TED演讲是其领域前沿的专家对技术(Technology)、娱乐或设计(Entertainment or Design)( TED ) 主题的精彩解释。嗯(Well)，这是最初的想法，但现代TED 演讲(TED Talk)已经发展到涵盖科学、哲学和几乎任何其他人类探究领域。
因此， TED 演讲(TED Talks)较少由它处理的主题来定义，而更多地由它如何打包和共享该内容来定义。什么是TED演讲？TED(Do TED)演讲有真正的深度，还是知识界的快餐？
TED的（非常）快速历史
TED 会议(TED conference)从 1984 年就开始了！早(Long)在流式互联网视频(internet video)成为一件事之前。第一次会议展示了诸如光盘和Apple Macintosh之类的东西。尽管展示了知识产权、前沿思想和设备，但第一次TED 会议(TED conference)在财务上完全失败。
它损失了这么多钱，以至于在第二次TED 演讲(TED Talk)之前还要再等六年。直到 2000 年代，TED 演讲(TED Talks)才真正开始获得关注，剩下的就是历史了。
是什么让 TED 演讲特别？
把典型的TED 演讲(TED talk)提炼成一个可重复的公式是不太可能的，尽管你会在网上找到很多文章试图剖析“ TED 演讲(TED talk)的剖析”，通常承诺你也可以学会成为一样引人注目。
理解TED 风格(TED style)最简单的方法，实际上就是剥离所有的实质内容。只留下风格。这(Which)正是CBC Comedy在这场热闹的TED 和类似 TED(TED and TED-like talks)的演讲中所做的。
这并不是说TED 演讲(TED Talks)很乏味，远非如此！它们通常提供非常丰富的信息，并向普通观众介绍复杂的想法和前沿研究。这就是TED 演讲(TED talk)的真正力量。能够为非专业观众提供对复杂事物的清晰洞察力是该格式提供的真正价值。
TED演讲也有 18 分钟的严格时间限制(time limit)。为什么特别是 18 分钟？根据TED本身的说法，这是经过仔细的、有科学依据的推理的结果。无论如何，由于各种原因，它被证明是一个相当不错的长度。演讲者在舞台上有一个计时器，因此必须确保他们在规定的时间内说出他们需要说的一切。这只是足够的时间进行相当详细的演讲，但足够短以保持重点。
最好的TED 演讲(TED)的演讲者具有超凡魅力，通常具有强烈的幽默感、敬畏感、灵感或其他强烈的情感基础。许多TED演讲者都有很多有影响力的轶事，以配合他们需要向所有人展示的枯燥的统计数据。
正是这种娱乐和信息(entertainment and information)的有效结合，使得几乎任何好的TED 演讲(TED talk)都如此引人注目。即使是关于你根本不关心(t care)的主题。
TED 与 TEDx
TED是一个非常独特且非常昂贵的会议。这(Which)就是为什么只有当谈话被记录下来并在网上广泛分享时，它才成为家喻户晓的名字。(household name)这是“ (Which)TEDx ”存在的部分原因。TEDx会谈和会议是来自世界各地的获得许可的独立活动。它们不是由TED组织的。
相反， TED向任何申请举办TEDx的人提供许可和指导(permission and guidance)。许多(Many)最好的TED演讲实际上都是TEDx 演讲(TEDx talk)。作为在线观众(viewer online)，它并没有太大的区别。但是，重要的是要了解TEDx可以像“ TED Lite”，因为您不会总是看到最杰出的人或完全相同的生产质量(production quality)水平。
TED演讲的消极面
总的来说，TED 演讲(TED Talks)是一个积极的发展，因为它唤醒了普通人的好奇心，并将一些非常枯燥（但很重要）的话题变成了非常可分享的内容。
然而，TED 演讲(TED Talks)有一个阴暗的一面，每个人在消费他们的内容时都应该牢记这一点。TED演讲倾向于过度简化复杂的问题。他们可以使突破看起来比现实更接近或问题更少。正是这种精美格式的本质可以使事情看起来比实际更令人印象深刻。
因此，在观看完TED 演讲(TED Talk)后，您会感到印象深刻、鼓舞和敬畏，因此值得做一些实际的研究，以便在您陷入错误结论之前将炒作与现实区分开来。
必看 TED 演讲
有数百个TED 演讲(TED Talks)可供选择，因此很难知道从哪里开始。然而，作为长期的TED 演讲(TED Talk)观察者，我们可以推荐一些在TED 舞台上(TED stage)出现过的最有趣、最令人费解、令人惊叹的演讲。观看这些推荐的演讲，您一定会沉迷于TED 体验(TED experience)。
学校会扼杀创造力吗？(Do Schools Kill Creativity?)
