This American Life

Play The Part
          Narrated By: Ryan Murdock


In this they are talking about, how when people are put on camera, or on the spotlight, we tend to act differently under the circumstances. It's 2008, and they go on about this man living in the bronx unemployed, in the middle of a lawsuit, coming back from the war. And his life is just a complete mess. Until he walks into a bar, and everybody is watching the presidential speech when everybody turns and looks at him, and their jaws drop, because he looks exactly like the soon-to-be president, Barrack Obama. So he goes on to make a career out of being a Obama impersonator, and through his many bumps, he tries to get though life.

It sort of made me think of how he would feel under the circumstances. Although when Obama was in the middle of election, he was glorified, and everybody thought that this was the president that could fix everything. But as it turned out he didn't quite turn out to be the prodigy he was acclaimed to be, so with people hating his guts you can imagine how hard it would be to look exactly like Barack Obama.

1. How people can change their life when given the opportunity
2. How hard it is to live in a time and place such as he was.
3. To not give up on your life no matter how awful it gets (I guess)

I though the part that I think related to the thesis of the presentation the most, was when he says. When my life was going bad and I had problems, I would just put on the suit, shave, and take a walk downtown, and watch the praise pour in, and it felt amazing. But as soon I would return home and take off the suit, I would realize, Im not Barrack Obama, I'm me, and all my problems would return.

Ted Talks No. Me

If I were ever to do a talk on something, to be honest, I would need some credentials to start it. Anyway, over the course of doing all the summaries for these talks, it wasn't the cool technology, or the interesting science that really got me going or motivated, it was really the talks about the emotions of people, and why people, when out of their element react to situations like they do. Being a high school student, I know when i'm not wanted in some situations and sometimes I don't, or sometimes I am wanted and just don't know it. I would really want to do my talk on breaking down, how, and why people react in a social society the way they do, how people act to certain people with certain feelings, and most importantly, what does it mean to have a reputation. This may just be fragments of my actual life, but personally I cant see anything better to talk about

(and finally) Ted Talks Summary No. 10

Steve Jobs
          How To Live Before You Die


Steve Jobs talks about how his life proceeded from birth and how he arose to the seat he holds today

CEO of Apple and founder of "Pixar"

In my final talk, Apple CEO Steve Jobs starts by telling us how he was adopted into a family that took him for who he was, and seventeen years later put him in college for him to drop out six months later, because he felt we was wasting his parents life savings. He did various things until he began working with computers and began a 10 year journey to create the multi-billion dollar industry that today is know as "Apple". When fired from apple due to a bad decision, he took a step back and thought carefully about his life, eventually starting companies called "Pixar" and "Next" witch were eventually owned by apple. So there he was again back up top. But after having this epiphany, he really wanted to "live" before he died, and to make conscientious decisions to feel like you were living each day as if you would "like" it to be your last.

I chose to do this one, because I figured Steve jobs would be talking about his life and his rise to fame and power. I figured I could see if I could pick up any helpful tips for life along the road. It has always really intruiged me to hear stories of what people did after school, even today I am hearing interesting things about my parents early lives that I didnt know.

I ended up getting a feel for what people do after they graduate, but it still worries me to think of what I am to do. I really liked his part about living each day like you would like it to be your last, because it sort of ties in with my moral belief system that I currently use, and I think it could be a helpful tool to use.

My favorite part, and by now you are hearing an echo, was when he says. At the end of each day, I looked in the mirror, and asked myself. If this were my last day on earth, would i have made the decisions that I did? and if my answer enough times in a row was no, then I knew something needed to be changed.

Ted Talks Summary No. 9

Helen Fisher
          The Brain In Love


Helen Fishes gets down to why we deal with love how we do.

Anthropologist, expert on romantic love.

In this talk, Helen Fisher talks about how we go about dealing with different types of love, how we experience love, how our brain reacts to experiencing love, and how we deal with getting out of love. Obviously starting off with the different way we go about loving, she talks about when we love, a sensory part of our body goes to work, which is the part that allows us to feel good. And that's why people are so addicted to love, because we sometimes feel so attracted to this person that we cant get enough of it. And apparently after romantic relationship break ups, you would  think that we would like to forget this person and just move on, but infact we just love them harder.

I picked this particular ted talk because I was talking to my dad, and in the back of my mind I was wondering, why parents separate, and why it has been getting more, and more frequent throughout the years. I sometimes feel like, am i the only one that has a real family? pardon me for saying that and I mean no offence to anyone, but sometimes if feel it to be true, my parents are still in a loving relationship, but I find it weird that so many parents are separated.

Although that was what I wanted to be answered it didn't quite help me, instead gave me a better grasp of how we love one another, and what the actual feeling of love means to people. Well, I know what that feels like, I've been there. So infact it did help me in some ways but not quite in the areas I expected.

I know its the recommended quote but I liked it so much. "Romantic love is an addiction: a perfectly wonderful addiction when it’s going well, and a perfectly horrible addiction when it’s going poorly.”

