Sunday, March 04, 2012

Quotes Worth Spreading

I had the opportunity to attend TEDActive last week. (Full Disclosure: TED - with the generous support of the Kohl's Foundation - kindly paid my way so that I could give them feedback on their soon-to-launch TED-Ed initiative. All expense paid trip to Palm Springs at the end of February. It's rough, but I took one for the team.)

I'm sure this year's TED Talks will begin appearing shortly, but I thought I'd share some of the quotes I wrote down from some of the talks. Please note that while I'm attempting to quote directly, I'm sure some of these are paraphrased a bit. Please also note that there were many good quotes from many talks, but sometimes I just listened and didn't write anything down. Not all of these quotes are profound, but they made me think for one reason or another and I wanted to record them somewhere to refer to later when the talks are posted.

John Bates (TEDYou Talk)
Be generous by graciously accepting compliments. It's a gift you give the complimenter.

Brian Greene
Some details really matter.

Susan Cain: The Power of Introverts (talk posted)
The key to maximizing our talents is for us all to put ourselves in a zone of stimulation that is right for us.

Paul Gilding: The Earth is Full (talk posted)
It takes a good crisis to get us going.

Peter Diamandis: Abundance is our Future (talk posted)
The news media preferentially feeds us negative stories, because that's what our minds pay attention to.

It's not about creating a life of luxury for everybody on this planet, it's about creating a life of possibility.

Andrew Stanton: The clues to a great story (talk posted, contains graphic language)
Make me care.

The audience wants to work for their meal, they just don't want to know they're doing it.

The unifying theory of 2 + 2. Don't give them 4. (Me: Shoutout to Dan Meyer)

Billy Collins
If at first you don't succeed, hide all evidence that you ever tried.

It took a long time to put the wheel and the suitcase together.

Michael Tilson Thomas
Technology is changing music itself.

Rebecca Newberger Goldstein and Steven Pinker
Our circle of empathy expanded.

We are susceptible to reason.

Jonathan Haidt
Don't change the rider, or the elephant, change the path.

Atul Gawande
Making systems work is the challenge of our generation.

Complexity requires groups success. We all need to be pit crews.

Regina Dugan
If you refuse to fear failure then impossible things become possible.

Why did we do it? In part we wondered if it was possible to do it.

Donald Sadoway
If you want to make something dirt cheap, use dirt.

Julie Burstein
Passionate optimism.

Lior Zoref
They are all thinking with their friends.

Upgrade your brain.

Jennifer Pahlka: Coding a Better Government (talk posted)
Government is what we do together that we can't do alone.

Jim Stengel
What if I thought about him every day when I went to work?

Pick one attribute related to curiosity and make progress on that this year.

Articulate your ideal often.

Sherry Turkle
We sacrifice conversation for mere connection.

I share therefore I am. (Me: Shoutout to Dean Shareski, although she was disagreeing with this.)

Tali Sharot
People with high expectations always feel better about things.

Optimism changes both subjective and objective reality.

Bryan Stevenson: We need to talk about an injustice (talk posted)
Our humanity depends on everyone's humanity.

The moral arc of the universe is long but it bends toward justice.

One of the keys is proximity: we're too far from poverty and suffering.

Note: Bryan moved the audience. The next day Chris Anderson asked for contributions from the stage - the audience contributed $1.1 million to Bryan's attempt to reform juvenile justice.

Chip Kidd
What do stories look like? (Me: He designs book jackets.)

Tom Campbell
We tend to use jargon to classify things, instead of really looking at them.

Ainissa Ramirez
It takes 64 elements to make a smart phone.

You fail your way to success.

Scientists brand failure differently. We call it data.

Kate Messner
The power of what if . . .?

We need more kid-sourcing.

Angie Miller
Are you content to let someone else represent you? That's what you do when you don't represent yourself.

Awele Makeba
It is my hope to find my best personal self in service to others.

Sebastian Wernicke
In a new medium you can break the rules.

Cesar Kuriyama
The power of time off.

Brene Brown
Vulnerability is our most accurate measurement of courage.

Vulnerability is the birthplace of innovation, creativity and change.

TED is like the failure conference. Everyone here has failed. Often. And learned from it.

You hear one of two voices. Either "you're never good enough" or "who do you think you are?"

Empathy is the antidote to shame.

Steven Addis
Get in the shot. (Me: Referencing taking photographs in your life.)

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