TED

As the threat of a cyber war with the Chinese becomes more imminent, it's fascinating to consider how much the early stage of this cyber war actually resembles the Cold War of the nuclear age.

I did like this new TED talk from activist-performer-singer-songwriter-blogger-provocateur (people who defy description make me happy) Amanda Palmer. She talks evocatively about the art of asking for support (financial and otherwise) from your following, and how that process can help build powerful connections with people. She calls it 'falling into the audience' which is a description I immediately loved.

Does our new collective creativity introduce pitfalls and potentially limit our creative processes and originality? Should we be more aware of a possible self-inflicted filter bubble when it comes to how new tools affect our creative habits?

by: Jason Miller

I recently watched an incredibly inspiring Ted Talk by Tim Harford. Harford is an economics writer who studies complex systems and finds a surprising link among the most successful ones; they are built through trial and error. His talk centers around the idea of a God complex – a refusal to admit the possibility of being wrong regardless of the complexity of the situation – and how trial and error creates better results than a self proclaimed expert.

There's a lot to take from this wonderful TED talk by the multi-oscar winning writer and director Andrew Stanton, who was Pixar's ninth employee and whose credits include Toy Story, A Bug's Life, Finding Nemo and WALL-E.

At this year’s TED conference, which brought together some of the world’s leading thinkers and innovators, one of the most provocative debates challenged participants to consider the future of the earth. Two stunning TED Talks – “The Earth is Full” from Paul Gilding and “Abundance” from Peter Diamandis – were scheduled back-to-back to lead off the conference.