"We had a fantastic Party in the App Lab this month, gathering useful insights from our future players. A special thanks to Eliot for making our session such a success!"
It started out as a crazy idea he had for his fourth grade Student Council speech. But then he actually made it work, and now he's on the Silicon Valley speaking circuit!
My 9-year-old son Eliot wanted a way to raise enough money for his school to buy Kindles for every classroom. So he came up with App Lab - an after-school activity where the students test out apps for local software companies. Eliot's schoolmates signed up weeks in advance hoping for a chance to test out and even influence the hottest kids' apps before they're released. Then Eliot invited Disney, Smule and others to participate, and now, after 6 App Lab sessions, Eliot has raised over two thousand dollars from his corporate guests - enough to get all the Kindles, stocked with a hundred titles.
You can read all about it in the San Jose Mercury News, which featured Eliot's picture on the front page of the LIVING section. And now Eliot has been invited to speak at tonight's WWDC Meetup in Palo Alto, an after-party celebrating kids' apps. I'm hoping he can get me in...
Voices in Harmony will be singing this Saturday night June 23 at 7pm in Pleasanton!
Our Summer Harmony concert will feature new repertoire covering jazz, gospel and showtunes. We will also feature Dolce, the 2012 Sweet Adelines International Region 21 Quartet Champions, making their first public appearance in Northern California. (These young women will be competing in the international quartet competition in their very first year!) Also appearing on the show is First Strike, a dynamic quartet of young men composed of members of VIH. Tickets are available here.
And whoever tweets a link to this blog post with hash tag #VIH to the most followers by Monday night will get two free general admission tickets. (I will direct message the winner to get you your tickets.)
Last week I had the good fortune to attend my 6th TED Conference, which promotes Ideas Worth Sharing. The TED Conference features TED Talks (never more than 18 minutes each) and generously shares them for free on TED.com. Of course, some of the ideas are more worthwhile to share than others, so each year I've followed up here with a guide to which TED Talks are most worthwhile to watch. (I missed about 10% of last week's talks, including the awesome Kathryn Schulz, due to scheduling conflicts.)
The 2012 TED event was more subdued than in past years, with less star power in the speaker lineup and fewer blockbuster talks than in recent years, but still high powered attendees to schmooze with, like Al Gore and Cameron Diaz. The overall quality was still high, with very few stinkers, and the event was enhanced by an awesome floor to ceiling IMAX-like A-V experience, and by the tastiest TED food ever, catered by Wolfgang Puck. Here's a little remix of the week...
As in prior years, I've rated the TED Talks on a scale of one to ten red balloons, with ten being the best. I am embedding links to the talks, as they become available on TED.com. This year, instead of reporting on the talks chronologically, I present them sorted by ratings...
The 10 BALLOON Talks
Hands down, the best talk this year was from Bryan Stevenson on injustice in the US criminal legal system. For example, the number of prisoners in the last 40 years has grown from 300,000 to 2.3 million (primarily, I believe, due to non-violent drug infractions). One third of young African American men are in prison, on probation or on parole. Ours is the only country in the world that gives life sentences to 13 year olds. As for the death penalty, one out of nine defendants sentenced to death have been exonerated. in California a billion dollars will be spent defending and executing the death penalty in the next 5 years, although a referendum is on its way to re-direct those funds to police enforcement budgets.
What made the talk great was Stevenson's ability to weave in his personal stories, recounting memories of what it was like to grow up among activists like Rosa Parks. There was so much enthusiasm for Stevenson and his cause that TED Curator Chris Andersen jumped on the occasion to solicit donations for Stevenson's private foundation. Right there many of us stood up and, in aggregate, pledged close to a million dollars!
In another 10 balloon talk, Regina Dugan, head of DARPA, surveyed what we can invent if we refuse to fear failure, and why DARPA is Disneyland for nerds. "We aim to create and prevent strategic surprise." She demonstrated amazing inventions that each followed long strings of failure. She recounted words of encouragement from her mentor at one particularly dark time in her own research: "There is only enough time to iron your cape, and back to the skies for you." She left us with these messages: You have to fly to learn to fly. And be nice to nerds.
