So I talked a fair amount of smack about TED not to long ago. The organization is not without its problems, but I think the idea is still fundamentally sound. I also think that while criticism can certainly be leveled, a lot of this is misplaced. For example:

But have you ever wondered why so little of the future promised in TED talks actually happens? So much potential and enthusiasm, and so little actual change. Are the ideas wrong? Or is the idea about what ideas can do all by themselves wrong?

I don't think TED talks are about solutions or the future. TED talks are about aspects of the present that hold potential promise. The idea behind the TED conferences is not to fix the world, but to accelerate and lubricate the interplay of disparate branches of research. It's like the difference between science and engineering: one is about solving proofs, the other is about solving story problems. TED is a "solving proofs" organization while the world needs more story problems solved.

The key rhetorical device for TED talks is a combination of epiphany and personal testimony (an "epiphimony" if you like ) through which the speaker shares a personal journey of insight and realisation, its triumphs and tribulations. What is it that the TED audience hopes to get from this? A vicarious insight, a fleeting moment of wonder, an inkling that maybe it's all going to work out after all? A spiritual buzz?

Certainly. But then, the broadcast of the talk itself is secondary - the point is to get clever people in the room together and get them to introduce themselves. As an icebreaker, a TED talk is pretty much pitch-perfect.

Problems are not "puzzles" to be solved. That metaphor assumes that all the necessary pieces are already on the table, they just need to be rearranged and reprogrammed. It's not true.

That's because it's the wrong metaphor. The object is not to solve the puzzle, the object is to draw your attention to pieces you haven't considered before.

I may be mistaken - there might be this vast grandiosity to TED that I haven't seen or experienced. What I've seen is nerds nerding out with other nerds to the point where they started taping the nerdgasm for nerds to nerd out to all over the nerd world. I suspect that if they actually wanted to do something they'd make a PAC or a 401©(3) and rattle cages for donations. Armies don't march on ideas, they march on their stomachs.

So while I again feel that the whole edifice is not without its problems, I don't think these are the problems it has. If you're expecting a TED conference to change the world, the fool is you.