TED Talks - Your Favourites?

Kinnon Bell

Kinnon Bell

The TED website is something I've enjoyed for a long time. A lot of thought provoking and challenging ideas on there.

Thought I'd put it to the greater community to find out what your favourites are?

A few of mine are just about all of the ones listed on this page. :D
 
I also recommend the Ken Robinson talk(s).

Here are some more. I could list another few dozen but these will do. All are provocative, informative, insightful and stimulating.

(I was trying to find a great talk I?d seen in the last few months from a man who suffered depression and brilliantly, elegantly described the condition so well it gave me a new understanding and better ability to empathise. Couldn?t dig it up though.)

The first two below can completely change our view on the world (for the better). If they?re of interest, respective books by both speakers are available and highly recommended:

http://www.ted.com/talks/steven_pinker_on_the_myth_of_violence

?Steven Pinker charts the decline of violence from Biblical times to the present, and argues that, though it may seem illogical and even obscene, given Iraq and Darfur, we are living in the most peaceful time in our species' existence.?

http://www.ted.com/talks/peter_diamandis_abundance_is_our_future

?Onstage at TED2012, Peter Diamandis makes a case for optimism ? that we'll invent, innovate and create ways to solve the challenges that loom over us. "I?m not saying we don?t have our set of problems; we surely do. But ultimately, we knock them down.?

http://www.ted.com/talks/sam_harris_science_can_show_what_s_right

?Questions of good and evil, right and wrong are commonly thought unanswerable by science. But Sam Harris argues that science can ? and should ? be an authority on moral issues, shaping human values and setting out what constitutes a good life.?

http://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.?

http://www.ted.com/talks/elon_musk_the_mind_behind_tesla_spacex_solarcity

?Entrepreneur Elon Musk is a man with many plans. The founder of PayPal, Tesla Motors and SpaceX sits down with TED curator Chris Anderson to share details about his visionary projects, which include a mass-marketed electric car, a solar energy leasing company and a fully reusable rocket?

http://www.ted.com/talks/craig_venter_unveils_synthetic_life

?Craig Venter and team make a historic announcement: they've created the first fully functioning, reproducing cell controlled by synthetic DNA. He explains how they did it and why the achievement marks the beginning of a new era for science.?
 
Richard Feynman said:
http://www.ted.com/talks/elon_musk_the_mind_behind_tesla_spacex_solarcity

?Entrepreneur Elon Musk is a man with many plans. The founder of PayPal, Tesla Motors and SpaceX sits down with TED curator Chris Anderson to share details about his visionary projects, which include a mass-marketed electric car, a solar energy leasing company and a fully reusable rocket?
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Hey Richard, have you seen The Oatmeal comic about Tesla Motors yet? It is THE GOODS. You should totes check it out if you haven't yet.

Nicola Tesla was THE MAN.
 
I only started downloading TED podcasts last week, for listening in the car. So far I'm just listening to the digests- one hour sessions with experts from three or four speakers on a single topic. Some good material.
 
I've re-inspired myself and started watching some of my old favourites again and also some new ones. Just finished watching this one which was new to me.

He said one thing which I call a 'pause moment' as I have to pause the video/podcast and sit and think on it for a bit to let it sink in...

" And the problem is it's scientifically broken and backwards for two reasons. First, every time your brain has a success, you just changed the goalpost of what success looked like. You got good grades, now you have to get better grades, you got into a good school and after you get into a better school, you got a good job, now you have to get a better job, you hit your sales target, we're going to change your sales target. And if happiness is on the opposite side of success, your brain never gets there. What we've done is we've pushed happiness over the cognitive horizon as a society. And that's because we think we have to be successful, then we'll be happier. " Source

That really rang true for me. I reach my goal but immediately, or just as I am about to reach it, set myself another one and don't give myself a chance to enjoy the moment and give myself a pat on the back for achieving it as I feel like I'm already behind the 8 ball with the next goal.
 
Even some of the shorter ones are good

redwing said:
I was watching this and with all things on the interweb, one thing lead to another

TALKS IN LESS THAN 6 MINUTES

Ric Elias: 3 things I learned while my plane crashed

I hope you enjoy one or more of the attached

Top 25 TED Talks You Must Watch: Amazing, Inspiring and Unique

These talks don?t focus on just business or startups but more importantly they cover a wide range of amazing, inspiring and unique ideas. One of the most important things we believe in is educating yourself in areas outside of your comfort zone. The below are 25 of TED?s most viewed talks covering things like a brain scientists who studied her own massive stroke, a passenger on the plane that crash landed in the Hudson and the dangers of hearing only a single story about anything in the world. Hopefully you take some time to explore all that these remarkable speakers have to offer.
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
redwing said:
Even some of the shorter ones are good
Click to expand...

I thought I lost this video that was listed in your link --> Jill Bolte Taylor?s stroke of insight

Jill Bolte Taylor got a research opportunity few brain scientists would wish for: She had a massive stroke, and watched as her brain functions ? motion, speech, self-awareness ? shut down one by one. An astonishing story.

Read more at http://under30ceo.com/top-25-ted-ta...ing-inspiring-and-unique/#eJGxKSDKvis9uUPt.99

A fascinating view of someone who had a stoke.
 
I was listening to a talk today where they looked at baseball cards from the 50s and looked at the lives of those players subsequently.

What they found was that the men with bigger smiles lived longer- something like 8 years.

Their conclusion was that the act of smiling gives feelings of wellness and happiness which prolong peoples' lives.

But personally, I don't think they looked far enough. They did not look at the reason the men were smiling.

IMO there's only one thing which can make people consistently smile.

That is of course sex.

So really, people who engage in intimate relations more often are more likely to live longer.

This may be better news to some of you than others.
 
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