Why TED talks suck now

I am a thought leader you know that I'm a thought leader because I'm wearing a Blazer I have glasses and I've just done this with my hands in the early 2010s TED Talks were highly regarded around the world for giving the public never before seen access to the world's brightest Minds I just couldn't put my finger huge bust huge bust huge bust huge bust you keep going but somewhere along the way something changed today the conference has a reputation for being little more than a place for people to roleplay as Tech Visionaries what is a

birthday I think it can best be understood by breaking down the word birth and day whether it's due to overall poor quality control or the insane rumors about the way they treat speakers they don't agree with Eddie Wong came in here Eddie Wong told his gross story that makes you just go ew Ted these talks have undeniably gone from thought-provoking the provoking thoughts no one asked for one thing I am certain of is that no one ever heard me at work I made sure you guys will not be able to believe like your eyes watch

the success stories my lab has had the Ted conference actually goes back to 1984 when a man named Richard sa Worman wanted to bring together leading thinkers from different fields to share ideas worth spreading it's initially aimed at people working in the newly established Silicon Valley where companies like apple Atari and LucasArts are more interested in the Big Ideas behind technology rather than the computer parts themselves so Ted is created as a place where they can share these ideas about the emerging fields of Technology entertainment and design all in all this first event serves as

a good proof of concept digital audio is becoming something that is more wellknown I'm not sure how many of you have actually had a chance to hear it [Music] it had uh almost 700 ICS in it so you could by 1990 when Silicon Valley is the tech Hub of the world Ted is pretty much their official annual conference with a small but devout community of Ted sters who bring in revolutionary ideas from all sorts of fields we make computers that one best weapon we have to explore this new world is the one between our ears

providing it loaded what is a collective M People you and this conference was good for me was it good for you this has been Richard's dream all along there was 150 women and 411 men 50 people with phds there are 24 people from nine countries and with his vision now fully realized he's tired this is when devout teder Chris Anderson comes to the rescue and I think you have a right to who know that I paid $14 million for this fortunately he's just the guy for the job because Chris knows what Ted means to people

no selling no corporate bull no bandwagoning you know no platforms just the pursuit of Interest wherever it lies that's not going to be changed at all oh if you only knew yes D cat in 2006 after seeing the potential of online media sharing Chris introduces ted.com opening the gates of this exclusive conference to the world however while this might appear to be a great thing for you and me many of the OG tedsters would argue that removing exclusivity might end up making it worse for everyone as the event becomes less about ideas worth spreading and

more about just ideas they post their first talks from the 2006 conference needless to say people are stunned at some point during the next 4 days your brain might explode by then you won't even care it's time for Ted but things were just getting started public figures begin to see Ted in a whole new light not just for exchanging ideas but also coming across to Consumers as more human like yeah I know that's literally gain Maxwell but guys she saw a plas deer in the ocean and now she cares about the ocean I was devastated

I was angry and I understood stood immediately that the ocean was in trouble no I think she was just scared for her part of the ocean if you know what I'm saying cuz she's a pet speaker lineup in 2007 brings Ted to a whole new level Larry Page and Serj Brin the founders of Google the founder and CEO of Amazon Richard Branson the founder of Virgin Airlines Bill Clinton who um won the prestigious Ted prize you're looking at a woman who was publicly silent more partners and fewer terrorists with more productive citizens and they even

got director JJ Abrams when I talked to the uh the kind rep from Ted and I said listen you know what what should I talk about uh he said don't worry about it just just be profound anyway the list goes on and the following years that list gets even longer however despite the quality of their speakers and ideas the online viewers simply weren't satisfied they wanted more to which Chris politely responds why don't you make your own introducing Ted X the idea is simple give everyone the ability to host their own Ted Talk genius right

but can't I just get a stage and get a bunch of speakers and do the same thing no are you fing kidding me you really think people are going to listen to some guy standing on a stage with no red letters behind him of course not but that's okay just pay us and we'll send you your own it'll have a little Watermark indicating that you're nothing but trust me no one's going to notice for a little while these Ted X talks were pretty good but very soon things took a turn for the worst and the

biggest red flag was right there from the start the surprising thing about today's meeting is that we here at Ted have had almost nothing to do with it now a huge chunk of Ted's brain is something they admit they have nothing to do with it was obvious the floodgates had opened the barrier to entry wasn't just lowered it was obliterated even though they added the X most people see them as one and the same Ted X ruined Ted's public perception for the longest time I didn't know the difference I suspect a lot of people are

