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We Are Now at Peak TED

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Re: We Are Now at Peak TED

#71

Post by dredmorbius »

I took the opportunity to visit a local group simulcast of Thursday's TED presentations -- apparently much the same program Steven Levy viewed -- and took from it many of the same impressions. The "Inside TED" segment was actually fairly revealing and I thought useful. Chris Anderson gave some inside baseball insights, and voiced TED's goals of spreading knowledge (something I've written and mused on at length). The "chopped liver" comment, by the way, came from Stewart Brand.

But the presentations -- the ones I managed to catch -- dragged. Boston prosecutor Adam Foss had a compelling story. Lidia Yuknavitch's talk wandered ... a lot ... though perhaps that was part of its point. Cerfs was ... interesting.

And then because I live in the future, I left to video-chat for an hour and a half with someone an ocean away.

That done, I decided it was more worth my time to tap into another set of experts -- curated books, at the library, where I could tap into 4 million years of collected wisdom (though granted, only about 8,000 of that is preserved in literary tradition).

One of the most obvious characteristics of the TED livestream was an inability to bump up playback speed through slow bits, or to skip to a more interesting talk. TED also has a relevance problem -- really hitting on challenging problems. Part of which is an inherent conflict with exposure: some ideas really need to be developed and discussed within a safe space.

The livestream/remote program was an interesting experiment, but I'd rather have had the option to catch several days at one location, and perhaps _somebody_ in a role as a moderator / facilitator. There was at least one local TEDster, but no clear organisation on top of physical support (video, seating). That, though, was good.

Re: We Are Now at Peak TED

#72

Post by chongli »

alexashka wrote: post #62
randycupertino wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My friend paid $5500 to go to a Tony Robbins seminar in Florida last fall- in addition to flights from SF, hotels, food, etc. She walked on coals and got to take some cool selfies with various people. When she came home, she was 7k poorer and I asked her what they talked about. She raved about the "experience" but didn't seem like she'd garnered any real insights other than to be positive and the same old The Secret…

A lot of it is what you get from it, right? I view Tony Robbins as a mystery - because I just can't quite figure him out. He's rich so he doesn't have to continue. He seems genuine. And yet, his overall message seems to largely be 'YEAH, YOU CAN DO IT! WOO!' Just take massive action baby! Baby steps, start small, build, iterate, you can do it! I am still not sure what the content is or if his presentation is a massiv…

He's rich so he doesn't have to continue. He seems genuine.

I don't think the fact that he is rich and continues to work lets him off the hook. He may have simply deluded himself in the course of his touring. I think the thing we should challenge him on is whether or not he's thinking critically about what he's doing with his life. Indeed, this is what we should all be challenging ourselves on.

Self-deception is an extremely easy trap to fall into. The fact that it could happen to anybody is the reason we shouldn't let people off the hook for it. In my view, the way to truly respect somebody as a human being is to be willing to challenge them when you believe they're committing self-deception.

Re: We Are Now at Peak TED

#73

Post by alexashka »

greggman wrote: post #66
alexashka wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A lot of it is what you get from it, right? I view Tony Robbins as a mystery - because I just can't quite figure him out. He's rich so he doesn't have to continue. He seems genuine. And yet, his overall message seems to largely be 'YEAH, YOU CAN DO IT! WOO!' Just take massive action baby! Baby steps, start small, build, iterate, you can do it! I am still not sure what the content is or if his presentation is a massiv…

I kind of view him as a coach. I know for me there are many things I could do on my own but I find them much easier with a leader/mentor.

This is just an opinion so take it for what it is: Tony Robbins is a blowhard, unless your goal is to be a blowhard, he's probably not the best source of inspiration or advice.

Programmers are almost nothing like him, being so confident about things you certainly can't be that confident about, requires being delusional to a considerable degree. As long as enough people buy the shtick, everything is fine.

With programming, it's not like that, you need to be good beyond convincing others that you're good (that seems like the primary difference between people-skills and real-work skills)

So I don't know, I mean, if it's not broken don't fix it, but I'd be genuinely concerned for anyone thinking the way to their happiness and peace is predicated upon TAKING MASSIVE ACTION YEAH!

Re: We Are Now at Peak TED

#74

Post by alexashka »

chongli wrote: post #72
alexashka wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A lot of it is what you get from it, right? I view Tony Robbins as a mystery - because I just can't quite figure him out. He's rich so he doesn't have to continue. He seems genuine. And yet, his overall message seems to largely be 'YEAH, YOU CAN DO IT! WOO!' Just take massive action baby! Baby steps, start small, build, iterate, you can do it! I am still not sure what the content is or if his presentation is a massiv…

He's rich so he doesn't have to continue. He seems genuine. I don't think the fact that he is rich and continues to work lets him off the hook. He may have simply deluded himself in the course of his touring. I think the thing we should challenge him on is whether or not he's thinking critically about what he's doing with his life. Indeed, this is what we should all be challenging ourselves on. Self-deception is an e…

I couldn't agree with you more.

The self-deception is that part that I haven't figured out.

I can't put my finger on what's really going on there, because I am brutally honest with myself. At the end of the day I know why I'm doing what I'm doing.

Are they delusional without being aware of it? Do they deep down know they're full of shit?

Are they hurting inside because they can sense they're full of shit but justify it to themselves that it's 'helping others' and all that?

