If you want 45 minutes of pure nonsense don't worry about his TED talk. Go straight for his videos on YouTube.
When TED Lost Control of Its Crowd
21–30 of 89 posts
Re: When TED Lost Control of Its Crowd
#22TEDx talks have lacked credibility from the beginning as far as I'm concerned, but what I find disappointing is that the main TED talks are increasingly just motivational nonsense. There are some very engaging speakers, but the actual ideas and content are often questionable. I find some of the perspectives on and from "developing countries" particularly patronizing and poorly contextualized. But most people I know f…
The Onion does a really good series called "Onion Talks" that satirizes the vapidness of TED talks. They also capture the audiences' "inspired" reactions pretty well.
Re: When TED Lost Control of Its Crowd
#23The "vortex math" talk was removed from TEDx Charlotte's website, but there's a copy here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-oRnhrOf0r0
The fact that he was reading his entire presentation verbatim should have tipped everybody off in the first minute or so. Nobody who's "at the forefront of the most advanced mathematics ever known to mankind" needs that much notes to talk about it. Shoot, I've never had a prof that needed that kind of help... and they're teaching 2nd year courses.
> The fact that he was reading his entire presentation verbatim should have tipped everybody off in the first minute or so
His presentation is utter nonsense, but whether he reads verbatim has nothing to do with it. Someone presenting valid results could just be a poor public speaker and/or nervous.
Re: When TED Lost Control of Its Crowd
#24Earlier quoted context omitted.
> and yet kooks still make it Can you please link me to someone you consider a kook on TED.com? The main couple kooks people talk about years later after TED has made changes like vortex math never make TED.com and for good reason. If you honestly believe less than 1% of TEDx video have any merit, I think that is fairly elitist of you.
If you honestly believe less than 1% of TEDx video have any merit, I think that is fairly elitist of you. I feel like TED is supposed to be elitist, in terms of the quality of its content.
I agree to a point but don't think 1% is too accepting. In many ways I think the top 1% of TEDx talks exceed the quality of some traditional TED conference talks, because they typically are doing it solely because of the idea as oppose to conference speakers who have other commercial interests, often promoting themselves and/or their new book.
Re: When TED Lost Control of Its Crowd
#25I'm generally of the opinion that TEDx needs to end entirely. TED is a single organizer, not a movement or a cause - its primary contribution to the world is that of exacting, high-quality curation in a world where everyone has a soapbox. TED's usefulness to people is the trust in the brand and the trust in their curation quality - if this is lost TED's main mission has failed. In my opinion, TED has already lost thi…
I don't mean to come off the wrong way, but did you even read the article? Most of it was about past transgressions and what they've done to tighten the brand. Maybe you're been away too long. I also somewhat reject your characterization of their mission, because their mission first and foremost is about the spread of ideas. TEDx has irrefutably made TED more popular and mainstream and thus more effective as a vehicl…
Those might be the 228 best ones - they're still often horrible presentations. TED presentations used to be a big deal, and they were extremely well rehearsed.
That's not the case any more. While the material covered is occasionally great, the pain of listening to a bad speakers makes it not worth my time.
Add to that the fact that _nothing_ is a must watch when it covers hundreds of hours, and the days of "It's a TED talk, it'll be worth watching" are gone.
Re: When TED Lost Control of Its Crowd
#26>> "they’re setting up ones that feature “experts” in pseudoscience topics like “plasmatics,” crystal healing, and Egyptian psychoaromatherapy, all of which were presented at TEDxValenciaWomen in December 2012. That conference was described by one disappointed viewer as “a mockery...that hurt, in this order, TED, Valencia, women, science, and common sense.” Wow. I'm ashamed to have put 'curated TEDx participant' on m…
>Wow. I'm ashamed to have put 'curated TEDx participant' on my resume. Removed.
Depending on what kind of organization you're applying to, that can still be useful.
Re: When TED Lost Control of Its Crowd
#27I stopped caring about TED talks when it became clear that people were more interested in promoting themselves rather than 'ideas worth spreading'. Too many posers looking for that epic photo of them on-stage with the head mic attached.
Yes. I hate when they have a recently released book and the talk is basically just to promote it, and then often if you read the book it has no additional material.
One of the few exceptions to this annoyance I feel as well is Lessig's ongoing talk-athon regarding govt corruption.
No amount of attention-whoring is overkill for this subject, especially when considering that Lessig could easily make 10x the amount of money he is making now by going to some white shoe law firm.
Re: When TED Lost Control of Its Crowd
#28For me, when Amanda Palmer did a TED talk, it was the definitive point that they jumped the shark.
You're talking about this TED talk -- http://www.ted.com/talks/amanda_palmer_the_art_of_asking.htm... What's wrong with it? I thought it was a great TED talk, she makes great points about new and emerging forms of artist-fan relationships and its advantages.
She makes completely untenable points, mostly. Read here for a great write-up: http://madartlab.com/2013/03/13/amanda-palmer-and-the-privil...
In a nutshell - it's much easier to rely on donations once somebody else (in Amanda's case, her label) has done the hard work of making you famous. If you're an artist with at best local fame, as most artists are, charge for your music.
Re: When TED Lost Control of Its Crowd
#29Could someone volunteer to grab a screenshot of the Quora thread in question? Those gated communities are driving me crazy.
http://www.quora.com/TEDx/Is-Randy-Powell-saying-anything-in...
It's not gated if you add share=1.
Re: When TED Lost Control of Its Crowd
#30I'm generally of the opinion that TEDx needs to end entirely. TED is a single organizer, not a movement or a cause - its primary contribution to the world is that of exacting, high-quality curation in a world where everyone has a soapbox. TED's usefulness to people is the trust in the brand and the trust in their curation quality - if this is lost TED's main mission has failed. In my opinion, TED has already lost thi…
I don't mean to come off the wrong way, but did you even read the article? Most of it was about past transgressions and what they've done to tighten the brand. Maybe you're been away too long. I also somewhat reject your characterization of their mission, because their mission first and foremost is about the spread of ideas. TEDx has irrefutably made TED more popular and mainstream and thus more effective as a vehicl…
Making TED videos available online accomplished the mainstream/popular idea.
TEDx has done nothing but cheapen it. There are non-public ways for TED to identify promising new speakers for TED; no need to have something like TEDx.
I don't mind a conference like TEDx existing; it should just have zero connection to TED. TED is a premium, curated brand; TEDx is anything but.