More on Concept Talks
I've spent most of today going through a process of sorting and choosing talks for the project. In my usual 'structured' manner I have grouped talks into categories, and today I have just gone through another grouping exercise.What I've realised is that some of the talks that I wanted to include don't work as a 30 day activity - they underpin the whole concept (like Matt Cutts and A J Jacobs talks). They had to applied to the whole project, or they are the reason that some of the other talks are being included in the project.So I have selected 11 talks that are really part of the underlying concept of this project. They will naturally be applied to the whole process, the changes I'm making or define the project parameters and will help me complete it.
The Concept Talks
These are, in alphabetical order because that's just as good as anything else:
A.J. Jacobs' year of living biblically - the whole concept that I can experiment on my life, and the idea that changing my behaviour can change my mind.
Adam Savage's obsessions - eye opening realisation that there are many people in the world with random collections of ideas that they would like to create/develop. This also led me to be more structured in the collection of material about the project (if that is at all possible).
Caroline Casey: Looking past limits - everyone needs to seriously watch this presentation, but apart from this the concept that she gave me is that I need to believe in myself and everything about me, then extraordinary things can happen. And if she can achieve everything she has, then I can achieve this project. This is only one of the many things I got from this talk, but maybe I will talk about the others later.
Dan Dennett on dangerous memes - this is a great talk explaining memes, and how they can now infect the world. I've included this because it is basically what I am doing, taking the memes of others, expressed through their TED Talks, using them and then passing them on again. Hopefully none of the speakers are too concerned with what I do with them, or how I interpret them :-)
Derek Sivers: Keep your goals to yourself - this was just one that made me think about how and when I should share the project, and it was interesting to understand that my mind can play tricks on itself, something to be aware of.
Elizabeth Gilbert on nurturing creativity - I love this talk and it is one that I feel I need to apply to the project, especially in the writing, so I can protect myself. I like the concept that it isn't all down to me and my abilities, that the failure and success of creative endeavours isn't all about the individual.
Matt Cutts: Try something new for 30 days - the idea is that this is a good way to create or remove habits from your life. Long enough to try it on, not so long that you can't stick at it.
Matthew Childs' 9 life lessons from rock climbing - there are some great points in this that struck a chord with me, particularly Fear sucks and Know when to let go. So I will be using these lessons as a tool to structure the project itself and how I work within it.
Nic Marks: The Happy Planet Index - the particular aspect of this are the Five Ways to Wellbeing that they have developed. I listened to this for the first time almost a year ago and have been thinking that I need to work harder at these things. A lot of the talks that I am using cover off on these, so rather than including this talk in every third activity, I thought I would have him as an overarching concept.
Richard St. John's 8 secrets of success - these will also underpin how I approach the project and in particular the latter part of the writing around it. I am particularly fond of the last one "Persist", especially the CRAP acronym (Criticism, Rejection, Assholes and Pressure).
Ze Frank's web playroom - the last, but by no means least, is a Ze talk. It could be dangerous to put this one out there, as people may know what I am humming in the office now, but this one is what this project is all about - Connecting and Sharing. I could have done this project within the confines of my own world, not telling anyone what was going on. Sharing the experiences, learnings and the wisdom of TED with others - possibly connecting to other people who have been inspired from these speakers, are some of the reasons that I am blogging about all of this.
I know this may seem like a lot, but I wanted to make sure that I didn't leave any of them out. And remember this has been brewing for a number of years, so it shouldn't be surprising that there are a lot of influential talks.