TED Community » Guneet Narula

More About Me

I'm passionate about

Music, Art, Soccer, traveling -- And "Thinking, pondering, wondering, imagining, ideating, cerebrating, reading, listening."

An idea worth spreading

Social Entrepreneurship is building the next economy. Taking the best from capitalism (or the dominant establishment today) and from the ideas of Marx, the socialists or the welfare economies, social entrepreneurs are creating the future as we speak. With the start up culture, with the open source, with collaboration and with technology!

Talk to me about

Everything. I love to listen and learn.

Comments

• TEDCred score: +1.60 TEDCred reflects your contribution to the TED community.

• A comment on Conversation: What's one thing you wish you had learned in school?

  Nov 8 2011: It would have been great if I had known why I had to go to school everyday.
  
  Also, learning how to solve problems keeping efficiency and sustainability as the top priority would have been ideal

• A comment on Conversation: What is the goal of education?

  Nov 8 2011: The goal of education is to enable us, as a species, to deal with an unknown future.

• A comment on Conversation: Have you reinvented yourself, or started a movement?

  May 20 2011: Well I am not sure whether this is reinvention. But after college I decided to not take up a job and work on my own, so that I can do more useful, relevant and interest things. Right now, I get the opportunity to teach kids science and English. Its fun and a great learning experience for me

• A reply on Conversation: Who do you trust more to help you understand world events, the press, politicians or your friends/family, or someone/something else? Why?

  Apr 28 2011: Yes I share as much as I can - Facebook and Twitter help me with that.
  
  I don't particularly research certain subjects, issues or events, but I go about understand and gathering knowledge. There are somethings for me that are really important, more important than many other things. For instance, I generally do not care what our 'politicians' are saying or doing. Newspapers are filled with court orders, corruption charges, murders, scams and the rest. The Forbes rich list doesn't deserve much of my time.. in fact, it is not difficult to learn to differentiate the noise from the relevant information.
  
  What I am more concerned about is why there are so many problems, so much suffering and apathy, despite advancing technology? What is wrong with our economics? How is social design evolving? Where are we going? What is my role? Answers to such questions are everywhere. Like, people on TED have many valuable insights for me..
  
  The world wide web has sparked revolution in my mind and it seems to be never-ending - which is good I guess. So yes, the unrest in west asia is important. Oil is too, maybe not its cost.
• +2

  A comment on Conversation: Who do you trust more to help you understand world events, the press, politicians or your friends/family, or someone/something else? Why?

  Apr 25 2011: I use the internet, as much as possible. And not the website of the news agencies on TV. Blogs, online journals and magazines, communities, social media, forums, TED.. the list is endless.
  
  Yes, there is a lot of America every where. Sifting through so much information is difficult but as information technology and web development advance it is becoming easier and easier. Television is important. But only a small percentage of it, which generally gets lost in entertaining news broadcasts, highly manipulative advertising and redundant information. Consumerism has become a driving force in media..
  
  But in all this, other mediums of expression and communication have taken a very important space in my life. Stories of individuals and experiences are very important to me. Doesn't matter if I find them through a book, a song or a movie.. there is abundant knowledge and wisdom that is worthy of my trust.
• +2

  A comment on Conversation: Can Love Change the World? ♥

  Apr 1 2011: Love moves the world forward.
  
  It makes things happen, its how we survive. Love can over power ego too, so I like to think, that it is the reason we, as a species have come so far.
  
  So yes, it will change the world. It is changing our world as we speak
• +1

  A comment on Conversation: How can we empower kids to reshape the education system? *A TEDActive Education Project Question*

  Mar 27 2011: I'd say the problem is that students in school do not really know why they are studying what they are studying.
  
  Mostly, the reason for them to study is to prepare for exams and tests. But if you ask a student, they will not be able to tell where concepts of math are useful in real life. I remember myself not being able to relate to the stuff I was learning. In fact I still don't know what integration or differentiation does!
  
  This goes for many concepts of science, math and even subjects of social science and art. Students do not know what is the relevance of studying such subjects. They do not know the importance in reality. But, for instance, when I learnt gravitation in physics, it made a lot of sense to me. I also didn't have to mug up its concepts because it explained my real life observations.
  
  The same can also be said about economics, languages, fine arts and so on.. If the student does not know how distribution of resources or communication skills are related to his or her real life, then the student will never understand the importance of the education system.
  
  This, I think, is the first and the foremost step before students, or anyone for that matter, can make a positive impact on the system. If we can help kids realize this relationship, we can surely empower them to reshape schooling.

• A reply on Conversation: Is love simply for the purpose of furthering the human race?

  Mar 25 2011: haha, well said!
• +1

  A comment on Conversation: Advertising.......is it still worth the money ?

  Mar 23 2011: advertising is powerful.
  
  but advertising is used to manipulate people. so, its worth the money only if we put it to a better use.

• A comment on Conversation: What are your thoughts and questions on "the magic washing machine"?

  Mar 21 2011: Hans! Another amazing analysis! I love your work.. Here's my question:
  
  You have correctly concluded that we must concentrate our efforts at bringing people out of the poverty line. Economic growth must be directed at the poorer nations so that the next two billion closes in on the 'wash line' (in this case). I agree!
  
  You have told us what to do. But how do we do that?
  
  In my opinion, the current economic system is only increasing the gap between the people at the top and the majority at the bottom. Today, technology is at such an advanced level, but it is not accessible to people, except i guess less than 5 percent of the word's population. The profit motive has lead to overuse and exploitation of resources. Despite the new I-Phones and I-Pads, there are billions of the old technology cellphones available. And none of the products are designed to last..
  
  This can be observed in every sector. From energy to transportation. If things remain the same, I do no think that by 2050, we will be able to reduce the gap and thus, control the population.
  
  How do you think we can achieve this? What should we change about the current systems?