TED Talks hardly need an introduction. On the offchance that you haven’t heard of them before TED is annual conference where some of the world’s brightest thinkers and doers are challenged to give the talk of the lives in about 18 minutes.
The talks are all available on the TED website and there is also a handy Google spreadsheet for easy reference. Since ‘Free on Friday’ is all about free stuff, I can’t recommend these TED talks highly enough. In the best X Factor tradition, they are in no particular order. I’ve just included 5 of my own personal favourites here and suggestions from culch_ie followers on Twitter.
Sir Ken Robinson - School kills creativity
Hugely entertaining and thought provoking. Sir Ken Robinson believes that creativity is as important as literacy. He makes a compelling case for changing the way we educate. Our future may depend on it.
About 15 minutes into the talk, he tells the story of Gillian Lynne. She is most famous for her choreography of Cats and The Phantom of the Opera. This story truly illustrates exactly what Sir Ken talks about.
Benjamin Zander – Classical music with shining eyes
Any time I’m feeling a bit out of sorts with the world, I watch this talk. It’s my “desert island disc” talk, if you like.
Mr. Zander just oozes charisma as he talks about how classical music is for everybody. He talks about a universe of possibilities for all of us too.
Scott McCloud – On Comics
Extremely clever (and head spinning) presentation from the author of Understanding Comics, Reinventing Comics and Making Comics. Had to watch this a couple of times to take it all in. Really does give a different perspective on comics.
Brewster Kahle – Building a free digitial library
This is the guy behind the Internet Archive, which has over 85 billion pieces of internet history. His central argument is that that universal access to all knowledge is within our grasp. He believes it can be one of the greatest achievements of humankind.
More recommendations from Twitter..
@OneRiot_ie recommends anything with Seth Godin. There are 2 talks in the database from Seth : On the tribes we lead and On standing out
@sineadcochrane recommends Jill Bolte Taylor’s My stroke of insight
@davidmaybury recommends Dave Eggers’ wish - Once Upon a School
@sarxos recommends Eric Giler – Wireless Electricity
@darrenbyrne recommends Erin McKean – redefines the dictionary
@meetforreal recommends Rebecca Saxe – How we read each other’s minds
@BrianMLloyd recommends Jimmy Wales – The birth of Wikipedia
@WillKnott recommends Isabel Allende – Tales of passion
Thanks for all the recommendations. Feel free to add your favourites in the comments below too.
Pattie Maes’ Sixth Sense is a personal fave!