conference, it works in much the same way as the million other conferences in the world

what if every professor only talked about AWESOME THINGS but you didn't have to remember anything cause NO TESTS

it's like some freshman's stoner fantasy

you;'re sort of conflating academic and trade conferences there, which is exactly what TED does

xp

nah it's not trying to replace school and it won't, it doesn't have the brand, but it functions as a 'this is what I wish school had been' for lots of people

conflating a conference w/college is like some lazy internet guys criticism fantasy

i mean theres def a criticism to be made of ted, just not apparently by the people in this thread, especially not lukas smh

eh there's nothing magic about a 'college lecture' that makes it different from a 'conference talk', in some contexts they can be exactly the same speech

like im sure hans rosling is unaware of some research that you have in yr possession and was intending lil off handed one liners to actually represent the complexity of african economics etc

yeah totally i was talking abt magic things im sure theres no difference in intention, w/e its all stupid cause no homework

ok, word's don't matter, got it, i'll watch TED talks with renewed interest

*words lol

well you have to understand what the words mean i think is the point

i mean did u hear he said 'Mauritius you can go on holiday' therefor his industry leading work is invalid *buffs nails*

well either what hans said in that brief passage didn't mean anything, or it was mendacious bullshit, can you clarify

thank you for those two choices lukas im sure they are the only possible meanings

u should give a ted talk

don't steal my tedflation idea

i should have revealed the top action films in a TED talk. would have owned imo.

feel like the ted people wouldve wanted the matrix to place higher

huh? what's the beef with TED? so a bunch of people want to put up a bunch of youtube videos of talks, some of which are entertaining or inspiring... and?

theres a triumphalist culture that rubs people the wrong way from what i can tell

Let's get a group rate on a nice resort and do TEDLX

well the prob w/ ted is that it's not really meant for people who want to really learn concrete things or even build new frames of reference and it's not really presented as 'this lecture is here to get you interested in african economics, here's some ways to learn more.' it's learning as a form of forgettable entertainment, it's like watching tv w/ the idea that you're doing something important.

it's also sorta like reading a list of movie twist-endings for movies you haven't seen. this will not be the downfall of traditional higher ed (other things are) but there is something crass and weird about the idea that the only things worth learning are mind blowing.

eh the experience is not that far from like reading the new yorker or w/e

tbf to the adichie talk i like, i don't think she thinks it's mind blowing. but also i like reading the new yorker.

and watching tv

i would probably like ted talks if i watched more of them

i agree that theres a frivolous aspect to ted, mostly in their marketing abt amazing minds gathering together and for a j/o sesh, but ive def remembered a bunch of the stuff ive watched, i havent used that knowledge to bend the course of history to my will, but i think it can be legit educational, if not anymore so than youd expect from a 10min video, i mean i have never once requested a masters degree after finishing a ted talk, and i think that level of education has value as does watching an ep of nova or w/e

I've liked them more as audio podcasts than watching them, but maybe that just has to do with listening to them while walking, or maybe it's not having to look at someone's clothes and appearance.

there are interesting ideas in TED talks but the tone is so off-putting to me

Like, it's nice to walk through some woods with headphones on, listening to Felix Dennis:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=64-bHvDcgQQ

it's not the triumphalism so much as it is the velocity, as if we can just zip through important ideas quickly without being critical of them. like we have enough of that in our culture and i think it's damaging.

i would probably not like TED talks if i watched more of them, i think the aspect of them that's 'Inspiring People talk about the Inspiring Things they have done' would get to me somewhat. (i hate biographies, too)

many of the talks are not that great, but some are

feel like someone on another thread (iatee?) was talking about the more tech-oriented tedtalks being suspect on an anti-union pro-management tip? maybe i made this up? i of course have seen no tech ted talks or technical talks of any kind, so i wouldn't know.

well many of the people are successful and wonderful so it stands to reason

yeah the only way you're going to be able to argue against the self-interests of people watching your talk is if you have more than half an hour and you don't have to be inspiring

The cousin of this is Pecha Kucha, which gives a tight structure that allows experts to give a focused talk on something they're passionate about. The night I attended one of these, Jon Langford did one, Ken Nordine (age 90) did one, a guy who built a 3-storey Eiffel Tower replica in a department store did one.

not sure why internet video requires a counter-argument when no other medium does?

Yeah thats what I'm now thinking too bnw - why are these guys getting the caning not given to say, a Carl Sagan tv special?

(I'm not saying TEDs should be at all srs learnin, but I've enjoyed the ones ive watched. I do agree they can skim far too much sometimes tho)

:-/

isn;t the whole point of this dumb shit to post the links on the internet?

i need to see a Spike Lee Ted Talk to research a piece i'm writing and its nowhere on the internet

oh, that's TEDx, or cargo cult fake TED

Quiz: North Korean Slogan or TED Talk Sound Bite?

only got 7 out of 14 : /

that's hilarious

www.ted.com - it's the next best thing to attending a university that actually brings in guest speakers

http://secondlanguage.blogspot.com/2014/08/academic-virtues.html

Perhaps the greatest academic virtue, that is, is patience. Too many academics today think of themselves as public intellectuals whose job it is to "spread ideas" through the most efficient media available to them. Such academics are, literally, ideologues; they think universities produce and distribute ideas. What universities really "produce", friends, is more articulate and knowledgeable students. People who are less likely to be immediately impressed by a TED talk, in fact, because they have a higher standard of belief.

Want to talk about this:

http://www.theawl.com/2014/01/what-if-these-seven-famous-ted-talks-are-just-totally-wrong

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ZBKX-6Gz6A