Thoughts on Leadership
In case you did not pick up on it early, this is a parody on every TED Talk ever. TED talks are certainly NOT a case of “seen them one, seen them all”, but lately it did start to feel; at least to me, as too much science and not enough art. Oh, I’m not talking about the content. I’m referring to the style of presentation. TED got that down to a mathematical system. Weather it was through trail and error or deep physiological research, the good people in academialand managed to resurrect the PowerPoint Presentation from the hell of mundania to the purgatory of academic pretencia. Don’t get me wrong. I love a good TED. Rory Sutherland’s frustrated tirades about why advertising men (and women) can’t be in charge of the world. Maybe the thing that I hold against them…is a grudge.
The Grudge
Ages ago I was a camera-man on a TED talk. Local TED-X. The TED people had more ego than talent. The speakers was fine, but still a mixed bag of….well randomness. The thing that got my goat was this. I offered to edit one or a few of the videos. My main disciplines in film making has always been the subtle things. Sound design, color grading, editing as the main language of cinematography. Team TED agreed to allow me to do one. I chose the hardest one, but not only for that reason, the degree of difficulty. As an editor one understand that you give the media what it asks for and not an inch more. You certainly not want to attract attention to the editing. In the case of this presentation, the media asked for allot!
They hated it! The main reason that was given; it was overwhelmingly unanimous, was that it just does not feel TEDish. And they said it like it was a bad thing.
My Advice to TED
Evolve or die. 15 years ago the movement was innovative. In 2020 not so much. Is TED still relevant? When I asked this question to the 1st five people I came across before hitting publish, they all responded with: WTF is TED?
Below is my cut of the video. Let me know what you think. Be honest.