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From: TEDtalksDirector
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  • her conclusion is out of place!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  • I'm sorry but the lesbianism coming out of her pores is builting a barrior that don't let me fully concentrate, and I don't hate lesbians. It's just how I feel. :/

  • Standing ovation???

  • You're wrong, Kathryn!!!

  • PROVIDENCE! whattup!

  • SOOOOO HIGH

  • Santorom, Rick Perry and Newt Gingrich...Paul please tell them they are wrong!

  • She talked a lot, but didn't say anything ...

  • "Wow. I don't know. Maybe I'm wrong."

  • Definitely a thought-provoking talk. My mind is boggled now and I don't know whether or not I have to rethink everything I have ever believed or devoted myself to because... what if I'm wrong about all of it?

  • @HBSanta Maybe you're wrong for trying to rethink everything.

  • @youtubian2500 God damn you! The circle continues...

  • @HBSanta heh, it is indeed a maddening mobius strip

  • @HBSanta calm , breath , take time to centre . unboggle the mind chatter so to speak.

    U'r path reveals itself, eventually.

  • Awesome video! A philosopher in the making!

  • This was awesome.

  • this one was way too long... couldve been shorter

  • ...But what if she's wrong?

    DUN DUN DUNNN

    -the plot thickens-

  • Being Wrong and Doing Wrong are two very different things. The world economy wasn't torpedoed because someone was wrong, it was because some people was willingly 'doing' wrong.

  • That was a good one.

  • I think she's wrong

  • The miracle of our minds isn't  that we can see the world as it is, it is that we can see the world as it isn't

  • yeah well, when you do manage to realize you might be wrong that comes with the notion that EVERYTHING about you might be wrong and that can be a serious fucking bother !

  • thumbs down girl is strangely attractive

  • Why no cc on  videos of TED

  • 16:43

    "so here we are again. that's how it goes"

    We are so driven to find the right and wrong in things, and to crucify those who stand in the way of our conjured beliefs/opinions; but after every argument, the dust will settle, and we will remain here together next to each other, and the air and water and earth will stand stoic in its indifference to our infant plights of right and wrong.

  • The sign for "picnic area" does look suspiciously like the Chinese character for "open". It's actually rather cool she made that association.

    On the other hand, though: what's the deal with all those damn hippies at TED nowadays?

  • *cough* Religion *cough*

  • @Typho0n86 When it is the default stance to be so jaded and bitter as to mistake philosophy and ideology for religion, it won't matter if we are right or wrong because we will have nothing left to be right for.

  • @RamadaArtist Well said!

  • Wow! She is amazing!! Love this video so much!! I think we should all step out of the box, think bigger and think more about others! :)))

    S.

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  • I like the lazy way she talks.

  • @tehcexymeowmix lol I don't. XD

  • good story bro

  • What is wrong is making is so oil companies must work in the depts the the deep water horizon was made to work in. Without the ridiculous "protections" we put on our environment, people wouldn't be forced into working in that deep of waters. Thank your government for making these people take major risk in order to give you oil. While at the same time, we as Americans pay tax dollars to subsidize oil exploration off of the Brazilian coast

  • It's okay to be wrong and to make mistakes.

    Except that doctor who made a mistake.

    Or those engineers at BP who made a mistake.

    Or every other example I'm going to use in this talk.

  • @theraccoun

    people love to blame each other :P

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  • @theraccoun I don't think she was saying it was wrong for them to make mistakes, so much as using them as examples of being blind to being wrong in our "rightness," and possibly how we then justify the mistakes when we realize they have been made.

  • @annacreech I agree with the principle of her speech, and I think if she had emphasized your second point her speech would have had actual substance. Humans have a remarkable capacity to justify unsupported data, to curb it to fit their assumptions of what can be right. Often, external factors significantly compound this problem. If the consequences are severe, rationality will work overwhelmingly to protect the ego, rather than to objectively handle the problem.

