 |
| View previous topic :: View next topic |
| Author |
Message |
Moooksta Muppet
Joined: 26 May 2006 Total posts: 1776 Location: Muppet Labs Gender: Unknown |
 Posted: 19-09-2013 18:31 Post subject: TED talks |
 |
|
|
Hello Forteans
Company I work for is taking us on mass to the TED talks on Monday.
I've just been reading an article on the internet posted on Facepuke by Graham Hancock who seems to be against them seeing them as corporate shills these days.
Has anyone on the forums ever been?
Has anyone on the forums any insight to the TED talks? |
|
| Back to top |
|
 |
| Moooksta Muppet
Joined: 26 May 2006 Total posts: 1776 Location: Muppet Labs Gender: Unknown |
| Posted: 23-09-2013 22:12 Post subject: |
|
|
|
A strange silence from fellow Forteans....
I never made it the Albert Hall today for the TEDx talks. Shame....however one of my work mates did....and then he came home and blogged about it.
I thought it was worth sharing. 
My friends's thoughts
| Quote: |
The stupidity of TED Talks
I had a horrifying experience today when I went on a company excursion to a TED Talks event at the Royal Albert Hall. Unlike most people in the creative industry, I’ve never bothered to watch any of these 15-minute online presentations about “ideas worth spreading”. I had an inkling that it might not be to my taste, but I wasn’t expecting to sit there with a constant urge to just cry out ‘THIS IS BULLSHIT!’
Much like Waiting for Godot or Seinfeld, each presentation was about NOTHING. The speakers would waffle on about their vaguely interesting field of expertise (beetles, crosswords, art made from seaweed) and then tack on a bland, easily digestable “message” at the end, sometimes just age-old clichés like ‘Follow your dreams and they’ll come true in the end’ or ‘Don’t be afraid to fail; it’s how we learn.’
And people gobbled it up as if they hadn’t heard those sentences a million times before! Really? Really?!
Maybe it’s because of the format – a 15-minute talk – that none of the speakers could really go in-depth with their subject. But then why bother?! Why not do a day of 3 really good 1-hour lectures, instead of 13 moronic ones?
Because the brevity is part of the concept. We live in a fast-moving world where everything has to be brief, easy, simple (like Tumblr!) Even so, I’m surprised the TED Talks aren’t 5 seconds long, because the ones I heard today COULD be expressed in 5 seconds. “I make art from seaweed. I looked at something differently and used it for a new purpose. THE END!”
It is a celebration of superficiality. And the formula is a success because people love superficial, sleekly designed, nifty things. TED Talks are branded as intelligent and eye-opening; people believe the branding, and they believe that they’ve listened to something worthwhile. I am so sick of this culture of unthinking superficiality.
It’s about being able to say or rather tweet (as people were repeatedly encouraged to) to the whole world that you’ve seen a TED Talk – and so you are branding yourself as someone intelligent who can think outside the box (oh, and you care about the environment and stuff). Tell your colleagues, tell your boss, tweet it until it starts trending. It’s like wearing the right clothes to make the right impression. It’s communal. Look at us; we’re all at this event, expanding our minds, and in the breaks we can all do some corporate networking, whoop de doo!
But it’s fake; it’s so fake. There was nothing to take away from it; nothing I’ll utilize or even remember. Maybe there are some genuinely good talks on the website (I just looked and they had titles like ‘Make stress your friend’, so I doubt it.) But everything I heard today was meaningless and useless – perhaps apart from Jess Thom’s talk about living with Tourette’s syndrome, which at least pertained to something real.
At least this is a non-profit organization so hopefully there’s no one actually earning money from this shit.
So that’s my little talk about why I hate TED Talks. I left before the last onslaught of stupidity. Tonight I’ll probably watch Breaking Bad and read a book – two activities that take more than 15 minutes, but are actually worthwhile. Yes please.
|
Feel free to delete this thread lest we bring down the wrath of the elites... |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
| Pietro_Mercurios Heuristically Challenged
Gender: Unknown |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
| Moooksta Muppet
Joined: 26 May 2006 Total posts: 1776 Location: Muppet Labs Gender: Unknown |
| Posted: 24-09-2013 00:02 Post subject: |
|
|
|
Thanks for the links P_M.
Interesting reading. From what I can gather there's a group of over zealous anonymous scientists telling us to "spread the ideas"...but only the ideas they dictate. Perhaps not censorship but a need to not promote "drug taking".
Having read Hancock's Supernatural he makes some claims while taking ayahuasca which I found thought provoking and, given my interests even on this forum, I found fascinating. Ideas which TED no longer wants to "spread".
TED being a brand they're protecting they're brand. Still they don't look good. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
| SHAYBARSABE Great Old One Joined: 05 May 2009 Total posts: 1379 Gender: Unknown |
| Posted: 24-09-2013 00:02 Post subject: Re: TED talks |
|
|
|
My husband and I listen to TED talks every weekday evening. We use them to discover topics we've never been exposed to, for example, how running sheep can improve a desert, or what's the latest news in 3D printing (leather, actually).
The talks aren't deep, and probably can't be given the 15-minute format. But, they are a jumping off point for doing further research. I think the talks are much like a list of links on a web site |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
|
|
You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot vote in polls in this forum
|
Powered by phpBB © 2001, 2005 phpBB Group
|
FAQ
Search
Memberlist
Usergroups
Profile
Log in to check your private messages
