The Onion parodies are definitely not entirely fair, but they do a good job of pointing out that a lot of TED talks are definitely more on the aspirational side of things. I've definitely seen a few TED talks where the speakers' abilities basically covered up the fact that they weren't actually saying anything. I was kind of heartened to see the onion parodies, because I had wondered if I was the only one whose bs detectors were going off.
This isn't to say you should be dismissive of TED talks out of hand, or that they're all crap, or anything. I actually think that if they didn't let a few bs-ers in it would be a sign that they weren't taking enough risks.
But it is important to keep in mind that some talks are little more than hand waving. And you definitely shouldn't automatically assume it's brilliant just because it has the TED brand behind it.
I think the social media Onion talk (http://youtu.be/CK62I-4cuSY) is the most relevant to HN (and my favourite).
You are definitely not the only one who's BS detector was going off. I find that TED has about the same number of good talks per year as it used to. And about 10 times more talks per year than it used to. That's not even counting the cesspool that TEDx has become.
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Working for me still!
Are there any other lightweight tools of doing it? I could even imagine a new startup which create/provide tooling around Google Docs.
Some desired features:
- spreadsheet based
- better tags/search/filter for column
- fine grain permissions (proposing a change, ability just to add/modify your entry) - ...
The Onion parodies are definitely not entirely fair, but they do a good job of pointing out that a lot of TED talks are definitely more on the aspirational side of things. I've definitely seen a few TED talks where the speakers' abilities basically covered up the fact that they weren't actually saying anything. I was kind of heartened to see the onion parodies, because I had wondered if I was the only one whose bs detectors were going off.
This isn't to say you should be dismissive of TED talks out of hand, or that they're all crap, or anything. I actually think that if they didn't let a few bs-ers in it would be a sign that they weren't taking enough risks.
But it is important to keep in mind that some talks are little more than hand waving. And you definitely shouldn't automatically assume it's brilliant just because it has the TED brand behind it.
You are definitely not the only one who's BS detector was going off. I find that TED has about the same number of good talks per year as it used to. And about 10 times more talks per year than it used to. That's not even counting the cesspool that TEDx has become.
Sebastian Wernicke: 1000 TED Talks, 6 words http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XZ3nEK1qSkA