University of Pennsylvania's Vijay Kumar demonstrated a swarm of 2 ounce autonomous aerial robots with incredible agility and stability. They autonomously fly through a hoop that itself is flying through the air, and cooperate in building structures and even playing musical instruments. It's not clear what the applications are, but Search-and-Rescue and military reconnaissance seem most obvious.
Normally I don't' rate the little 3 minute talks, the palette cleansers that punctuate the main talks. But Rhapsody founder Rob Reid gave such a compelling presentation of Copyright Math that it warrants a 10 balloon rating. I expect that in response to strong demand, TED will post it for general viewing.
9 BALLOONS
US Poet Laureate Billy Collins: "if at first you don't succeed, hide all evidence you ever tried." This guy is Dr Seuss for grownups.
Atul Gawande spoke on how to fix medicine. He points out that the medical industry was structured around independent practitioners, dating back to when individual doctors could learn and everything one needed to know to treat the few ailments we could cure. But in today's world, there is so much more information constantly generated on new methods and treatments, that good outcomes can come only from collaboration among teams of specialists and information technology.
One of Atul's practical insights is that we can and should apply techniques from the aviation industry to the medical industry, since the aviation industry has been so focused on customer safety around a very complex product. His most compelling prescription so far was The Surgery Checklist, which cuts down complications and deaths from surgery by 30%. Until the talk is posted, you can read more here.
Jim Henson, mid-western professor, on the Greenhouse Effect, which is accelerating - small increases in temperature lead to a chain reaction as the oceans warm and release even more CO2. The consequence in this century will be famines, droughts, tornadoes, lost shoreline and cities. Henson advocates a fee-and-dividend policy to transfer money from CO2-burning companies to citizens.
OK, I'm actually giving 9 red balloons to a dance company. John Bohannon and the Black Label Movement's performance delivers a compelling and moving message to parents that we have to speak openly with our kids about sex and drugs.
In a related talk, Sex Ed Teacher Al Vernacchio delivers a very funny talk on why sex is like pizza, and not at all like baseball.
Andrew Stanton, wrote Finding Nemo, Toy Story, John Carter, many others; told the story of how and why he tells stories. Fun, cleverly recursive (but not appropriate for kids).
8 BALLOONS
Tali Sharot We tend to be optimistic - we are all above average. This optimism is healthy and productive. High expectations drive us. Anticipation of success makes us happy. People prefer Friday to Sunday. strike a balance. stay optimistic but be aware of optimism bias - insure, protect, contingency plans.
Jon Haidt gave a provocative talk on the feeling of transcendence - what is it, how do people attain it, and is it an evolutionary adaptation or bug?
Marco Tempest, an illusionary magician, uses projection and holograph to tell the story of Nikola Tesla.
You never know which TED Talks you're going to like. I wouldn't have guessed that I'd give 8 red balloons to a graphic designer of book jackets. His content was mediocre but the delivery was fabulous.
I also wouldn't have guessed that I would give 8 balloons to Jon Ronson, a writer who tells about his encounters with a psychopath. But he's a great storyteller.
Middle school teacher Rafe Esquith shows what kids can do when you let them be creative. Drawing from his inner city school of non-English speaking students, Esquith's class performs music and Shakespeare at TED. More importantly, they regularly defy the high dropout rate in his school, earning him the president's National Medal of the Arts.
TED Talks are usually self contained, but this year juxtaposed two TED Talks to provoke the question of whether the world is getting better or worse. Paul Gilding argues convincingly that a global crisis of resource shortages is inevitable - governments will collapse. But Paul Diamandis, the optimist, expects exponentially accelerating technology to fuel an abundance of energy and education abundance.
In the back and forth that followed on stage, Chris Andersen told Diamandis, "your hope is undermining Paul's fear of crisis, so nothing will get done!"
