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Ask HN: What is your favorite TED talk?

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Re: Ask HN: What is your favorite TED talk?

#51

Post by mlLK »

jbrun wrote: post #13

Below is a list of Ted Talks, my top five which blew me away, followed by some other favorites. Enjoy! Top 5: Zander on music, Hans Rosling on World Development, Bolte on Strokes, Lessing on Creative Commons, and the DNA Folding one Some other favourites (full list here: http://www.ted.com/index.php/profiles/favorites/id/564 ): Putting photos together - magically (Photosynth) Design of the Universe Johnny Lee: Creati…

2nd Johnny Lee's Wii hack: http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/johnny_lee_demos_wii_remo...

Re: Ask HN: What is your favorite TED talk?

#53

Post by froo »

I quite like Brian Cox's talk on the LHC.

Whenever anyone has asked me what the big deal about it was, or if I knew anything about it (I'm the "go to geek" it seems) I've always referred them to that particular talk.

He has a very eloquent way of putting it into perspective that has a very romantic view of science which I found inspiring enough to share.

Re: Ask HN: What is your favorite TED talk?

#55

Post by mixmax »

aikiai wrote: post #10

Jill Bolte's talk about her stroke. Her talk illustrates the different processing styles of our right and left hemispheres. This is a fascinating subject, that often gets trivialized because of all the New Age BS revolving around it. Her experience is remarkable, and very powerfully delivered. Don't be fooled by her "spiritual" overtones, the science she references is very real and convincing, and the way she ties it…

On the morning of my stroke I woke up to a pounding pain behind my left eye. I'm asking myself what's wrong with me, what's wrong? Then I realised oh my gosh I'm having a stroke, and the next thing my brain says to me is wow this is so cool: How many brain scientists have the iopportunity to study their own brain from the inside out. But then it crosses my mind: I'm a very busy women, I don't have time for a stroke.

Talk about dedication to your studies...

Re: Ask HN: What is your favorite TED talk?

#56

Post by jobenjo »

thesubjective wrote: post #17

Mycologist Paul Stamets lists 6 ways the mycelium fungus can help save the universe. Seriously....Amazing. A must for everyone. http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/paul_stamets_on_6_ways_mu...

+1. Also my favorite. Though at a close second is Deborah Gordon's talk on ants. It's amazing:

http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/deborah_gordon_digs_ants....

Re: Ask HN: What is your favorite TED talk?

#57

Post by aikiai »

scw wrote: post #29
aikiai wrote: post #10

Jill Bolte's talk about her stroke. Her talk illustrates the different processing styles of our right and left hemispheres. This is a fascinating subject, that often gets trivialized because of all the New Age BS revolving around it. Her experience is remarkable, and very powerfully delivered. Don't be fooled by her "spiritual" overtones, the science she references is very real and convincing, and the way she ties it…

If you found her talk fascinating (as did I), definitely check out her book ( http://drjilltaylor.com/book.html ), which covers the entire process in great detail. At times its a bit slow, but it successfully elucidates the challenges she faced, and the eight years of recovery which followed the stroke. I think the spiritual aspect of the story shouldn't be ignored: our perception of reality is also 'plastic', and we…

Amazon'd. I've actually meant to research her recovery. Can't wait.

I agree that the spiritual half of the story is crucial as well. Actually, this reply got too long and spawned a short blog post, check it out if you are interested. ( http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=442574 )

I was merely reaching across the aisle, lending her some tech credence despite the fact that she sounds like "one of those spiritual types" at times.

Re: Ask HN: What is your favorite TED talk?

#58

Post by jodrellblank »

My favourites have mostly been mentioned - David Deutsch talking about the open-ended generation of knowledge, Dan Gilbert on perception and consciousness, Aubrey De Grey on reversing aging and his arguments for why it will be possible, Barry Schwartz's paradox of choice talk, Malcolm Gladwell.

And Burt Rutan on space exploration.

Re: Ask HN: What is your favorite TED talk?

#59

Post by jodrellblank »

mechanical_fish wrote: post #33
sidsavara wrote: post #24

Malcom Gladwell on Spaghetti Sauce http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/malcolm_gladwell_on_spagh... Replace spaghetti sauce with software development and Facebook versus Twitter Versus Hacker News Versus Reddit etc It's all about users =)

Gladwell is a brilliant storyteller. He's got the Ira Glass mojo. Incidentally, now that I've finagled Gladwell and Glass into the same sentence: Ira Glass's interview on storytelling is not a TED talk. But it should be. Especially part 3: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-hidvElQ0xE&feature=relat...

I've like never like and ok like heard of like Ira like Glass or ok and like like like before but if like that clip like ok is like anything to like go on like then like Gladwell certainly like doesn't like have like his mojo at like like all.

Which is nice.

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