What are TED Talks?

I’ve been meaning to start putting up my favorite TED Talks, but never had the time to list out EVERY talk I had listened to.

Briefly, an intro to TED Talks.
Their spiel-
“TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design. It started out (in 1984) as a conference bringing together people from those three worlds. Since then its scope has become ever broader.
The annual conference now brings together the world’s most fascinating thinkers and doers, who are challenged to give the talk of their lives (in 18 minutes). “

My spiel-
TED is a conference that has posted the best talks from the conference online. The speakers range widely across the Technology, Entertainment and Design themes but there are some common elements. The speakers are usually titans in their fields- the founders, the first inventors. The speakers are rarely the current president of a long successful company- these are not sales pitches but personal stories of their life’s work. The speakers also tend to be rebels to some degree, trying to figure out a way to best the status quo and change the way things are done. Most of TED is dedicated to social change and responsibility through private enterprise, as contrasted against succeeding in private enterprise for the sake of personal wealth.

There are two main styles of talks that I tend to enjoy:
1) A way to reduce poverty, halt disease or improve education by creating tools or opportunities for the individuals to lift themselves up. I am not a fan of charity as a one way flow- it is temporary and non-scalable. This is my most passionate theme. Wikipedia, GrameenPhone, Jacqueline Novogratz, One Laptop Per Child are all examples of how to build a scalable, socially responsible and self-sustaining project that improve the lives of people on grand scale.

2) Powerful individuals whose personal charisma alone makes their cause worth supporting. I became interested in lexicography, of all things, after listening to a talk by Erin McKean, and I still get a little smile every time I listen to Tony Robbins.

Every few days I will post a new talk and my thoughts/opinions on why it is so damn cool.