It's like those fundamentalist religious folks who talk shit about gay people and then get caught with gay sex workers. Are people who seem goofy all like that? They know they're broken but can't help but keep the charade going or is there something else going on?

I can understand why a dude who's been a pastor his whole life has trouble letting go. That's where I imagine people who got rich off of being full of shit at some point go 'ok I'm done'.

Kind of how Bill Gates quit Microsoft and let his wife run his life, because she's not a piece of shit like he is. He had the self-awareness.

Trump seems to still be playing the game. Is it just raging ego-maniacs when they're rich? They just love the bizarre ego tripping they're involved in? I honestly can't fathom what goes on in there.

Re: We Are Now at Peak TED

#75

Post by mchahn »

serf wrote: post #57
gsteinb88 wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not sure that Feynman is the best example here. In fact, in my experience, he's actually more of an example of the problem than the solution. While Feynman does a great job of explaining concepts if you never need to use them, I always found his lectures to be of the "captivating until you try to use them" variety. This wasn't just my experience either -- after struggling with this as a physics undergrad for a wh…

Robert Leighton: "Feynman has a peculiar property, which is that at the time he's explaining something, it appears very clear and transparent--you can see how everything fits, and you go away feeling very good about it, as if, "Well, there's a lot of loose ends there that I want to follow up on; but boy, wasn't that great!" And about two hours later, like what they say about Chinese food, it's all gone and you're hun…

I have read his QED book many times and I experience the same clarity when reading as you mention. Then later I lose that and am able to re-read it with the same enthusiasm I had the first time. So that property does have its advantages. (grin)

BTW, I have this same experience with many other science books for laypeople. It is very possible that I do understand them while reading but then I am unable to remember the complex thoughts.

Re: We Are Now at Peak TED

#76

Post by tim333 »

partisan wrote: post #2

> We have reached Peak TED. > That’s TED. But we may not have hit the peak yet. We can have it both ways, it seems. Peak means there is a decline coming. The article closes on a note that suggests otherwise.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betteridge%27s_law_of_headline...

Re: We Are Now at Peak TED

#77

Post by areyouforreal »

alexashka wrote: post #61
randycupertino wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's why the "Ted Talk about Nothing" is one of my favorites: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8S0FDjFBj8o Their manner of speaking reminds me of American Dad making fun of Ira Glass. Why is pausing??! Doesn't he know what he's going to say next??? AAAAHH. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qUvQdoOEDGw

Wow that talk about nothing is really well done :)

See also: Charlie Brooker's How To Report The News https://youtu.be/aHun58mz3vI

Re: We Are Now at Peak TED

#78

Post by jakobegger »

snewk wrote: post #23
vidoc wrote: post #10

TED, or the perfect display of what public speaking is today: that is, getting some kind of Tony Robbins on stage, who wont be shy of using the same tricks they learnt at some toaster club, to inspire and wow a crowd that's actually more here to enjoy their charisma rather than their ideas. TED is the absolute evidence that the powerpointization of ideas is in its terminal stage.

so, i have a speaking engagement at a local TEDx event next weekend. I think my topic is both interesting and educational, and the way its presented will (hopefully) get people thinking about the subject in a new way. what do i do? cancel?

Why cancel? Even if it's true that people come for charisma rather than ideas, it's still an honour that people want to hear you speak.

Personally, I consider TED a form of high quality entertainment, and while I don't think it's changing the world, I do have a lot of respect for the people giving talks.

If I could talk like the people at TED, and was invited to speak about a topic dear to me, there's no way I'd turn down the offer.

Re: We Are Now at Peak TED

#79

Post by WA »

alexashka wrote: post #62
randycupertino wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My friend paid $5500 to go to a Tony Robbins seminar in Florida last fall- in addition to flights from SF, hotels, food, etc. She walked on coals and got to take some cool selfies with various people. When she came home, she was 7k poorer and I asked her what they talked about. She raved about the "experience" but didn't seem like she'd garnered any real insights other than to be positive and the same old The Secret…

A lot of it is what you get from it, right? I view Tony Robbins as a mystery - because I just can't quite figure him out. He's rich so he doesn't have to continue. He seems genuine. And yet, his overall message seems to largely be 'YEAH, YOU CAN DO IT! WOO!' Just take massive action baby! Baby steps, start small, build, iterate, you can do it! I am still not sure what the content is or if his presentation is a massiv…

> I view Tony Robbins as a mystery - because I just can't quite figure him out.

The same is true for typical internet marketer stuff "I teach you the secret to start your own business".

Once you're on the hook, it becomes about them and not about you or your goals anymore. Now you wonder if they truly possess that secret to a better life they claim to have.

You try their stuff, read more, buy more and always wonder if it's their process that's flawed or merely your imperfect execution.

Re: We Are Now at Peak TED

#80

Post by mseidl »

malsun wrote: post #11
ktRolster wrote: post #9

A ticket to TED costs $8500. I didn't realize that.....I look at the audience at TED talks a whole different way now.

There's two things non-technology people don't seem to know about TED when they mention it to me. First that TEDx events have little to do with TED. Second the prices for proper events are in the elitist levels of society. It's no surprise when you start to notice the audience members are more famous than the speakers.

I don't think it's so bad they charge a lot. They put everything online for free.
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