TED: Ideas Worth Spreading

makelovenotporn seems kind of silly but I have met dudes who srsly don't understand the difference between porn and the real world so I guess it has a purpose.

why did you post this

― ⚓ (gr8080), Sunday, February 19, 2012 10:23 PM (9 minutes ago) Bookmark

was mentioned in that cindy gallop awesomenessfest profile that, uh, you posted

oh lol

a broad-brush objection to the general "tone" doesn't count for much, imo.

I agree that it's not going to convince anyone who doesn't feel the same way, but I think "tone" is an ok way to make decisions about what you choose to pay attention to. Not that it indicates some deep badness, but it indicates a mismatch between your concerns and that of the speaker. Maybe those concerns aren't material to the subject of the talk itself, but with an infinite amount of stuff to watch, who cares?

oh sure, entirely up to personal choice

like in my experience they tend to be smug, optimistic about the future in a dismissive "pfft, cynicism? what don't you read the economist?" kind of way, have major boners for technology and often also capitalism. i think the curation of ted-talks pushes a really partic kind of complacency in face of the self-correcting market mechanism + high expectations of the fruits of technology.

they're a bit like those internet articles where there's been a "scientific breakthrough" re: cancer, or some important technology that will Make Life Better For Everyone. Everyone cheers in the comments section or whatever but you know that you will never read or hear about this theory or breakthrough again.

I bet Socrates' lectures were a lot like a TED talk. Trying to get the common man people to think about exciting new ideas and the philosophy behind every day life.

And then the proto-ilxors had him killed because he looked pretentious and said iPads could replace schools.

I watched this, then I bought the book.

http://www.ted.com/talks/iain_mcgilchrist_the_divided_brain.html

so y'know you can springboard from these to some kind of real learnin'.

OTM, and we don't even have to appeal to some otherwise helpless "average joe" in order to make this point. No one can know about everything that's going on the world today, and therefore anyone might benefit from brief introductions to some of what's out there. Okay, fine, so TED overesells the transformative power of left-field "big ideas", but that hardly seems like the worst intellectual crime being foisted on the world atm. these things are introductions, abstracts, basically back cover blurbs. invitations to do more research, if you're really interested. and fodder for water cooler/facebook conversation if you're lazy. either way, a service to humanity.

there is a problem with your introduction to a scientific or technological field being "this idea out of left-field is come to TRANSFORM the moribund field of [blah]". viz: you aren't left with a strong understanding of The Left-Field Idea because there isn't time, you aren't left with much of an understanding of the field itself because you've only been told about aspects that relate to The Left-Field Idea, and you are, however, left with the sense that the field itself is half-dead and in need of a drastic saviour because that is the peg the whole talk is hung upon.

which is the same problem as one gets from those 'scientific breakthrough' articles, it's not unique to TED -- but i don't think, as a format, this sort of thing encourages you to learn more about the field, because you've already been told: the field is flawed in a way that needs breaking through with the Big Idea that this guy has.

a combination of cynicism and triumphalism that leaves little space for us.

lol joe did ur dad invent Ted or something

i love that Iain Mcgilchrist talk

feel like most of the 99% is not really interested in TED-style "breakthroughs" but some sustained elbow grease on the problems that are already very well known

i.e. sometimes i think TED acolytes need a stern talking to from chekhov

totally - my favourite talks are usually the really-real ones about shifted ways of looking at and facing and solving old problems without devaluing history and cultural context. my other favourite talks are about outer space.

I feel like TED is an offender, but not a bad one, of the "hey, if we listen to some guy talk about his ideas, we will get ideas of our own" convention circuit.

Still not as bad as the "I'm going to have a start-up company/website, I just have no idea what it will be yet, let's all talk over drinks after listening to someone actually successful speak" offenders of the world.

Glib, generalized accusations of glibness = projection!

But then agin, we only have limit space to write on here versus, say, publishing an essay about it.

I've prepared a glibflation chart for my tedflation presentation

http://www.ted.com/talks/jason_fried_why_work_doesn_t_happen_at_work.html

Something else that can make a false impression of glibness is that the speakers aren't given introductions--so you have to do your own homework to know that Martin Seligman was president of the American Psychological Association, or that Moot is the guy you want giving a talk about anonymity and the internet.

every minute wasted on context is a minute that could be better spent on david brooks style union busting

I like what Jason Fried and company have produced, but their idea salesmanship is obnoxious as hell

lol joe did ur dad invent Ted or something

― max, Monday, February 20, 2012 8:00 AM (3 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

lol i know its ridiculous ive become the defender of TED in this thread since prob on this v message bord ive cast similar shade upon its holy endeavors, i guess i feel like some of the criticism itt would be better presented as a straight diss like 'lol 1% j/o sesh w/e' than the kind of generalized intellectualisms that weve seen, cause i do think once youve taken that step it becomes kinda self parody to not engage w/the really quite rigorous work many of these people have done

