Lakshmi Pratury: Letter-writing

Extra credit reflection by DEVON H.

Original TED page w/ speaker bio, links, comments, etc:

Lakshmi Pratury:  Letter-writing

This talk really touched me, because I too have fallen out of the letter-writing style. Most of the US has, as well. No one writes letters anymore.

Every once and a while I get a letter from my grandpa. I feel somewhat bad because I rarely write him back. Writing a letter just seems like so much of a hastle to me. I’m not sure why. It is the same thing as writing an email. It’s even the same thing as writing a message to someone on Facebook. The only difference is that you are actually putting pen to paper.

Lakshmi Pratury talks about a letter that her father left her when he died. After that she realized that letter-writing has become a lost art. She decided that she was going to leave her son things that have to do with handwriting. In the future what will happen to handwriting. Most schools don’t offer handwriting classes anymore. Handwriting itself could become a lost art. Sure, people may still write in the future, but the beautiful calligraphy will be a thing of the past. Invitations will all be typed and printed instead of handwritten. This is the main point Lakshmi Pratury tries to make in her talk. I absolutely agree with her. I really hope that this turns around in the world. I know that I have started writing more things down instead of typing everything.

Bobby McFerrin: Hacks your Brain With Music

Extra credit reflection by DEVON H.

Original TED page w/ speaker bio, links, comments, etc:

Bobby McFerrin:  Hacks your Brain With Music

Bobby McFerrin wrote the song “Don’t Worry Be Happy” and in this talk he demonstrated how the brain can work. He begins by jumping in one place on the stage singing a pitch. He has the audience match this pitch. He then moves up and down giving the audience matching pitches until they finally figure it out. He then moves across the stage while the audience is singing the pitches, and he is improvising a melody over the top.

It is amazing that this could work. It just goes to show how innovative the human brain is. He only needed to give the audience a few pitches before they could figure it out on their own. It is also amazing that they could continue to sing the pitches while he was singing his own pitches over the top. Just another point about the human brain. It can focus on two things at once.

Sebastian Wernicke: Lies, damned lies and statistics (about TED Talks)

Extra credit reflection by DEVON H.

Original TED page w/ speaker bio, links, comments, etc:

Sebastian Wernicke:  Lies, damned lies and statistics (about TED Talks)

This talk was very useful when I was preparing my own TED-inspired talk. Sebastian Wernicke gives you all the statistics you could ever want about a TED talk. He put every 1.3 million words of the talks through statistical analysis to figure out what made a good talk, and what made a bad talk. He analyzed everything about a talk from its topic to what colors you should wear while presenting.

He starts off talking about what your topic should be. He organized possible topics into a scale from rational to emotional, and actions to ideas. He then blocked out areas that were most emailed, most commented, and most favorite. He continued to place adjectives along this scale such as courageous, persuasive, informative educating, ingenious, funny, jaw-dropping, beautiful, and inspiring. He then took out the top 10 words used in the most successful talks, and the top 10 words in the least successful talks. He also mentions that the most successful and favorite talks are those that people can connect with.

He then moves on to talk about your delivery. He says a big tip you should use is to utilize every second you have on the clock. He also tells you what you should wear. For example, you should be a little more dressed up than usual, and that you should let your hair grow out a little longer than normal. He then mentions certain 4 word phrases to use in a successful talk, and 4 word phrases to avoid.

If you ever need to give any type of talk, you should watch this talk to help you know how. He even has his own TED Pad that you can download to help you create sentences for your own successful talk.