Live data from Hacker News

The elephants in the room at TED

scobleizer.com

31–40 of 70 posts

Re: The elephants in the room at TED

#31
post #18
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.

I'm actually surprised by the public spat over $6000 ; I figured it was much more or invite only. I mean, heck, a lot of the web conferences are $2000-3000.

It is invite only. You have to be invited, and then you have to be willing to pay $6000 to attend.

Re: The elephants in the room at TED

#32
post #29

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.

Sturgeon's Law: 90% of everything is crap.

Re: The elephants in the room at TED

#33

$6000 a ticket isn't a lot considering the caliber of speakers that they bring in. They're paying the speakers, right?

"TED has never paid speakers to attend, but we're committed to creating an experience that's tremendously fulfilling and beneficial on all sides. We do, of course, cover travel costs to Long Beach or Palm Springs, and provide excellent hotel accommodation." Source: http://www.ted.com/pages/view/id/73

Re: The elephants in the room at TED

#34
post #29

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.

Solution: only watch the ones that get upvoted on Hacker News. That's what I do, anyway.

Re: The elephants in the room at TED

#35
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.

> 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.

I would be in favor of overhauling the tax system so it's more like TED, and would happily pay TED-like taxes where I get a high level experience for an expensive price and the whole world benefits as well. Also, it's optional and you don't get arrested/shot for not buying a ticket.

Re: The elephants in the room at TED

#36
Great article. I also have felt some "TED attendance envy" while really enjoying the online videos. For some people, the value of personal networking far out weighs the travel costs and conference fee. I like to write (i.e., email) people who entertain, inform and/or impress me, and I am pleasantly surprised how often people respond to questions and comments.

Re: The elephants in the room at TED

#37
post #25
post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

SWPL couldn't have taken you back to high school if you actually understood him just fine because the blog is only 2 years old.

Re: The elephants in the room at TED

#38
post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

SWPL couldn't have taken you back to high school if you actually understood him just fine because the blog is only 2 years old.

What's the age of the blog got to do with it? It definitely takes me back to high school, because the parody culture it describes is much more in line with where I went to high school than with where I am now.

Re: The elephants in the room at TED

#39
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.

> 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. I would be in favor of overhauling the tax system so it's more like TED, and would happily pay TED-like taxes where I get a high level experience for an expensive price and the whole world benefits as well. Also, it's optional and you don't get arrested/…

> I would be in favor of overhauling the tax system

Not gonna happen.

What could happen, though, is that you could start something like TED, and charge wealthy people for a high level experience, and let the whole world benefit as well.

Re: The elephants in the room at TED

#40

$6000 a ticket isn't a lot considering the caliber of speakers that they bring in. They're paying the speakers, right?

They could never afford to pay the speakers when they only make 6k a person and bring in so many famous speakers.

They have to get them to do it for free.

Post reply on HN