Tom May - Great TED talks: Creativity: An Unofficial Guide with Words of Wisdom from 100 TED Speakers

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eBook ISBN: 978-1-64517-258-1

eBook Edition: June 2020

Disclaimer: TED TALKS is a trademark of Ted Conferences LLC and is used herein solely for identification purposes, to identify the subject matter of this book. This book is a publication of Quarto PLC and it has not been prepared, approved, endorsed or licensed by Ted Talks LLC or any other person or entity.

If youve ever watched a good TED talk, youll know that its a surefire way to feel invigorated, energized, and inspired. In fact, you probably keep telling yourself you should watch more.

In truth, however, its not practical for most of us to sit down and plow through the thousands of hours of TED talks that are available to watch free online. Thats where this book comes in. It aims to serve as a taster menu, introducing you to the best TED talks for creatives, as well as sharing some of the speakers keenest insights in nontechnical words that everyone can understand.

Over the following pages, the very best advice from TED speakersboth in the creative industries and beyondhas been distilled into bite-sized chunks that you can start following today. The aim is to help boost your creativity, give you fresh ideas, and progress your career, without you having to watch each talk from start to finish. That said, if a particular piece of advice really resonates with you, you may want to do just that, and so we explain on the opposite page how to watch the talks online for free.

Some of the talks featured in this book focus on specific professions, such as painting, graphic design, or poetry. But most of them cover much broader themes: tips and ideas that can be applied to any creative endeavor, whether that be art, sculpture, illustration, design, animation, writing, music, filmmaking, actingor indeed any task where imagination, creativity, and thinking outside the box are crucial.

In short, this book is packed with life lessons and practical tips, allowing you to take your skills and creativity to the next level whatever your chosen discipline.

This book of tips is designed to be quick and easy to peruse. You can read it from front to back or back to front, or dip in and out whenever you need inspirationits completely up to you. And if you want to refer back to a tip later but cant remember where it is, thats no problem. At the back of the book are two indexesone for topics, and one for the speakers quotedso its always easy to find what youre looking for.

Crucially, you dont need to have seen a single TED talk to enjoy this book. But maybe youd like to deepen your learning and watch one of the talks now? Again, thats no problem, as at the time of publication, all of the talks are available to watch free online.

You will find the links to the talks included in this book as part of the speaker index. Or you can simply go to ), youd type Creativity and Play.

Occasionally, though, a talk might not be there. During the production of this book, a few of them hadnt yet made it onto the TED website. But dont worry: theyre all available to view on YouTube too. In other words, if a talk doesnt come up when you type it into TED.com, go to YouTube.com and search there instead. In this case, be sure to put the title in quote marks ( ) so that YouTube knows exactly what its looking for (there are a few billion other videos on the site, so it pays to be specific).

Alternatively, you might prefer to type the title into Google (again, surrounded by quote marks). In that case, the talk should appear in Googles listings under the Videos heading.

Whether you choose simply to read the book or use it as a stepping-stone to the wider universe of watching TED talks, its time to open your mind and be inspired creatively. Prepare to get a whole new perspective on your hobby or profession and where it can take you!