7 ms·

True that, which is sad, because charisma can legitimately lower the difficulty of understanding complex ideas; think of your best teachers/favorite professors.

True that, which is sad, because charisma can legitimately lower the difficulty of understanding complex ideas; think of your best teachers/favorite professors. I wish TED was filled with more Richard Feynman (charisma * ideas) and less Tony Robbins (charisma % ideas).

alexashka 11y ago
Perhaps I'm nitpicking but charisma gets people to listen, that's it. It is not related to the quality of the content. The problem with Tony Robbins is he's mister positive and only focused on personal improvement. These are enormous constraints that ignore the bigger picture. Feynman is great at explaining physics because it's not wishy washy - it is also really not that interesting past the cute basics, sooner or later you have to put in the hard work. TED is fundamentally flawed because things worth knowing - cannot all be politically correct and positive. Once you constrain yourself to being Mr/Ms Positive only, you end up being a delusional asshole because you are denying a big chunk of life any attention. There is no fixing TED as a result - it's more interested in money than truth. As are most people, hence why we are where we are :)
- ryanobjc 11y ago
  This is exactly my thoughts on what's wrong with TED. It's not in the pursuit of the truth. Therefore, it's in the pursuit of status. You can see this among those who wave around TED talks they have seen as some kind of currency. "Oh have you seen the TED talk about Y? It's so amazing!" But also, by their nature, the talks cant dive deep. People are there to be amused and kind of learn, but real education is difficult. TED isn't difficult.
  - randycupertino 11y ago
    That's why the "Ted Talk about Nothing" is one of my favorites: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8S0FDjFBj8o https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8S0FDjFBj8o Their manner of speaking reminds me of American Dad making fun of Ira Glass. Why is pausing??! Doesn't he know what he's going to say next??? AAAAHH. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qUvQdoOEDGw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qUvQdoOEDGw
    - alexashka 11y ago
      Wow that talk about nothing is really well done :)
      - areyouforreal 11y ago
        See also: Charlie Brooker's How To Report The News https://youtu.be/aHun58mz3vI https://youtu.be/aHun58mz3vI
- randycupertino 11y ago
  My friend paid $5500 to go to a Tony Robbins seminar in Florida last fall- in addition to flights from SF, hotels, food, etc. She walked on coals and got to take some cool selfies with various people. When she came home, she was 7k poorer and I asked her what they talked about. She raved about the "experience" but didn't seem like she'd garnered any real insights other than to be positive and the same old The Secret garbage of visualizing the life you want. imo she should have used that 7k to chip away at her 60k debt in student loans.
  - alexashka 11y ago
    A lot of it is what you get from it, right? I view Tony Robbins as a mystery - because I just can't quite figure him out. He's rich so he doesn't have to continue. He seems genuine. And yet, his overall message seems to largely be 'YEAH, YOU CAN DO IT! WOO!' Just take massive action baby! Baby steps, start small, build, iterate, you can do it! I am still not sure what the content is or if his presentation is a massive distraction. That I can't quite tell what his overall point is worries me, and yet I can't believe that he's full of shit. So he's trying to do a good thing, he is succeeding in terms of money but maybe not so much in terms of actual results... I don't know, Tony is a mystery remaining to be solved. Those going to his seminars - I think they're just misguided. The steps to fix your life are not at a seminar, they're in improving your life, one step at a time. It's a life decision to strive for excellence. If you haven't come to that point and you're 30, it is probably too late. If you have come to that point and you're 30, you don't need Tony's help. So who's he really helping but the blow-hards who want to be 'inspirational' like him?
