Rob Forbes: Ways of seeing

http://www.ted.com Rob Forbes, the founder of Design Within Reach, shows a gallery of snapshots that inform his way of seeing the world. Charming juxtapositions, found art, urban patterns -- this slideshow will open your eyes to the world around you.
TEDTalks is a daily video podcast of the best talks and performances from the TED Conference, where the world's leading thinkers and doers give the talk of their lives in 18 minutes. Featured speakers have included Al Gore on climate change, Philippe Starck on design, Jill Bolte Taylor on observing her own stroke, Nicholas Negroponte on One Laptop per Child, Jane Goodall on chimpanzees, and "Lost" producer JJ Abrams on the allure of mystery. TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design, and TEDTalks cover these topics as well as science, business, development and the arts. Watch the Top 10 TEDTalks on TED.com, at http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/top10

Category:

Howto & Style

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[NaumaddX]

Rob's presentation is about one thing - having your eyes and other senses receptive to beauty rather than continual pursuit of elusive "perfection" creating all sorts of quick judgments and division of oneself from what our world - natural and man-made has to offer. The point - "beauty is in the eye of the beholder". If you do not see beauty wherever you look and everywhere you look, it isn't the fault of your environment - it's your own lack of vision remedied by a simple change of attitude.

[SirBanon]

people who starve to death are victims to international political policies. look into africa where their politicians are bought off, lands cast into ruin by corperations because there is no government policies preventing this and also the subsidized food that comes in an puts local african farmers out of work and lose their land, then after all this, a once self reliant africa becomes dependent on foreign aid. and by political policy, they aren't even allowed to industrialize.

[megmegs84]

1:08 sidewalk in Rio de Janeiro, was an heritage of Portugal, look at google : CALÇADA PORTUGUESA

[carpetrainium]

The commercial at the end is pretty nice too.

[AzoreanProud]

paradigms?

[hancho17]

i love his search for beauty in the everyday world...

[dsgncr8or]

Awesome.

[moon3k3]

And who knows what good will sprout from his ideas and his perception? Society today functions the way it is because we have such an enormous diversity in people's interests and personalities. I am actually excited to see what new innovations he will produce in the future. But I must admit, I wasn't too delighted by the self-contradictions his metaphors often conjured up. He also seemingly ignores the fact that "way of seeing" is all matter of interpretations; there is nothing right or wrong.

[moon3k3]

You make a valid point. Yet I don't believe you should be presumptuous in making such judgements. An 18 minute talk on a narrow topic doesn't signify very much. Also, whether one chooses to practice altruism or not, doesn't make one good or bad. It is matter of personal choice. You can't impose such obligations. If he cares for those who are less unfortunate than he is, that's great. If not, hopefully he will learn that act of 'giving' can also be a simple way to attain happiness.

[sjkdec18]

Seriously. What a snob.