The long knives have been out for TED Talks for some time. Benjamin Bratton called them “middlebrow megachurch infotainment.”Evegny Morozov called the TED publishing arm the “insatiable kingpin of international meme laundering.” The gist of these arguments is that TED Talks are vapid, culty mass-selfies that fetishize technology for every solution. It is “placebo science” meant to make its audience feel good about learning and themselves, where ideas can hang out and do whatever, man—just turn the safety off on your brain-gun.
More at The Awl
They are just like any of these things including trading expos – a load of self serving crap with a few diamonds lodged among it. The trick is to have the patience switch on and the BS filter switched to high. Then you will find things like this
“Nilofer Merchant: Got a Meeting? Take a Walk
Nilofer Merchant’s concept is quite simple: We are sitting 9.3 hours per day on average — and it is slowly killing us. “Sitting has become the smoking of our generation,” she says. So instead of having the typical work meeting, take your meetings outside — and you’ll be surprised by how easily fresh air can drive fresh thinking.”
You could argue that this should be simple common sense. Just spend 30 years in corporate Australia and you will find it’s not. After it’s been pushed out in enough warm fussy fests the HR idiots will think it’s a good idea (Just like mission statements)
(Also note how I use quotation marks AND still leave you with the ability to read the contents hint hint)