iLOVE: the good, the bad, and the TEDtalks
I've jokingly been telling people my new religion is TEDevangelism. The driving inspiration behind TEDtalks is, "Ideas worth spreading." The "TED" part refers to Technology, Entertainment and Design, by the way, and from its humble beginnings in 1984 as a forum for sharing of multidisciplinary concepts on a common theme in a single location, it has grown to a global viewership with hits in excess of 50 million, featuring talks by some pretty impressive folks like the founders of Google, a few Nobel Prize winners, top politicians, and (one of my favourites) Malcolm Gladwell alongside a host of speakers that range from marketing experts to librarians to sociologists to engineers to religious leaders to leading researchers to present their thoughts on everything from world hunger to cutting edge computer gadgets.
Some of the criticisms aimed at TEDtalks are that they are pompous speeches given to the uppity wine-and-cheese crowd by self-important huffsters looking to increase their profile and score more speaking engagements. While I'm cynical enough to acknowledge this is not entirely untrue, the fact that the uppity wine-and-cheese TEDsters finance public dissemination of these snippets to me via the internet at no cost is enough for me to say, OK, let them eat cheese...
As already stated, the point of TEDtalks is to promote simulating new ideas, theories, and concepts. This requires the use of engaging speakers who are able to provide succinct, understandable content that appeals to a broad range of people who might not otherwise access such information. A portion of the intellectual crowd feels that TEDtalks are dummied down so much its speakers are nothing more than a dog and pony show aimed at the lowest common denominator, which I think is a little arrogant. I'm more educated than some, less than others, and still I say: Entertain me. Make it interesting. Make it relevant to *my* life, and you have my undivided attention, even if I think your idea is bunk.
Two points need to be made here.
First, sure they're dummied down, but let's not overlook the fact that I'm not an engineer or a physicist, so if you want me to understand how engineering or physics work, you're going to have to dummy it down. I'm going to go out on a limb and assume that physicists aren't familiar with neuropsychology or how to program AI into a robot companion. Talk sociology, marketing, or art and design, I am totally on board, but micro-kinetics (which, by the way, CNC lathe operators aka blue-collar labourers would probably know more about than your average rocket scientist) while probably not "over" my head, are certainly outside my normal area of interest. So, yes, dummy it down please, so that people from all walks and many levels of education can benefit from these ideas. I promise you that EVERYONE, regardless of educational background (or lack thereof) can and will benefit from opening their hearts and their minds and their eyes - the very essence of "enlightenment."
Second, the dog and pony aspect is what makes it so attractive. If you want to spread intellectual ideas to places they would otherwise not reach, then you need to stop restricting these kinds of things to institutional conferences, university classrooms, and industry publications, where the idea will read a very limited population of other academics or employees in a specific field. My sister is a funny funny girl. She happens to have a background studying disease ecology via amphibians and teaches classes with exciting names like "Soils Biology." Believe me when I say, there is nothing immediately interesting or relevant about soils biology to me, but then my sister gets all animated telling stories about being dropped into the wilds of NWT from helicopters with nothing but a mosquito mask and a GPS unit, and makes these weird salamander jokes, and shares how PASSIONATE she is about the health of chorus frogs being a litmus test for the health of the soils reclaimed from the oil industry or treated with too many pesticides... For whatever it's worth, she's won student-nominated teaching awards because she manages to spark imaginations.
The silliest criticism I've heard is that there's a "secret" agenda being pushed. Of course there is an agenda being pushed, but it's not really "secret" if you care to actually pay attention. Passionate people who want to tell the world about their idea is like doing informercials for people who want to know stuff instead of buy things... and just like every commercial is trying to sell its product or service, you still have the choice to buy or not, correct? I've watched some TEDtalks I think are horrible - ones I shut off before they even got 2 minutes in with ideas I'd no sooner spread than mayo (which I think is nasty.) Or, if the speaker wasn't engaging or was too bookish, I had to focus too hard to keep up and lost interest. And there have been several I could barely make it through because I disagreed with both the idea and the philosophy or logic behind it, but with the speaker being so passionate and engaging I needed to finish.
