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FTA: "TED talks routinely present problems of huge scale and scope — we imprison too many people; the rain forest is dying; look at all this garbage; we’re unha
by discardorama 12y ago
FTA: "TED talks routinely present problems of huge scale and scope — we imprison too many people; the rain forest is dying; look at all this garbage; we’re unhappy; we have Big Data and aren’t sure what to do with it — then wrap up tidily and tinily. Do this. Stop doing that. Buy an app that will help you do this other thing."
... and at the bottom: Megan Hustad is the author of “How to Be Useful” .... From it's blurb: "There's a lot of career advice out there. Much of it dumb. But what if someone read all the advice books -- over a hundred years' worth -- and put all the good ideas in one place? Could you finally escape the cube? Stop mailing things? Be happier?"
I dunno, but Ms Hustad is doing exactly what the TED talks she derides are doing. Maybe she's upset because she has never been invited to talk at TED?
I have never looked at TED talks as a solution to anything; to me, they're just interesting people talking about what they do.
- frozenport 12y ago>>they're just interesting people talking about what they do. I thought this, but then there were a few TED talks on fields that touch my work. I was furious that TED would provide a venue for charlatans. In some ways the people who promise the most, and whose can be boiled down to sound bites are rarely the folks who do the interesting work.
- larrys 12y agoAgree. Talking a good game and doing are two different things. (That doesn't mean however that it's not possible to do both). People for sure go for pithy sound bites and easily digestible (with no way to verify) information thrown at them. Typically with little skepticism. Plus, there is a bit of the claque (esq.) effect in play I'm sure when you are in the audience. [1] [1] http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/119756/claque http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/119756/claque
- derriz 12y agoHad the exact same experience. I had assumed TED talks provided easily digested summaries of various scientific, economic, social, etc. fields. Until I saw a talk about my current field of work. Charlatan is too kind a description - as it suggests some sort of cynical intelligence behind the act; the speaker was simply an idiotic clown. He hadn't a clue - yet the audience treated his completely mistaken analogies as profundities. That was the end of TED for me.
- Panoramix 12y agoWere they not TEDx talks? you can virtually pick up anybody from the street to do one of those.
- lazaroclapp 12y agoHonestly curious here, could you mention which TED talk in particular and what you found to be inaccurate or misrepresented? I just want to get a feeling for what level of distortion we are talking about. As it is, I assume the talks are hardly accurate by specialist standards, but I have no idea if we are talking "science news in mainstream news (say, BBC) publication" distorted or "Reddit conspiracy theory" distorted.
- frozenport 12y agoIts `science news in mainstream news`, although `mainstream` news can occasionally be stimulating as it often comes directly from university press releases. Remember that TED sells itself as `ideas worth spreading` rather than `shit worth smearing`.
- JetSpiegel 12y ago> if someone read all the advice books -- over a hundred years' worth Blatant lies.