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user-inactivated · 4002 days ago · link · · parent · post: TED isn't a recipe for 'civilisational disaster'
I've done my share of TED-maligning, and I'd reckon that a lot of backlash against the format is really just the intelligentsia bristling at the possibility that the unwashed masses might have exposure to—and thirst for—new ideas. Most of TED-criticism treats TED talks as if they aspired to be the definitive guide to a certain topic, rather than an intellectual aperitif or jumping-off point (this is where the comparison to Wikipedia comes in). There's nothing pseudo-intellectual about consuming TED talks, as long as one realizes that TED-viewing does not an authority make. Same goes for Malcolm Gladwell stuff too.