Kathryn Schulz: On being wrong

People make mistakes. They are wrong. I'm wrong, you're wrong, and so is everybody else. Then why is it so hard to admit? Because people are scared, embarrassed, or ashamed of being wrong. Though it is not sensible to hide from being wrong, it is human nature to make mistakes. In Kathryn Schulz's TED talk, she reminds us that it is okay to be wrong. In fact, she encourages being wrong, saying that people learn from their mistakes. Mistakes help people to grow, and to improve problem solving. Failure is just another word for progress. Making mistakes is the point of being human. Kathryn Schulz believes there would be much more success if people accepted mistakes. When mistakes are made now, people get discouraged and frusturated. Unlike most people, Schulz sees mistakes as a learning experience. Without mistakes, success does not exist! Mistakes are more important than many realize.

Schulz was very convincing due to he connections she formed with the audience. She opened up about an embarrassing mistake she made, showing the audience she was not afraid to take her own advice and make mistakes. She brings up common examples of others also making mistakes. She uses the example of the cartoon of the coyote and the road runner. The success of the show is based on the coyote's constant mistakes. The coyote makes countless wrong moves while chasing the road runner, but always tries again. Schulz also uses pictures and quotes to further her point. Schulz explains that in spite of our reluctance to accept our own mistakes, we enjoy seeing them, reading about them, and hearing about them. Schulz directly involves her audience, asking them how it feels to make mistakes.

This TED talk has really touched me, because it applies to my daily life. I have to admit, I never admit I am wrong if I can help it. I make it my goal to be right about everything, and I cannot stand mistakes. This is especially true when it comes to arguments. When I argue with my parents, I keep my focus on winning the "argument." If I lost, I consider it a personal failure. Watching Schulz's TED talk has helped me to realize that being right isn't everything, that is is normal to be wrong.

As I listened to Schulz's talk, I found myself wondering why ever human being is so set on being right. Because they learn it from an early age. From where? Kids learn the importance of being right in school. They are taught to earn good grades, which they must be right in order to do. They are taught that kids who receive bad grades are stupid and lazy. So why has no one realized this problem before? Because it is so deeply ingrained in their thinking. How can one succeed without being right? By being wrong, you are failing, and by failing, you cannot succeed.

Kathryn Schulz's talk was especially interesting because it is a very unpopular idea in society. It was interesting to hear an opinion contradicting popular belief. It was very inspiring that many people will scoff at her idea, yet she is passionate enough to spread it anyway.

As Clay Shirky begins his talk, my head is spinning with all of the information. Right away, Shirky launches into a description of a website called Ushahidi, which was originally started in Kenya after a political scandal. All of the media was shut down, so one woman began blogging everything that was going on. Soon, there was too much information to handle, so she asked for help. Two men pitched in and Ushahidi. The website reports on important national events, and is useful when all local media has bee shut down. Similar websites to Ushahidi are now used across the globe.

Clay Shirky then adresses cognitive thinking. Cognitive thinking is creative thinking. Shirky then goes on to explain cognitive surplus, which is the widespread sharing of creative ideas. Shirky believes in people doing it not for money, but for the good of the whole. He thinks people should to it out of generosity. There are two kinds of cognitive surplus, communal and global. Communal has an effect on the community, for which he uses the example of lol cats. Global has an effect on the entire world, and is used across the globe, like Ushahidi.

Shirky also talks about the way we use our free time. He says the average person has 1 trillion free hours a year. He says if we all used that free time, we could be using our minds to help others. We could create inventions that have a global effect.

What would the world be like if there was no more obesity? How would it change if everyone ate healthy? Jamie Oliver hopes to find out someday. Jamie Oliver is a British chef who has taken it upon himself to change the world. He has set out to conquer obesity, and to teach people how to eat healthy. Many will call it hopeless, but Jamie Oliver will not back down from the challenge.

Jamie Oliver, like all good chefs, believes in the power of food. He says, "Food has a primal place in our homes." Oliver is also realistic, and is faced with the fact that our food is killing us. Oliver explains how dire the situation is, saying that our lives are decreasing because of our diets. To illustrate how drastically our food is changing our lives, OLiver pulls up a bar graph. The graph shows the leading causes of death, with diet related conditions at the very top. In America, two-thirds of people are overweight. He goes on to explain that obesity is not just in America, it is sweeping the world.

Jamie Oliver continues by explaining that obese people are not only hurting themselves, but they are also hurting everyone else around them. He says unless we do something fast, it will be almost impossible to stop the obesity. With fast food sweeping the world, he sure has his work cut out for him.

I had not realized how widespread obesity was until I watched this video. I cannot understand how it has gotten this out of control. How hard is it to watch what you eat? Is it really that hard for people to exercise? It is embarrassing that so many people are overweight, especially here in America. Those people do not realize how serious the consequences might be. Those bowls of ice cream every night just might cost them their lives. Being overweight is a very selfish thing. When the people who love you look at you, they will not see a responsible, hard working person. They see a lazy, greedy person who does not care about their health.

Jamie Oliver uses his passion to deeply connect with the audience, and to emphasize that obesity is a matter of life or death. He uses visuals to present hard evidence, which will further his point. He helps the audience personally connect with his topic, making them think of people in their own lives who are obese. He also talks about children, and how we must act now to save the children from growing up to this unhealthiness. His dream is to educate every child about healthy food.