TED chucklebutt

i have to admit that for me "ideas worth spreading" has the effect of provoking the unfortunate mental image of a shovel stuck into a large pile of manure

or at least acknowledge that some of the speakers have done serious work and deep thinking

just to be clear i dont really mean to talk shit on the speakers themselves just on 'ted culture' and the kind of people i notice sharing ted talks

full disclosure i shared a ted talk the other month

imagineering http://www.easyfreesmileys.com/smileys/free-sexy-smileys-947.gif

i guess its somewhat difficult to successfully generalize abt this thing that has hundreds of speakers who are each different people

xp SEE

Like I said, it's like a cargo cult among some people where there's a belief that having smart people talk about their ideas will give you ideas.

btw I am going to go watch a few TED talks today for "inspiration"

i do think theres something v now abt ted, like if i were writing a novel id want to hit upon the sort of information idealism that flows through ted and freakanomics and w/e, theres a level of irony because for mostly its just stuff to talk abt at parties

this all sounds horrible

Like I said, it's like a cargo cult among some people where there's a belief that having smart people talk about their ideas will give you ideas.

― valleys of your mind (mh), Monday, February 20, 2012 11:13 AM (2 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

eh this is just base cynicism, cause the vast majority of people who watch ted arent doing it cause they want to have omg awesome idea, theyre just curious, and also engaging w/smart peoples ideas will often give you ideas! all of this is just like perfectly natural being a person things

I'm sad I lost max in this battle for ilx hearts and minds but imo once you have become a ted speaker it has ruined you as a human being forever, even cool people like nate silver or david byrne. everytime I learn something new I make sure the thing I'm learning about wasn't shared on ted, if it was I try to figure out a way for the opposite to be true.

when i learn something new i try to not share it at all because people can get a lil weird sometimes

Eazy, I enjoyed your talk. I'm really interested in relational aesthetics and socially driven art experiences, both as a participant and as an artist. I agree that the talkback and the post-show discussion are often a little awkward, and with the exception of a theatrical workshop open to the public, sometimes of limited use. I feel like a lot of arts organizations are experimenting with experiences incorporating or built around organic social interaction. A lot of this is being driven by independent artists in our local arts scene.

On a related subject, have you had the opportunity to participate in a Gob Squad, Blast Thoery, or Rimini Protokoll performance? Some great stuff.

I'm sympathetic within my own lol disciplines about the accusations of learning-lite but at the same time it seems so weirdly grad-school to get mad about something like this stuff. if people spend an hour hearing a lite version of important shit that glosses over stuff that'd cause them to tune out if it came up, that's still better than nothing, which is the default. it's like: ideally, your kids don't watch any TV at all, it's not really good for 'em. guess what, they're gonna watch tv. might as well have some ok TV. is it going to be Really Good TV? of course not, you can't really do much with an hourlong program, but what the hell, it beats sniffing glue

relatedly, I turned down a TEDx talk earlier this year because I'm too busy to put together a talk & the objections people have to this are exactly why I wouldn't presume to squash the issues that're important to me into a brief talk from a dude (me) who doesn't really know that much anyway

I am looking at the list of TED fellows and everyone on it is alive except for MLK

http://www.ted.com/speakers?orderedby=TALKPOSTED&page=45

it's like when mormons baptize you posthumously except w/ conference speaking as a religion

always kinda felt that way about: http://www.egs.edu/

look at the faculty bar on the right

if mlk were alive today he would def have a laser pointer and a headset and the freakeconomics guys would help him figure out new smartphone apps w/ which we can defeat racism

btw outside of my claimed cynicism, I am mainly annoyed when TED doesn't go into detail! I kind of wish there was a built-in curriculum of long-form articles and the worst is when someone is very energetic but doesn't pull deeper content. You can give a quick talk that the layperson will get while still hinting at the depth of expertise.

I would watch the hell out of aero's talk, should it happen, because his ilx posting style betrays an ability to draw on a depth of experience to insert deep zings into content.

A friend and I used to joke about going to that EGS thingy that Mordy linked because, wow, what a list. Recently it's really seemed that it is a front for people to extract money from being known intellectuals.

yeah EGS always seemed like such a scam

i mean, dj spooky! get real everyone

Plus also fuck a freakanomics.

I saw one of the founders of this thing speak: http://alldaybuffet.org/

The Feast convenes the most remarkable entrepreneurs, radicals, doers and thinkers who are revolutionizing the way things work for the betterment of humanity.

Probably a good time, but $$ and I am not sure about conferences that bill themselves as "salons"

tbh I have enjoyed some local salons that are v entertaining and deliver. Not really TED style, but not wholly unrelated.

I guess it really depends on who shows and what kind of community it is. I'd enjoy a salon with ilxors.