Summer is almost over. The new school year is here. The Labor Day weekend will be here and gone before we know it. I can certainly use a boost. How about you?
A Website I often turn to when I need some inspiration (or education or a cure for boredom) is Ted.com. TED (it stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design) is a small nonprofit organization that is "devoted to ideas worth spreading." Since 1984 they've hosted invitation-only conferences where some of the world's most fascinating people are challenged to give the talk of their lives in 18 minutes. Fortunately for those of us not lucky enough to receive invites, TED makes these talks (called TEDTalks) available for free.
You can search over 700 TEDTalks and other performances TED calls Best of the Web. My favorite TedTalks include JJ. Abrams' Mystery Box and Malcolm Gladwell on Spaghetti Sauce. Some of the great performances they offer are the Stanford commencement speech Steve Jobs gave on How to Live Before You Die and Randy Pausch's Carnegie Mellon talk about Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams.
Take a look for yourself (a good place to start is the Top 10 TedTalks). I bet you'll find something to take your mind off of the end of summer. Well, for 18 minutes anyway.
Comments (1)
I saw that Hans Rosling talk at a research methods seminar in college, and I still recommend it to people all the time! Not only is it incredibly informative in a very short space, the guy is a scream. Thanks so much for sharing these.
Also, Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling has a featured talk that's worth checking out -
http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/jk_rowling_the_fringe_benefits_of_failure.html
Posted by Audrey | September 8, 2010 10:29 AM
Posted on September 8, 2010 10:29