To attempt to sum up the amazing content that is generated by TED is probably one of the world’s greatest exercises in futility.
Everyone who is anyone has presented their “Ideas Worth Spreading” on TED. At risk of scratching a tiny sliver off the top (or side for that matter) of the vast iceberg that is TED, I have googled a few obvious “records” and summarised them below (note that these are faithfully reproduced off what Google tells me).
1. The Most Watched TED talk
… and probably one of my personal favourites is Jill Bolte Taylor, a neuro-surgeon talking about her own observations of what happened to her brain when she herself had a stroke. Not a dry eye in this room that day I imagine.
2. The funniest Ted Talk
“… when Chris first approached me to talk at TED I said no, because I felt that I wasn’t going to be able to make that personal connection … but he convinced me so I said fine Ted, I mean Chris…” Ze Frank
3. The Longest TED talk ever
OK, so TED talks are a max of 20 minutes, so the concept of “the longest TED talk is ridiclous…. except that the longest TED talk (at just under 22 minutes) was also about living to be older than 100. Ironic.
4. Saddest TED talk
3 minutes. And what a brilliant point made.
And a postscript
We all want to be TED speakers right. Well you can be. The reason why these talks are so universally interesting, is because the speakers have to apply a very simple set of rules on length, content, pace and style.
If you want to learn to apply these to your own everyday presentations look no further than this talk about TED talks.
In itself, worthy of a TED talk!!
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