YouTube vs TED.com

I get a lot of my visual and mental stimuli at TED.com. And I get humor and emotional relief on Youtube.

Who is TED?  It is a website presenting the best of mankind online, and in such a way that we open our minds a little more each time we view/hear footage displayed. And all of it is free!

1: Bono’s Call to Action for Africa.

From 22.02 of this video, I had the chill run up my back and the will-of-change within me found a new dimension. Bono always speaks with clarity, even if long-winded, about his desires, his wishes and his ideas about how we can all change the world. His wishes are are not only achievable, they are fundamentally important.

2. David Griffen tells us how photography brings us all together, tells our stories and tells the world how we percieve the world. David explains how a photographic is man’s way of representing his mind’s eye.

One part of his speech is about the work of an photo-artist who uses infra-red action photography to allow animals to shoot their portraits. In his journey across Africa, the photographer discovered how poachers are killing elephants … and he uses photography to capture a narrative of the issue using graphic photography that not only makes you gasp with astonishment, it also invokes people’s desire to help in any way possible.

David then then speaks of the artwork of a photographer, Jonas, who photographed slums around India. Both fascinating and sad, this article about photography brings us all together. His reading and viewing wakes you up to how the other 98% of the world really live, how animals survive in their natural habitat … and in turn teaches us that by showing the world our individual environments, we open up to both ourselves and our reality.

3. Stefan Sagmeister tells us about how the work we perform can effect our happiness levels.

For me, this is an important story to listen and view. When we view life from a different perspective, we see new ways of improving our surroundings, and we smile more. His examples are not only invigorating, they are amusing. Stefan not only makes us smile, he reminds us that our happiness is derived from what we enjoy doing in our life. When our work is sad, mad and crazy, so are we.

When you sit and listen to these interesting video’s, that appear to suffer no buffering, the human mind is both opened and awakened. Even the most depressed and disheartened will find their humanity, then their human-side, then they become better people as a consequence.

If you don’t have the time to watch Stefan‘s 15minute video, here’s a list from his diary:

Complaining is silly. Either act or forget.
Thinking life will be better in the future is stupid. I have to live now.
Being not truthful works against me.
Helping other people helps me.
Organizing a charity group is surprisingly easy.
Everything I do always comes back to me.
Drugs feel great in the beginning and become a drag later on.
Over time I get used to everything and start taking if for granted.
Money does not make me happy.
Travelling alone is helpful for a new perspective on life.
Assuming is stifling.
Keeping a diary supports my personal development.
Trying to look good limits my life.
Worrying solves nothing.
Material luxuries are best enjoyed in small doses.
Having guts always works out for me.

Mostly, but not totally, I agree with them all. Which mean the most for you?

4. Philip Rosedale tells what inspired him to create Second Life

What we see here is a young man who found himself held back by his home surroundings, held back by the world around him , yet with an urge to escape the confines of his human life. So he created a new dimension from which we can do anything without constraint (either mainstream, moral or man-made) and become either better-looking, highly-regarded, and, yes, a lot more superficial!

Philip expands upon the issue that anything is possible and everything that exists in the real world is now an interactive component with attached-code that enables users to pick up, move, invert and use as intended … and as never thought possible. That’s what makes this SL amazing. When the border on reality is wiped away, the possibilities are endless!

Though it begs a few questions: If I don’t like the position of a grand-piano in my SL house, can I move it? Will I see the wheels move? Will I have to use extra effort because of it’s weight? Will I hear the twangs of piano-strings being stretched and contracted as the piano is pushed from one corner? How real is SL?

What this video-article does remind me of is my own reaction when people say “I don’t think that is possible.” You see, I have grown up in a era when things that seemed either highly unlikely or not even on the minds of most people are now either common or part of our every day life. SONY Walkmen were the tools of the music trade in my teenage years, now we all have APPLE iPods with touch screen facility. Icons are slid out of the window, double clicking is a finger-tip or a stylus, the internet is available everywhere. When people tell me a thing is not possible or highly improbable, I am the first to retort “Nothing is impossible! Let’s find a way!” Unfortunately, people are not easily converted by self-belief. The art is to find the answer yourself and convince others through our actions.

At around 10:30 , Philip says that a chair is what it is. We know it by what it looks like, not by what is named. I like this thought process, and helps me understand the greatest component of SL: There is no language. Our actions speak for us. Our superficiality tells people what we like, don’t like, prefer and want to be. By exploring the worlds that people create in SL, we find out what humans want to become, how we want to evolve, and ultimately which direction we want to take the future.

I’m not asking you to change your ways. I’m only saying that TED is for everyone, whereas YouTube is definitely not for everyone.