I must have watched him for over 3 three years on Meet The Press, and never, not once, did I get the impression that underneath all that conservative stodginess, there was a funny, empathetic, and sensitive man. Turns out he is a real human being, whole and true, and yes, Mr. Brooks, it is time for a deeper view of human nature, time for a new humanism.
Source TED
Informative short that documents the experiences of two speakers, Raghava KK and Sir Ken Robinson, and captures the essence of what TED is all about.
Source Vimeo
Canadian author and social activist, Naomi Klein, tries to identify the roots of our collective recklessness:
The assumption that we can safely control the Earth’s awesomely complex climate system as if it had a thermostat is pure fantasy.
If you happen to be a 35-year old banker taking home a hundred times more than a brain surgeon, then you need a narrative, you need a story that makes that disparity O.K.
Constantly being told that you are gifted, chosen and born to rule has distinct societal downsides.
We slapped Mother Nature around and won, and we always win, because dominating nature is our destiny.
The problem is that the story was always a lie. The Earth always did have limits, they were just beyond our sights.
We find ourselves trapped in a kind of narrative loop. Not only do we continue to tell and re-tell the same tired stories, but we are now doing so with a frenzy and a fury that frankly verges on camp.
This is how civilizations commit suicide, by slamming their foot on the accelerator at the exact moment when they should be putting on the brakes.
The result of a world run by overconfident, greedy and irresponsible men, where the good people acquiesce.
Source TED
Barry Schwartz discusses the role that incentives play when dealing with the indifferent, uncaring institutions that we encounter in our everyday lives.
There is no set of rules to get us what we need.
Wise people know when and how to bend the rules in the service of the right aims.
The problem with relying on rules and incentives is that they demoralize professional activity.
When you use incentives to get people to do the right thing, it creates people who are addicted to incentives, i.e., it creates people who only do things for incentives.
Source TED
Brene Brown shares her insights on human connection:
They were willing to let go of who they thought they should be, in order to be who they were.
Stop controlling and predicting.
We are the most in debt, obese, addicted and medicated cohort in U.S. history.
You cannot selectively numb emotion.
Source TED
Tony Porter explores how we view women by challenging the conventional wisdom of what it means to be a man.
Source TED
Financier Halla Tomasdottir injects a little estrogen into a testosterone-fueled debate. A key message here is that heterogeneity (i.e., diversity in regard to our gender, religious beliefs, personality types, sexual orientation, etc.), whether in the workplace or in our personal lives, is a good thing. It makes us re-evaluate who we are and what we believe. A diverse environment forces us to give up the illusion that we live in a simple, unambiguous world, and pushes us to accept the complexity inherent in our reality.
In addition, it serves as a backup, i.e., in an unpredictable world, it is best to have a variety of different strategies at your disposal. This seems to be the adopted approach of the natural world, and perhaps, the increasingly artificial world we have created would benefit by seeking to emulate it.
Source TED
11-year-old Birke Baehr presents his take on a major source of our food, far-away and less-than-picturesque industrial farms. Some choice quotes:
Awhile back, I wanted to be an NFL football player. I decided that I’d rather be an organic farmer instead, that way, I could have a greater impact on the world.
We can all make a difference, by making different choices.
We can either pay the farmer, or we can the hospital.
If there were more children like this in the world, optimism in the future would not seem like such an unjustified sentiment.
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