It has been a week since I have been at TED Active, which also means that I have finally caught my breath and recovered from the intense mental stimulation. To sum up my time at TED, the picture of my badge says it all: I had a fantastic week where I spent with my fellow TED Fellows, TEDxOrganizers and plenty of inspirational attendees.
This is my 4th time at TED, and my 3rd in Palm Springs for TEDActive, so I am no longer a outsider - There were regulars whom I've met in previous years, continuing conversations that were started months before; and new friends whom I have made who blew my mind. Sometimes I wished that my life is a continuous TED conference, being inspired by one another, I got so energized that I wanted to get straight to work right after (mental at least, I was so physically exhausted). I made a small promise to myself this year, which is not to blog or tweet during the sessions - That gave me more time and energy to listen, digest and connect during my 4 days at the conference. So here are my thoughts:
I was one of 12 Fellows who were at TEDActive, staying at a ridiculously lavish house sponsored by Air BNB half a mile away from the Rivera Hotel where the conference was held. (White and stainless steel interiors and on the outside a pool and a hot tub.) It never cease to amaze me what the fellows do, from astronomy, to dance videography, to art using nano chemistry to video games. I spent hours listening to there stories, of how they are following their passions. Each of them had their unique story, their unique challenge - Take for example, Richard Move, is an artist who is putting together a documentary film about Heidi Latsky's GIMP project confronting disabilities through dance and performance, inviting the audience to stare and reconsider their perceptions.
5 of the fellows shared our interesting ideas and perspectives at TED You - Lucianne Walkowicz, a female astronomer who is also an awesome artist who does amazing anime style art, made astronomy accessible and easy to understand in her talk about invisible light. Kate Nichols spoke about her work using nano particles to create color - where there are color that objects inherently possess and structural color, where nano structures that refract light so that we see different colors from different angles. Richard Move who talked about the significance of his upcoming GIMP documentary. Jennifer Indovina shared about the importance of letting one interrupt - an interesting idea, since at TED we tend to do because of the many ideas bouncing around in our heads and we are afraid that they might lose them. I shared about the way I am following my dreams, the idea of using the scientific method - like in science begin with a hypothesis we design experiments to test them out, and we learn from the results and we improve on our next experiment.
TED is an amazing place to get filled with knowledge and ideas, some are more bizarre than others, some more practical than others, some are just visually stunning, but nonetheless stimulating. I learnt a great deal, and was inspired by many of the talks, in particular a talk given by Bryan Stevenson, a human right activist lawyer, who gave a counter cultural perspective on America's political and legal system, exposing fundamental flaws simply by asking different questions. Often times, we assume that the majority is right, without challenging our beliefs and seeing the world without the lens of our cultural influence. By seeing the world from the view of the minority, we sometimes realize truths that are so obvious that seems silly to ignore.
I left this year's TED with more ideas,, more friends, projects and collaborations. I am looking forward to telling stories about these collaborations and projects.
Simon Sinek delivers a sobering talk on the importance of human interaction, the importance of face-to-face relationships that have been forgotten in this digital age. As technology moves the society forward, we have lost touch with some of the fundamentals of what makes us who we are, why we do what we do and what values we stand for. We don't think twice about why companies have to please their shareholders in the expense of more important values; we replaced meaningful conversations with twitter messages and Facebook status; we have lost our focus and in the process why we do what we do.
'Following your dreams' is perhaps one of the most frequently used cliches and advice given to young people, however as we mature, our dreams seems to be further and further out of reach, and we seemed to have lost touch with its meaning and power. In my talk at TEDxHuntsville, I explore the idea for following your dreams by starting projects on the side - the Wright Brothers have done it, the founders of Twitter has done it, Google does it and 3M does it. This is my story, or at least the beginning of my story, of how projects have help defined my passion, guided me through an amazing journey, allowed me to follow my dreams and made me who I am.
I saw this on TED recently and was so captivated by it, telling the story of magic through the use of technology. Who knew that magic and iPods can go together and so well.
Every year at TED there is a one or two TED talks that captivates me, and this is one of them. This is the story of John Hunter using a complex board game, called 'World Peace Game', to teach his class of 4th grader the problems faced in the world today, and giving them a chance to solve them. It started off as a plywood board game, and has grown to a multi-layer/multi-player complex game with thousands of pieces. Through this game, the school kids learn about the complexity of the world like climate change, politics and economics.
John Hunter has used this game in his classroom for years, and although the problems he throws at the kids are the same, they have the freedom to make their own decisions. Knowing that their decisions are going to affect the world, children becomes surprisingly wise and delivers every time. We should let kids run the world, there will be less 'politics', less 'BS' and more compassion.
Although, artist and activist Ai Wei Wei was being detained by the Chinese government, he was able to pass TED a video statement about his work and share his thoughts with the world. He is currently still detained by the government with no date of release.
Morgan Spurlock's TED Talk very much sums up how a great story unfolds and how to push the right buttons in people to get to the truths. Often at time that leads to awkward and yet entertaining truths. Enjoy:
This year's TED was very special for me. After being away from the United States for 6 months, TED felt like my big welcome party and gateway back into the country, and it was nothing short of being awesome.
Nothing could have prepared me for what happened for the past half a year, having drop my work and attend to my family. It did give me a much needed break from my busy work and life in the US to be with my family and ponder about my present and future. For the past 3 years I have been running at full speed and didn't spend a moment to slow down to recalibrate, until now, and this year's TED gave me my first validation of my renew self.
This is my third year at TED, after first attending as a TED fellow in 2009 and attending TEDActive in 2010. 3 TEDs later, I have finally managed to pace myself properly so I wasn't burnt out by the second day. Instead of staying at the hotel, I opted stayed with a couple other fellows Eric Berlow, Nassim Assefi and Seth Raphel a couple miles away at a little apartment. Having no car nor bike with ruined knees from my marathon, I was at the mercy of Nassim, who was wonderful enough to give me a lift back everyday - that helped me go home and sleep early.
It also took me 3 TEDs to realize how much more the connections and conversations at TED meant for me. I freed myself from the obligation of attending every talk, and to spend quality time, having quality conversations with the extraordinary individuals there, of which included TED Fellows, artists, designers, business consultants, entrepreneurs, event organizers, poker players and change makers. At the end of the day, it almost doesn't matter what they do because all of them were remarkable human beings. One of the most memorable moment from this year's conference was when Rafe Furst took the stage to talk about life lessons he learnt from playing poker. What he said connected with me deeply, summing up my thoughts about life. Rafe boiled it down to 3 simple points: 1. There is a difference between a good decision and a good outcome. 2. It is one long game. 3. There is a difference between a winner and a winning person. I have been so focused on running the short race, I was burnt out and lost focus on the bigger picture and what was more important to me, Rafe reminded me of my place in the larger plan.
I left TED this time with 3 things: 1. Realizing that it is alright not to be an expert in anything; 2. My passion is in bringing people together and making connections of a strategic level, and 3. Education is something that I will be getting involved in a lot in 2011.
My TED experience ended with a road trip with Eric Berlow to LA, spending quality time sharing our passions on mapping connections, building communities, design and education. Only at TED, you'll get a chance to meet someone so similar but yet approaches from a totally different perspective. I am looking forward to the collaborations that are going to come out of the people I met.
I believe that it is of no coincidence that I got to where I got to, the hardship that I had to endure given me the time to reflect upon my life and recalibrate, the timing for this year's TED was impeccable and the people I had the privilege to meet made it the best TED ever. Thank you for everyone whom I met and hang out with.