    - greggman 11y ago
      I kind of view him as a coach. I know for me there are many things I could do on my own but I find them much easier with a leader/mentor.
      - alexashka 11y ago
        This is just an opinion so take it for what it is: Tony Robbins is a blowhard, unless your goal is to be a blowhard, he's probably not the best source of inspiration or advice. Programmers are almost nothing like him, being so confident about things you certainly can't be that confident about, requires being delusional to a considerable degree. As long as enough people buy the shtick, everything is fine. With programming, it's not like that, you need to be good beyond convincing others that you're good (that seems like the primary difference between people-skills and real-work skills) So I don't know, I mean, if it's not broken don't fix it, but I'd be genuinely concerned for anyone thinking the way to their happiness and peace is predicated upon TAKING MASSIVE ACTION YEAH!
- specialist 11y ago
  The problem with Tony Robbins... is that he's peddling dangerously wrong beliefs to gullible rubes. A coworker came back from one his events telling me all sorts of fruity crap. Like how the germ theory for disease is bunk. So apparently I gave myself cancer with negative thoughts (blame the victim). That flipped my bozo bit for Tony Robbins. I love gifted, charismatic, motivational speakers. Sometimes called leaders or actors or politicians. But they shouldn't profit from causing others harm.
gsteinb88 11y ago
I'm not sure that Feynman is the best example here. In fact, in my experience, he's actually more of an example of the problem than the solution. While Feynman does a great job of explaining concepts if you never need to use them, I always found his lectures to be of the "captivating until you try to use them" variety. This wasn't just my experience either -- after struggling with this as a physics undergrad for a while (after all, they're supposed to help!) I started asking around. My academic advisor, several other professors, and many students felt the same way. Feynman may get closer -- or may do more to bring common understanding to complex principles -- but his approach broke down for actually learning to /do physics/. But I'll agree that he's a major step in the right direction; I just want to caution against the hero worship. There's no magic formula, no one person, who can make learning complex concepts easier. Some things are hard, and trying to make them seem easier can easily make them more confusing in practice.
- bananaboy 11y ago
  There was a post about that exact topic on math-blog recently http://math-blog.com/2016/02/01/was-richard-feynman-a-great-teacher/ http://math-blog.com/2016/02/01/was-richard-feynman-a-great-... Summary: he wasn't a great undergraduate teacher.
  - gsteinb88 11y ago
    That was a fantastic post, thank you for sharing. Ironically, while affirming the view I held above, it also makes me think I should -- maybe -- give them another chance now that I'm well along in graduate school as opposed to a struggling undergrad.
    - ChuckMcM 11y ago
      I think you should. I had a similar experience with Feynman. Who spoke with assuming a certain level of familarity but with an engaging style that let your brain skip right over what it didn't really understand. Re-reading his lectures on physics and the papers on computation, post college, was a much deeper experience than reading him in High School. Even though I enjoyed both times tremendously.

