I first learned of TED a few months ago when my brother sent me a link to a TED talk about pain. More recently, I started exploring the TED website, and I AM HOOKED! Here is a brief synopsis of TED. Perhaps you will get hooked as well. TED is by far one of the best ways I have found to keep my mind distracted and off of my pain and other issues.
So, you ask, what is TED already? TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design. It is a non-profit organization, whose byline is Ideas Worth Spreading. It started in 1984 as a conference, where it brought together people from all walks of life, each of whom had innovative ideas to share. To quote their website, the 2 annual TED conferences " bring together the world's most fascinating thinkers and doers, who are challenged to give the talk of their lives (in 18 minutes or less)." Additional topics include science, arts, entertainment and business. You can search for talks of interest to you in a specific topic, or watch whatever interests you of the talks that appear on the screen. You can resize the talks that appear by most recent, most emailed, most viewed, most commented on, or by a number of tags such as most fascinating, jaw-dropping, beautiful, inspiring, humorous, and the list goes on. I am learning interesting info on topics I am familiar with, as well as topics I never even thought about before.
Many of these talks are available free at the TED website, with more added each week. Another quote from the website: "We believe passionately in the power of ideas to change attitudes, lives and ultimately, the world." One of the many things TED does is award a TEDprize annually. This prize goes to a person with a big idea to change the world for the better. This person is given $100,000 to do just that. Looking through all the amazing things on the TED website, I feel like there is hope for the future of the world.
To give you a taste, here are a few of my favorite videos I have found. Check out the site yourself. I think you will be as blown away as I was (am).
This is just a small sample of TED. When I started writing this blog post, I explored the website and found more and more areas I had not noticed before. As I said above, I get so involved with what I am finding that my pain and other issues disappear from my mind. TED is a great way to distract yourself from your illness, to learn, to be inspired, to be fascinated.
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