Tag Archives: TED

“I think you’d be good at it.”

On Saturday, I was part of something incredible.

TEDxYouth@Seattle was an event that has taken me on one of the greatest emotional roller coasters of my life, but on Saturday, all of that was forgotten and I was on cloud nine. Over the past eight months, I have been in the trenches with a number of other young and passionate individuals, people I believe truly want to make the world a better place, working hard to make this event happen. I owe them – Jessica Hendrawidjaja, Kimmi Newsum, Michael Kim, Chris Mathews, Alex Diaz, and Cindy Wu – my deepest gratitude for making this experience what it was. Although I was “Creative Chair” and emcee for the event, anyone who has been apart of a seven-person team knows that titles are poor descriptions for what each person contributes. Everyone on our team was helping out in every aspect of this event, and it really showed on Saturday.

While being an emcee for the event was a huge honor and pleasure, the greatest joy came from simply being at the event. I was witness to an awe-inspiring lineup of young talent from the west coast who conveyed messages of love, agency, change, and ultimately passion about our role and responsibility to make the world we live in better. It may be through empowering ourselves, empowering others, starting a business, building a product, or simply dancing, but there is room for all of us to step forward, shed our disbelief, and try to change the world. As Houston Kraft reminded us, sometimes someone just needs to say “I think you’d be good at it.” For the attendees at TEDxYouth@Seattle on Saturday, there were ten speakers who told them just that, through a variety of stories, experiences, and emotions, and you could feel the energy changing in the room.

While there are a number of things I would change if we did this over again, I would do it again in a heartbeat. Being a part of a room of hundreds of people who are interested and engaged in changing the world is invigorating in so many ways. The smiles, conversations, and energy I felt during the breaks between the sessions were empowering, and I was thankful for every single person in that room. I can confidently say that everyone at the event was moved in some way, all I can hope is that every one of them realized that they have the capacity and the responsibility to be an agent of change in this world.

As a final note, I need to thank all of our speakers, sponsors, volunteers and audience one more time. YOU were what made this event happen.

Twenty Ten: A Year in Review

4 People Shared Their Thoughts

Each year brings all of us more experiences and lessons that shape our perspective as we move throughout the world. While I’ve previously written about two things that drastically changed my life this year, my reflections about 2010 over the past few weeks have yielded realizations of other major changes for me and those around me.

I consider myself fortunate to be surrounded by the people I am and with the opportunities I have. 2010 was a year of huge growth for me, continuously supported friends and by the Internet. So, I’ve laid out two TOP 10s of 2010 – exploring the great accomplishments of those around me and some of the most interesting places I hang out online. After you read these, I encourage you to think about what made 2010 special for you, and thank the people that are helping make life special for you each and every day.
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TED Tuesday #10 – Why work doesn’t happen at work

1 Person Shared Their Thoughts

While being sick and bedridden would drive most people to watch their favorite movies or catch up on the latest TV series on HULU, I most often find myself watching TED talks. As today is one of those days where I’m stuck at home, I wanted to share a great talk by Jason Fried about “Why work doesn’t happen at work.”

Fried’s talk hits home with an idea that many people can probably relate to; there are far too many distractions at work to allow real work to get done. As Fried puts it, “the door to the office is like a CusinArt, shredding your day into a million bits.” He points out that time spent on Facebook and Twitter today are the equivalent of the 15 minute smoking breaks in the 50s, and that it isn’t these distractions that are causing problems at work. Rather, the problems are M&Ms: managers and meetings.

The real distractions at work come from how your day gets fragmented into face-to-face interactions that remove you from your working environment. While this can seem productive at first, work, like sleep, happens in stages, where you have to progress through the early ones to get through the deep ones. If you are interrupted in those early stages, you don’t make it to the deeper, more productive ones. Fried’s talk is quite provocative, and he ultimately suggests a few strategies to make workplaces better.

Check out the full post for 16 minutes of great quotations like: “You can hide instant messages; you can’t hide your manager.”

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TED Tuesday #9 – “I am my connectome”

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I have to admit that the beginning of Sebastian Seung‘s talk on connectomes was a bit confusing. He speaks slowly and with purpose, but being unfamiliar with neuro science or connectomics, I was a bit lost. However, my confusion was abated after the first two minutes.

In his TED talk, Dr. Seung outlines a map that he sees as more accurate than DNA for understanding what a person really “is.” This is a connectome – a map of the connections that exist between all of your neurons. While such a map is a huge undertaking, Seung is ambitious and hopeful, and he explains why in his talk below:

TED Tuesday #8 – With interest comes education [2/2]

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In watching videos for this week’s TED Tuesday, a common theme arose between my selections – education as a self-organized and self-sustaining process. Both Professor Sugatra Mitra and TED Curator Chris Anderson touch on these ideas in the videos I’ve posted.

Professor Mitra explains various experiments that he has done around the world as part of his “Hole in the Wall” project, placing computers in public locations and monitoring their use by children as self-teaching tools. He states that “when you have interest, you have education,” and outlines what has become of his project – the development of S.O.L.E.s, or self-organized learning environments. He sees this type of group learning as the key to pushing education in the future, similar to how Anderson credits web videos with the large “Crowd Accelerated Innovation” movement that is taking place in arenas from breakdancing to unicycling.

While I agree with the three parts of Anderson’s formula – a crowd, “light,” and desire – I don’t know that I necessarily see web videos alone taking over the education arena the way that he does. I think that for now, and for at least the next five years, web-based group learning will supplement a lot of traditional education in many developed regions, until we have better ways to learn and interact online. For more of those thoughts, check out PART ONE of “With interest comes education.” See the full post for videos from Professor Mitra and Anderson.