  • @annacreech With that said, her examples are horrendous, and her way of thinking is the CAUSE of the flawed thinking she preaches against. Pardon the ad hominen, but perhaps she doesn't know what it's like to solve highly difficult problems day in and day out. Doctors and engineers have to employ crude heuristics all the time to do their job and, as a result, mistakes are inevitably made. Herein lies the key point...

  • @annacreech So long as the external world continues to lash out at these mistakes, the more people will shell their mentality against their own fallibility. That doctor may have been sued horrendously for malpractice. Given that they are constantly faced with that threat, it is no wonder they become overconfident in the practice. The same goes with BP. Perhaps if she was on the team dealing with all the complexities of the massive systems they were working with, she would realize

  • @annacreech that sometimes mistakes happen, and they can be big. She says that's okay, but she doesn't mean it. If she meant it, she would have talked about the flip side: about the disgusting ubiqutous practice of suing over malpractice, about the public's failure to accept engineering mistakes, and to simply slander them and always resort to attributing their mistakes to carelesness. In any case, I like the way you summarized your point, and I think analyzing the post-operative justification

  • @annacreech would have added a lot more to her talk

  • @theraccoun The idea is not about that. She talks about accepting the fact that you're wrong and not being ashamed to admit it. That being wrong is not something you have to hide and doesn't make you stupid.

  • @lestrim That's what she says in the beginning, but does not support this assertion with her examples. People are less and less likely to accept their own fallibility the more others slander them for their mistake. The heuristics employed in solving the countless variables doctors and engineers deal with day in and day out can sometimes lead to careless mistakes. If she exclaims that she doesn't know why that doctor made that mistake, or why BP made theirs, but forgives them for it,

  • @lestrim then she encourages mistakes that actually ARE made due to overconfidence less likely in the future. She's simply reinforcing the problem she's trying to solve. See my response to annacreech.

    In any case, thanks for your comment

  • @theraccoun Sarcasm? haha

  • @theraccoun its not they got it wrong its that they shouldn't have thought they were right  and not been aware

  • i tought about this when i was 12-13. i have created a descussion system that is conflict proof. and thats right. dont hate becaus there is no way you could know...

  • the chick who gave the thumbs down....its totally gorgeous :D

    oh an nice talk too :D

  • would love to pick up from where she left off. . .for once looking at the way we each operate. . as we are all working off the same cosmic template . . of course we all see ourselves as right in our own eyes. however wrong we maybe seen as by others. It was instant adherence . . . with every thought, concept cosmically programmed to carry us a step beyond where we have been . . ah let it go. . ah still hear always wrong safe for when speaking as to where nature comesh from

  • @HamOnCan God is not the same as religion.

  • @renaelindsay what else is new?

  • hmm she cheekily slipped god in there which I thought was kind of unneccesary and, if anything a little presumptuous considering Religion or lack thereof is like the mother of all things a person could be wrong about!

  • this talk overlaps well with another ted talk called "trial,error,and the god complex"

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  • It made sense until she mentions a god...then it all falls apart.

  • @RobinRae100 Sounds like a personal issue.

  • @XxTTechxX not for me...for you perhaps.

  • @RobinRae100 Simple minded, clearly.

  • There is nearly an exact same speech on TED...

  • So this is why religions only want you to look up

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  • It's interesting that many people live in denial believing that they're doing the right thing, but in the long run they realize--usually when it's too late--that they have wasted many opportunities. Some say it's called life. Others say it's called lack of strategy or prioritizing. Either way, it helps to admit sooner rather than later that you or I are doing something the wrong way--to avoid roadblocks and dead ends. Godspeed!

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  • Great talk

  • i always hear about this same doctor event. doctors make mistakes like these about as often as planes get hijacked. its not a normal occurrence, its the rare but very visible outlier. i am not saying that doctors don't make mistakes, its just uncommon for mistakes that are that obvious to be made by doctors. 

