Sunday, February 17, 2013

Stimulate with TED

      I must admit, I have become a TED Talk junkie.  I especially like the opportunity to hear interviews with the presenters on the NPR TED Radio Hour.  It is thought provoking and insightful.
      One of the special interest of this website is Critical Thought and why people hold certain beliefs, even when they may be totally irrational and not based on anything but faith alone.  Supportive of belief systems are the creation of ideas.
      Two of this week’s NPR presentations  don’t answer these quandaries, but can get one examining personal perspectives and biases.  The topic was Where do Ideas Come From?  Borrowing from NPR,
"Ideas initially take form as hunches. They don't come into the world fully realized. The light-bulb moment is greatly overrated." — Steven Johnson
      They strongly challenge the popular movement of group think.  They, like I, find the process misguided and probably promoted only by those who seldom have an original thought. I have listened several times in the past to Susan Cain’s delightful talk, How Do Introverts Share Ideas and recommend it.
      Steven Johnson adds to Susan’s proposal that so-called brain-storming is over rated in his talk, “Is the Eureka Moment a Myth?  To importance for isolated contemplation time he adds
  • The need for collaborative stimulation by disparate disciplines and opinions and 
  • The recognition that critical contributions are not always in sync, consistent with “In science the debate is never over.”
The TED Radio Hour is a great investment in one hour a week for creative stimulation. 

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