I am a thought leader, you know that I'm a thought leader because I'm wearing a blazer, I have glasses, and I've just done

this with my hands. In the early 2010s, TED Talks were highly regarded around the world for

giving the public never-before-seen access to the world's brightest minds. I just couldn't put my

finger on it. Huge bust! Huge bust! Huge bust! Huge bust! You keep going, but somewhere along the way, something changed. Today,

the conference has a reputation for being little more than a place for people to role-play as tech visionaries.

What is a TED Talk? I think it can best be understood by breaking down the word 'birth' and 'day.' Whether it's due to

overall poor quality control or the insane rumors about the way they treat speakers they don't agree with, Eddie

Wong came in here. Eddie Wong told his gross story that makes you just go 'ew.' TED Talks have undeniably gone

from thought-provoking to provoking thoughts no one asked for. One thing I am certain of is that no one ever heard me

at work. I made sure you guys will not be able to believe your eyes. Watch the success stories my lab has

had. The TED Conference actually goes back to 1984 when a man named Richard Wurman wanted to bring together leading

thinkers from different fields to share ideas worth spreading. It initially aimed at people working in the newly

established Silicon Valley, where companies like Apple, Atari, and LucasArts were more interested in the big ideas

behind technology rather than the computer parts themselves. So TED was created as a place where they could share

these ideas about the emerging fields of technology, entertainment, and design. All in all, this first event serves as a good

Proof of concept digital audio is becoming something that is more well-known. I'm not sure how many of you

have actually had a chance to hear it. [Music] It had uh, almost 700 attendees in it, so you

could... By 1990, when Silicon Valley is the tech hub of the world, TED is pretty much their official annual conference, with a

small but devout community of TEDsters who bring in revolutionary ideas from all sorts of fields. We make

computers that... The one best weapon we have to explore this new world is the one between our ears. Providing it loaded... What is a collective

of people? You and this conference... Was it good for me? Was it good for you? This has been Richard's dream all

along. There were 150 women and 411 men; 50 people with PhDs; there were 24 people

from nine countries. And with his vision now fully realized, he's tired. This is when devout TEDster Chris Anderson comes

to the rescue. And I think you have a right to... Who knew that I paid $14 million for

this? Fortunately, he's just the guy for the job, because Chris knows what TED means to people: no selling, no corporate

bull, no bandwagoning, you know, no platforms; just the pursuit of interest wherever it lies. That's not going to be

changed at all. Oh, if you only knew... Yes.  In 2006, after seeing the potential of online media sharing, Chris introduces

TED.com, opening the gates of this exclusive conference to the world. However, while this might appear to be a

great thing for you and me, many of the OG TEDsters would argue that removing exclusivity might end up making it worse

for everyone, as the event becomes less about ideas worth spreading and more about just ideas. They post their first

Talks from the 2006 conference. Needless to say, people were stunned. At some point during the next four days, your brain might

explode. By then, you won't even care. It's time for TED, but things were just getting started. Public figures began to see TED in a

whole new light; not just for exchanging ideas, but also for coming across to consumers as more human-like.

Yeah, I know that's literally Jane Maxwell, but guys, she saw a plastic deer in the ocean and now she cares about the ocean. I was

devastated. I was angry, and I understood immediately that the ocean was in trouble. No, I think she was just scared

for her part of the ocean, if you know what I'm saying, because she's a pet. Speaker lineup in

2007 brings TED to a whole new level: Larry Page and Sergey Brin, the founders of Google; the founder and CEO of Amazon,

Jeff Bezos; Richard Branson, the founder of Virgin Airlines; Bill Clinton, who, um, won the prestigious TED Prize. You're looking at

a woman who was publicly silent. More partners and fewer terrorists, with more productive citizens. And they even got director J.J. Abrams.

When I talked to the, uh, the kind rep from TED and I said, 'Listen, you know what, what should I talk about?' Uh, he said,

Don't worry about it; just be profound.' Anyway, the list goes on, and in the following years, that list gets even

longer. However, despite the quality of their speakers and ideas, the online viewers simply weren't satisfied; they

wanted more, to which Chris politely responds, 'Why don't you make your own?' Introducing TEDx. The idea is simple:

give everyone the ability to host their own TED Talk. Genius, right? But can't I just get a stage and get a bunch of

speakers and do the same thing? No. Are you *f***ing* kidding me? You really think people are going to listen to some guy

standing on a stage with no red letters behind him, of course not, but that's okay. Just pay us and we'll send you your own.

It'll have a little watermark indicating that you're nothing but... trust me, no one's going to notice for a little while.