  • Try this for a change... Everyone talk/think/analyze/judge only about him/ herself for an entire day without blaming/excusing/commenting or even praising whatsoever outside of the Self. This is still a huge challenge for me... But incredible experiences and eternity moments of realization are indescribable.

    Much blessing to All.

  • I want to marry her brain - she's saying something important here. Damned important. Realsing the damage of not rationally understanding being right and wrong.

  • Wow, her point about the distinction of how it feels to be wrong, rather than how it feels to realise you are wrong is some god damned logical and insightful jiujitsu.

    I was raised my entire life being told I was wrong, beaten in to my literally, now as an adult the possibility I am wrong doesn't have any effect other than my desire to be less wrong, if I can.

    Maybe a benefit of my hell was assuming I'm wrong and wanting to be shown how to be less wrong. Who knows, I could be wrong :D:D

  • Great talk. I was that lil brat in class that answered every single question, right or wrong (50%). But thats how I learn. I crave learning new things, so finding out I am wrong means I just discovered something new!

  • She might be wrong.

  • yeah i agree with her... maybe she is wrong :D

  • Did she just spend almost 20 minutes preaching Pascal's wager?

  • @akaiYaMa9 No, not at all; she just spent almost 20 minutes talking about human perception and how it affects our interpretation of how we see and interact with the world around us.

  • She swaggers like a pre-pubescent teenage lad who's just had his sip of alcohol and is trying to convince his parents he's not pissed.

  • incredible...Indeed I might b wrong!

  • "If you want to increase your success, double your failure rate." Thomas Watson, the founder of IBM.

    Think about that for a minute. You gotta swing and miss a lot if you want to hit home runs.

  • Whatever you may think about it - whether you agree or disagree with the premise offered here - it's thought provoking to consider we may be wrong - and even more mind bending to allow that observation to empower us! ;-)

  • good lordy lord, these boffins do like the sound of their own voices don't hey, it seems to be half unfunny stand up routine and half rythmic hypnotic pacing to orientate us for enlightenment, most of the facts actually delivered are pretty mundane and NOT new, innovative or clever

  • @willpreston I think its about what's trending instead of what's different. And old stuff could be relevant and be irrelevant you never know, you want to know? watch TED. Probably like that.

  • @willpreston, why would you post such a comment, I wonder?

  • @suzbailey23 - i was annoyed at wasting quarter of an hour listening to something a child could figure out, i guess i also resented the way she slipped a few political opinions in there in the form of innuendo.

    her examples are far too labored, Chinese characters/picnic tables whiley cayote etc etc.

  • @willpreston If it's so obvious that any child can figure it out, how come so few people exercise it? And if you're so impatient and easily annoyed, why bother watching anything, ever? Or interact with the rest of the human race, when we're not as intelligent and succinct as you are? Gosh, I sure hope you don't waste your precious time reading my reply... please forgive me for wasting ten of your precious, superior seconds.

    People like you are the most pernicious part of the problem.

  • @suzbailey23 look man, i used to go to TED for some mind blowing heavy shit that would twist my melon up, recently it seems that humanity has stopped progressing and we've nothing new to add (i dont think this is the case) but TED keeps on getting these uninspiring people to talk every week.

    for someone as supposedly patient and humble as you claim to be you sure do a good impression of sanctimonious and sarcastic

  • @willpreston You make a good impression of a douchebag.

  • @willpreston: you're wrong. You wasted 17 minutes and 52 seconds. That you felt it necessary to justify your annoyance by overstating the time you spent by around 50%... suggests that your real annoyance isn't that a child could figure it out, or that she was too laboured.

    It's that you resent a view you have on a political event being called wrong.

    You did waste your time, because you didn't seem to comphrend what was communicated to you, other than to resent a political point being wrong

  • @GraeHall

    yeah... hers

  • Time to go back to the farm and have my Daughters and me build a raft from palletts and plywood and let the wind push us across the slough in the NW corner....

  • I've never seen those little blocks on the bench before. I think that may be a mis-representation with alterations of the real sign for illustration purposes?

