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Tue, Feb 26 2013 23:20:35

Umair Haque on the TED-ification of Ideas

Inspired by an amusing hashtag, Umair Haque deconstructs (in a few hundred tweets) what TED's format and popularity portend for the future of society, education, and critical thought.

  1. umairh
    umair haque@umairh
    Poor People: Sell Your Organs #fivewordtedtalks
    Mon, Feb 25 2013 19:00:24
  2. umairh
    umair haque@umairh
    Sex With Drones: Infinite Futuregasm #fivewordtedtalks
    Mon, Feb 25 2013 19:02:06
  3. umairh
    umair haque@umairh
    Human Rights: Who Needs Them? #fivewordtedtalks
    Mon, Feb 25 2013 19:05:03
  4. umairh
    umair haque@umairh
    Civil Society: So Totally Obsolete #fivewordtedtalks
    Mon, Feb 25 2013 19:05:41
  5. umairh
    umair haque@umairh
    Society? Fuck it. 3D Printing!! #fivewordtedtalks
    Mon, Feb 25 2013 19:07:48
  6. umairh
    umair haque@umairh
    You're So Dumb It's Incredible #fivewordtedtalks
    Mon, Feb 25 2013 19:19:33
  7. umairh
    umair haque@umairh
    Rule of Law? LOL. Gadgets!! #fivewordtedtalks
    Mon, Feb 25 2013 19:34:24
  8. umairh
    umair haque@umairh
    Poking fun at TED isn't cynical. It's healthy. RT @princeboucher: @umairh I'm a fan of #betterness, but your cynical tweets are morbid.
    Mon, Feb 25 2013 19:24:22
  9. umairh
    umair haque@umairh
    .@AlfredoNarvaez The real cynics are the folks on the TED stage telling you there are easy, neat, simple solutions to hard problems.
    Mon, Feb 25 2013 19:48:15
  10. umairh
    umair haque@umairh
    Look, I'm a fan of TED talks, like many of you. But let's admit that they're getting a little more comical as the years go by.
    Mon, Feb 25 2013 19:49:49
  11. umairh
    umair haque@umairh
    The real problem with TED's simple. It assumes complex social problems are essentially engineering challenges. Geekthink.
    Mon, Feb 25 2013 19:52:17
  12. umairh
    umair haque@umairh
    In a sense, TED's magic formula--fifteen minutes on a stage--devalues the harder work of critical thinking necessary for knowledge.
    Mon, Feb 25 2013 19:53:46
  13. umairh
    umair haque@umairh
    It's like the opposite of a great classroom, where ideas are explored in subtlety, nuance, and rigour. Hence, the blowback.
    Mon, Feb 25 2013 19:54:10
  14. umairh
    umair haque@umairh
    I'm not an enemy of TED Talks. But I do worry about a future where the metier of a Great Worthy Idea is a Big Commercial Idea.
    Mon, Feb 25 2013 19:57:23
  15. umairh
    umair haque@umairh
    The blowback would be less if TED didn't bill itself as "Ideas Worth Spreading". Hence, implying that the rest..aren't.
    Mon, Feb 25 2013 20:00:54
  16. umairh
    umair haque@umairh
    My other criticism of TED is that they never actually invite critics of TED. Which is a little like the opposite of open mindedness.
    Mon, Feb 25 2013 20:02:36
  17. umairh
    umair haque@umairh
    Finally, TED's got a hard determinism to it; a kind of technological rationalism. It ignore institutions and society almost completely.
    Mon, Feb 25 2013 20:03:57
  18. umairh
    umair haque@umairh
    The idea of our age is that great ideas can be simplified, reduced, made into convenient, disposable nuggets of infotainment.
    Mon, Feb 25 2013 20:07:18
  19. umairh
    umair haque@umairh
    I disagree. I think really grappling with great ideas takes time, commitment, frustration, infuriation. The opposite of TED thinking.
    Mon, Feb 25 2013 20:08:02
  20. umairh
    umair haque@umairh
    So this idea that great ideas can be reduced to 15 minutes is really just determinism's endgame. "See? It's this simple!"
    Mon, Feb 25 2013 20:12:01
  21. umairh
    umair haque@umairh
    To stretch the analogy, TED talks are to great ideas what memes are to art.
    Mon, Feb 25 2013 20:13:48
  22. umairh
    umair haque@umairh
    Even if there is the nugget of a truly great idea in a TED talk, a TED talk devalues the very idea of a great idea. Socrates, it ain't.
    Mon, Feb 25 2013 20:14:23
  23. umairh
    umair haque@umairh
    perfectly said RT @DougHenwood: Quickness is the friend of received ideas. Critical thought stops the flow of time with second thoughts.
    Mon, Feb 25 2013 20:20:22
  24. umairh
    umair haque@umairh
    I'm a purist. And so I worry: do we really need fast-food for the human mind, when there's so much great nourishment out there?
    Mon, Feb 25 2013 20:20:49
  25. umairh
    umair haque@umairh
    But perhaps my biggest worry about TED talks is: they seem deliberately designed not to challenge our assumptions.
    Mon, Feb 25 2013 20:22:49

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