TED Gets its Comeuppance -- At Long Last
Troy Senik, Ed. ·
October 19, 2012 at 11:54pm
One of the most irritating trends of the last decade or so is the cottage industry that has formed around self-styled (and inevitably left-leaning) intellectuals, a fad that inevitably finds them convening in places like Aspen or Davos (what's the life of the mind, after all, without a little Dom Perignon?). At the top of this list is TED, a series of lectures where mid-level minds demonstrate their profundity by conjuring futurescapes out of whole cloth and not wearing neckties. If you've ever seen one of these lectures, you'll realize just how accurate (and devastating) this parody by The Onion is.
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Re: TED Gets its Comeuppance -- At Long Last
This is great! I see this guy being the next messianic mess for the DNC.
Oct '10
Re: TED Gets its Comeuppance -- At Long Last
That is hilarious.
One of my former co-workers was really big on the whole TED Talks thing. I have to admit I could never sit through one.
Jun '10
Re: TED Gets its Comeuppance -- At Long Last
One of the reasons I let my Atlantic subscription (there were many others) was articles about people like this big-idea guy. If we were to go back and check, I'm convinced that vast majority of the big-idea guys featured in those articles remain in well-deserved obscurity for the remainder of their days.
I have lots of great ideas. E.g., genuine BS detector; stairway to heaven. I too just need some really good engineers.
Here's the thought process for most big ideas:
1. Big Idea
2. [Then a Miracle Happens]
3. Fame and riches for the Big Idea guy.
Edited on October 20, 2012 at 12:18amJul '10
Re: TED Gets its Comeuppance -- At Long Last
Give that guy some stimulus money!
Jun '11
Re: TED Gets its Comeuppance -- At Long Last
Another of my best ideas stolen.
Mar '12
Re: TED Gets its Comeuppance -- At Long Last
Dave Roy, the one about human orgasms was pretty funny. And there was one good one about education for girls in China, but otherwise this is a fab parody.
Girl talk here:
http://www.texpatsabroad.com/2/post/2011/02/tedx-today.html
May '11
Re: TED Gets its Comeuppance -- At Long Last
I did see a TED lecture, however, with Mike Rowe, that I thought was really good. It was about the need to work hard and not stigmatize manual labor.
Aug '12
Re: TED Gets its Comeuppance -- At Long Last
There may be a lot of detritus in the TED talks.
But I want to speak up for the middle-minds who do these shows. A lot of ideas come from the middle minds -there being so many more of them than of the big minds. It will be the middle minds that do things like grow artificial kidneys, convince pacafists that the military matters, and environmentalists that we aren't going to save the world by forcing Argentines and Brazilians to cook their food with wood.
If they sound cliched while they're doing it, I'm OK with that.
Oct '10
Re: TED Gets its Comeuppance -- At Long Last
AHLondon: Dave Roy, the one about human orgasms was pretty funny. And there was one good one about education for girls in China, but otherwise this is a fab parody.
Girl talk here:
http://www.texpatsabroad.com/2/post/2011/02/tedx-today.html · 2 minutes ago
Thanks for this! I'll take a look at it.
Sep '10
Re: TED Gets its Comeuppance -- At Long Last
The guy should have introduced himself as Ted Solyndra.
Jun '10
Re: TED Gets its Comeuppance -- At Long Last
The Mike Rowe TED is definitely worth a look. As is his foundation in support of the trades.
Sep '11
Re: TED Gets its Comeuppance -- At Long Last
I like the talk from Philip K. Howard on four ways to fix the legal system. And, one talk to which Sabrdance might be refering, a talk from the Dutch chief of defense, (like the Commander of the Joint Chiefs) Peter van Uhm was also shocking in its own way. You don't often hear any Europeans say this about guns or national defense:
I think most of us would consider it wishy washy, but for an EU citizen outside of airports, it's rather shocking to see a rifle at all, much less one on a TED stage.
Edited on October 20, 2012 at 1:03amDec '11
Re: TED Gets its Comeuppance -- At Long Last
They have some that are good. Typically some to at least consider.
Feb '12
Re: TED Gets its Comeuppance -- At Long Last
TED: The Educationally Deluded
Aug '11
Re: TED Gets its Comeuppance -- At Long Last
Eeyore
The Mike Rowe TED is definitely worth a look. As is his foundation in support of the trades. · 18 minutes ago
Yep. Although to be honest, it's the only one I could sit through all the way.
Dec '11
Re: TED Gets its Comeuppance -- At Long Last
I kinda liked Gen McChrystal's TED speech.
Apr '11
Re: TED Gets its Comeuppance -- At Long Last
The TED talks that I like tend to be academics who have studied one narrow aspect of human behaviour and drawn some conclusions. The mid-level guys who stick with what they know and can demonstrate are pretty good. I agree that the Big Ideas and Futurists are silly.
Here are some good ones:
Porn Experiment - Internet porn rewires the brain
Bruce Schneier - Security
Jill Bolte Taylor - Stroke - Brain scientist has stroke and describes it
Edited on October 20, 2012 at 2:24amMay '10
Re: TED Gets its Comeuppance -- At Long Last
I love TED. You have to keep your bovine fecal filter in place for the ones that are touchy-feely. But the ones on science and technology that I've seen are totally fascinating.
but the Onion parody is spot on for some of the social science/humanities lectures.
Apr '12
Re: TED Gets its Comeuppance -- At Long Last
This guy is convincing, maybe my BS detector has been burnt out by too much Obama.
Mar '12
Re: TED Gets its Comeuppance -- At Long Last
Troy, this is great. I've been waiting for someone to do a send-up of TED for a while now. While some TED lectures have quite a lot to offer, most are too pretentious to take.