We Are Now at Peak TED • Hacker News Board

Re: We Are Now at Peak TED

#81

Post by nailer » Sun, Feb 21, 2016, 12:36 PM UTC

alexashka wrote: post #4

Is there any actual content in this article? Other than how awesome TED is? Did they address a single concern or critique of TED in this article? No... Just that it's 'awesome'. Well ok then TED organizers... Thanks for reminding us that you think you're so great, you feel no need to listen to anyone.

It also omits and response to the most obvious thing about TED: thanks to TEDx, it's brand has become associated with fake science, wishful thinking advocates, and other fraudsters.

Re: We Are Now at Peak TED

#82

Post by snewk » Sun, Feb 21, 2016, 7:10 PM UTC

DonHopkins wrote: post #58

snewk wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

Troll them with a great talk like "How to Deconstruct Almost Anything". [1] "Academics get paid for being clever, not for being right." -- Donald Norman http://www.fudco.com/chip/deconstr.html

I am a troll at heart, but over the last few months i've become friends with the event organizers. As much as trolling would be fun, I feel it would be a betrayal of their trust.

Re: We Are Now at Peak TED

#83

Post by fabulist » Wed, Mar 02, 2016, 10:21 AM UTC

wrs wrote: post #31

Others wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not sure it really is as pandering as you make it out to be. In some places I wasn't sure what the author thought of TED at all. For example, this sentence is particularly pointed: "Where an audience that gave a standing ovation to Ed Snowden a couple of years ago happily wears tracking devices on their badges that allows fellow attendees to know where in the facility they are within a few meters."

Amusing on the surface, but of course that feature is for the benefit of the audience (and quite useful--the breaks are a bit of a zoo with 1000 people milling about), and they explained from the stage how to turn it off when desired, so he is reaching a little bit with that one.

The implication wasn't meant to be that the organizers nefariously distributed these badges insisting that if participants had nothing to hide they had nothing to fear. It was that the participants will clap for whoever is onstage without thinking deeply about what they are saying or believing in what they are advocating. They'll cheer on Edward Snowden but they won't consider the implications of the technology they're using.