how much will these TED talks grow you?

TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design. It’s a conference that’s usually held in California, with spurious TEDx (independently organized) events throughout the world.

Some of the TED talks are so inspiring that the organizers have manually curated some of the best picks. They’re put in different categories (like most courageous, most inspiring, most jaw-dropping, etc.)

Here are my picks for the upcoming six months, in no particular order:

Tai Lopez – The Law of 33%
This guy is very controversial to say the least. Around last year or so, every visit to youtube monetized content would land me on one of this guy’s 2 hour commercial advertisements, which not only sounded scammy as hell, but equally annoying as well.
I would get that typical used-car-salesman type vibe from anything this guy uttered, whilst trying to peddle his 67-step program to ‘live well’; obviously it was all very vague and sleazy sales-y, as well as using some weird, recursive logic, like teaching a course about teaching courses.
Despite all of the above, his TED talk does have a lot of good points, and if you can look past the annoying voice, the arrogant tone and communication style, you will extract plenty of value from it.
Like getting even virtual mentors. Reading a lot (but not just skimming like him, actually reading the damn books). Being disciplined about every aspect of your life. Spending 33% of your time on people below your level of skill, so you can mentor them, then 33% of the time with people on your level, and 33% of the time with people 10x better than you at .. whatever)
Amy Cuddy – Body Language shapes you
This talk is essentially demonstrative of the ‘fake it until you make it’ saying. We all know that most of our communication is non verbal, right? So why not take advantage of this in your everyday life, for enormous benefits in your relationships.
Even though in the beginning you will feel like an impostor, eventually you’ll actually become more confident and powerful than you were before. Which is a lasting, behavioural change.
That’s what I call a winning, particularly interesting TED talk, full of value!
Pamela Meyer – How To Spot A Liar
Have you ever seen the TV show “Lie To Me”? Well, this TED talk will convince you that most of the ways to detect deception presented there are actually legit.
But also, this talk will arm you with specific ways in which you can protect yourself from pathological liars. Knowing more about yourself. Detect lies more efficiently and with less effort.
And finally, have a better understanding about what truth is.
James Altucher – Choose Yourself
James is arguably one of the most influencing voices in this new ‘Idea Economy’ era that we’re living in.
Most of his readership seems to appreciate his no-BS, vulnerable style of story-telling.
As for myself, I follow his best advice (that he gives for free most of the time) because pound-for-pound he’s by far the most valuable time investment that I can make right now in order to change my life for the best.
Here’s one of the best things you can take away from James – the daily practice:
- emotional: be around supportive, positive people; cut the drama from your life
- physical: exercise! Just friggin’ walk more. Every day for 20 minutes; or as much as you can
- mental: write down 10 coherent ideas about one topic every day; do it no matter what every day (full disclosure – I fail at this so hard!!!); can’t do 10? how about 20? ? just do it!
- spiritual: find 10 or more things to be grateful about. Again, every day as you wake up.
Tony Robbins – Why we do what we do
Tony has re-branded himself lately as a life-coach, or strategist, which is not a bad title. Definitely better than ‘self-help guru’ or ‘motivational speaker’, no?
Whatever he may be calling himself this week, one thing cannot be denied: he’s one of the most energetic and smart (in the way of human psychology) individuals I know of.
In this TED talk he explains in his typical (very engaging) manner about performance, human needs, emotion, achievement and fulfillment. This is quite an eye-opening rationalization of life.
Julian Treasure – How to speak so that people will want to listen
Julian lays out the things to apply (or things to rather avoid) in your speaking so that people will want to listen, going over each of them in a little more depth.
Seth Godin – How to get your ideas to spread
enough said, right? So Seth is a best selling author, a great startup mentor and generally a bad ass. I’ve learned a lot from his appearance on James Altucher’s podcast.
Simon Sinek – Why good leaders make feel safe

Excellent talk on leadership, although the delivery might be iffy at times. Because we all should learn some leadership skills, regardless of whether or not we are in a formal leadership position.
Regina Dugan – From mach-20 glider to hummingbird drone

I mean gliders and drones that fly so fast it’s hard to even imagine.
Because geeking out with DARPA at its best, that’s why. #getsomeofthat
Elon Musk: The mind behind Tesla, SpaceX, SolarCity
Seriously, I should have led this list with the best of the best!
I mean it’s no secret I have a man-crush on this guy’s brain and dedication to (sometimes forcefully) propel mankind forward.
I always say “if most people would at least attempt to do 10% of what this guy does with his resources, we’d be living in a nicer world than StarTrek by now”.
Despite humans not making the brightest decisions for ourselves, we are at least lucky we get people like these once in a while – in order to raise the aggregate intelligence coefficient of the planet.