5 engaging TED talks
I am constantly on the lookout for new sources of information and inspiration. I carry a camera around everywhere I go, peruse blogs of all sorts and seek out discussions with passionate people. Recently a friend told me about one of the coolest resources I’ve seen in a long time: TED talks.
At the annual TED conference (an acronym for Technology, Entertainment, Design) which began in 1984, a host of fascinating thinkers and doers are challenged to give the “talk of their lives” in 18 minutes so as to share and discuss ideas and add to a clearinghouse of free knowledge and inspiration. “We believe passionately in the power of ideas to change attitudes, lives and ultimately, the world.” I have watched a handful of these and these are some really great ones.
Amy Tan, author of The Joy Luck Club on Where does creativity hide?: A riveting talk on responsibility, intention, identity, luck, asking questions and embracing ambiguity. I doubt you’ll come away with many answers but perhaps a greater appreciation for questions. 
Daniel Goleman, the father of emotional intelligence, on Why aren’t we all Good Samaritans?: An eloquent reflection of why we betray natural human empathy and don’t notice the “other.” Particularly interesting are his comments on the “you test” and being “pizzled.”
Sir Ken Robinson, “creativity expert,” asks Do schools kill creativity? I like this one because he makes a clear bold statement: that developing creativity is as important as literacy. He says, “If you’re not prepared to be wrong, you will never come up with anything original” and that only educating people progressively from the waist up is flawed.
Jill Bolte Taylor, a brain scientist, describes her own experience with a stroke in My stroke of insight, the same name as her book that was released just last week. It took her 8 years to fully recover.
Tony Robbins, a leadership psychology coach, on Why we do what we do, and how we can do it better: An interesting interpretation and engaging speech about why we don’t achieve what we try to (with clever input from “an” audience member), Robbins says “The defining factor is never resources, it’s resourcefulness.”
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