  • I think that people that say they are always right, are stubborn, stupid people. They are so simple minded that they don't even grasp what was being said here. I think I have to agree with this person in the video. We are wrong. A lot too. We're not perfect and if you think you are, you're delusional. People are stupid, dumb, ignorant, foolish, which is why we'll never get along. Wake up people. Learn to live with differences. Learn to see things from different angles.

  • I am always right. and only other people are ever wrong. really.

  • @FabalociousD25 "Art is a human endeavor with the kind intent to reveal inner truth and beauty; a spiritual journey of discovery into the depths of our human creative potential. To the artist, this voyage is a search for perfection-- which can never actually be grasped, only imagined; although in this noble effort we come to gain a greater appreciation for the illusory and serene quality otherwise known as imperfection"

    ~~cc

    Thanks for the inspiration~! You're fabalocious~!

  • @carefulcarpenter That is why we will never be perfect. Everyone has a different opinion on what perfect is. Some see it as the fact that humans will never be perfect. One person believes it is ok to kill. While another person believes all Live has the right to live. Therefor, to kill would be trespassing on someone else's rights, would it not? Therefor, we have a wrong. This difference is what makes us, and separates us. For all eternity. And why there will never ever be world peace.

  • I want to marry this woman

    Hi Kathryn :)

  • "Blinded by self-importance.... the visionaries of society haven't the vision of a blind musician nor the perception of a churchmouse_"

    ~~cc

    The capacity to embrace imperfection has made me a free spirit..

  • My opinion is that in life; which seems to be such a paradox, we also sometimes have to trust that we are right. Marriage is usually based on a trust in 'the one' an Olympian champion doesn't choose to believe they will fail. Life seems to demand a balance between being open to being wrong, and trusting in yourself you are right, to me anyway.

  • this lady is very clever! she just found out whats like to be a scientist always stepping into unknown terrain. i guess most people just don't deal well with humility and insecurity...

    ps: i like to watch the landscape of thought... when she speaks about job competition - why not collaborate?... the american way of life and society have become particularly permeated with demand/offer fear and balance sheets simplistic ideas. that's really sad and ... just wrong.

    live and let live. peace. ..\/,

  • around time 12:30 i got very bored and vote this a very bad TED talk.

    The good part was the roadrunner thing...after that: blah.

  • 17 minutes? Come on. Could be more succinct. Not rocket science.

  • I think she's got it wrong.

  • I know it will take longer, but if you dig this video, you will probably LOVE Montaigne- the great French thinker and all-around amazing dude.

    Here is one of his quotes:

    "To learn that we have said or done a foolish thing, that is nothing; we must learn that we are but fools: a much fuller and more important lesson."

    Viva Montaigne!

  • @tristramshandy3 i LOVE montaigne's idealogy

  • I guess her talk touched on our delicate egos to admit that something can be constantly improvised in general. I guess she's not questioning beliefs but the dogma of it accepted blindly esp. when there are counter-intuitive thoughts that can deride our own dogmas ... I am surprised to see her talk not being received well ... but its good to know this landscape of others too.

  • Her story around time 10:00, that lists the 3 assumptions backfires a bit: It perfectly describes the experience of atheists in a world of believers. Those 3 assumptions are REASONABLE (and useful) because, in fact, MOST people are PERMANENTLY wrong about MOST things, MOST of the time.

    So embracing our errors is only the SMALL END of the issue, the bigger end is understanding that others are wrong too--especially those who position themselves to "teach" us.

  • the fear of being wrong..

  • There's time and place for creativity, and it's not when you're operating a brain surgery, or driving a school bus. There are times when being wrong can cost lives, and there are times when it doesn't matter if you're wrong and you can free yourself to be creative.

  • The girl in the yellow dress at 4:28 is Sarah Kay. She's amazing. I just noticed :)

  • I think that her speech had been percolating in her brain for years before delivering it.

    Her purpose here was to take everything ever said on that platform, and put it in a blender, and trump everyone by rendering the "big picture" with an all encompassing "word down from the mountain". Fun stuff.

