Easily my favorite is Dean Kamen's "The emotion behind invention." He has at least two TED talks, this is his longer, more complete one.
Ask HN: What's your favorite TED Talk?
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Re: Ask HN: What's your favorite TED Talk?
#22Jill Bolte Taylor's stroke of insight http://www.ted.com/talks/jill_bolte_taylor_s_powerful_stroke... A neuroscientist that suffered from a stroke talked about the experience and the interesting conclusion that came from it.
This is one of those talks you either love or hate. I was surprised to see it was one of the highest rated TED talks (on another site) because for some reason I found it rather irritating.
Re: Ask HN: What's your favorite TED Talk?
#23I've always found the talk "Adam Savage's Obsessions" to be inspiring. His eye for detail and relentless obsession for getting things right are contagious.
http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/adam_savage_s_obsessions....
Re: Ask HN: What's your favorite TED Talk?
#24Paul Stamets on 6 ways mushrooms can save the world: http://www.ted.com/talks/paul_stamets_on_6_ways_mushrooms_ca... This talk is not about hallucinogenic mushrooms. It really opened my eyes to the awesome potential of fungi, and how this potential is largely ignored because of the connotation to "hippy" and "drugs." Fungi is just generally misunderstood. I was absolutely amazed at how thorough these clean-up jobs we…
It's too bad he didn't discuss as well the potentials of hallucinogenic mushrooms, but thank you for this fascinating link! I suppose that would have taken an entire talk of its own though.
Re: Ask HN: What's your favorite TED Talk?
#25http://www.ted.com/talks/vilayanur_ramachandran_on_your_mind... ("Vilayanur Ramachandran tells us what brain damage can reveal about the connection between celebral tissue and the mind, using three startling delusions as examples. .. Dr Ramachandran is the author of the author of Phantoms in the Brain (the basis for a Nova special), A Brief Tour of Human Consciousness and The Man with the Phantom Twin: Adventures in the Neuroscience of the Human Brain")
Very hacker like, brilliant, work.
Re: Ask HN: What's your favorite TED Talk?
#26There are a lot of good ones, but my favorite is still Erin McKean's talk about dictionaries:
http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/erin_mckean_redefines_the_...
Re: Ask HN: What's your favorite TED Talk?
#27Great question. It's tough for me to single out just one favorite, though this one has had a large impact on me. It's from Dan Buettner on his study of Blue Zones and why inhabitants regularly live long lives:
http://www.ted.com/talks/dan_buettner_how_to_live_to_be_100....
This talk from Robert Full also had an impact, because it reminded me to look at unrelated fields for inspiration & solutions, like as the field of biology:
http://www.ted.com/talks/robert_full_learning_from_the_gecko...
On a side note, an exercise I've had fun doing with friends lately is to ask them who among our own social circles we would like to see speak, if we held our own TED talk. And what topics we would like to speak about ourselves. It has spurned a lot of interesting discussions amongst ourselves.
Re: Ask HN: What's your favorite TED Talk?
#28Derek Sivers: Weird, or just different http://www.ted.com/talks/derek_sivers_weird_or_just_differen...
I just think this is the way we should look at the world
Re: Ask HN: What's your favorite TED Talk?
#29Clifford Stoll is mine.
Re: Ask HN: What's your favorite TED Talk?
#30Ben Dunlap talks about a passionate life: http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/ben_dunlap_talks_about_a_...
"This is what I'm passionate about. It is precisely this. It is this inextinguishable, undaunted appetite for learning and experience, no matter how risible, no matter how esoteric, no matter how seditious it might seem."