This video has had a profound effect on me, and has convinced me to practice more healthy eating habits. This should create a ripple effect in society, gradually encouraging people to be healthy, but I do not think that will happen. As long as nothing has affected them personally, many people will do nothing. We need a shock to convince those people to jump into action. I do hope Jamie Oliver succeeds, I'll be supporting him the whole way.

What if there were no consequences? What if we we lived in a world with no rewards, where people did things simply because they wanted to? Crazy sounding ideas to most people, but a possibility of a promising future to Daniel Pink. Daniel Pink is the author of books full of jaw dropping ideas, such as A Whole New Mind and Drive. His books use studies of behavioral science to explore the reasons behind human motivation as well as explaining why right brainers are taking over the world.

In his TED talk, Daniel Pink uses studies of human behavior to prove that rewards and consequences, are rarely successful. One of the examples Pink uses is a common puzzle, known as the candle problem. The purpose of the candle problem is to use the objects provided to attach the candle to the wall, preventing wax from dripping onto the table. Many people, says Pink, will try to use the tacks to pin the candle to the wall. Others might try to use the match to melt wax and stick the candle to the wall. The majority of people find the solution within ten minutes.

Daniel Pink says the objective is to see past the goal, to open our minds to other ideas. By using the right brain, this problem can be solved. The left brain focuses on the goal, and in doing so narrows its focus. Daniel Pink explains that carrots and sticks are no longer effective. He wants to bring the gap between motivation and business together. The key to motivating someone, he says, is autonomy. By letting people motivate themselves, they become more interested, finish work more quickly, and productivity goes up. This is used by several American companies, and is known as ROWE, which stands for "Results Only Work Environment."

Daniel Pink connects with the audience by making fun of himself, centering on his shame of going to law school. His goal is proving a case with hard, solid evidence. He backs up everything he says with studies and facts, making it clear that his topic is not based on an opinion. He is very passionate about his topic, and uses persuasion and evidence to win over his audience. Pink also uses images, such as pictures of the candle problem, to help the audience visualize and experience the difficulty of solving a problem when expected to.

Daniel Pink is very firm on his opinion that the world needs to change its business policy. He gives a few examples of some companies that have changed things up and run differently, which produce higher results. Atlassian is an Australian software company that has what they call Fedex days. Every year, the company gives each employee 24 hours to work on anything not related to their work. The next day, each employee comes in with something new, a program, a game, or a new product. The point to take away is the fact that these employees invented more than they do for work. Why does this happen? Because the employees enjoyed it. It was not work, and the employees were motivated by the desire to design something. This would change the world. What if a new thing was invented every day? What is people enjoyed their work? What if people worked harder?

Daniel Pink's ideas would change the world, starting with education. How would children behave if they were not on a schedule, like ROWE companies? Children would feel more free, and would have more chances to express new ideas. By coming up with more ideas than children right now, they would increase their chances of succeeding later in life. Daniel Pink's ideas could be hugely beneficial to the world, but first need to be enforced.

How would education change if it integrated creativity? What would happen if students had interest in their learning? Sir Ken Robinson is an author and a speaker on implementing creative arts into education. Sir Ken Robinson is firm on his opinion that creativity should also be included into public education. He says, "I believe we don't grow into creativity, we grow out of it." In his TED talk, Sir Ken Robinson explains that education is limited, and by not allowing children to express themselves, we are narrowing their thoughts.

To further emphasize his points, Sir Ken Robinson tosses out examples of how we are harming the children's mental growth with our education system. He says, "Children have tremendous talents, and we are squashing them, quite ruthlessly." He explains that instead of teaching them to think for themselves, we are educating them out of creativity. We are teaching them to be exactly like everyone else. He tells stories of children, to help his audience connect his talk to how it is affecting their own children. He was a very effective speaker, using personal idea to connect with ideas. He tells jokes to win over the audience, which is useful in helping them remember his talk, because they could personally connect with it.

Sir Ken Robinson's TED talk had a very positive effect on me. It helped me see why I have not interest in my own education. If you talk to a kindergartner about school, they nearly always love it. If you talk to an elementary school kid, they all promptly announce that they hate school. Why is this? Because as kids get older, less creativity is used in education. Why can't just as much creativity be used in a middle school as a preschool? Who decided to do away with creativity when kids reached a certain age?

If Sir Ken Robinson was able to convince schools to use creativity, the way children think would be dramatically changed. They will no longer be afraid to make mistakes, as many adults are. They will all have original ideas, instead of all spouting out the sam information when asked a question. And most important of all, children will like going to school. When a child holds interest in something, they will put their whole heart into doing the best they can. Imagine what it would be like if every child reached their full potential and never gave up. School attendance would increase, grades would go up along with test scores, and knowledge levels would skyrocket. How do you think this would affect society?

Sir Ken Robinson had a very unique presentation style, implementing that creative aspect to show his point. Sir Ken Robinson did not use any pictures, videos, or slides. Many might consider this unusual, but it is very effective. The lack of visuals kept the attention on him, ensuring that the audience heard his every word, and fully understood his topic. This also allowed the audience to picture what education would be like if Sir Ken Robinson's ideas were used. They could also imagine having a child who did their homework, earned good grades, and enjoyed school isn't that every parent's dream? It allowed the audience to see that their child could potentially have better chance of success in the world if children were allowed to be creative.