Dan Meyer: Math class needs a makeover. Patricia Ryan: Don't insist on English! Lessons Worth Sharing. What I Learned from My TED Talk - Nilofer Merchant. By Nilofer Merchant | 10:01 AM October 22, 2012 This spring, I got invited to do a talk at a prestigious event — TEDGlobal.
And so, I wrote the idea, created a script, polished flow, created slides with a designer, and then worked on the cadence by rehearsing and rehearsing, right up until that final moment of delivery. And I walked out on that stage. And I flopped. Well, not quite flopped — but I did not deliver a seriously kick-ass talk. Getting better at something is thought to be about learning. But many things are not linear and neat. Which is why one “rule” of my recent book on the Social Era is: “Learn. So how does one unlearn? The first step is to admit something is wrong. The second step is to ask what specifically went wrong — and get help if you need it. To figure out what went wrong, we often need an outside perspective. Then, listen. Begin the process of undoing. In trying to deliver the perfect line and perfect idea, I was buying into a mythology of perfection. Ken Robinson says schools kill creativity.