the same people start asking questions like what ideas could a 5-year-old possibly have that are worth spreading talking about why kids should have an hourong recess and I said Mr Ganer I really want to play Scaro Tarantella by wowski and he just went I you are not capable of that and I was angry but I was determined because I had played this piece before yeah if you're teacher says you're not ready for something it's most likely because you are not [Music] sounds like she put too much frosin on her bow look at her wrist it's

so [Music] tight Ted has become a brand machine turning complex ideas into 18-minute viral cable chunks perfect for Consultants looking to beef up their credentials remember when Chris said this no selling no corporate famous last word this is the my [Music] roast it is a 2 Kil rooster also comes in a 5 kilo model made entirely of stainless steel no selling no corporate bu no more need for any kind of school certifications or proof of any kind that you've mastered your craft to earn credibility all you need is an uplifting and engaging story then you

can sit back and let the big red letters do the rest many people who seek to we the power of the letters are relatively harmless using them for nothing more than to roleplay as Silicon Valley Visionaries but some for much more selfish reasons or even downright evil ones at the 2014 Ted Med or medical conference a lady named Elizabeth Holmes takes the stage to speak about her revolutionary new device that she claims has the potential to disrupt the evil medical industry an industry that makes billions of dollars a year off people's s suffering well not

anymore the health and well-being of every person of those we love is a basic human right is your left foot itching and you're worrying you might have scabies have you swallowed a battery and wondering how long until you turn into Mr Electric well in this talk Elizabeth basically promises that with one prick of the finger this device can determine that I got to say I'm sold H uh-oh in November a judge sentenced her to more than 11 years in prison after she raised many millions of dollars from investors by making false claims about her company

turns out all of it was a lie and even with actual scientists calling it out from the very start this lie was still somehow able to make it all the way to store shelves patients were misdiagnosed with everything from diabetes to cancer she was able to trick people out of millions of dollars and make it under the cover of Forbes by tricking people into thinking she knew what she was talking about that is the power behind the red letters Ted knows it they also know that now the people do to 2009 I met a thought

leader and I asked him how did you become a thought leader and you know what he said he said I don't know now that doesn't sound important and it's not I see Ted Talks mentioned more often again however in a rather negative way like well after he's done spending all that Kickstarter money and running the company into the ground he can always go write a book about it and hold a lame Ted talk to promote it I lost my job because I used my corporate car on my gambling accounts things got to the point where

people started to criticize Ted on their own platform some would go up and make the speech topic problems they have with Ted and others would do talks about nothing at all just to prove how easy it was to get a [Applause] talk can I have this water here give me like 25 seconds here give me like 10 more seconds and after this wave of Pate things got a little more serious with some referring to it as a cult there's talks online about an early Joe Rogan episode featuring Eddie hang who was kicked out for not

following their cult-like orders however this video and all traces of the episode are taken down but this isn't all too uncharacteristic of them as they've been known to do their fair share of banning speakers whose ideas they deemed not worthy of spreading but the ones they didn't allow seemed pretty tame to me they banned Nick hanauer's talk named rich people don't create jobs the talk was deemed too political and never put online in 2013 rert sheldrick was banned for giving a talk called exposing scientific dogmas and after removing the video Ted released a brief statement

about their reasoning behind the band we feel a responsibility not to provide a platform for talks which appear to have crossed the line into pseudo science I'll just let that sink in let me just remind you all that aside from the little Theos slip up these are the same people who let this lady talk about why superhero posing in the bathroom is scientifically proven to better your health the people who can use it the most are the ones with no resources and no technology and no status and no power give it to them because they

can do it in private they need their bodies privacy and two minutes and it can significantly change the outcomes of their life This was later proven to be false by another scientific study which showed it's 100% proven to make you look like a idiot anyway pretty recently Ted did something that seems to be an acknowledgement of their past mistakes showing that they agree the conference has strayed far from its original Mission earlier this year they decided to change they're sorry they're not changing anything things that we're kind of evolving they are evolving their tagline this

is third evolution this is Raichu from ideas worth spreading to ideas change everything what does that even mean one of the things that we're kind of evolving is our tagline in our mission statement from ideas we're ex spreading to ideas change everything