Ted Talks Summary No. 8

Kevin Allocca
          Why Videos Go Viral


In this talk Kevin Allocca talks about how videos get popular and go "viral"

Trends manager for Youtube

In this he talks about how internet web videos become viral in such a a short time span. As a trends manager for Youtube he gets paid to watch videos. And being a trends manager, you are paid, to see how trends start on Youtube and become widely known to the world. Most "viral" videos are apparently started from celebrity introduction, and from there on become widely known very fast. For instance, Jimmey Kinnel introduced the double rainbow guy. Daniel tosh introduced the viral pop monstrosity friday. And even Justin Beiber got started right off of Youtube.

I like most teens am on youtube frequently almost every day, and when he says that 2 days worth of video are uploaded every day its really not that hard to believe. So when I watch a Youtube video and ask myself, why is this video so popular, or why isn't this video more popular? I wanted to have an answer.

This made me think about how things outside the internet and how they can become a big deal very fast. And as cheezey as it sounds, it may help to understand the idea behind what people are thinking in buisiness and how that could  or could not affect me later in life.

Ted Talks Summary No. 7

Elizabeth Gilbert
          Nurturing creativity


Elizabeth Gilbert talks about the pressure creative artists have when it comes to their work and that having a "genius" can be better than being a "genius"

Writer, author of the novel "Eat Pray Love"

In this particular talk, Elizabeth Gilbert tells us how as people from the creative arts; writers, artists etc.  We struggle with the problem of finding creative inspiration. In the early times in greece and france, people who came by inspiration easily and created great works of art were referred to as a "genius". Although in rome, these amazing artists were have said to have, a "genius". And by genius I mean, a little entity or spirit that lives within art studios and concert halls, that was said to be the source of inspiration. Until the renaissance arrived, with the the idea that these amazing artists are have said to be the source of their own inspiration and that they had the power all along! Although, this may have been a mistake, because you put all this pressure on the artist, that did not exist  prior to this new theory. Artists could feel more at ease knowing that it isn't all up to them. Although now these artists feel the pressure of their work overpowering them, if they write a masterpeice no inspiration they think of will ever ammount to what that masterpeice was, Many artists took their lives and some went crazy. So the goal of this was to nurture your creativity and let it flow through you and beleive that that "genius" might actually exist.

like my previous post, I wanted to find somethig to help me in my life. I am (hopefully) becoming a designer after school, the hard part is I dont know what I am going to be designing. So I wanted to get a generalized term of how to deal with creativity, and what challenges I might face in the future when I rely on myself for inspiration to fuel creative thoughts.

And I ended up not quite getting a life changing theory, but more of a couple of pointers. It was helpful and a lot if the stuff about talking to famous poets and muscisians form of inspiration was very touching, and I found that I could relate to a lot of it. So I think I may try it out but im not sure of how much I agree with it, but I do know that it does feel like it takes A LOT of worry of yourself.

I particuallarily liked the part where she was talking about the famous poet and how she would just suddenly whereever she was, catch almost a "breeze" of inspiration and she would try and race it to a peice of paper before it got away and found another poet. Its the childish things that keep our imaginations alive.

Ted Talks Summary No. 6

Brene Brown
          The Power Of Vulnerability


Brene Brown talks about her research and her ongoing goal to understand human emotions

Brene Brown is a research professor at the University of Houston and has spent the last ten years breaking down vulnerability.

In this talk, she talks about how as humans, we seek to find a belonging in our lives, and in doing so need to break down the concept of vulnerability, and courage to accept that "we are enough". The question is, why do we struggle with vulnerability, and how can we overcome it? the answer lies within ourselves if we have the courage to see it, we try to make ourselves noticed, otherwise we feel vulnerable. And then the bad thoughts start pouring in, i'm not good enough, i'm weird etc. But in the process of trying to become visible we instead become who we currently are, and not who we should be, and that sense of vulnerability comes back, but in a different form. So it seems that the way to overcome vulnerability is to be at peace with our emotions, to let our self know, we are enough, and then the vulnerability will start to fade and that sense of belonging will return, but without the self guilt trip to follow.

I went into this ted talk hoping to find something that could help me. I thought I would sound vulnerable to say this, but who really cares, I am who I am. This has always been a touchy subject for me, because not that you care about my personal life, but I struggle, and when I say struggle, I really mean I struggle. With the fact that, i put myself down all the time, and i hate myself for it, so it's just myself and my conscience always in a constant fight. And i hoped I could get out of this; something to help me fight that feeling of "I am not good enough".

And as it turns out it has helped, I think it helped A lot. Although the next day i felt really good about myself, it does take some getting used to, a lot of getting used to. So it will have to become a thing that I need to rehearse more, but I am always open to concepts that aren't total bullshit, that make me a more understood person, to myself, but I got a lot out of this, more than I've got from a talk yet.

My favorite line of this was: when we feel vulnerable, we feel sad, and to cope with sadness we get say, a beer and a banana nut muffin, and try to put all these harsh hate we have for ourselves on ice. but in doing so we numb happiness itself. So when we can no longer feel happy we feel now very sad, so what do we do? we spring for a beer and a banana nut muffin, and its a vicious downward cycle.