    Was she egocentrically trying to spoon feed a proud crowd?

    I got that feeling from watching the things she chose to say.

  • i loved this talk, took alot from it. some people who are commenting are already saying things she was talking against -_- and she's right, people really hate being wrong.

  • @wiscodyne I disagree... just kidding. Good comment :)

  • This is all just a lot of talk. 

  • Don't you mean "gouge" your eyes out gatzu86? Sorry - I'm guessing you don't like being wrong...

  • Don't you mean "gouge" your eyes out gatzu86? Sorry - I'm guessing you don't like being wrong...

  • I admit it. She gives us valuable trash. Picking up trash can be emotional stuff. Allow me to modify a bit her words and say: not only our capacity to screw up, but also our obsession of being right is not some kind of embarrassing defect in the human system, something we can eradicate or overcome, its totally fundamental to who we are.

  • I think the comments here are indicative of the exact thing she was arguing against...loosen up...

  • Worst TED talk I have ever heard..... sigh... TED talks are usually amazing but this made me want to gauge my eyes out.

  • I really liked this talk.

  • I can't quite put my finger on why, but she really bothers me.

  • @ChrisCapel1998 Yea...kind of bothers me too...her tone maybe?

  • Wow. Ok. Three comments in a row? You got it guys. Okay so I mentioned it was dull and obvious just a few seconds ago. I literally, I shit you not, call out "ignorant" and "evil" for points 2 and 3 11 minutes in. I fucking CALL it. Holy shit. Okay. I'm done commenting. Did I mention how bad this talk is? Jesus fucking Christ, I cant stop myself. I'm flipping out.

  • Holy shit. I made my previous comment about 2 minutes into the talk. 8 minutes in, I am resisting the temptation to gouge my eyes out. This is the worst talk I've ever fucking seen. The topic is dull and obvious. Every time she pauses for 1 additional unnecessary second after every phrase I want to bash my keyboard over my face until I pass out due to blood loss.

  • @ArgoSG: Then stop watching it? Simple. It would've probably saved more energy than making a moronic comment and making yourself look like a dramatic prick. I don't normally write crude comments, but it urks me when people write such idiotic messages. Your not sitting in the hall. You can clearly watch another video or close the tab/window if you dislike what you're watching. TED is about collectivity; it's not meant for melodramatic criticism whenever a woman presents a topic.

  • Painfully slow talk. Pointlessly over dramatic.

  • Dude, didn't Dr. Wayne Dyer riff on this topic like 30 years ago?

    God, what a waste of time this is. And she's getting PAID for it? To quote John Lydon, "you ever feel you've been cheated?"

  • What kind of an idiot would continue to insist on something they know to be wrong? On the other hand, there is nothing wrong with being unsure whether you are totally right. But the world doesn't like it. The appearance of certainty and self-confidence will always get the hearing and the job where honest admission of being open to correction gets put down as "If you haven't convinced yourself, how do you expect to convince anybody else?"

  • @Saiaton But that's what she's saying--most of the time people don't realize when they're wrong; and they have a personal stake in avoiding that realization, because such a realization is punished by our society. But otherwise, you're right. Our civilization rewards confidence more than it rewards accuracy--and that sad fact might be our downfall.

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  • She gives an epistemological lecture, and then at 13:02 she says she believes that there exists a being who is "omniscient" - even though omniscience is impossible and as much an imaginary concept as the number "infinity".

    (Do a search on "problems with omniscience")

    Though I appreciate what she is trying to do here, ironically she is quite wrong about the nature of knowledge. The fact that she's a theist means she probably doesn't even have a concise methodology for knowledge.

  • @Jotto999 You're doing exactly what she's talking about. She didn't say she actually believed in God or was a theist (whatever that might mean to you).

    She's only using the concept of an omniscient God to illustrate the point that human beings are fallible and limited. The question of whether or not an omniscient God actually, physically exists is completely beside the point.

