TED
The Secret to a Great TED Talk
Recently I learned from two separate people how the Obama campaign won the 2008 presidential election and it’s fascinating. Basically everyone who was a part of it learned the “campaign narrative” structure and delivered their personal message to spread the gospel:
- The Story of Me: why I’ve personally been inspired by this campaign
- The Story of We: why we (me speaking and you listening) are united and inspired by this campaign
- The Story of Now: why it’s urgent that you take action now; the train is leaving and you can jump aboard or be left behind
If you think about it, this is a very powerful narrative for creating grass-roots action of any sort. Having just spent the last week watching many dozens of TED talks (and having watched hundreds of them over the past few years), I’ve been thinking about the fact that the great ones all follow a shared structure, which I will share with you now:
- The Story of
Will You Die From Cancer?
Use the arrows that appear if you hover over the bottom right of the Prezi. You may want to expand to full screen first.
All feedback welcome. If you like this, what subject would you like to see addressed next using Prezi?…
The Most Important TV Show in America
Remember Jamie Oliver’s TED Prize Wish? Well tonight is the prime time season premiere of his Food Revolution show on ABC. The Huffington Post called Undercover Boss the most subversive show in America, and I can’t disagree. But in terms of importance to the future of America (and by extension every country which imports American TV and culture), Food Revolution I can’t imagine a more important show.
It’s not just the lives of individuals who eat crap (which is most of the country, frankly, even though they have no idea how toxic what they are eating is). It’s the happiness and achievement potential of today’s youth. It’s the emperor with no clothes at the center of the healthcare debate. And it’s a lynchpin for economic recovery and sustainability.
Watch the premiere, and spread the word……
The Technium
Here are the slides from his talk. My favorites are 3, 4, 8, 10, 15, 19, 21, 23, 26, 28, 29, 35, 37, 38, 53, 66, 68.
“Bad people do bad things”
In listening to this account of Hemant Lakhani, convicted in 2005 of illegal arms dealing, I was reminded of another This American Life episode about Brandon Darby. Underlying both stories are accounts of seemingly incompetent, misguided, would-be bad guys who were actualized on a path of evildoing by law-enforcement agents during sting operations.
What I found most interesting was the quote in the title of this post, said by the prosecutor in the Lakhani case. This was his justification for why it was okay to have the U.S. military supply Lakhani the weapon that he was convicted of illegally dealing. (If you listen to the story you will learn that Lakhani had been making promises to the informant of being able to procure weapons for a long time and he’d been unsuccessful on his own).
While it seems on the surface that “bad people do bad things” — i.e. that’s how bad things get done, they require a bad person to do them — …
Reinventing Liberal Arts Education
This was one of the most important and encouraging talks of this year’s TED conference:…
Don't Eat That Marshmallow!
Short but brilliant TED talk by Joachim de Posada. I love the economic point he makes at the end.
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Technology Evolution Will Eclipse Financial Crisis
This is a precursor to Singularity sort of argument:…
The Vanguard of Science: Bonnie Bassler
The import of this talk goes way beyond the specific and stunning work that Bassler and her team have done on quorum sensing. In my mind, this is the prototype for good biological science:…
Behavioral Economics With Dan Ariely
If you liked this talk (as I do), check out Ariely’s 3 irrational lessons from the Bernie Madoff scandal.…
TED Talk: Linked Data
One of my favorite talks of TED 2009 was from Tim Berners-Lee, the man often credited with (actually) inventing the Web. He’s been going on for quite a while about the coming of the “semantic web” and how it will be even bigger than the current web in terms of impact. But until his TED talk on linked data, I didn’t really get it. Now I do. And I think he’s right:…
My Favorite TED Talks of 2009
My other favorites were these:
- Tim Berners-Lee
- Bonnie Bassler
- Rosamund Zander
- Willie Smits
- Dan Ariely
- Liz Coleman
I’ll post their talks when they come out, but you can check them out from the program guide in the mean time.
What were your favorites?…
Red Pill or Blue Pill?
As we approach the inauguration of a new leader who trying to be truly post-partisan, I think Jonathan Haidt’s TED brilliant talk is apropos:…
The Emergent Universe
In a previous post I asked what you thought this was:
Here is the same system at different resolutions (lowest to highest):…
TED Global 2009 Registration Open
For those who liked all of the TED talks that I posted earlier this year, you might want to attend TED Global 2009. Guaranteed to blow your mind.…