TED talks

This article isnt entirely about productivity, but I guarantee youll learn a thing or two. Here
are 100 incredible things from TED talks!!!
Productivity
1. Studies have shown that what motivates a person the most (in non-factory-type work) is
how much autonomy, mastery, and purpose they have, not how much money they make.
2. Playing video games can actually make you more productive because video games give you
more physical, mental, emotional, and social resilience.
3. A lot of people aspire to be productive so they can become happier, but happiness has been
shown to lead to productivity, not the other way around.
4. You dont have as much attention to give to the world around you as you think. You cant
recall memories while processing new data, you can only process so much information at
once, and your attention is easily manipulated (like by magicians).
5. Innovative thinking is often a slow and gradual process, not a moment of instant, lightbulblike inspiration.
6. If you want people to remember you, sweat the small stuff. Most companies (and people)
do the big stuff right, so sweating the small stuff (like getting the user interfaces on your
products right) can really set you apart.
7. You have three brain systems for love: lust, romantic love, and attachment. To develop
more intimate relationships with your significant other, its important to invest in all three.
Controller
8. When you create an environment for your employees that makes them truly happy (instead
of just rich), more profits may follow.
9. Your office is actually a pretty crappy environment to get work done. In fact, when Jason
Fried asked folks where their favourite place to get work done was, almost no one said in
the office.
10. Taking time off can make you a lot more productive, because time away from your work
lets you explore, reflect, and come up with better ideas.
11. The greatest leaders and companies constantly reflect on why they do what they do,
instead of simply doing it.
12. Success isnt a destination, its a continuous journey thats made up of eight parts: passion,
hard work, focus, pushing yourself and others, having great ideas, making constant
improvements, serving others, and persistence.
13. The key to becoming more productive and successful may be to fail faster and smarter,
especially if you do creative work.

14. We dont feel fear because of a potential loss of income or status, we feel fear because
were afraid of being judged and ridiculed. Any vision of success has to admit what the
definition doesnt include, and what you may be missing out on.
15. IQ isnt the only thing that dictates whether someone will be successful or unsuccessful;
grit does too.
16. If you want to make better long-term decisions, imagine how your decisions will affect
your future-self.
17. All you have to do to learn practically anything is jump in and ask yourself, whats the
worst that could happen?
18. People tend to avoid conflict (its in our nature), even though a moderate level of conflict
may be the key to better relationships, research, and businesses.
19. Mass media is pretty much dead, so the key to making big changes is through tribes. As
time goes on, more and more people are investing their time and attention in their tribes (like
TED!)
20. The best way to help someone is often to shut up and listen to them.
21. A great way to kill two birds with one stone: have walking meetings, where you walk and
talk to someone at the same time. Its great exercise, and it speeds up the meeting.
22. Stress by itself doesnt affect your health. How you think about stress does.
Here are three other productivity experiments Ive done recently: Meditating for 35 hours
over 7 days; using my smartphone for only an hour a day for three months; living in total
reclusion for 10 days.
Becoming a Better Human
23, 24, 25. Limits are bullshit. Some people choose to not be set back by limits, and at the end
of the day, theyre the ones who end up giving TED talks. Like Neil Harbisson, who was born
without the ability to see color, so he hacked together a device to hear color. Or Caroline
Casey, who didnt learn until she was 17 that she was legally blind. Or David Blaine, who
pushed his body and mind to hold his breath for 17 straight minutes underwater.
Little Happy Boy
26. Dont worry texting isnt ruining your understanding of the English language.
27. Youre not as rational as you think you are. One example: do you supersize your meal at
McDonalds even when youre not hungry?
28. Three keys to success from Elon Musk: Work very hard, pay attention to negative feedback
(especially when it comes from friends), and study physics to learn how to reason from first
principles (instead of by analogy).
29. If youre arguing with someone to win the argument, youre doing it for the wrong
reasons.You should be arguing to learn.

