I personally adore everything which gives me inspiration. Being inspired is an enjoyable experience in itself and may also lead to new and potentially useful ideas.
Therefore, I was delighted to find out about TED, an organization which holds an annual four-day conference for top speakers to share their ideas on almost any topic (motivated by three US $100,000 prizes). Most presentations are limited to 15-20 minutes, which ensures that the speakers stick to the key messages.
Attending this event requires an invitation and a US$6,000 fee (the prize money has to come from somewhere), so it is great that TED posts all the presentations online for free viewing.
Below please find a selection of what I consider to be “must-see” presentations:
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Ken Robinson: How schools kill creativity
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iG9CE55wbtY[/youtube] -
Steve Jobs: How to live before you die
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UF8uR6Z6KLc[/youtube]
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Benjamin Zander: On Music and Passion
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r9LCwI5iErE[/youtube]
(For more information on how to enjoy classical music please have a look at this blog post)
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Marc Pachter: The Art of The Interview
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F_NEIwDiCSw[/youtube]
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Dan Buettner: How to live to be 100+
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I-jk9ni4XWk[/youtube]
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Rory Sutherland: Life lessons from an ad man
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pV-SkZs5rh8[/youtube]
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VS Ramachandran on your mind
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rl2LwnaUA-k[/youtube]
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Murray Gell-Mann on beauty and truth in physics
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UuRxRGR3VpM[/youtube]
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Jill Bolte Taylor's stroke of insight
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UyyjU8fzEYU[/youtube]
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Thulasiraj Ravilla: How low-cost eye care can be world-class
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b5QCM1_gVGA[/youtube]
Other presentations I enjoyed watching (among many others):
- Charles Anderson discovers dragonflies that cross oceans
- Arthur Benjamin does "Mathemagic"
- Brian Greene on string theory
- Hans Rosling stastistics
- Scott Kim takes apart the art of puzzles
- Barry Schwarz on the paradox of choice
- Steven Pinker on the myth of violence
- Sunitha Krishnan fights sex slavery
- Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi on flow
- The Raspyni Brothers juggling
- Steve Truglia: A leap from space
Did I miss any?