在这段精彩的视频中，肯·罗宾逊爵士(Sir Ken Robinson)让我们重新评估了我们对教育(education)、学校教育和智力的看法。他认为我们都以自己的方式聪明和有创造力，但是当我们被推过工业时代的教育(age education)流水线时，这一切都被冲走了。
尽管罗宾逊(Robinson)所说的很多内容都值得商榷，但这是对教育系统的一次令人耳目一新的颠覆，这是一个比大多数人意识到的要晚得多的发明。
你见过的最好的统计数据(The Best Stats You’ve Ever Seen)
如果你曾经上过统计学课程，你就会知道这可能是一门枯燥的学科。这(Which)就是为什么汉斯·(Hans)罗斯林关于统计的TED 演讲(TED Talk)成为如此著名的视频。在这篇令人惊叹的文章中， Hans向我们展示了如何将统计数据可视化为有趣且信息丰富的，同时也向我们展示了一些令人震惊的关于世界的违反直觉的真相。
让我们奔跑、攀爬和跳舞的新仿生学(The New Bionics That Let Us Run, Climb And Dance)
Hugh Herr提供了一个鼓舞人心的描述，讲述了他如何克服失去双脚的过程，同时还展示了真正改变生活的尖端仿生学。这段视频是从 2014 年开始的，所以我们只能想象他的团队从那时起取得了多大的成就！
18 分钟了解我们世界的历史(The History Of Our World In 18 Minutes)
无论您正在探索什么主题，18 分钟的限制都很严格，但大卫克里斯蒂安(David Christian)将其视为个人挑战，利用这段时间谈论，嗯，一切(everything)。没错，从大爆炸一直到一系列较小(Big Bang)的(s right)刘海，一直到今天。相比之下，斯蒂芬霍金的《时间简史》(A Brief History of Time)(A Brief History of Time)看起来非常庞大！
不仅仅是谈话
很容易沉迷于互联网似乎带来的所有负面内容，但像TED Talks这样的内容展示了当你正确使用媒介(medium right)时可能发生的事情。当然, 当一个主题很重要而不是纯粹的娱乐时, 你必须成为一个批判性的观众, 但即使演讲并不完美, (t perfect)TED 演讲(TED Talks)也会扩展我们的想象力。
你有一个对你产生重大影响的TED 演讲(TED Talk)吗？在评论中分享您推荐的视频，让我们知道您对TED的看法以及它们对世界的影响。
What Is a TED Talk?
A TED talk is a fascinating explanation of a Technology, Entertainment or Design (TED) topic by experts at the cutting edge of their fields. Well, that was the original idea, but the modern TED Talk has grown to encompass science, philosophy and just about any other area of human inquiry.
TED Talks are therefore less defined by the subject matter it deals with and more by how it packages and shares that content. What are TED talks? Do TED talks have real depth, or are they the fast food of the intellectual world?
A (Very) Quick History Of TED
The TED conference has been around since 1984! Long before streaming internet video was a thing. The first conference showcased things like the compact disc and the Apple Macintosh. Despite having intellectual royalty, cutting-edge ideas, and devices on show, the first TED conference was a total failure financially.
It lost so much money that it would be another six years before the second TED Talk. It would take until the 2000s before TED Talks really started to gain traction and the rest is history.
What Makes TED Talks Special?
It’s not quite possible to distill the typical TED talk into a reproducible formula, though you’ll find plenty of articles on the net that try to dissect the “anatomy of a TED talk”, usually with the promise that you too can learn to be as compelling.
