Watching some of these, it's clear why they aren't in the actual TED events. I know, it's easy for me to judge sitting in my office chair behind a keyboard - I have no skin in the game and won't be held accountable for the things I say - at least these people are up there doing something, right? I just get the feeling half of them (perhaps more) are just used car sales people trying to sell me some crazy idea. Most of them I can't get through, maybe 2-3 mins before my bullshit meter goes off. :thumbsdown:
Agreed. With TEDx, there are some really good ones, and there are some really dumb ones. I've found that the full-on TED Talks are almost 100% awesome, all the time, and the TEDx ones to be really hit & miss. It's like a professional studio album vs. karaoke...sure,
sometimes you get a great amateur singer in karaoke...haha. I like to listen to TED Talks during my commute (60 to 90 minutes a day); today's talk was Reneta Saelc's "Our unhealthy obsession with choice":
http://www.ted.com/talks/renata_salecl_our_unhealthy_obsession_with_choice
It had some excellent points:
1. Happiness is a choice that requires effort. Simple but powerful idea - you can choose to pursue actions & activities that make you happy, but if you select different choices that don't lead to personal happiness...well, that's your choice. It requires effort to execute the choice you made.
2. Motivation can come from opening an image of an idealized future in your head. This is a good concept for both motivation & for psychology. I get motivated by talking about stuff & seeing the bigger picture, but I tend to forget that day-to-day, so if I'm not involved in the scene on a regular basis, I tend to lose motivation.
The example she used was a friend who sold cars...she would detail their logical requirements such as the pricerange, color, family needs, etc. and then mention that they really needed this car rather than the more expensive one, which would be the one they get down the road after they kids left the home & they could afford it. The majority of the people came back & bought the nicer car because she had opened up the image of that idealized future in their head, showing them what was available to them so that they could clearly see their choices. Genius.
3. Anxiety is linked to the possibility of possibility - i.e., once we start pondering the options, the consequences of those options (the possibilities of those possibilities) can turn into analysis paralysis, or cause us frustration because we don't know what to select.
Anyway...yeah: TED > TEDx.
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