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When TED Lost Control of Its Crowd

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Re: When TED Lost Control of Its Crowd

#31

Post by rdl »

The standard for every TED talk should be "if I've never heard of TED, and this is the first talk I've ever seen, I'd be amazed by both the talk and enough reflected glory on TED that I'd want to watch more, discuss it with others, etc."

Not many of the current TED talks live up to that, let alone TEDx. It's possible I've become more cynical, but if I watch pre-shitification TED talks I generally feel that way, and if I watch current TED talks, I rarely feel that way (although there are exceptions still).

(possible exceptions for the musical/entertainment sessions at TED, which mainly seem to be there for the in-person attendees, not video, and for talks which are sequels of earlier talks -- in which case it might be that you have to watch them in order for it to be reasonable, like the Bill Gates talks)

Re: When TED Lost Control of Its Crowd

#32

Post by ben1040 »

rm999 wrote: post #22
jdmitch wrote: post #9

TEDx 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. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tom6_ceTu9s

This is great. I cracked up at this, and this particular one is also likely to be the only Onion content that is not only age-appropriate for my toddler but also educational.

Re: When TED Lost Control of Its Crowd

#33

Post by juskrey »

jdmitch wrote: post #9

TEDx 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…

Absolutely agree. But, actually, that is not TED who is getting worse, just some of us are getting wiser. I remember these times when I was myself seduced with every other motivational and (pseudo)science speech. Now, working with very serious things, I am seeing total bullshit around every other corner, mountains of life-threatening bullshit in those areas which seemed untouchable great science to me 10 years ago.

I even do not bother to watch and read TED-like sources nowadays (unless they are seriously threatening my field).

Re: When TED Lost Control of Its Crowd

#34

Post by afreak »

The whole malarkey with TEDx I have found is that organisers in their respective cities are vetting the topics and attendees while at the same time are coming from backgrounds that make me question their ability to make decisions.

Case in point is TEDx Vancouver, which is organised by those with social media connections. In order to just attend, you have to justify why you should and the organisers themselves how much worth you are to be within the crowd. Of course, this par for the course but it is a bit obtuse for me to see myself having to be judged by people who are good at pulling the heart strings of others and are capable of having a significant amount of Twitter followers. Do I need to have a high follower to followed ratio in order to be good enough?

It gets worse here of course because now TED (as in "the TED") has moved itself from Southern California to here in Vancouver. Everyone started to beat the drums and say that the city has become relevant once again since the Olympics, but of course everyone then fails to realise it's a $7,500 event that you have to buy into. Then again the cost for some tickets during the games did come close to that amount in some cases.

Some amazing stuff comes out of TED, but with the mayor and social media all getting excited about it, it's becomes apparent that this event is just a way for those who can go to wave their phalluses around as a sign of their "status" in the world.

TED can be a good thing but the way it is approached by those who are not speaking is just downright deplorable.

Re: When TED Lost Control of Its Crowd

#35

Post by [deleted] »

gmu3 wrote: post #17
potatolicious wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> "I don't mean to come off the wrong way, but did you even read the article?" IMO, there is no way to say the above and have it come off the right way. It falls into the same bucket as "with all due respect..." > "Most of it was about past transgressions and what they've done to tighten the brand." Yes, and my contention is that it will never be enough . This is not a unique problem - large, spread out organizations…

> 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.

[deleted]

Re: When TED Lost Control of Its Crowd

#37

Post by Florin_Andrei »

> When it was founded, in 1984, TED (which stands for “Technology, Entertainment, and Design”) brought together a few hundred people in a single annual conference in California. Today, TED is not just an organizer of private conferences; it’s a global phenomenon with $45 million in revenues.

So, whenever a forum grows beyond a certain limit, junk starts to creep in.

Not a surprise at all. I've seen this happening over and over and over again - newsgroups, mailing lists, forums, social media, etc.

Once the fat middle of the bell curve sneaks in, quality takes a necessary dive.

Re: When TED Lost Control of Its Crowd

#38

Post by ProblemFactory »

gmu3 wrote: post #24
untog wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

The value of TED over youtube.com, or an academic seminar at any university is their quality of talks and rigorous selection process - or "elitism" if you wish.

I can believe that the top 1% of TEDx talks are better than the average TED talk. Maybe 10% are worth looking at once you have seen most of TED talks, the best online courses, the best Google TechTalks, etc on your area of interest.

But why are the rest of the 90% even there?

Having a few great talks doesn't matter, if there is no way to find them out of the mass of inanity on TEDx or elsewhere online.

Re: When TED Lost Control of Its Crowd

#39

Post by 3dptz »

With few exceptions the quality of talks, for which I was drawn to TED in the first place, has been in free fall for years.

5 or 6 years ago almost every TED talk was a gem for anyone with a single engineer, science or technology fiber in his/her body.

Becoming more famous is what did them in. Needing to push out more talks on shorter and shorter intervals. Shifting more and more from spreading ideas (i.e. technology), to telling stories and making people feel better or worse. And more importantly promoting whatever product/service they are connected to.

It has become an event where people think they need to be, regardless of interest in actual topics. Something which is reflected in the generic nonsense which is their comments section.

Also, if you are a self proclaimed "thought leader" you are a douche bag.

Re: When TED Lost Control of Its Crowd

#40

Post by xk_id »

This is TEDx. I do not expect to be intellectually impressed, because I know what that tiny "x" means. On the other hand:

a) I was intrigued from the beginning regarding TED's decision to allow this kind of events. I was kindof expecting it will blow in their face, sooner or later.

b) I did find Powell's talk thoroughly entertaining.

Now, what about the infamous Jill Bolte Taylor's stroke of insight? It overflown with neuroscience misconceptions and outdated, non-scientific metaphysics. Seeing it on TED was a genuine and huge intellectual disappointment.

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