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Forum - Is TED worth a damn?

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Agent MattPosted: Apr 06, 2011 - 11:17
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Genuine American Monster

Level: 70
CS Original

TED has given me reason to be skeptical of the quality of their talks before, but this one raises all sorts of red flags for me:

http://www.ted.com/talks/morgan_spurlock_the_greatest_ted_talk_ever_sold.html

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Inside JobPosted: Apr 06, 2011 - 20:10
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Level: 2
CS Original

What was your problem with it?

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domokatoPosted: Apr 06, 2011 - 20:15
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Level: 4
CS Original

Standing ovation? What for?

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Agent MattPosted: Apr 06, 2011 - 20:23
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Genuine American Monster

Level: 70
CS Original

"What was your problem with it?"

Its fuckin' Morgan Spurlock what do you mean what is my problem with it?

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Inside JobPosted: Apr 06, 2011 - 21:00
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Level: 2
CS Original

WTF?!?!?! Next you'll be saying bad things about Michael Moore...

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Agent MattPosted: Apr 06, 2011 - 21:48
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Genuine American Monster

Level: 70
CS Original

trollface.jpg

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Inside JobPosted: Apr 06, 2011 - 22:37
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Level: 2
CS Original

^Now that's just lazy!

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The Burger KingPosted: Apr 07, 2011 - 11:27
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I can't stop posting pictures of poop, what the fuck is wrong with me?

Level: 5
CS Original

The same people who do not read books seem to like TED talks. I've seen some interesting things on TED talk but I've seen some interesting things on other sites and in real life as well.

I'm not a fan of the site but I do not dislike the site; I don't think it does anything really new or special in itself. It's just a site to present popular junk like a magazine, a newspaper etc...

I'm unsure really how they rate something as good enough to be shown on TED talks but I suppose if they revamped the rating system a bit to be fair and to put things into a particular category for instance if something is about engineering then label it as engineering. Have engineers actually in those fields rate the project and gain credibility with the category of engineering.

This would go for a projects that focuses on psychology. If their is no real tangible evidence or use of the scientific method on such things the experts in those given fields should decide what's good or bad.

In this case Morgan Spurlock credibility would be but into question by the experts on his documentary's he's done in the past. Then he'd have to produce data supporting his hypothesis within what he is making his film about at this it can't be unbias data. After that experts would deem it's credibility and people who are not a expert in the given field should weigh if this is good enough for TED talks or not.

I just do not see such a review process ever happening at TED talks. If their was such a review process people like Morgan Spurlock would never pass such a process.

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Agent MattPosted: Apr 07, 2011 - 11:36
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Genuine American Monster

Level: 70
CS Original

The first TED Talks I was exposed to were from people like Michael Shermer and Steven Pinker, which I of course absolutely loved. But after following TED Talks for a bit longer I've come to realize that people like Shermer and Pinker are the exception rather than the norm.

I thought TED was about promoting science, critical thinking and skepticism but it seems to be more about providing a platform for anyone to share ideas regardless of whether or not the ideas are any good.

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domokatoPosted: Apr 07, 2011 - 12:40
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Level: 4
CS Original

Yeah, there is nothing explicitly skeptical about TED. It's about "sharing ideas" or whatever, which conceivably could include a bunch of a new age woo as well. I've seen some half-baked stuff on there, is what I'm saying.

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