I have taken to downloading TED Talks for the commute to Broomfield (or random jaunts to the grocery store; I'm not picky). I can't remember how it first started. I've been doing Lanky Guys and Catholic Stuff podcasts and decided that I should figure out this phenomenon.
The idea behind TED is to share ideas.
There are conferences all around the world dedicated to just sharing ideas.
Isn't that wonderful?
In today's world that is so bent on productivity and one-upmanship and success and money and comparing yourself to the fake version of someone else that they decide to broadcast to the world, there are whole conferences where people sit and listen to other people share ideas.
There may be nothing more that comes of a talk than an interesting conversation. And that is okay.
Blame it on my introvert nature, or my melancholic longing for something better, but I hate small talk. Hate. I would rather stand in the corner for an entire evening--awkward as that is--than spend time gossiping about co-workers or trying to out-do each other for craziest work story or just rehash some pop culture news item. I want to talk about REAL THINGS. Science and philosophy and history and human experience.
Apparently there are other people who share this desire. Or else why TED talks? The beauty of this, if you can find ones worth listening to (and ones presented by speakers with understandable accents), is that someone else has already done the reading, the studying, the learning--and you get to benefit. You get the bullet-point, sound-byte-sized revelations that are interesting. That are worth sharing.
For example--
The power of games to increase resilience
One really important reason why we need sleep
Apparently my standards aren't high enough
TED talks obviously aren't the only way to get us beyond small talk. I'm just excited that I can slowly expand my universe during my drive. And I'd like to encourage you to do the same. Let me know if you find good ones.
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