  • @CathodeRay00 She said "because unlike God, we don't really know what's going on out there". Sounds like an implication of belief to me. She didn't say it with a facetious smirk, or a joking tone, but that it's actually what she thinks.

    It's not beside the point. Models of the universe with and without an omniscient being are very different, particularly regarding the nature of knowledge. If she's not a theist, then she severely complicated it needlessly. It's highly relevant.

  • @Jotto999 She could have just as easily said: "Unlike Santa Clause, we can't fly down chimneys" if that was relevant to the point she was making, and she could say it seriously, without having to qualify it with a joke or an explicit statement of belief for everybody to know what she was talking about. Most people know what is meant by the concept of God, so that's why she used it.

    Even if she is a theist, it does not invalidate what she's saying, unless you're hung up on religious issues.

  • @CathodeRay00 You missed what I said about necessary implications for the nature of knowledge regarding having or not having a God. Also, I still think she's a theist, people don't generally throw in God nonchalantly that way unless they are into it.

  • @Jotto999 I didn't miss it, I just think it's wrong. God is a metaphysical claim, not really an epistemological one--at least, not regarding human knowledge--unless you care to elaborate on these necessary implications you speak of.

    It's likely that she is a theist, as most Americans are, but you would have to identify what sort of theist she is, as there are many kinds, many of which are quite compatible with standard scientific models. So really, I don't see what the problem is.

  • @Jotto999 I should add, though, that she was also speaking about Augustine, who was definitely a theist, so it's possible she was just mentioning God because Augustine's views related to God.

  • 29 people are wrong.

  • So true! How can anyone blame Bush for 9-11 when even Aaron Sorkin blames Clinton! See The West Wing - Blame it on the Bossa Nova" episode. Or Tommy Lee Jones in Under Siege for that matter.

  • Wow! That only took two hours for President Obama to respond! Good job!

    @danabananza

  • I thought the root of all our creativity is trying to get laid.

  • @gusphraba and i thought u died along time ago mr frued

  • um she is assuming that my 3rd assumption would be that if they still dont get it that they must be purposly distorting the truth for there own molevelant purposes... I have never once thought that... My 3rd assumption is more like, ok they are smart, but I must be smarter...

  • wow does she really believe in god? LMAO thats pretty funny considering the title of the video :D

  • @gusphraba The root of all creativity is trying to get laid for the wrong reasons.

  • @gusphraba Essentially, it is.

  • @gusphraba Being wrong will not get you laid.

  • @chrisdrakekaka being wrong has gotten me laid. i was wrong and this girl finally convinced me of my mistake. i didn't know what to do or what to say so i just said i was wrong and she was right and i was sorry for not listening to her more closely. i got laid that night, she told me that her ex would never admit he was wrong. i had to be wrong before i could admit i was wrong.

  • @greycloud24 Hmm I was wrong...

  • Ironically, she is an idiot

    And i looked up that "wrongology" thing. nice way to try to appear like you are in a nonexistant scientific field, put "ology" behind anything and voila, you are your own self-appointed expert on something.

    she's a journalist that's written a book. gtfo srsly. i come to watch TED conferences to learn things, not to learn how you experience knowing little, and how you excuse not attempting to learn more.

  • She's wrong.

  • Can we put Baby back in the corner?

  • no wait, I'm wrong

  • wrong - road runners can't fly

  • @threebil

    wrong, road runners aren't birds.

  • @0rganizedGrime

    I've never seen one fly, but they are birds.

    I've seen chickens fly, and they too, like the road runner, are labeled land birds.

  • The last stage doesn't necessarily have to be evil. It could be stubbornness. Someone who has all the facts, doesn't piece them together as we do, may be assumed to be stubborn without attaching a label that they're evil. I commonly think this way.

  • "if you wanna make God lough, tell him your plans!"

  • I thought I was going to find this talk interesting, but something else happened instead.

  • this woman takes a long time to say a little, so annoying, get to the point.

  • What defines a "good idea"?