alexashka 11y ago

Perhaps I'm nitpicking but charisma gets people to listen, that's it. It is not related to the quality of the content. The problem with Tony Robbins is he's mister positive and only focused on personal improvement. These are enormous constraints that ignore the bigger picture. Feynman is great at explaining physics because it's not wishy washy - it is also really not that interesting past the cute basics, sooner or later you have to put in the hard work. TED is fundamentally flawed because things worth knowing - cannot all be politically correct and positive. Once you constrain yourself to being Mr/Ms Positive only, you end up being a delusional asshole because you are denying a big chunk of life any attention. There is no fixing TED as a result - it's more interested in money than truth. As are most people, hence why we are where we are :)

ryanobjc 11y ago
This is exactly my thoughts on what's wrong with TED. It's not in the pursuit of the truth. Therefore, it's in the pursuit of status. You can see this among those who wave around TED talks they have seen as some kind of currency. "Oh have you seen the TED talk about Y? It's so amazing!" But also, by their nature, the talks cant dive deep. People are there to be amused and kind of learn, but real education is difficult. TED isn't difficult.
- randycupertino 11y ago
  That's why the "Ted Talk about Nothing" is one of my favorites: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8S0FDjFBj8o https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8S0FDjFBj8o Their manner of speaking reminds me of American Dad making fun of Ira Glass. Why is pausing??! Doesn't he know what he's going to say next??? AAAAHH. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qUvQdoOEDGw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qUvQdoOEDGw
  - alexashka 11y ago
    Wow that talk about nothing is really well done :)
    - areyouforreal 11y ago
      See also: Charlie Brooker's How To Report The News https://youtu.be/aHun58mz3vI https://youtu.be/aHun58mz3vI
randycupertino 11y ago
My friend paid $5500 to go to a Tony Robbins seminar in Florida last fall- in addition to flights from SF, hotels, food, etc. She walked on coals and got to take some cool selfies with various people. When she came home, she was 7k poorer and I asked her what they talked about. She raved about the "experience" but didn't seem like she'd garnered any real insights other than to be positive and the same old The Secret garbage of visualizing the life you want. imo she should have used that 7k to chip away at her 60k debt in student loans.
- alexashka 11y ago
  A lot of it is what you get from it, right? I view Tony Robbins as a mystery - because I just can't quite figure him out. He's rich so he doesn't have to continue. He seems genuine. And yet, his overall message seems to largely be 'YEAH, YOU CAN DO IT! WOO!' Just take massive action baby! Baby steps, start small, build, iterate, you can do it! I am still not sure what the content is or if his presentation is a massive distraction. That I can't quite tell what his overall point is worries me, and yet I can't believe that he's full of shit. So he's trying to do a good thing, he is succeeding in terms of money but maybe not so much in terms of actual results... I don't know, Tony is a mystery remaining to be solved. Those going to his seminars - I think they're just misguided. The steps to fix your life are not at a seminar, they're in improving your life, one step at a time. It's a life decision to strive for excellence. If you haven't come to that point and you're 30, it is probably too late. If you have come to that point and you're 30, you don't need Tony's help. So who's he really helping but the blow-hards who want to be 'inspirational' like him?
  - greggman 11y ago
    I kind of view him as a coach. I know for me there are many things I could do on my own but I find them much easier with a leader/mentor.
    - alexashka 11y ago
      This is just an opinion so take it for what it is: Tony Robbins is a blowhard, unless your goal is to be a blowhard, he's probably not the best source of inspiration or advice. Programmers are almost nothing like him, being so confident about things you certainly can't be that confident about, requires being delusional to a considerable degree. As long as enough people buy the shtick, everything is fine. With programming, it's not like that, you need to be good beyond convincing others that you're good (that seems like the primary difference between people-skills and real-work skills) So I don't know, I mean, if it's not broken don't fix it, but I'd be genuinely concerned for anyone thinking the way to their happiness and peace is predicated upon TAKING MASSIVE ACTION YEAH!
specialist 11y ago
The problem with Tony Robbins... is that he's peddling dangerously wrong beliefs to gullible rubes. A coworker came back from one his events telling me all sorts of fruity crap. Like how the germ theory for disease is bunk. So apparently I gave myself cancer with negative thoughts (blame the victim). That flipped my bozo bit for Tony Robbins. I love gifted, charismatic, motivational speakers. Sometimes called leaders or actors or politicians. But they shouldn't profit from causing others harm.

gsteinb88 11y ago

I'm not sure that Feynman is the best example here. In fact, in my experience, he's actually more of an example of the problem than the solution. While Feynman does a great job of explaining concepts if you never need to use them, I always found his lectures to be of the "captivating until you try to use them" variety. This wasn't just my experience either -- after struggling with this as a physics undergrad for a while (after all, they're supposed to help!) I started asking around. My academic advisor, several other professors, and many students felt the same way. Feynman may get closer -- or may do more to bring common understanding to complex principles -- but his approach broke down for actually learning to /do physics/. But I'll agree that he's a major step in the right direction; I just want to caution against the hero worship. There's no magic formula, no one person, who can make learning complex concepts easier. Some things are hard, and trying to make them seem easier can easily make them more confusing in practice.

bananaboy 11y ago
There was a post about that exact topic on math-blog recently http://math-blog.com/2016/02/01/was-richard-feynman-a-great-teacher/ http://math-blog.com/2016/02/01/was-richard-feynman-a-great-... Summary: he wasn't a great undergraduate teacher.
- gsteinb88 11y ago
  That was a fantastic post, thank you for sharing. Ironically, while affirming the view I held above, it also makes me think I should -- maybe -- give them another chance now that I'm well along in graduate school as opposed to a struggling undergrad.
  - ChuckMcM 11y ago
    I think you should. I had a similar experience with Feynman. Who spoke with assuming a certain level of familarity but with an engaging style that let your brain skip right over what it didn't really understand. Re-reading his lectures on physics and the papers on computation, post college, was a much deeper experience than reading him in High School. Even though I enjoyed both times tremendously.