These TEDx talks were pretty good, but very soon things took a turn for the worst, and the biggest red flag was right

there from the start. The surprising thing about today's meeting is that we here at TED have had almost nothing to

do with it. Now, a huge chunk of TED's brand is something they admit they have nothing to do with. It was obvious the

floodgates had opened. The barrier to entry wasn't just lowered; it was obliterated. Even though they added the 'X',

most people see them as one and the same. TEDx ruined TED's public perception for the longest time. I didn't know the

difference. I suspect a lot of people are the same. People start asking questions like, 'What ideas could a 5-year-old

possibly have that are worth spreading?' Talking about why kids should have an hour-long recess. And I said, 'Mr. Garner, I

really want to play Scaro Tarantella by Wowski.' And he just went, 'I... you are not capable of that.' And I

was angry, but I was determined because I had played this piece before. Yeah, if your teacher says you're not ready for

something, it's most likely because you are not [Music]. Sounds like she put too much rosin on

her bow. Look at her wrist; it's so [Music] tight. TED has become a brand machine, turning complex ideas into 18-minute

viral cable chunks, perfect for consultants looking to beef up their credentials. Remember when Chris said this: 'No selling, no corporate'

famous last words. This is the... my [Music] roast. It is a 2-kilo rooster. Also comes

In a 5-kilo model made entirely of stainless steel, no selling, no corporate, no more need for any kind of school,

certifications, or proof of any kind that you've mastered your craft to earn credibility. All you need is an uplifting

and engaging story, then you can sit back and let the big red letters do the rest. Many people who seek to wield the power of

the letters are relatively harmless, using them for nothing more than to roleplay as Silicon Valley visionaries, but some for much more

selfish reasons, or even downright evil ones. At the 2014 TEDMED conference, a lady named Elizabeth Holmes

takes the stage to speak about her revolutionary new device that she claims has the potential to disrupt the evil

medical industry, an industry that makes billions of dollars a year off people's suffering. Well, not anymore. The health

and well-being of every person, of those we love, is a basic human right. Is your left foot itching and

you're worrying you might have scabies? Have you swallowed a battery and wondering how long until you turn into

Mr. Electric? Well, in this talk, Elizabeth basically promises that with one prick of the finger, this device can determine...

I gotta say, I'm sold! Uh-oh. In November, a judge sentenced her to more than 11 years in

prison after she raised many millions of dollars from investors by making false claims about her company. Turns out, all

of it was a lie, and even with actual scientists calling it out from the very start, this lie was still somehow able to

make it all the way to store shelves. Patients were misdiagnosed with everything from diabetes to cancer. She

was able to trick people out of millions of dollars and make it onto the cover of Forbes by tricking people into

thinking she knew what she was talking about; that is the power behind the red letters. Ted knows it; they also know that

Now, the people do. In 2009, I met a thought leader, and I asked him, "How did you become a thought leader?"

And you know what he said? He said, "I don't know." Now, that doesn't sound important, and it's not. I see TED Talks mentioned

more often again, however, in a rather negative way, like, "Well, after he's done spending all that Kickstarter money and

running the company into the ground, he can always go write a book about it and hold a lame TED Talk to promote it." I

lost my job because I used my corporate car for my gambling accounts. Things got to the point where people started to

criticize TED on their own platform. Some would go up and make the speech topic the problems they have with TED, and others

would do talks about nothing at all, just to prove how easy it was to get a [Applause]

talk. Can I have this water here? Give me like 25 seconds here. Give me like 10 more seconds. And after

this wave of "Pate" things, things got a little more serious, with some referring to it as a cult. There's talk online about an

early Joe Rogan episode featuring Eddie Huang, who was kicked out for not following their cult-like orders. However,

this video and all traces of the episode are taken down. But this isn't all too uncharacteristic of them, as they've been

known to do their fair share of banning speakers whose ideas they deemed not worthy of spreading. But the ones they

didn't allow seemed pretty tame to me. They banned Nick Hanauer's talk, named "Rich People Don't Create Jobs." The talk

was deemed too political and never put online. In 2013, Bret Weinstein was banned for giving a talk called "Exposing"

Scientific dogmas, and after removing the video, TED released a brief statement about their reasoning behind the ban.

We feel a responsibility not to provide a platform for talks which appear to have crossed the line into pseudoscience.

I'll just let that sink in. Let me just remind you all that, aside from the little Theos slip-up, these are the same

people who let this lady talk about why superhero posing in the bathroom is scientifically proven to better your

health. The people who can use it the most are the ones with no resources, no technology, no status, and no power.

Give it to them because they can do it in private; they need their bodies' privacy and two minutes, and it can

significantly change the outcomes of their lives. This was later proven to be false by another scientific study, which

showed it's 100% proven to make you look like an idiot. Anyway, pretty recently TED did something that seems to

be an acknowledgement of their past mistakes, showing that they agree the conference has strayed far from its

original mission. Earlier this year, they decided to change—they're sorry, they're not changing anything—things that were kind

Why TED talks suck now

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