TED Community » Steve Cho

More About Me

I'm passionate about

self-improvement and changing the world for the better

An idea worth spreading

Open-sourced hardware & software for a device that tracks physical activities -- calories burned, steps, distance, speed to name a few (could include, altitude, heart rate, etc). It'd be nice to drive the costs of these health trackers down so that EVERYONE can afford it, and really gauge their progress. What gets measured, gets improved, so by having more people able to track their activities, they then develop the self-awareness to make better informed decisions that will optimize their future.

Talk to me about

your story & how I can help you do the things you want in life.

People don't know that I'm good at

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0rRPXZMDX38

My TED Story

Dropped out of college to start a company in China. Although I stopped institutionalized education, I have never stopped learning. TED, Wikipedia, and countless books continue to give me the education I need to better myself and hopefully make a difference.

Comments

• TEDCred score: +0.70 TEDCred reflects your contribution to the TED community.

• +1

  A reply on Conversation: Change Through Imagination and Fiction: we need to communicate our ideas & visions to make them real.

  Oct 18 2011: come to think of it... you're right. Lies are employed to get ahead or to get something... as opposed to a joke. This is rather interesting, and we've probably stumbled upon some philosophical realms of the true definitions of reality.
  
  But here's how I think of it: reading about an epic fictional tale of some hero overcoming struggles to save the world or whatever evokes the same emotions of hearing the story of your favorite athlete who became number 1 after all this hard work, sacrifice and whatever. 2 stories... one is real, one is fake, but the end result -- the experience being shared and people reacting to it -- is the same. I don't know, something to ponder about.
• +1

  A comment on Conversation: We must teach the teachers before teaching students.

  Oct 8 2011: Learning should be a two-way street. Teachers should work to improve their communication skills. Students should work to improve their listening and learning skills.
  
  One good way to facilitate this is have them do things together, like read, write, etc, and share their work. Over time, they could witness their personal growth and have a shared experience of learning and growing together, an experience no one could take away. This develops trust.
  
  "People don't care how much you know until they know how much you care."

• A comment on Conversation: What is the most important virtue to Americans today?

  Oct 8 2011: Integrity.

• A comment on Conversation: What is the next big thing?

  Oct 8 2011: The convergence of social networking, mobile communications, and personal tracking (health, activities, etc). Hardware getting smaller, cheaper, faster, more powerful, and it's only a matter of time before we have our automated social networking, phone, applications and health trackers available in something very small, lightweight (possibly worn on the wrist for convenience), and all that.

• A comment on Conversation: Do young people have a valid role to play in national and international politics?

  Oct 8 2011: 1 word: Zuckerberg.
• +1

  A comment on Conversation: In our move toward the "quantified self" when we regard our health and the health of others, are we ignoring the importance of rituals?

  Oct 8 2011: What gets measured, gets improved.
  
  I'm actually working on an open-source health tracker, hopefully significantly lowering the cost of these devices so that more people have more access to them. More people would thus develop the self-awareness to make better informed decisions that will optimize their future.

• A comment on Conversation: Change Through Imagination and Fiction: we need to communicate our ideas & visions to make them real.

  Oct 8 2011: If you mean fiction in its literal sense, as in "false" or thus, "lie," there is nothing wrong in that. After all, "artists use lies to tell the truth."
  
  The crazy ones are the ones who told these "lies" but turned these "lies" into realities.
• +2

  A comment on Conversation: What's your TED habit?

  Oct 8 2011: 3 times a day and take notes. There's too much opportunity out there to ignore the chance to educate ourselves.

• A comment on Conversation: What could high schools do to improve college readiness for their students?

  Oct 8 2011: 2 words: Read everyday.

• A comment on Conversation: I believe the reasons for effective communication is an important idea that should be taught.

  Oct 8 2011: The key is simplicity. With simplicity, more people can understand. In the end, communication is about accommodating your audience, about treating others the way THEY want to be treated (the platinum rule).
  
  And you're right a lot of people are ineffective communicators, often obscuring the concept with unnecessary words and sentence structures.
  
  Communication is the most important skill to have.