The point of sharing ideas isn't make other people wrong or right, but to open discussions that clarify, refine, expand, stimulate, elevate, humble, motivate, and inspire. Traditionally, the spread of ideas has been stopped at the hands of the powerful, to prevent them from losing control over their stake in the population. People are taught to be afraid of new ideas, to fear making mistakes, to run from change. So, if you're still interested in living under a rock and reviving the dark ages then TEDtalks probably isn't for you. If you're looking for some mental stimulation, love 'em or hate 'em, TEDtalks are often entertaining, seldom boring, and always enlightening. Here's a great one to start with.
Some of the criticisms aimed at TEDtalks are that they are pompous speeches given to the uppity wine-and-cheese crowd by self-important huffsters looking to increase their profile and score more speaking engagements. While I'm cynical enough to acknowledge this is not entirely untrue, the fact that the uppity wine-and-cheese TEDsters finance public dissemination of these snippets to me via the internet at no cost is enough for me to say, OK, let them eat cheese...
As already stated, the point of TEDtalks is to promote simulating new ideas, theories, and concepts. This requires the use of engaging speakers who are able to provide succinct, understandable content that appeals to a broad range of people who might not otherwise access such information. A portion of the intellectual crowd feels that TEDtalks are dummied down so much its speakers are nothing more than a dog and pony show aimed at the lowest common denominator, which I think is a little arrogant. I'm more educated than some, less than others, and still I say: Entertain me. Make it interesting. Make it relevant to *my* life, and you have my undivided attention, even if I think your idea is bunk.
Two points need to be made here.
First, sure they're dummied down, but let's not overlook the fact that I'm not an engineer or a physicist, so if you want me to understand how engineering or physics work, you're going to have to dummy it down. I'm going to go out on a limb and assume that physicists aren't familiar with neuropsychology or how to program AI into a robot companion. Talk sociology, marketing, or art and design, I am totally on board, but micro-kinetics (which, by the way, CNC lathe operators aka blue-collar labourers would probably know more about than your average rocket scientist) while probably not "over" my head, are certainly outside my normal area of interest. So, yes, dummy it down please, so that people from all walks and many levels of education can benefit from these ideas. I promise you that EVERYONE, regardless of educational background (or lack thereof) can and will benefit from opening their hearts and their minds and their eyes - the very essence of "enlightenment."
Second, the dog and pony aspect is what makes it so attractive. If you want to spread intellectual ideas to places they would otherwise not reach, then you need to stop restricting these kinds of things to institutional conferences, university classrooms, and industry publications, where the idea will read a very limited population of other academics or employees in a specific field. My sister is a funny funny girl. She happens to have a background studying disease ecology via amphibians and teaches classes with exciting names like "Soils Biology." Believe me when I say, there is nothing immediately interesting or relevant about soils biology to me, but then my sister gets all animated telling stories about being dropped into the wilds of NWT from helicopters with nothing but a mosquito mask and a GPS unit, and makes these weird salamander jokes, and shares how PASSIONATE she is about the health of chorus frogs being a litmus test for the health of the soils reclaimed from the oil industry or treated with too many pesticides... For whatever it's worth, she's won student-nominated teaching awards because she manages to spark imaginations.
The silliest criticism I've heard is that there's a "secret" agenda being pushed. Of course there is an agenda being pushed, but it's not really "secret" if you care to actually pay attention. Passionate people who want to tell the world about their idea is like doing informercials for people who want to know stuff instead of buy things... and just like every commercial is trying to sell its product or service, you still have the choice to buy or not, correct? I've watched some TEDtalks I think are horrible - ones I shut off before they even got 2 minutes in with ideas I'd no sooner spread than mayo (which I think is nasty.) Or, if the speaker wasn't engaging or was too bookish, I had to focus too hard to keep up and lost interest. And there have been several I could barely make it through because I disagreed with both the idea and the philosophy or logic behind it, but with the speaker being so passionate and engaging I needed to finish.
The point of sharing ideas isn't make other people wrong or right, but to open discussions that clarify, refine, expand, stimulate, elevate, humble, motivate, and inspire. Traditionally, the spread of ideas has been stopped at the hands of the powerful, to prevent them from losing control over their stake in the population. People are taught to be afraid of new ideas, to fear making mistakes, to run from change. So, if you're still interested in living under a rock and reviving the dark ages then TEDtalks probably isn't for you. If you're looking for some mental stimulation, love 'em or hate 'em, TEDtalks are often entertaining, seldom boring, and always enlightening. Here's a great one to start with.
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