5 ms·

Lists of must see TED-talks

168 points by TheAlan 16y ago

franze 16y ago
"must see"? what happens if i don't?
- Zev 16y ago
  In that case, you win at being a pedant and miss out on some cool talks by smart people.
lionhearted 16y ago
"The Paradox of Choice" has a couple good insights, especially for entrepreneurs selling, but I think it misses one very important thing. Yes, the unknowledgeable shopper will feel overwhelmed if you ask them what spice you want to buy out of 40 different spices, but the world would be much worse if there was a mandate that you could only buy pepper and garlic. It would be easier for the unskilled cook, but serious chefs would have their ability severely curtailed. Likewise, I think a lot of the "paradox of choice" applications evolve into tyranny - force simpliciy, because hey, that's great for people! All these choices confuse people! It's true, yes, that 80% to 90% of people don't want more choice and the choice is a hardship for them. But removing choice from that last 10 to 20% that are educated on the tradeoffs is really, really, really bad. There's a fundamental flaw with the whole premise of paradox of choice - it ignores that there are people for whom a wide variety of choices is incredibly valuable and important. Encouraging restricting choices (especially by force! yuck!) makes things easier for most people, but destroys a lot of potential for amazing creations as well.
- gmac 16y ago
  Spices are a hopeless example of the paradox of choice, since they're all genuinely different things. The kinds of choices I hate are the ones that have been deliberately and often artificially cooked up between things that are in essence the same -- or that I'd benefit from really being the same. Two examples: (1) Washing powder. My local supermarket has a whole aisle filled with essentially identical products in different packaging (many from the same manufacturer/conglomerate). Ironically, this proliferation of meaningless branding seems to push out genuine choice: despite the acres of shelf space devoted to washing powders, I can't buy an ecologically sound washing powder here. (2) Travel insurance. The choices faced for insurance (and other financial products) are genuinely overwhelming: to sensibly choose between the hundreds of available policies I'd need to read and compare the T&Cs for each one. I'd enormously prefer there to be some central body mandating a minimum standard for travel insurance (or maybe 2 or 3 levels of minimum standards) and then just pick the cheapest policy adhering to my standard of choice. In the absence of this, companies often appear to go out of their way to make it difficult to compare their products with others' -- mobile/cell-phone plans are a case in point here. In short, the 'paradox of choice' should really be 'the paradox of pointless artificial choices'... but then it becomes more obvious that it's only a paradox if you were previously a sucker for economic theory at its purest and most crazy.
  - TillE 16y ago
    The problem is arguably not too many choices, but too many indistinct choices. This is something I've been banging on about from a game design perspective - having a dizzying array of skills or research options can be exciting, or it can be overwhelming and boring, depending on how each option is characterized and distinguished from the rest. Less is only better insofar as it widens the "difference gap" between each option.
    - robertk 16y ago
      Are you a game designer? And do you have a mathematical background? I liked the way you phrased this.
  - mhb 16y ago
    Why anyone would buy travel insurance is a mystery to me, but maybe you'd like http://www.insuremytrip.com/ http://www.insuremytrip.com/ which has a pretty nice comparison feature.
    - protomyth 16y ago
      Cameras are generally one of the main reasons.
    - petercooper 16y ago
      Why anyone would buy travel insurance is a mystery to me Medical expenses, repatriation, accommodation in case of particular delays, emergency cash in case of theft.. I can't see why you wouldn't have it for any trip overseas given how unpredictable medical costs can be (unless you have a great existing policy that would cover all of these).
    - DrStalker 16y ago
      If I'm hit by a car in Australia I'm pretty well covered. If I'm hit by a car in the US I could be looking at hundreds of thousands of dollars in fees if I don't have travel insurance.
ntoshev 16y ago
What is the use of this question without context? You could check the ratings/stats on TED.com and pick what is most popular. Quora is slightly different demographics than general TED audience, but is this minor difference worth asking such a question? I don't think so.
quan 16y ago
Here's a similar HN discussion awhile back: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=442022 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=442022
elliottcarlson 16y ago
Here are two that stick out in my mind almost immediately when I think of inspiring overall TED talks: Temple Grandin: The world needs all kinds of minds http://www.ted.com/talks/temple_grandin_the_world_needs_all_kinds_of_minds.html http://www.ted.com/talks/temple_grandin_the_world_needs_all_... William Kamkwamba on building a windmill http://www.ted.com/talks/william_kamkwamba_on_building_a_windmill.html http://www.ted.com/talks/william_kamkwamba_on_building_a_win...
orionlogic 16y ago
Everyone has an opinion and everyone wants to differentiate his answer which in turn, given enough answers (700 roughly) all the talks turn to be 'must-see'. Quora become boring with these subjective questions. anyway here is my answer a year ago : http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=443008 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=443008
marknutter 16y ago
I've been seeing more and more of these "best _____" questions on Quora and I can't help thinking it doesn't really fit the Quora mold very well. I emailed them asking that they implement a feature making it easier for people to create lists. The problem right now is that if I post 5 suggestions, and someone votes up my answer because they agree with one of those 5, that information is blurred. It should split those suggestions into 5 separately votable answers. That said, I think that one of the biggest entrepreneurial opportunities on the web is recommendation of content. I sometimes think about how much stuff there is to experience, from books to movies to music, and it depresses me that I'll only ever be able to enjoy a tiny, tiny fraction of it all before I die. With that in mind, I'd like to know I'm experiencing the best this world has to offer. It's a complicated problem, but I have my wallet ready for the person who solves it.
D3lt4 16y ago
I am not sure if I can watch TED again, after reading the article on HN about how TED seems to run, its appeal is lost. http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2268336 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2268336
- pepsi_can 16y ago
  I feel the same way. I'm disappointed that social status and elitism permeates throughout a forum that is supposed to be about advancing human knowledge and the human condition.
  - Gogmagog 16y ago
    You must have missed the last 10,000 years of human development, because the elite have always been at the forefront of human development. It is part of what makes them elite. Humankind does not advance because of the efforts of the average person, it simply continues. Having said that... Why Julia Sweeney is always at TED is still a mystery to me. When one of her videos come up, I can't find the skip button fast enough.
    - D3lt4 16y ago
      Not necessarily, as a counter argument consider some of the giants such as Michael Faraday (physics and chemistry) and Bernhard Riemann (Mathematician), who were born into poverty and later in life had many conflicts with the people that would be considered elitist. (Especially when the elitist believe that they were better and that people such as the son of a black smith should stay away (a crude summary of some conflicts in Faraday's life). Riemann died of TB, a common infliction of poor people (not elitists).
moblivu 16y ago
How can a source on knowledge like TED, thriving conferences that are entertaining and full of knowledge, be unknown by so many people. I mean they have access on TV to so many brain melting content, but a source of knowledge and idea like TED, is burried on the internet.... What a world !
- deleted 16y ago
  [deleted]
cellurl 16y ago
Instead of Ken Robinson, they should get Kahn University. The loudest always wins, not the best.
vibragiel 16y ago
FYI, I made this convenient scrape of ted.com, providing direct download links and SRT subtitles for every talk. http://www.the-geek.org/ted/ http://www.the-geek.org/ted/
yatsyk 16y ago
http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1324937 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1324937 - sorted list of TED talks by @igrigorik
retrogradeorbit 16y ago
Elizabeth Gilbert's talk is on that list and it's TRULY AWEFUL.
danac 16y ago
List of talks for entrepreneurs: http://theeducatedentrepreneur.wordpress.com/2010/04/28/10-ted-talks-for-entrepreneurs/ http://theeducatedentrepreneur.wordpress.com/2010/04/28/10-t...

