TEDTalks – Ideas Worth Spreading – Video Worth Watching

TED is an annual conference at which a bunch of (hopefully?) remarkable people say remarkable things. I’m using the word in a Seth Godin sort of way: remarkable things are those which inspire people to literally remark about them.

It appears to be “A-list” event, meaning that I’m not likely to make the cut anytime soon.

Fortunately, many TED sessions are available to the rest of us online: TEDTalks. Here are some that I bookmarked to watch again; the download links are for QuickTime videos. Many of these are also on Google Video or elsewhere.

Burt Rutan

Barry Schwartz

Malcom Gladwell

Steven Levitt

Nicholas Negroponte

Hans Rosling (One word summary: Wow.)

Ken Robinson – Do schools today kill creativity?

Dan Gilbert – The (misguided) pursuit of happiness

The Secret of Happiness, according to Dan Gilbert:

  1. Accrue wealth, power, and prestige. Then lose it.
  2. Spend as much of your life in prison as you possibly can.
  3. Make someone else really, really rich.
  4. Never ever join the Beatles.

(watch the video for the story behind this)