30. Like it or not, your body language affects how other people think of you.
31. Great, committed sex combines two things: your need for security, and your need for
surprise.
32. Being introverted isnt a bad thing; its quite the opposite! Even though society often
seems to value extraverts more, introverts should be celebrated just as much.
33. To save more money, commit to saving more money, tomorrow.
34. Living an awesome life means having a great attitude (seeing the good in things), seeing
the wonder in the world around you, and being authentic.
35, 36, 37, 38, 39. 40, 41. There isnt one secret to happiness, but there are a lot of small
secrets that will move you in the right direction. Stay in the moment, and be mindful. Spend
money on other people, rather than on yourself. Slow down. Take time to appreciate and see
the good in what you have. Live a life thats full of meaning in the short-and long-term. And
change how you look at the past, present, and future.
42. Your memory is a lot faultier than you think. You frequently remember things that didnt
happen, and remember things differently than they actually happened. Plus, your memories
can be manipulated.
People
43. When it comes to classical music, no one is tone-deaf, and almost anyone can be calmed
or inspired by classical music.
44. The people who design book covers actually put a ton of thought (and art) into their
designs.
45. The biggest killer in America isnt cancer, its obesity. 66% of the U.S. is obese, including a
lot of children and teens, and 1 in 4 people in America dies of a preventable, food-related
disease.
46. Schools kill creativity, and the education model we teach kids by is significantly outdated.
School should nurture, not undermine creativity, which Ken Robinson argues that it does.
47. Students learn best when you make them stop and think, and bring classroom problems
down to earth.
48. There is a large difference between unconditional love and unconditional acceptance, and
just because you are loved doesnt mean you are accepted.
49. People are powerful. They stand up to soldiers, show compassion when it seems
impossible, and expose their vulnerability when its the most difficult.
50. Monkeys make the same stupid mistakes with money that people do, so our irrationality
may just be rooted in our evolutionary history.
51. Depression (and other diseases) can strike anyone, anytime. Including a comic who has
basically everything going for him.

52. North Korea is one of the most terrible and gruesome places to grow up. Citizens of the
country frequently starve to death, are victim to military violence, and are shot if they try to
escape.
53. Violence against women isnt a womens issue, its a mans issue thats rooted in the
way men view women.
54. One of the most effective ways to cure poverty in developing countries isnt food, cattle,
or anything else its giving away cellphones.
Race
55. Every day, homeless people are completely ignored, abused, and made to feel invisible.
Take it from someone who used to be homeless.
56. According to data, women systematically underestimate their own abilities, particularly
at work. According to Cheryl Sandberg, women need to sit at the table, make their partner a
real partner, and not leave before they leave (step back from opportunities because of their
family life).
57. Some of the best designs not only look great, but also accommodate your other four
senses. They should also feel great, sound great, smell great, and even taste great.
58. We live in the one of the most peaceful times of humanitys existence, even though it
might not seem that way. This talk has the fascinating stats to back that up.
59, 60. Good design has the potential to make people incredibly happy. And some of the best
designs are the ones that tell stories.
61. A little danger is good for both kids and grown-ups, and it makes you into a more versatile,
well-rounded person.
62. If you want to help people in developing countries, you better have a deep understanding
of the values of who youre helping. Take it from a condom saleswoman in the Democratic
Republic of the Congo.
63. There may be another way to run a successful, modern economy: the Chinese way. Even
if you disagree, this talk is fascinating (its given from a Chinese perspective).
64. The language you speak affects your ability to save money. Studies have shown that
languages that are more future-oriented motivate people to save more money.
65. Hard work is sometimes degraded in society, but unjustifiably so. According to Mike Rowe
(the host of Dirty Jobs), hard work is worth it.
66. The way we think about charity is dead-wrong. We reward charities for how little money
they spend, instead of for the difference they actually make.
67. Vulnerability is the birthplace of innovation, creativity and change, and its one of the
most powerful qualities you have.
68. 4 a.m. is the most mysterious hour of the day.

