October 20, 2015
Since I was the first to lay claim to Raman’s TEDxIndy ticket this year, I thought I would go and take a bunch of notes and share my experience. [I tried, but I am certifiably unable to tweet and watch, although I can take notes like a boss, so after a few tweets I gave up on the bird.] I know that they livestreamed it. Sometime in November the organizers are supposed to post the day’s content to YouTube. In case you didn’t watch the livestream, I want to post this so if any of it intrigues you, you can search up the video when it comes out.
There was pretty much non-stop speaking, with two short breaks plus lunch. It seemed like quite a lot of sitting inside listening, even though they had activities such as Exquisite Corpse and ping pong going on outside. Since there were so many speakers, I’ll just describe my favorites of the day.
Here are some interesting one-line takeaways:
We know more about hearing than about listening – hearing is subject to very short time delays; listening is subject to time delays up to many years – or never.
The ear hears; the brain listens, the body senses.
Remember the power of pause.
[When shaping your city] keep it inexpensive and temporary, build off of existing infrastructure, and bring people together.
Can we make the world better with every cycle of making stuff?
The shadow is as important as the substance in the placement of figures in the light.
The face of Buddha is faceless, so that you can see yourself in innocence.
Time is wasted in things that don’t matter to us, with people who do matter to us.
Get technology in the hands of people who need it most; design it to meet local needs; address the most pressing problems.
It’s not if, but when.
My favorite speakers:
Chunlei Guo: Metal 2.0: A superhydrophobic coating for metal – imagine coating aircraft so they don’t need de-icing; preventing corrosion in pipes, cutting down on water used to clean things. This talk is out on his weblink.
Bridgett Luther: How making stuff became a good thing: Getting stuff, making stuff, gives people jobs; sustainable planned obsolescence.
Pauline Oliveros: The difference between hearing and listening: This lady formed a ‘band’ called Deep Listening, and recorded some neat sounds in a wide undergroundcistern.
Emily Jacobi: Empower youth, change the world: This young lady is local, and very special. Her message is especially pertinent for using Agile to do good in the world.
Mary McConnell: An invitation to kids to plug in and connect to nature:Children of Indiana Nature Park; would be good to connect with our CampTown partners. Plus it’s hard to find someone who can do all those bird calls.
PERFORMANCE: Pound with**Andre Davis**, YMCA: Buncha people get sticks, play some tunes; let’s dance, let’s pound, let’s rock Georgia Street! Energy!
Creek Stewart: How wilderness skills enable personal transformation: Fat Guys in the Woods revelations.
Chris Baggott: The simplest way to feed the world: CEO of Tyner Pond Farms local foods; changing our interaction with food and the whole grocery store regime.
David Engwicht: Add some magic to a public space near you: Place is the antidote to our addiction to motion.
Some of the ‘speakers’ were videos; those were well chosen and I recommend most of them:
- Eric Berlow: Simplifying complexity (more like embracing complexity)
- Joe Smith: How to use a paper towel (greenly; ’nuff said)
- Ric Elias: 3 things I learned while my plane crashed (the ‘time wasted’ quote)
- John Maeda: Designing for simplicity (ah, those MIT egos!)
- Arianna Huffington: How to succeed? Get more sleep (a little chauvinistic)
- Alan Siegel: Let’s simplify legal jargon! (gave us the single page credit card terms)
Okay; thanks for reading!
