Why TED talks suck now
(www.youtube.com)
from cyrano@lemmy.dbzer0.com to technology@lemmy.world on 28 Nov 20:41
https://lemmy.dbzer0.com/post/32364025
from cyrano@lemmy.dbzer0.com to technology@lemmy.world on 28 Nov 20:41
https://lemmy.dbzer0.com/post/32364025
TIL I learned the difference between TED and TEDx.
TEDx events are independently organized TED-like conferences that operate under a free license granted by TED. While they follow the general principles of TED, TEDx events are planned and coordinated by volunteers at the local level, aiming to bring the TED experience to a broader audience.
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I’ve never even heard Ted talk. It’s always someone else. SMH.
😆
Skylar know who Ted is.
Wait I'm lost, is Skylar Ted's ex?
fuck Ted
I fucked Ted
So what, we’ve all fucked Ted.
For as long as I remember TEDx to exist, I hear people complain that ted talks suck now.
I always ask for example talks, and without fail it was a TEDx talk. And they never know that TEDx talks are very hit or miss in quality.
“proper” TED talks generally (but of course not always) have good quality (although, I haven’t watched any lately. But a couple years ago I watched basically any tech or science related one)
Even proper TED talks can have some big issues. I'm thinking specifically about Kary Mullis getting up on stage and saying anthropogenic climate change isn't real because he found a study that says there's a current that fluctuates and absorbs anything we do--or something to that effect. If you didn't know anything about Kary Mullis and just heard "Nobel prize winner" you might assume he's credible. In actuality he was a pariah for talking out his ass about things he doesn't have expertise in and doesn't understand, specifically his climate and HIV/AIDS denialism.
It's always a good idea to approach any lecture with a critical view, but I can see why TED talks might warrant extra scrutiny. They project expertise and authority which may or may not actually be credible. The organization has a mottled record of vetting their speakers for actual expertise. (ETA: actual expertise in the content of their talk. Obviously Kary Mullis had actual expertise, just not in the things he said on stage)
For anyone curious, he figured out how to rapidly amplify samples of DNA. While doing that he would routinely cause trouble by doing things like bringing a gun to work and having public arguments with his girlfriend at work. His Wikipedia entry sounds as sane as he is.
The barrier for entry for TEDx is very very low, worked with someone in management who had done one they where not with the company long.
I’ve done one. In some cities it’s about as selective as an open mic night at your local pub.
Ted always sucked. The whole production is designed for self-promoters to flatter rich liberals and reassure them that they’re good people. Besides, a playlist of just Ted presenters who turned out to be a fraud would be hours of content probably.
“probably”
Put up or shut up bud
I also don’t understand it. If the topic is interesting and important enough, write an article about it, happy to read it. No need to add an unnecessary layer of a human presenting it - if that is needed for anybody to listen, then the topic is not worth our time
The gen pop doesn’t want to read articles
Long form YouTube has taken off, not specifically because people don’t want to learn/read, but because people’s time to actually sit down and read something is limited, so long form videos can be consumed while completing another task.
People don’t read
I mean, I would also prefer it…I don’t want a 10 minute 1 second video driven by a 14 year old YouTube algorithm change explaining which bolt to loosen, but here we are. People don’t read.
I see it like pageants. TED is miss world. TEDx is miss cornfield.
… such as like you know Iraq, like you know, and such as education for children, such as, education, you know such as
I mean, we have a competition where we judge people on their looks, and then expect them to also be smart.
Sounds like my TEDx speech. To excuse myself, I want to say that I got called 48h before because someone dropped out and asked to do 20 minutes on a topic I wasn’t close to an expert on and that was also only my second public speaking experience.
I wish I had chatGPT at the time to write a bunch of bullshit for me.
youtu.be/_ZBKX-6Gz6A
Very similar to this tedx talk: youtu.be/8S0FDjFBj8o 😂
<img alt="" src="https://lemy.lol/pictrs/image/485630d0-9bfc-4bad-85fe-1db390c3f255.png">
Ted talks have sucked for at least 8 years
.
TED Talks are overrated. Basically it's just a platform where self-centered pompous people take a microphone and say some of the most obviously sugar-coated shit that they can say. Then everyone in the audience all think that they've never heard this before and embrace for how 'enlightening' it is, when this guy is probably the 5th guy in line that has said the exact same things as the guy before them.
youtu.be/8S0FDjFBj8o
My favorite Ted talk is a Tedx talk. It has has helped me and past classmates quite a lot. I still rewatch it before giving presentations.
The quality of the content sadly often matters very little in comparison to the manner of speaking and self presentation.
That was excellent
That’s a very convincing TEDx talk. That guy surely knows his stuff, I’d go so far as to say he is a leading expert in his field.
I like Royal Society videos better nowadays. More science-y but less linkedin hype.
Wow what a hot take, is this 2012?
There are legitimately valuable talks, like this one. As a format it’s very good to deliver specialised knowledge in a concise, impactful way thing is you need to pay attention that people actually have something to say – and that there’s a good reason to put it in a concise format for a general audience. That’s rarer than you think, thus you get tons of slop and platitudes. And TBH the only reason I know that talk exists is because SPJ is giving it, I was already over TED talks in general at that point.
Best TED Talk in my opinion… Building better worlds…
www.youtube.com/watch?v=a1E_mxgqngI
Sam Hyde’s TED talk is still one of my favorite TED talks, satire or not.
Yuck not Sam Hyde. He is not a good person.
I’ve never heard of him, who is he and what did he do?
Alt-right comedian who confuses his free speech to say bigoted things with a belief that people must find him funny.
He also got into boxing in the way “alpha male” content creators do, left smack talking in the dust and made actual threats against his opponents and their families.
But he’s a comedian so it’s all funny! /s
He pitted a bunch of silverspoon trust fund Twitch kids into fighting themselves in a shitty house, and lost money on it, then set up fights with a bunch of other Twitch streamers until they exploded.
…I hate his politics, but. He can keep fucking with twitch streamers and YouTube personalities all he wants. More power to him on that front, actually.
Hyde is more or less just there to kick lolcows, and get views when he does. He really isn’t a good person, but I love his collateral damage sometimes.
What is the talk referenced in the thumbnail? I must watch, for science.
Used to listen to them as podcasts, and I didn’t really like them because they were all so damn short. Feels like they’re not covering the topic enough, and just as you’ve got invested - it’s already over.
It’s no surprise the best Ted talk was uploaded 16 years ago… youtu.be/1_oa8m5Oq00?si=I5BERSZJ7O2PXXrL Lennart Green
I’ve always thought Clifford Stoll - The Call To Learn was the best.
Feats of memory anyone can do | Joshua Foer
What is that in the thumbnail? LSD gone wrong?
While we’re throwing around our favorite TED talks, here’s the meat of my favorite in animated form.
Drive: The surprising truth about what motivates us
Looking back over my jobs, hobbies, life in general, yeah, this hits hard. And yes, they found some surprising results.
EDIT: I was wrong. Not a TED talk. Watch it anyway and learn!
I went to Comicon one year, thinking it would be amazing. It was just a swag den and a 10 hour line to see Stan Lee.
It was then I realized that San Diego Comicon doesn’t move around to different cities and “Comicon” is just a name cons take.