TED Community » Norberto Amaral

More About Me

I'm passionate about

Helping making people happy! Making a difference!
Books, travelling, photography, ideas, cinema, music.
Innovation: new concepts, new ideas, brainstorming.

Talk to me about

Books, ideas, people and cultures, causes, environment, politics, history and science.

People don't know that I'm good at

Love cooking! - only privately though.

My TED Story

I had been following TED talks on the internet since 2006 and then I met a co-worker to whom I didn't speak very much who said she was part of TEDxO'Porto's organizing team. I immediately knew I wanted to take part!
Very soon I entered the team that organized TEDxO'Porto in 2011 - it was a fantastic day, that really made the difference for many people. I made good friends and it literally changed my life since.
Now I'm a co-organizer of TEDxO'Porto 2012 and am really excited about attending this event!

Comments

• TEDCred score: +2176.70 TEDCred reflects your contribution to the TED community.

• +1

  A comment on Talk: Kees Moeliker: How a dead duck changed my life

  Apr 2 2013: This talk is simply amazing! Yes, you may laugh at it - indeed it's difficult not to - but then Kees Moeliker starts giving other examples of species that have this strange behaviour: homosexual necrophilia.
  I have yet to see a talk that is even half as weird as this one and that made me wonder so much about what is considered normal in the animal kingdom! Extremely highly recommended!
• +2

  A comment on Talk: Catarina Mota: Play with smart materials

  Mar 15 2013: Catarina is coming to TEDxO'Porto on April 13th! We are very proud and excited to welcome Catarina, a TED Global speaker, at our TEDx event! This is simply fantastic!
• +1

  A comment on Talk: Shane Koyczan: "To This Day" ... for the bullied and beautiful

  Mar 8 2013: I watched this from the livestream at home - and I swear to you I almost jumped to my feet to do a standing ovation right there in my living room at almost 3am!
• +1

  A comment on Talk: Ludwick Marishane: A bath without water

  Feb 24 2013: This talk embodies everything a good TED talk is about: an idea that can change the world!
• +1

  A reply on Talk: Jon Ronson: Strange answers to the psychopath test

  Aug 16 2012: Debra, your remark in the first sentence isn't at all what Jon Ronson says in his talk and in his book. He says something quite different: that many people fit *all* the criteria/symptoms and certainly don't seem to be psychopaths. Or we'll never actually know for sure precisely because of the cunning, surreptitious way that psychopaths behave.
• +1

  A reply on Talk: Jon Ronson: Strange answers to the psychopath test

  Aug 16 2012: This talk was definitely one of my favourites in TED 2012. It was funny, interesting and definitely made me think twice on the subject of the "madness industry".
  Since then I read the book, which is also quite interesting and informative. It is far more the report of an adventure and Jon Ronson never tries to pretend to be something he is not - and definitely not an academic dissertation on the subject.
  Throughout the book he ponders about this over eagerness of the pharmaceutical industry and many professionals in the field to diagnose people who otherwise would just seem quirky, awkward, stressed out, intense or such as mentally ill. He himself suffers from a range or social ineptitude challenges that are clearly listed and described in DSM-IV as some kind of mental illness.
  I don't think you'd need a "pro" to tell you that, do you? Or perhaps you actually *need* a non-pro to do so!
• +2

  A reply on Talk: Quixotic Fusion: Dancing with light

  Jun 1 2012: Don't worry Jacob... because WE get it!

• A comment on Talk: Reggie Watts disorients you in the most entertaining way

  May 30 2012: Reggie created the weirdest, most phenomenal, most outstanding, funniest and vibrating moment at TED this year. Beyond five stars!

• A comment on Talk: Tali Sharot: The optimism bias

  May 17 2012: I loved this talk, it really made me rethink about myself. I am an optimist, especially when facing pessimistic people and I really think pessimism paralyses you, makes you a sour, negative person. Having said that, optimists tend to overlook lots of clues when things aren't going so well.
  I could be a "realistic" person, however... that's just not realistic. No one can really be realistic because to be so, one needs to be in possession of all the possible information and take it in unemotionally, withhold judgement and take a lot of time making decisions on just about everything in one's life.
  I think the way to be is a mix of all of these, depending on the subject, on how one's feeling, who one is talking to, one's perspectives, etc. If you agree with this, it's up to you to decide the right amount of which and in which circumstances.

• A reply on Talk: Sherry Turkle: Connected, but alone?

  Apr 5 2012: Tom, her point is that technology isn't just another new tool. New technologies come with new possibilities and new demands. New advantages and disadvantages. New structures. New forms of communication (e.g. chat, video calling). New portability. New forms of interacting with devices. New channels that seem to demand yet more attention to a small screen and increasingly less to a person near you. "The medium is the message", the previous sentences are begging to say!
  When I'm with other people I devote my attention to them and don't spend my time texting other people, surfing the net, twitting or updating my Facebook status. I don't spend my Christmas dinners sending our dozens or hundreds of texts to everyone I know, in the hope of receiving a little nugget from someone while foregoing interactions that could give me a lot more. I don't interrupt a conversation I'm having at lunch with colleagues just because someone calls me. (If a person interrupted me during such a conversation no one would enjoy it; if a person calls me and I take the call why don't I blame myself for the rudeness? Is taking a new call more important than continuing the current conversation? Aren't thus these messages from far some kind of queue-jumpers for my attention?)
  While it may seem like I'm some sort of Luddite, I assure you I'm an optimistic user of technologies. My point is that these things have a time and place and that, short of emergencies, we should by all means resist any forms of communication that would divert our attention from someone in front of us to someone far away.