[colechristensen]

TED talks are infotainment. Pornography for people whose vice is feeling like they've been inspired and gotten smarter. In short, they ring false.

It feels like you're learning something, but the lesson plan was devised by a marketing department for the idea. It feels like the primary motivation is how good of a story can be told, and not the actual truth.

"Popular science" in all its forms – sucks. Leading people to believe things because they're told in a certain way that makes them feel good. The problem is you don't get to truth because the explanation is easy to understand and intuitive. Lies are easy when that kind of explanation is common.

When you're actually learning things, you need to be able to substantiate the facts, not just have statistics and study results thrown at you by an engaging speaker. In real science classes they make you drop balls and measure currents and synthesize chemicals and do calculations.

I also loved TED talks when I was younger.

[fidla]

There are still interesting talks...you have to weed through them though. David Byrne gave a talk about the history of acoustics which I found fascinating.

[colechristensen]

Absolutely, I'm talking about the collection as a whole, not necessarily every individual talk. The problems though are pretty pervasive and try hard to elicit that "I found fascinating" feeling, but you find more that accuracy and meaningfulness take a back seat to fascination.

[jplayer01]

I don't get this sentiment. https://www.npr.org/programs/ted-radio-hour/347104878/transf... What's wrong with something like this? I thought it was an amazing piece. They're all TED speakers with interesting stories to tell. Is it bad to be inspired by these stories now? Are we not allowed to learn from the experiences others have made, or to learn about their struggles, even if maybe we can't necessarily apply them to our own lives? I feel a distinct lack of empathy around here.