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| Image is of Ran Gavrieli during his Ted Talk: "Why I stopped watching porn." I will point out that by "thoughtful discussions", I am implying that while the talks are given to you, they prompt personal contemplation and thought on the subject. |
The internet is a wonderful place full of information on topics far and wide if one takes the time to look. As a result of looking, I came across a bountiful range of wisdom and philosophical thoughts in the form of Ted Talks. Talks given at various places around the world, recorded, and placed on the internet. Lets talk about them.
Philosophy and Wisdom. Two topics under which a great many of my near 100 personal blog posts fall. (Or so I hope, delusions of grandeur being what they are.) As a subject of discussion, I find these topics very easy to contemplate and logically discuss with usually minimal research as opposed to my other topics of interest. (Such as operating systems. If you were hoping for that topic today, please give me a day or two to get the facts mostly straight.)
As such, my discovery of Ted Talks a while back was quite pleasing as their discussions greatly mirrored my interests and grasped my attention in most cases. For those of you unaware, "TED is a nonprofit devoted to spreading ideas, usually in the form of short, powerful talks (18 minutes or less). TED began in 1984 as a conference where Technology, Entertainment and Design converged, and today covers almost all topics — from science to business to global issues — in more than 100 languages. Meanwhile, independently run TEDx events help share ideas in communities around the world."
tl:dr, Ted Talks are meaningful talks about almost any topic. Be they social, global, scientific, philosophical, and whatever other subject you might think would be interesting to debate. Of course, with my crazy and rather nerdy personality that loves learning for the sake of learning, the opportunity to listen to these talks on such a vast array of topics is nothing less that exciting for myself, and I enjoy watching each one that is emailed to me, even if the subject isn't quite on par with my typical interests.
Of course, one can only rave so much about something until they start sounding biased and/or bought. (They didn't pay me, I promise.) So allow me to share some of the Ted Talks that I've quite enjoyed since I discovered them, as well as one or two that I recently enjoyed.
Please note the next section discusses sexual behavior and is not entirely suitable for minors. If you're easily offended, or a minor, I suggest you pass over this next paragraph. That said, your actions are your own. You have been warned however, and I do not condone the exposure of minors to anything unsuitable for their age.
The first video was Ran Gavrieli's "Why I stopped watching porn", a video in which he discusses his reasoning behind no longer indulging in what is admittedly, something of a taboo subject. (Admit it, when you read that title, your first reaction was probably that this video is about how it's bad to touch yourself or you'll get hair on your palms. etc.) The point is, sexual behavior is very much stigmatized and people avoid talking about it, even though, shockingly, you are the product of it. What's interesting about Mr Gavrieli's talk is that he takes the argument far further than just the idea of "self" and the effects it has you alone, but points out the greater social impact that the simple act of indulging in porn may have on the world.
While I won't spoil the greater points of the talk, I will say that it is very thought provoking and even stands as my favorite Ted Talk for one simple reason which I am not afraid to state due to the veracity it gives to his topic; since watching his talk, I have not once watched porn of any kind. As such, it stands as my favorite simply because it inspired a fundamental change in my own behavior with nothing more than a thoughtful inspection of the unseen impact of our behavior on the world. Do yourself a favor, watch this video to the end, you may be pleasantly surprised.
(Before you think that it's awfully brave, or silly, of me to blatantly speak about such things on the internet, I will point out that 90% of children between 12 and 18 years of age have access to the internet. While statistics can be skewed, personal experience cannot, and before I was even 13, both myself and the great majority of my peers in primary school, were fully aware of, and had seen, pornographic material. It's a pertinent social issue and one I do not fear talking about when necessary.)
While I won't spoil the greater points of the talk, I will say that it is very thought provoking and even stands as my favorite Ted Talk for one simple reason which I am not afraid to state due to the veracity it gives to his topic; since watching his talk, I have not once watched porn of any kind. As such, it stands as my favorite simply because it inspired a fundamental change in my own behavior with nothing more than a thoughtful inspection of the unseen impact of our behavior on the world. Do yourself a favor, watch this video to the end, you may be pleasantly surprised.
(Before you think that it's awfully brave, or silly, of me to blatantly speak about such things on the internet, I will point out that 90% of children between 12 and 18 years of age have access to the internet. While statistics can be skewed, personal experience cannot, and before I was even 13, both myself and the great majority of my peers in primary school, were fully aware of, and had seen, pornographic material. It's a pertinent social issue and one I do not fear talking about when necessary.)
Potentially controversial section over, I commend you for overcoming curiosity if you did decide to skip the section entirely.
Learning. It should come as no surprise that a talk about learning is one that I found very interesting. What I enjoyed, however, from Josh Kaufman's talk is how he not only humorously combined personal experience with greater philosophical thought, but also entertainingly applied the message he was conveying by using it in practice on the stage right before his audience. He effectively shows how easy learning can actually be and how significant time investment is not necessary to becoming "good" at any particular skill.
That aside, extra points for mentioning the Axis of Awesome and their famous 4 cord song.
Of course, as a self-respecting YouTube addict and fan of learning, my listing would be incomplete without mentioning that my favorite learning channel Vsauce's very own Michael Stevens, who has been mentioned many times in my posts, did his very own talk about "Why do we ask questions?" As he does in his typical YouTube video, he uses this initial question as a way to discuss many other related idea's in an entertaining and interesting way, much like I try to do myself on the TCSA blog. Certainly worth watching, though I am more than likely biased in this case.
Apart from these 3 talks which are somewhat centered around my own interests, some other interesting talks that I watched recently are Meaghan Ramsey: Why thinking you're ugly is bad for you and Myriam Sidibe: The simple power of hand-washing which both discuss current and important social issues in the world, and ways that they can be addressed. While perhaps not specifically in my own interests, these are good talks as they effectively make their topic interesting despite this. They help you to understand the issue and it's factors while at the same time trying to spur you into helping to curb and solve these issues to make a better world. As such, it's again, worth watching them for interest's sake, if not the cause.
In any case, that is all I really have to share on the case of Ted Talks currently, though they may inspire future discussions with me as time passes. If you have any Ted Talks that you personally find quite thought provoking, or just wish to make a suggestion for a future topic, please consider telling us about it down in the comments below, or via Facebook/Twitter as we here at TCSA love to hear from you. Of course, if you have any friends who you think may be interested in the Ted Talks, consider sharing this post with them as well. I'm sure they will appreciate it. And if you yourself would like to read more interesting posts like this one, consider liking the Official TCSA Facebook page or following us on Twitter using the associated buttons on the bar to the left, so that you can get all the latest posts, as they're shared. Regardless of what you do, I thank you for having taken the time to read this article; hope that you have/had an absolutely FANTASTIC day, and I will speak again soon.
Learn on my friends.
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