69. 30 is not the new 20. Some people see their 20s as a throwaway decade, even though its
one of the most formative decades of a persons life.
70, 71. Additional choice can make people either happier or less happy. Choice can make
someone happy when the choices legitimately suit their needs better, and it can make
someone less happy when it makes them more paralyzed (which happens a lot more than you
think).
A Year of Productivity is my full-time job for a whole year, and I have no ads on the site. If you
find what I make valuable, please pitch in a few bucks! You dont have to any means, and I
hate asking for money, but it truly helps me build my site up and pay the bills. Here are 8
awesome reasons to pitch in!
Technology
72. It turns out you can use two slices of pizza as a slide clicker, make music with ketchup, and
make a piano keyboard with a banana!
73. If your medical data could anonymously be used by any researcher seeking a hypothesis,
there would be a wave of healthcare innovation.
74. Since more and more websites are trying to tailor their content to you, you may get caught
up in a digital filter bubble and not get exposed to information that could challenge or
broaden [your] worldview.
75. There is a camera that shoots video at a trillion frames a second, and the results are
incredible.
76. Google is working on a car that drives itself, and it actually works very well.
77. A trend to watch: 3D printing. The ability for you to be able to print 3D items at home isnt
that far away.
78. Incredible things happen when you create an open encyclopedia that anyone can edit.
Heres the story behind Wikipedia.
79. There are a lot of videos about cats and twerking, but web video is also an incredible tool
for learning and global innovation.
80. Everywhere you go online, youre tracked; a lot more than you might suspect. Web
tracking isnt 100% evil, but websites certainly track you a ton, so its worth informing yourself
what they use that information for.
81. Every electronic device you own is incredibly complex, with parts sourced from all around
the world, so rebuilding anything you own from scratch is nearly impossible, as one guy found
out.
82. You might put in orders on Amazon without much thought, but after you place an order,
an incredibly intricate, hidden world of box-packing churns away to deliver your order.

83. Computers keep getting smarter; so fast that they often seem to be approaching (and
exceeding) how smart humans are. But although they may be getting faster, theyre not as
clever or creative as humans are.
84. Electrical sockets used to be shaped like lightbulb holders, because that used to be the
only thing we plugged in.
85, 86. You can make plastic out of mushrooms, and the process is very good for the
environment. This is great, because plastic has huge, surprising consequences for the
environment.
87. Its possible to stream wireless data from a light bulb (though it requires a line-of-sight
between your device and the light).
Earth (and beyond)
88. Fish are delicious, but the way were farming them is unsustainable, not to mention bad
for Nemo. Luckily, theres a revolutionary (and fascinating) fish farming system in Spain that
solves this.
89. Some fish and other ocean critters are positively enchanting. Want to see what I mean?
Here is 5.5 minutes of footage of fascinating underwater creatures, including fish that change
colors, creatures that camouflage to fit their environment, and fish that light up in the black
of the ocean.
Flower
90. 80-90% of undersea creatures light up.
91. In my opinion (after watching this TED talk), one of the most interesting underwater
creatures is the octopus.
92. Bees have been around for 50 million years, but they recently started dying en masse
because of parasitic mites, viral and bacterial diseases, and exposure to pesticides and
herbicides.
93. Flowers play beautiful tricks to attract insects to spread their pollen.
94. How a fly flies is fascinating, and according to Michael Dickinson, perhaps one of the
greatest feats of evolution.
95. An asteroid 6 miles wide could end civilization on Earth in an instant.
96. The scientific odds are not against, but incredibly in favor of alien life.
97. One of Saturns moons has a giant volcano that shoots out ice instead of lava. And thats
just one cool part about the planet.
98. You can run a program on your computer that helps the University of California, Berkeley
analyze radio telescope data for aliens.
99. Curiosity-driven science pays for itself, and drives incredible innovation for years to come.

100. Embrace the mystery that exists in the world. J.J. Ahrams has a mystery box that he
hasnt opened in 35 years, because the potential of whats inside the box is unlimited. Which
is worth way more than what is actually in the box.

Thank You.