Hacker News Reader

Comment by minikites | Hacker News Reader

This banned TED talk is all you need to know about TED and where their motivations are: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CKCvf8E7V1g

Peak TED is actually this video on how to use one paper towel when washing your hands: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2FMBSblpcrc. You mean if you shake your hands and fling water all over the bathroom then you don't need as much paper to absorb the remaining water? How revolutionary.

View on HN

Scoff all you want, but in the years since I watched that I have dried my hands with one paper towel every time. One anecdote, sure, and I don't watch TED anymore. But this is hardly the worst TED talk. At least it provided some practical advice rather than vaguely asserting some breakthrough.

It is hands down the most influential Ted talk I've ever watched. It is very trivial, but I think it about it several times a day wherever I wash my hands in a public bathroom.

I hope you saw the shoelace tying one. Maybe you're doing it wrong like I used to before seeing it.

The talk wasn't 'banned'.

Many of the talks from TED never make it online. They only post one a day, and have a huge back-log of great talks to post.

Nick's original talk just didn't make the cut. I genuinely believe that was an editorial decision, not a political one. To that point, he gave an improved version of the talk a few years later which TED gladly posted online here: http://www.ted.com/talks/nick_hanauer_beware_fellow_plutocra...

Why was that talk banned? Doesn't seem very controversial?

It's not controversial to the working class but it's very controversial to the kind of people who bankroll TED.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nick_Hanauer#TED_Talk_controve...

The video on how to use one paper towel is not from TED conference. It's TEDx

However, there was an audience member talk at TED itself on how to tie your shoes that I believe was very influential. :) Not sure if there's an online video of it.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com