7 BALLOONS
Donald Sadoway, MIT Professor, on building utility scale batteries to make renewable energy practical. Chose hot liquid magnesium and ammonia, because "If you want to make something dirt cheap, make it out of dirt." He and his students started LMBC to develop the tech into 2M KW/hr batteries two years from now. (Until then utilities can use Extreme Power's utility scale batteries.)
Jim Stengel: Ideals in business help business - workers bring their whole selves.
IDEO founder David Kelley promotes creative confidence. Evoking the message of Sir Ken Robinson, Kelley asks us to restore our juvenile comfort creating art. He offered up a great example of creativity in the workplace - he helped redesign an MRI machine into a pirate ship so that kids wouldn't need sedation to use it!
Columbia University physicist Brian Greene updates us on cosmology - string theory, multiverse, multi-dimension. Unoriginal but clear.
Awele Makeba delivers a stirring, inspirational talk on African American history.
Conductor Michael Tilson Thomas surveyed the history and evolution of classical music. Fun, but he's no Ben Zander.
Peace activist Leymah Gbowee talks about her work in Liberia promoting education for girls that earned her the Nobel Peace Prize.
Tight-rope walker Philippe Petit (from Man On Wire) entertains us with his story of a lifetime of antics.
6 BALLOONS
Sherry Turkle on the problem of inattentiveness and isolation from overuse of devices, such as texting during the board meeting. The Goldilox Effect is that we want people connected, but not too close. When we get to edit all our social interactions, we get to delete and retouch, controlling what we say. SO WHAT???
Turkle laments that technology immersion "compromises our capacity for self reflection" We feel that no one is listening to us. (What about all our followers and friends?) "I share therefore I am." She asserts that we should think about how we use our devices to really get us where we want to be.
The legendary Steve Pinker and Rebecca Goldstein delivered a disappointing Socratic dialogue on the impact of Reason vs Emotion. It covered some interesting philosophies, but it was scattered, contrived and not at all Socratic.
School teacher Aaron Ready talks about ways that we can test evolutionary theory without waiting a million years.
Journalist Josh Foer told the story of how he reported on a Memory Tournament, only to enroll himself, and to win! This would have been an 8 or 9 balloon talk if it were told in 6 minutes instead of 18.
Karen Bass, earth photographer, managed to photograph the never before seen tongue action of a newly discovered bat in Ecuador.
Author Kate Messner shares part of her methodology for writing fiction - how she models new worlds for Eye of the Storm and other kids' novels.
Middle-school teacher Angie Chaloux Miller reflects on her life, and the importance of remembering our true, faulty selves, rather than idealized versions.
Susan Cain, corporate lawyer, asks schools, work, family to value INTROVERTS like Wozniak, Charles Darwin, Gandhi, Abe Lincoln and Susan Cain. And also Jesus and Moses. Huh?
5 BALLOONS
T. Boone Pickens: the US spends $7 trillion a year, including military costs, on OPEC oil. As a matter of national security we need to wean our country from this. Natural gas is clean, abundant, and ours. Natural gas is the bridge fuel. "I don't have to worry about a bridge to where, at my age."
Cesar Kuriyama made a film concatenating one second from every day of his life for the last year.
Sharon Beals, birds nest researcher and photographer.
Jared Ficklin performed some cool pyro tricks on stage.
Henrik Scharfe built a robot that looks exactly like him. Exactly. I would be surprised if anyone has ever before built a robot/android with such a human likeness.
4 BALLOONS
Wade Davis on conservation in British Columbia.
Liz Diller shared her design for accessorizing the Hirschhorn Museum in DC with a big bubble.
1 BALLOON
Julie Burstein talks about the source of creativity.
Tom Campbell is "a professional art historian." Somehow in 18 minutes he managed to complete a single 3 hour sentence.
Tonight Sir Ken Robinson addressed a crowd of over 1,000 parents that spilled out into the parking lots surrounding the auditorium at Sacred Heart in Atherton. In a performance that topped even his 10-balloon TED Talk, he delivered a lecture with equal parts inspiration and humor.
