TED Community » Vedran Dizdarevic

More About Me

I'm passionate about

Books, languages and linguistics, history, science.

Comments

• TEDCred score: +22 TEDCred reflects your contribution to the TED community.

• A reply on Conversation: What's the overlooked gem, the book I haven't read that I must?

  Feb 17 2011: I read Ismael, followed by My Ishmael and The Story of B as young adult many years ago. Until this day I'm sure that this trilogy changed my life profoundly. Back then it was the first really different way of seeing and thinking about the world I have encountered. Now, many years later, these books still hold a place of honour in my living room as they remind me that there are always differnt ways to look at the world. This is a recommended read for adults and kids as well.

• A comment on Talk: Nicholas Christakis: The hidden influence of social networks

  May 10 2010: It always amazes me how much there is still to learn! Take the theory of natural selection which through a simple chain of arguments explains an unbelievable complexity of life on the planet. The network theory, of which some practical examples we saw in this talk, seems to have that rare quality of explaining complexity through simplicity. Such approaches might revolutionize the sociology and our understanding how societies work. What you get to see in this video are mathematical models of how cultural information in our society is processed. Amazing!
• +3

  A comment on Talk: Dan Gilbert asks, Why are we happy?

  Oct 13 2009: This talk partially answers the question of a mystery we see over and over again in today's world, which is simply formulated as follows: we see the effect that people living simple (which often equals to poor) lives often seem to have no difficulties in finding a balance and meaning in their everyday activities, while the societies in the north-western hemisphere struggle with all kind of problems arising from the lack of the aforementioned qualities.
  
  Hearing Dan Gilbert introducing the idea that "once you know what you have" or "once your choices are not limitless" you rather tend to like what you actually have. I definitely see a parallel between those two things.