My Favourite TED Talks:
When I am in need of inspiration, TED is the first place I go. I never fail to find inspiration in the amazing array of speakers they have gathered. This is one of the truly wonderful things about this global society we live in, twenty years ago having all these fascinating speakers and topics would not have been possible.
Some of my favourites are:
- Flow, the secret to happiness by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (18:55)
- The Power of Vulnerability by Brene Brown (21:19 min)
- Try Something New for 30 Days by Matt Cutts (3:27 min)
- How to Make Work-Life Balance Work by Nigel Marsh (10:05 min)
- A Plant's Eye View by Michael Pollan (17:29 min)
- Looking Past Limits by Caroline Casey (15:34 min)
- 3 Things I Learned While My Plane Crashed by Ric Elias (5:03 min)
- Why Eyewitnesses Get It Wrong by Scott Fraser (18:23 min)
- How Schools Kill Creativity by Ken Robinson (19:24 min)
Murmuration:
This YouTube video, entitled Murmuration is by Sophie Windsor Clive and Liberty Smith. Before seeing this video I was unfamiliar with murmuration. Incredibly awe inspiring.
According to Daniel Butler with the Daily Telegraph, it's all about survival by numbers. Butler reports that "a murmuration of starlings, as this phenomenon is known, must be one of the most magical, yet underrated, wildlife raton display in winter. Impenetrable as the flock's movements might seem to the human eye, the underlying maths is comparatively straightforward. Each bird strives to fly as close to its neighbours as possible, instantly copying any changes in speed or direction. As a result, tiny deviations by one bird are magnified and distorted by those surrounding it, creating rippling, swirling patterns. In other words, this is a classic case of mathematical chaos (larger shapes composed of infinitely varied smaller patterns). Whatever the science, however, it is difficult for the observer to think of it as anything other than some vast living entity" (Butler, Daily Telegraph, Feb. 2009).
This is a wonderful example of collaboration. A single bird, a single student achieves flight, a flock or group of students is capable of murmuration.
Neil Gaiman:
I find everything about Neil Gaiman inspiring! You might say I have a bit of literary "crush" on him, from his inspirational convocation speech (see below) to the book her wrote his wife as a unique way of sending flowers because he missed her (The Ocean at the End of the Lane) to his writing and pretty much everything he has to say. Gaiman says he simply writes the things he wants to read. There is an immense amount of freedom in this and I would imagine a good dose of self-confidence.
Here are a few examples:
This is the transcription of a lecture he gave to the Reading Agency in October 2013 in which he explains the importance of fiction. Gaiman believes that not only does reading fiction start children on the reading ladder towards literacy but it fundamentally changes a person as he explains here:
"Fiction can show you a different world. It can take you somewhere you've never been. Once you've visited other worlds, like those who ate fairy fruit, you can never be entirely content with the world that you grew up in. Discontent is a good thing: discontented people can modify and improve their worlds, leave them better, leave them different."
Neil Gaiman's Inspirational Commencement Speech at the University of the Arts 2012.
Make Good Art! Here Gaiman gives advice to arts students. Embrace the fact that "you have no idea what you're doing" because people who know what they're doing, know the rules, and by not knowing the rules, you are not limited by rules.
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