Frank Warren's TED Talk

If you have ever been on the website, PostSecret.com, you know just how liberating knowing a secret can be. And from PostSecret founder Frank Warren's TED Talk, I have learned how liberating sharing a secret can be. Since starting PostSecret, a blog just like this one, Warren has received over 500,000 secrets from people all around the globe. Half a million secrets.

Warren's TED Talk doesn't have a strong opinion or controversial message, or even a tough topic at all. The point he is trying to get across is that everyone has a secret. Everyone's secret looks different. Perhaps it's something that they want to say to somebody but can't find the words. Or maybe something they did in their past that they wish could be erased. A simple "I hate my boss" pops up every once in a while as well. What Warren is trying to say is that secrets are not bad things. They are not anything to be ashamed or afraid of, and sometimes, it feels really good to let them go.

Warren's timing between secrets is really quite good, and he has obviously spent a lot of time practicing his speech, yet it still looks natural. He chooses a wide variety of moving and funny secrets, yet they seem to flow together effortlessly. Here are a couple secrets that I have read that really spoke to me:

"Everyone who knew me before 9/11 believes I'm dead."

"I hate loving families... Because I don't have one."

"I give decaf to customers who are rude to me." (Written on the back of a folded-up Starbucks cup)

"I sabotage all my relationships so that I can be a better musician."

"You don't know this, but if you hadn't stayed up until 4:45am with me in the dorm bathroom that night... I would have killed myself. Thank you."

"I've had four new cell phones since my father died three years ago, and I still add his number to every contact list."

"I forgive you."
 
http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/en/frank_warren_half_a_million_secrets.html

Amy Purdy's TED Talk

"If your life were a book, and you were the author, how would you want your story to go?" Amy Purdy begins her TED Talk, "Living Beyond Limits" with these words. These seemingly simple, yet completely complex words. Purdy has quite a story: she lost both of her legs to meningitis, and, despite all odds, became a professional snowboarder.

Her story began bleak. She thought she would never be able to walk again. She strapped on bulky, unnatural prosthetics. She laid in bed for 3 months straight, simply so she didn't have to go out and face the world. One day, however, her viewpoint changed. She realized that she could make herself as tall or as short as she wanted to be, depending on who she was dating. Or that, when she snowboarded, her feet would no longer get cold. The optimism that Purdy took on her situation was so inspiring to me, and it made me put all of my minuscule problems into perspective. And as Purdy stands, tears in her eyes, smiling at the memory of her prosthetic legs flying down the mountain after she fell, still attached to her snowboard, I can feel her struggle. I can imagine the pain she went through, the humiliation, the heartache, just to get herself back up on that board. Not only did she get back up on her snowboard, but she had to design and build a special pair of feet in order to do so.

Let's see you top that, Shaun White.

Purdy hooks listeners in with deep thoughts and ideas, and she keeps us in with humor and heartwarming triumph. She relays the idea that, instead of living without borders, we need to challenge ourselves to take our borders and, rather than seeing them as limitations, we need to get creative and leap over those borders. That, right there, is an idea worth spreading.

http://www.ted.com/talks/amy_purdy_living_beyond_limits.html

Clay Shirky's TED Talk

I'm three minutes into Clay Shirky's TED Talk, and I still have no clue what his topic is going to be. This isn't looking good... Free time, maybe? No, not that. Human motivation and creativity, perhaps? I think that might be it. Not sure, though. Which is Shirky's first (but certainly not only) mistake. He hasn't given his audience a topic to contemplate. Wait a minute... Okay, he is mentioning cognitive surplus a lot, which I have never heard of, but according to my friend and mothership, Google, it is "the idea of spare brainpower in the world’s collective mind just sitting there waiting, wanting, to be harnessed," Well, let's see what I can do with this idea, because Shirky certainly hasn't given me much to talk about. He doesn't outline any of his ideas or give solid details, he just goes off on tangents and before you know it, he's talking about LOLCATS.

Um... What?

I'm truly sorry that this post isn't more insightful, long, or whatever it is that you are looking for. But, in my defense, Shirky didn't give me much to work with. When I finally uncovered the actual topic of his presentation, cognitive surplus, to me, it actually seemed like a very interesting idea. I only wish he had spent more time developing and explaining that idea as opposed to all the random sidecars he took; sidecars that seemingly both began and ended in the middle of nowhere. His presentation is style is non-existent, and he didn't engage the audience at all. There were no laughs, and nothing to make me, or his audience, care. And I didn't. He didn't make me care. Which, honestly, is the number one mistake someone giving a speech could possibly make. I was thoroughly disappointed with this TED Talk. 

Keith Nolan's TED Talk

I'm not easily inspired. It's kind of a problem, actually. I can love something and be passionate about it-- but not inspired. And then I came along Keith Nolan's TED Talk, "Deaf in the Military". The entire thing was in sign language, and there was a translator speaking for him, but I became so immersed in the story of Nolan's struggle that I didn't even notice after a while.

