Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

The elephants in the room at TED

scobleizer.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

21–30 of 70 posts

Re: The elephants in the room at TED

#21

Post by maw »

dsplittgerber wrote: post #8
3dFlatLander wrote: post #5

My only wish is that TED would release all the talks on the website. I think the talks are secondary to the networking that happens there, and that gives the conference its value and keeps people coming. The videos they've posted are awesome, but I always wonder on what isn't up there.

Chris Anderson said that it's mostly the second-rate stuff that doesn't get published, even over time. There must have been a handful of talks that were really disappointing and they don't seem to want them making the rounds.

Yet they've published Isabel Allende's talk?

Re: The elephants in the room at TED

#22

Post by Tichy »

nandemo wrote: post #20
Tichy wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"the almost stereotypical Stuff White People Like content" Maybe, but then where is the "stuff non-white people like" conference that everybody is watching? Everybody is free to organize a conference, so why do only the stereotypical white people seem to bother doing it? To be clear, I don't want to imply that "white people" are better somehow, I just have troubles grasping the "stuff white people like" complaint. Al…

Please don't take it literally. I meant SWPL as in this: http://stuffwhitepeoplelike.com/ and thought it would be understood. What I mean is stuff that is too "liberal", too bland, too politically correct for my taste. A bit hypocritical at times. It's just my opinion; perhaps I should have phrased it differently. This is only tangentially related to race, by the way. People all over the world (including me) love cla…

I kind of understand, but I would really be interested in the "other stuff". I suppose for TED, ultimately the speakers are still selected by the organizers (don't know TED very well).

What would be a more exciting event? I suppose there already are some?

Re: The elephants in the room at TED

#23

Post by nandemo »

tsally wrote: post #16
nandemo wrote: post #10

What makes TED TED? Well, for one, it’s TED because Sarah wasn’t there (and I won’t be there next year because I didn’t pay the $6,000 in time). Its elitism and expense IS part of why TED is magical (...) This sounds really weird to me. I think what makes TED TED are some amazing talks by interesting people. We can watch it on the net. Who cares how rich the audience is? If anything, I suppose the audience is partly…

the almost stereotypical Stuff White People Like content and tone of some talks. I'll take a wild guess, East Asian or South American? Yes, there is a cultural difference in a conference like TED and the rest of the world. But it is an amazing and inspiring conference that hosts some of the most accomplished people in the world as speakers. The fact that you dislike it because culturally it is different than you says…

You're reading way too much into it; please see my reply to Tichy.

Oh, I happen to be South American, but it's not at all about that level of cultural difference. In my country there's a clone of the SWPL blog called "stuff middle class people like". On the other hand, someone very white like Mark Steyn would likely agree with me.

Re: The elephants in the room at TED

#24

Post by RyanMcGreal »

nandemo wrote: post #10

What makes TED TED? Well, for one, it’s TED because Sarah wasn’t there (and I won’t be there next year because I didn’t pay the $6,000 in time). Its elitism and expense IS part of why TED is magical (...) This sounds really weird to me. I think what makes TED TED are some amazing talks by interesting people. We can watch it on the net. Who cares how rich the audience is? If anything, I suppose the audience is partly…

Positional goods are positional.

Re: The elephants in the room at TED

#25

Post by alabut »

nandemo wrote: post #20
Tichy wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"the almost stereotypical Stuff White People Like content" Maybe, but then where is the "stuff non-white people like" conference that everybody is watching? Everybody is free to organize a conference, so why do only the stereotypical white people seem to bother doing it? To be clear, I don't want to imply that "white people" are better somehow, I just have troubles grasping the "stuff white people like" complaint. Al…

Please don't take it literally. I meant SWPL as in this: http://stuffwhitepeoplelike.com/ and thought it would be understood. What I mean is stuff that is too "liberal", too bland, too politically correct for my taste. A bit hypocritical at times. It's just my opinion; perhaps I should have phrased it differently. This is only tangentially related to race, by the way. People all over the world (including me) love cla…

I understood you just fine, didn't take you literally, knew that you didn't mean to offend and still found your comment a bit annoying.

Annoying's not so bad, I wouldn't go as far as to say I was offended, although it's more out of repetition and boredom from the stereotype of certain subjects being cast as a white thing. I'm old enough to be over that kind of thing but can't pretend I don't notice. I'm not white and I love pretty much all the TED content - the SWPL comment just takes me back to high school.

If it makes you feel better, non-white people aren't immune to unintentional and mild racism either - nobody is. My in-laws constantly make jokes about white people and it grates my nerves when they do it too - they don't get a free pass just because they're Hispanic.

Re: The elephants in the room at TED

#26

Post by fexl »

restruct wrote: post #9

Upon learning about the $6,000 cost to get in, I shall think of TED Talks as a tax on rich people to provide free, online quality content to the rest of the world.

It is not a tax, because no force is involved. But you're right, it is a delightful business model.

Re: The elephants in the room at TED

#27

Post by peterb »

nandemo wrote: post #20
Tichy wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"the almost stereotypical Stuff White People Like content" Maybe, but then where is the "stuff non-white people like" conference that everybody is watching? Everybody is free to organize a conference, so why do only the stereotypical white people seem to bother doing it? To be clear, I don't want to imply that "white people" are better somehow, I just have troubles grasping the "stuff white people like" complaint. Al…

Please don't take it literally. I meant SWPL as in this: http://stuffwhitepeoplelike.com/ and thought it would be understood. What I mean is stuff that is too "liberal", too bland, too politically correct for my taste. A bit hypocritical at times. It's just my opinion; perhaps I should have phrased it differently. This is only tangentially related to race, by the way. People all over the world (including me) love cla…

I felt the same way until I watched many of the presentations. TED has some very deep thinkers. I don't find deep, complex subjects "liberal" or "bland". Just my opinion.

Re: The elephants in the room at TED

#29

Post by barrkel »

Personally, I find about 80% of TED talks to be painfully pretentious, saccharine, or so desperately worthy they just make me weary. For example: "how we rescued the dancing bears", "embrace your inner girl", "[someone] teaches kids to take charge", "the uniqueness of humans"; things I could only listen to with gritted teeth.

Re: The elephants in the room at TED

#30

Post by GHFigs »

Herein Scoble fulfills the "huge responsibility"[1] of getting a rare TED press pass by reminding us once again of how awesome it is to be Scoble. In a truly shocking turn of events, getting to attend has made him no longer jealous of people who get to attend. Sweet badges, networking with rich folk and stage decor that helps you "weave together a fabric that encourages your mind to explore new ideas" while staring off into space during a boring talk will do that to you, I suppose.

If I didn't know that this is just how Scoble writes about everything, I would have come away with a worse opinion of TED than I had going into it. TED is supposedly about "ideas worth spreading", not how awesome it is to be rich and white (or fashionably ethnic). If I wanted to know about things rich people do that I will never do, I'd watch My Super Sweet 16. It's no wonder they don't hand out more press passes.

I think the way to address complaints of elitism is to not. If being an exclusive event is how the sausage gets made, great. Reasonable people understand that the hype and pretense surrounding TED does not negate the value of the content that it produces. Reasonable people skip the unbearably pompous intro music and the punctuating two minutes of advertisement for things that rich people care about and simply enjoy the talks. Reasonable people don't care about how awesome it is to get into the exclusive club.

[1]:http://scobleizer.com/2010/02/08/a-ted-responsibility/

Post reply on HN