I was bummed that "Sir" Ken showed up with no sword and without any armor AT ALL. But he does wield a mighty pen that has inked two books on the importance of helping kids find their passions (The Element) and of adapting our educational system to prize creativity over conformity (Out of our Minds: Learning to be Creative).
Here's the basic arc of his message: most people are miserable in their jobs, drudging through work in anticipation of the weekend. Only those of us who have found our passions love to work. Everyone has talents and interests to ignite, but usually schools have pushed them aside in favor of standardized academic curricula and tests. At a time when our economy has moved beyond factory jobs, we need creative, entrepreneurial citizens. That all happens only in personalized programs, where kids are encouraged to follow dreams. As Steve Jobs liked to say, people change the world by following their dreams, not a standard formula for success.
Sir Ken cited many examples, like Paul McCartney and George Harrison, who went to school together and loved music but didn't enjoy music class. Their music teacher never thought they had potential as musicians. "He had half the Beatles in his class and missed it. That was a bit of an oversight, if you don't mind my saying."
Here are some snippets from the talk:
"It's a mistake to confuse standardizing with raising standards."
"I asked the girl what she got out of her dancing class. 'I got a B' she answered."
"We should be teaching students, not subjects... Schools are more like organisms than mechanisms. Teaching is more like gardening than engineering."
"We cannot predict what will happen, where people will go and how they will develop. We have to let them find their way, and encourage them to trust that they can follow their passions. If we do this we may not be able to predict the future, but we will create a future that we all want to live in."
In the audience I saw nearly every school principal in town nodding along with Sir Ken's talk, as though they already follow his advice in their schools! I know some who do, but if they all did, then where's the problem?
Meanwhile, Ken sets an example of great teaching by keeping his audience in stitches. For example:
"I was shocked to hear that my TED Talk was downloaded 10 million times. But then I learned that two cats jumping around on YouTube was downloaded 50 million times."
“I started my dissertation in the 70;s and finished it in the 80’ s largely because of what happened in the 70’s. it was a great decade, or so I’m told.” "I’m now working on the sequel to The Element, called Finding your Element. People keep asking me how to find it. Now I wish I had never started this whole thing. How do I know? YOU find it, leave me alone. No, seriously it’s coming out next year and it’s going to be terrific."
Thanks to the invitation of an old friend, two weeks ago I had the great pleasure of a 2 hour dinner with Robin Williams, who IMHO ranks among the greatest comedic actors of my lifetime, alongside Richard Pryor, Woody Allen, Steve Martin, Bill Murray and Gene Wilder.
I think I expected to meet someone much more frenetic and, frankly, obnoxious. But Williams is gracious, and listens sincerely to the people around him. He came with his gorgeous fiancé Susan whom he married last week.
Williams shared some stories about his career, starting with his high school years studying drama at Juilliard. His big screen break was a cameo on Happy Days as Mork the alien, which later spun off. Perhaps his best known and appreciated film is Good Morning Vietnam.
As I enjoyed the Cornish Hen at Jardiniere, we talked about some of his films, like my favorite Dead Poets Society, where he learned from the director that listening can be as expressive as speaking. (My wife has told me the same thing.) It surprised me that Williams cited the creepy One Hour Photo as one of his favorites. He told us a lot about making Awakenings, including the challenge of acting alongside actual mental patients. We also talked about Cadillac Man, The World According to Garp, and Mrs. Doubtfire, which my kids were back home watching at the time.
I learned that Williams has gone to Afghanistan three times to perform for the troops, and heard about many other international trips to raise money for charity. He's an active advocate of gay rights, and an atheist, though he was reluctant to say so (there are some things so shocking that even Robin Williams won't say them).
Often Williams broke into character, spinning up hysterical and poignant characters in the middle of conversation. "I'm so hairy," he improvised, " Coco the Gorilla tried to take me out back. She actually signed, Let's you and me go back and get busy."
It started out as a crazy idea he had for his fourth grade Student Council speech. But then he actually made it work, and now he's on the Silicon Valley speaking circuit!
