TED: Terribly Erratic Discussions
I follow no one on Twitter. I don’t choose to learn or get my news that way, but I do provide what I consider value daily to the 7,500 people who read my Tweets. Some people are upset that I don’t reciprocate with followers, but they must have a Twitter etiquette book I’ve never seen. Besides, when I see someone “following” 20,000 people I simply don’t believe it.
And, it’s a nice contrarian touch to follow no one.
I think I may be in the same position by not having appeared on TED. (Fair disclosure: They’ve never asked.) It seems as if everyone has appeared on TED, and everyone AND their dog on TEDx. There are people who groom you to apply, who coach you on your talks, and now a leader in TED is instructing people on how best to present ideas.
This from an operation which once featured a guy demonstrating how to use a single paper towel to dry your hands completely in the rest room. (I am not making that up.) I remember when I stopped reading the esteemed Harvard Business Review around the time they started publishing tripe on “how to run successful meetings” and other banal stuff for the human resource crowd, no longer pretending to focus on senior executives.
TED has progressed from an interesting site for new or unorthodox ideas to a pseudo-intellectual living room where everyone wants to be invited and have their parking validated. TEDx has exacerbated the trend of not having to meet certain criteria to appear but rather appearing to show that your ticket has been stamped. There are some excruciatingly poor presentations. Twice I wrote to point out content or presentation errors, and twice I was fastidiously informed that “only positive feedback is allowed.” That certainly diminished the intellectual element for me, how about you?!
I think it’s a good example of dramatically decreasing brand value through overexposure in a very brief time frame. Who knows? Maybe there’s a TED talk in that. But it won’t be coming from me.
© Alan Weiss 2016
Jim Reid
LOL. No arguments about the main point. TED is now a staple for the treadmill and spin bike, USUALLY entertaining as long as it’s not the sole focus of your attention, but not as stimulating as it once was. Perhaps just a little softer on the judgement though, with a cautionary call for discrimination, rather than total condemnation.