The Sound of TED: A Case for Distaste • Hacker News Board

Re: The Sound of TED: A Case for Distaste

#71

Post by throwawaymaroon » Wed, May 20, 2015, 8:21 PM UTC

michaelochurch wrote: post #67

morgante wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You are, in the very best sense, a hater. And you have a karma of 24864. So it's hard for me to believe that HN is somehow TED-Junior.

There's definitely a "silent majority" (and not always that silent) of good people here. If you stick to the technical posts especially, there's a good crowd. I got most of my karma before my account was "moderated", which is California Passive Aggressive for having your posts downplaced into obscurity (also called "rankban" by some) and guaranteeing that you never have the top post, no matter how many upvotes you ge…

Benefit to being hellbanned seems to be I don't have to deal with a slowban (though that might change now that I've pointed it out!)

Or downvotes, for that matter.

Re: The Sound of TED: A Case for Distaste

#72

Post by seanmcdirmid » Wed, May 20, 2015, 10:16 PM UTC

michaelochurch wrote: post #68

seanmcdirmid wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I totally agree. Dissenters/malcontents don't have an easy life, and they have to be absolutely freaking amazing (genius, good communication skills) to have any impact at all (or they are just written off as cranky, crackpots, or worse). Much easier to just join the echo chamber and go with the flow.

Even that top 1% that manages to break through gets written off as cranks and "crackpots" by most, at least early on. It's the fact that an elite and discerning few, whose opinions are the only ones that matter to us, can recognize our talents that keeps us going.

Eh, to be fair, it is often very difficult to tell who is a crackpot or just being cranky, and who is a legit dissident/free thinker. We (ya, I include myself) can develop behind a wall of understanding and support, but eventually we want to change the world, which means...somehow appealing to the broader community.

Re: The Sound of TED: A Case for Distaste

#73

Post by visakanv » Thu, May 21, 2015, 3:00 AM UTC

6stringmerc wrote: post #58

visakanv wrote: post #50

The one thing I find more distasteful than TED is are smug commentaries writing about how distasteful TED is. It reminds me of of jazz musicians criticizing "watered down jazz-pop". > "What I ask myself when confronted with any TED talk is this: why do they all sound the same?" Well, why do criticisms of "mainstream, middlebrow" works all sound the same? I personally have found TED talks to be useful introductions an…

What do you know about watered down jazz-pop? It's real. It's easy listening. Have you heard the rampant sameness that plagues new jazz? It's like a pastiche that I can hear from a mile away. Norman Brown is an excellent guitar player, but I can't stand to listen to that sugary, over-saturated production garbage that seemingly took over the industry. Real jazz doesn't have a damn wind chime stroke every third song. T…

Sure! The point still stands– I could utter loathe Kenny G, but the fact remains that some people pick up the instrument because they enjoyed Kenny G, and some subset of those people go on to develop an interest in "real jazz", sans over-saturated production garbage and windchome strokes. And some of those people might create music that I would really enjoy.

So I'd argue that Kenny G is good for jazz, and TED is good for the sharing of ideas.

Re: The Sound of TED: A Case for Distaste

#74

Post by wdewind » Thu, May 21, 2015, 3:08 AM UTC

6stringmerc wrote: post #57

When Amanda Palmer delivered a TED talk about the "art of asking", I knew the platform was more interested in money and publicity than any sense of intellectual rigor. Mostly because they allowed a person a platform from which to spew anecdotal garbage, and secondly, because the platform presents itself as immune to criticism. It is, to me, an embodiment of the phony image that Amanda Palmer has based her entire care…

Wow you really hit the nail on the head with your description of Amanda Palmer + talk.

Re: The Sound of TED: A Case for Distaste

#75

Post by quadrangle » Thu, May 21, 2015, 3:35 AM UTC

SIMPLE:

TED world is made up of thousands of speakers. Some are completely and sincerely excellent, informative, and inspiring. Some are mediocre or are smart but pretentious and mostly hot air. Some are really lousy.

To judge TED on the basis of a misc. selection of talks isn't all that useful. The difference in quality and value between the best TED talks and the lousiest is HUGE. We should not trash great value just because a bunch of lousy stuff is mixed in.