The easiest way to understand the TED style, is actually to strip all the substance out. Leaving only the style. Which is exactly what CBC Comedy has done in this hilarious sendup of TED and TED-like talks.
Which is not to say that TED Talks are vapid, far from it! They are generally very informative and introduce a general audience to complex ideas and cutting-edge research. That’s really the strength of a TED talk. The ability to offer a lay audience clear insight into complex stuff is the real value offered by the format.
TED talks also have a strict time limit of 18 minutes. Why specifically 18 minutes? According to TED itself, this is the result of careful, scientifically-backed reasoning. Regardless, it turned out to be a pretty good length for various reasons. Speakers have a timer on stage, and so have to make sure they say everything they need to in the allotted time. It’s just enough time to give a fairly detailed talk, but short enough to keep things focused.
The best TED talks have speakers with charisma and usually have strong humor, awe, inspiration or other strong emotional basis. Many TED speakers have plenty of impactful anecdotes to accompany the otherwise dry statistics they need to show everyone.
It’s this potent mix of entertainment and information that makes just about any good TED talk so compelling. Even if it’s about a subject you don’t care about at all.
TED vs TEDx
TED is a pretty exclusive and very expensive conference to attend. Which is why it only became a household name when the talks were recorded and shared widely on the net. Which is part of the reason “TEDx” exists. TEDx talks and conventions are licenced, independent events from all over the world. They are not organized by TED.
Instead TED provided permission and guidance to anyone who applied to host a TEDx. Many of the best TED talks are in fact TEDx talk. As a viewer online, it doesn’t make that much difference. However, it’s important to understand that TEDx can be like “TED Lite” in the sense that you won’t always see the most prominent folks or exactly the same level of production quality.
The Negative Side Of TED Talks
In general, TED Talks have been a positive development in the sense that it has awakened curiosity in the average person and turned some very dry (yet important) topics into very shareable content.
However, there’s a dark side to TED Talks that everyone should keep in mind when consuming their content. TED talks have a tendency to oversimplify complex issues. They can make it seem like a breakthrough is closer or has fewer problems than in reality. It’s the nature of this polished format that can make things seem more impressive than they really are.
So as impressed, inspired and awestruck you feel after watching a TED Talk, it’s worth doing some actual research to separate the hype from reality before you get swept toward false conclusions.
Must-See TED Talks
There are hundreds of TED Talks to choose from, so it can be hard to know where to begin. As long-time TED Talk watchers ourselves, however, we can recommend a few of the most interesting, mind-bending and plain amazing talks that have graced the TED stage. Watch these suggested talks and you’re sure to be hooked on the TED experience.
In this amazing video, Sir Ken Robinson makes us reevaluate how we think about education, schooling, and intelligence. He makes the argument that we’re all smart and creative in our own ways, but by the time we’ve been pushed through our industrial age education assembly line, it’s all been washed away.
While a lot of what Robinson says is debatable, it’s a refreshing tear down of an educational system that’s a much more recent invention than most people realize.
If you’ve ever taken a statistics course, you’ll know it can be a dry subject. Which is why Hans Rosling’s TED Talk on statistics became such a famous video. In this amazing piece Hans shows us how statistics can be visualized to be interesting and informative, while also showing us some shocking numbers of counterintuitive truths about the world.
Hugh Herr provides an inspirational account of how he overcame losing both of his feet, while also showcasing cutting-edge bionics that are literally life-changing. This video is from all the way back in 2014, so we can only imagine how much his team has accomplished since then!
An 18-minute limit is tight no matter what topic you’re exploring, but David Christian took it as a personal challenge, using that time to talk about, well, everything. That’s right, from the Big Bang all the way through a series if somewhat smaller bangs, right up to the present day. Stephen Hawking’s A Brief History of Time looks positively gargantuan in comparison!
More Than Talk
It’s easy to get hung up on all the negative stuff the internet seems to bring, but content like TED Talks show what’s possible when you use the medium right. Sure, you have to be a critical viewer whenever a subject is important rather than pure entertainment, but TED Talks expand our imaginations even when the talks aren’t perfect.
Do you have a TED Talk that had a major impact on you? Share your recommended videos down in the comments, and let us know what you think about TED and their impact on the world.
