I have liked some TED talks and thought others were more show-biz than intellectual stimulation.
One example that comes to mind is good old what's her name, who wrote the book "Eat, Pray, Love". I came away (from watching it on Youtube) feeling entertained, manipulated, happy for having spent the 18 minutes with her yet absolutely certain I had no interest in reading her book. Her talk was extremely well-delivered and she made a few comments that I thought were interesting & which have stuck with me. I'm grateful for those insights. But in general her talk was a lot less profound than I think she or the people in the live audience thought it was. I haven't watched many TED talks since. Which may be a case of throwing baby out with bathwater, I know that. jrs On Sep 12, 2012, at 1:23 PM, Badri Natarajan wrote: > > On 12 Sep 2012, at 17:48, Thaths <[email protected]> wrote: > >> On Tue, Sep 11, 2012 at 8:09 PM, Deepa Mohan <[email protected]> wrote: >> http://www.newstatesman.com/blogs/voices/2012/09/trouble-ted-talks >> >> In the cult of TED, everything is awesome and inspirational, and ideas >> aren’t supposed to be challenged, says Martin Robbins. >> >> I tend to agree with this. I think TED talks are a dangerous thing for a >> country like India. I've noticed that critical thinking often takes a back >> seat in India (excluding present company, of course) to razzmatazz. The >> classical example I often think of is the Great Gasbian "Professor" Arindam >> Chaudhuri of IIPM disrepute. > > I agree there's some truth to the points in the article but I think there's > still value to the TED talks - they are fun and inspiring and many of the > ideas are indeed worth spreading, and we shouldn't completely lose sight of > that.. > > >
