Daniel makes stuff, and, in his spare time, writes about things like movies, kid culture, and geek stuff.
Making Us Think

Seth Godin explains what he thinks makes the TED Conference so great:

Which brings us to TED, a conference held every year in Long Beach. It’s going on right now.

Watch a few TED videos and try to get ahead of the speaker. They have an idea…it’s probably a conceptual tricky idea, one with a lot of moving parts. And there is a lot of shorthand and arm waving … basically, it’s similar to a quadratic equation. If you need the other person to slow down and explain every little bit, you’ve missed the point. The point is to do abstract conceptual thought. To get in practice taking the accepted status quo and questioning it, at least for a little while, at least this or that part of it.

I think this is a skill, a rare one. The ability to be facile in the manipulation of ideas, both theoretical and established, is a valuable one, and I think the TED videos and art of reading books (at least the first ten minutes of each) are two great ways to getting better at manipulation of ideas. It takes practice, and it’s worth it.

I completely agree with Godin; it’s this “taking the world as it is and imagining a better future out of it” aspect of the conference that I love so much, and TED does this year after year with a stunning consistency.

Feb 14, 2010 :: Tagged under: , , :: #