The part in his speech that really struck me was when he said that, when he emailed an ROTC officer about taking a few classes with them, he was surprised the answer wasn't "No, sorry, you can't, you're deaf." I can't even imagine being told I can't do something I'm passionate about because of a factor that I have no control over. Nolan does a great job of giving that "I can't imagine that..." feeling in his TED Talk.

He had so many interesting facts and a really cool history of deaf people in the military that was so well put together and supported his topic so well. He mentioned a few times that the Israeli army accepts deaf people, but not the American army. After mentioning this a few times, and talking about some notable American soldiers with disabilities, Nolan drops his entire argument on us. "If the U.S. Military can retain their disabled soldiers, why can't they accept disabled citizens as well?" And that right there is the underlying message of Nolan's TED Talk.

Acceptance.

We all yearn for it, we all hope to achieve it, yet for some people, that is a very difficult task. I felt Nolan's heartbreak as he realized that the Navy wouldn't take him. I felt his triumph when the Army ROTC let him begin taking classes and the ROTC instructor treated him just like every other cadet. And that's what Nolan does best. While his story doesn't have a happy ending yet, Nolan gives us all hope that perhaps, one day, the policy might change. I am inspired to make a change, and really follow this soldier's story. I am truly inspired.

TED Talk: http://www.ted.com/talks/keith_nolan_deaf_in_the_military.html

Daniel Pink TED Talk

Calling Daniel Pink passionate is a bit of an understatement. When he speaks, one can see the fire in his eyes as he explains extrinsic motivators. His passion and his obvious love for his topic made me want to love it too. Take the candle problem. As much as I don't want to admit it, I would most likely fail the candle problem. I don't look outside the box like that. I just give up. However, Pink's enthusiasm made me wonder why. I'm not sure I completely agree with what he was saying, but I had a deep respect for the fact that he said it. He presented his information with humor and fire, and, while it was often to keep up with him, once I got along with the pace of his speech, I was really into it.

Pink could have easily gone wrong here. Often times, passion and enthusiasm can be misconstrued as simply ranting. No one wants to have to listen to a rant. Pink, however, made sure to stay away from rant-mode by including facts, figures, and conclusive information that enhanced his point.

The only loophole in his idea is the fact that people will do things just because it's the right thing to do and they need to get it done. All too often, people don't work that way. There are so many things that need to be done that might not get done if people weren't motivated to do it. Outside motivation, whether it is money, praise, imminent punishment, or whatever, drives people. On the other hand, trust me when I say that this does not mean I believe that doctors wouldn't save lives if they weren't paid, or that kids wouldn't learn if they weren't praised. This simply means that motivation, in whatever form, keeps the world turning as we currently know it.

Daniel Pink is a man who is very in touch with his ideas and beliefs, and in his TED Talk, his enthusiasm was immensely contagious.

Sir Ken Robinson TED Talk

*May I just state that this TED Talk is quite unfair simply because Sir Ken Robinson has a fantastic accent that makes every word he says sound brilliant. It's difficult to critique a person with an accent. But here goes.

When I heard the word, "education", I started to believe that this speech would be yet another bland attempt at convincing children to stay in school, facilitated by one more successful snob telling us that if we stay in school we could end up "just like them". I, however, soon realized that Robinson's TED Talk isn't about education at all. It is, instead, painting a picture of the nature of children. He hooks listeners in with stories and little jokes, and keeps them in with thoughtful analysis of the children in today's flawed education system. I found it quite interesting when Sir Robinson began to speak about how the education system was designed to be just a naturalization process into college. Is this true? Day after day we are fed the line, "It will look great to colleges!" or perhaps, "Only one year of language is required here, but you will definitely need more to get into college." It seems as if everything we do is tracked for college. Pointless standardized tests, nondescript surveys, that mean basically nothing to us, yet they decide our entire future.

Another thing that Sir Robinson did quite well was appealing to the common man. His story about his friend and the Royal Ballet is inspiring. Everyone has a dream, whether is be to become a professional skiier, or to publish a bestselling novel. All too often, those dreams are set aside, if only because the dreamer didn't know where to begin. The education system today drives me crazy. It forces everyone to learn the exact same thing in the exact same way. Can you tell me what a brilliant dancer and choreographer would ever do with 4 years of science? Hint: Not a lot. To me, what's worse than having a dream that is set aside by other more "necessary" tasks, is a passion unrealized because one was forced to do other things instead. I would love to take sociology. And theater movement. And jewelry. The list goes on forever, however, because I have to take so many other classes, (Spanish, chemistry, Business Tech, etc.) I cannot. I might have the potential to be the best psychologist the world has ever seen, but I will never realize that potential due to the fact that I have to take four years of science instead. Which leads me to another point. I can promise, swear, cross-my-heart, that I will never end up in a profession that involves science. Ever. Science makes me want to attack someone and openly admit to doing it. Science makes me want to do really bad things. Yet, due to the fact that I'm "only a teenager and have no clue what my own preferences are or where my life could take me" I'm still forced to sit through it.

Sir Robinson has brilliant storytelling skills and an interesting perspective on children and education. While he sometimes used language that was unnecessarily large, I found myself quite inspired by this TED Talk.