Thanks for sharing your experience. It strikes a chord based on my own professional and academic background, in that I've attended conferences. The nature of co

Thanks for sharing your experience. It strikes a chord based on my own professional and academic background, in that I've attended conferences. The nature of conferences are to, basically, advance learning and sharing in a collective format. TED is about consuming something being pitched. Very different. In a way, TED is like watching television, and actual intellectualism is like visiting the library for a couple hours and browsing and reading. Or, as a famous movie character once said..."See, the sad thing about a guy like you is, in 50 years you're gonna start doin' some thinkin' on your own and you're going to come up with the fact that there are two certainties in life: one, don't do that, and two, you dropped 150 grand on a fuckin' education you could have got for a dollar fifty in late charges at the public library!"