168 points by TheAlan 16y ago

franze 16y ago

"must see"? what happens if i don't?

Zev 16y ago
In that case, you win at being a pedant and miss out on some cool talks by smart people.

lionhearted 16y ago

"The Paradox of Choice" has a couple good insights, especially for entrepreneurs selling, but I think it misses one very important thing. Yes, the unknowledgeable shopper will feel overwhelmed if you ask them what spice you want to buy out of 40 different spices, but the world would be much worse if there was a mandate that you could only buy pepper and garlic. It would be easier for the unskilled cook, but serious chefs would have their ability severely curtailed. Likewise, I think a lot of the "paradox of choice" applications evolve into tyranny - force simpliciy, because hey, that's great for people! All these choices confuse people! It's true, yes, that 80% to 90% of people don't want more choice and the choice is a hardship for them. But removing choice from that last 10 to 20% that are educated on the tradeoffs is really, really, really bad. There's a fundamental flaw with the whole premise of paradox of choice - it ignores that there are people for whom a wide variety of choices is incredibly valuable and important. Encouraging restricting choices (especially by force! yuck!) makes things easier for most people, but destroys a lot of potential for amazing creations as well.

gmac 16y ago
Spices are a hopeless example of the paradox of choice, since they're all genuinely different things. The kinds of choices I hate are the ones that have been deliberately and often artificially cooked up between things that are in essence the same -- or that I'd benefit from really being the same. Two examples: (1) Washing powder. My local supermarket has a whole aisle filled with essentially identical products in different packaging (many from the same manufacturer/conglomerate). Ironically, this proliferation of meaningless branding seems to push out genuine choice: despite the acres of shelf space devoted to washing powders, I can't buy an ecologically sound washing powder here. (2) Travel insurance. The choices faced for insurance (and other financial products) are genuinely overwhelming: to sensibly choose between the hundreds of available policies I'd need to read and compare the T&Cs for each one. I'd enormously prefer there to be some central body mandating a minimum standard for travel insurance (or maybe 2 or 3 levels of minimum standards) and then just pick the cheapest policy adhering to my standard of choice. In the absence of this, companies often appear to go out of their way to make it difficult to compare their products with others' -- mobile/cell-phone plans are a case in point here. In short, the 'paradox of choice' should really be 'the paradox of pointless artificial choices'... but then it becomes more obvious that it's only a paradox if you were previously a sucker for economic theory at its purest and most crazy.
- TillE 16y ago
  The problem is arguably not too many choices, but too many indistinct choices. This is something I've been banging on about from a game design perspective - having a dizzying array of skills or research options can be exciting, or it can be overwhelming and boring, depending on how each option is characterized and distinguished from the rest. Less is only better insofar as it widens the "difference gap" between each option.
  - robertk 16y ago
    Are you a game designer? And do you have a mathematical background? I liked the way you phrased this.
- mhb 16y ago
  Why anyone would buy travel insurance is a mystery to me, but maybe you'd like http://www.insuremytrip.com/ http://www.insuremytrip.com/ which has a pretty nice comparison feature.
  - protomyth 16y ago
    Cameras are generally one of the main reasons.
  - petercooper 16y ago
    Why anyone would buy travel insurance is a mystery to me Medical expenses, repatriation, accommodation in case of particular delays, emergency cash in case of theft.. I can't see why you wouldn't have it for any trip overseas given how unpredictable medical costs can be (unless you have a great existing policy that would cover all of these).
  - DrStalker 16y ago
    If I'm hit by a car in Australia I'm pretty well covered. If I'm hit by a car in the US I could be looking at hundreds of thousands of dollars in fees if I don't have travel insurance.

ntoshev 16y ago

What is the use of this question without context? You could check the ratings/stats on TED.com and pick what is most popular. Quora is slightly different demographics than general TED audience, but is this minor difference worth asking such a question? I don't think so.

quan 16y ago

Here's a similar HN discussion awhile back: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=442022 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=442022

elliottcarlson 16y ago

Here are two that stick out in my mind almost immediately when I think of inspiring overall TED talks: Temple Grandin: The world needs all kinds of minds http://www.ted.com/talks/temple_grandin_the_world_needs_all_kinds_of_minds.html http://www.ted.com/talks/temple_grandin_the_world_needs_all_... William Kamkwamba on building a windmill http://www.ted.com/talks/william_kamkwamba_on_building_a_windmill.html http://www.ted.com/talks/william_kamkwamba_on_building_a_win...

orionlogic 16y ago

Everyone has an opinion and everyone wants to differentiate his answer which in turn, given enough answers (700 roughly) all the talks turn to be 'must-see'. Quora become boring with these subjective questions. anyway here is my answer a year ago : http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=443008 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=443008

marknutter 16y ago

I've been seeing more and more of these "best _____" questions on Quora and I can't help thinking it doesn't really fit the Quora mold very well. I emailed them asking that they implement a feature making it easier for people to create lists. The problem right now is that if I post 5 suggestions, and someone votes up my answer because they agree with one of those 5, that information is blurred. It should split those suggestions into 5 separately votable answers. That said, I think that one of the biggest entrepreneurial opportunities on the web is recommendation of content. I sometimes think about how much stuff there is to experience, from books to movies to music, and it depresses me that I'll only ever be able to enjoy a tiny, tiny fraction of it all before I die. With that in mind, I'd like to know I'm experiencing the best this world has to offer. It's a complicated problem, but I have my wallet ready for the person who solves it.

D3lt4 16y ago

I am not sure if I can watch TED again, after reading the article on HN about how TED seems to run, its appeal is lost. http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2268336 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2268336

pepsi_can 16y ago
I feel the same way. I'm disappointed that social status and elitism permeates throughout a forum that is supposed to be about advancing human knowledge and the human condition.
- Gogmagog 16y ago
  You must have missed the last 10,000 years of human development, because the elite have always been at the forefront of human development. It is part of what makes them elite. Humankind does not advance because of the efforts of the average person, it simply continues. Having said that... Why Julia Sweeney is always at TED is still a mystery to me. When one of her videos come up, I can't find the skip button fast enough.
  - D3lt4 16y ago
    Not necessarily, as a counter argument consider some of the giants such as Michael Faraday (physics and chemistry) and Bernhard Riemann (Mathematician), who were born into poverty and later in life had many conflicts with the people that would be considered elitist. (Especially when the elitist believe that they were better and that people such as the son of a black smith should stay away (a crude summary of some conflicts in Faraday's life). Riemann died of TB, a common infliction of poor people (not elitists).

moblivu 16y ago

How can a source on knowledge like TED, thriving conferences that are entertaining and full of knowledge, be unknown by so many people. I mean they have access on TV to so many brain melting content, but a source of knowledge and idea like TED, is burried on the internet.... What a world !

deleted 16y ago
[deleted]

cellurl 16y ago

Instead of Ken Robinson, they should get Kahn University. The loudest always wins, not the best.

vibragiel 16y ago

FYI, I made this convenient scrape of ted.com, providing direct download links and SRT subtitles for every talk. http://www.the-geek.org/ted/ http://www.the-geek.org/ted/

yatsyk 16y ago

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1324937 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1324937 - sorted list of TED talks by @igrigorik

retrogradeorbit 16y ago

Elizabeth Gilbert's talk is on that list and it's TRULY AWEFUL.

danac 16y ago

List of talks for entrepreneurs: http://theeducatedentrepreneur.wordpress.com/2010/04/28/10-ted-talks-for-entrepreneurs/ http://theeducatedentrepreneur.wordpress.com/2010/04/28/10-t...