TED Community » Halim Madi

More About Me

I'm passionate about

20th century symbolist poetry, Bell curve criticism and behavioral finance, TED talks, trance music, trance and tectonic dancing, taking the train to unkonwn destinations, Beirut ... Life

An idea worth spreading

The bell curve based financial modeling must be reassessed and exposed : "All models are wrong but some are useful" (G. Box)

Talk to me about

Data, dance, You !

People don't know that I'm good at

http://harthouse.utoronto.ca/blog/26 :)

Comments

• TEDCred score: +2326.50 TEDCred reflects your contribution to the TED community.

• A comment on Talk: Gero Miesenboeck reengineers a brain

  Apr 19 2013: Using light to explore the brain. Isn't this Ed Boyden's chosen path too ?

• A comment on Talk: David Anderson: Your brain is more than a bag of chemicals

  Apr 19 2013: The cause and effect between hyperactivity and learning deficit is reminiscent of Edward De Bono's lateral thinking. You question the common pattern and try to explore new ones

• A comment on Talk: Thomas Insel: Toward a new understanding of mental illness

  Apr 19 2013: Wouldn't disorder history in a given family + a basic SNIP sequencing (23&me) help pinpoint the persons most likely to develop such disorders and hence tackle the problem early on and allow to prevent further connectome deterioration ?
• +7

  A comment on Talk: Elizabeth Gilbert: Your elusive creative genius

  Sep 4 2012: She's a great "performer" but above and beyond that, this goes on to say that our beliefs should "wisen up", that sometimes the most rational version of the story may not be the most beneficial. If the source of creativity is considered to be, no longer internal, but external, humility rises again, narcissism vanishes. God has been created by humans for that very purposes : to remind us there's someone we can thank for what we accomplish, someone we can be grateful to, accountable to, fearful of. A reference, a moral anchor point.

• A comment on Talk: Reuben Margolin: Sculpting waves in wood and time

  Jun 2 2012: Economists too get schezophrenic in that they want the reality to fit their models on the one hand and realize too much is lost in that way. Only economists opt for a different solution than Reuben : Thye call their models reality and hence end the dilemma

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

  May 30 2012: I remember watching Reggie in Paris during a Simulcast : He's the only performer able to make me cry out of laughter. See his performance at the pop conference, in the upcoming tedx summit videos and on his vimeo channel
• +4

  A comment on Talk: Maz Jobrani: Did you hear the one about the Iranian-American?

  May 16 2012: Everything should be a matter of laughter. Dealing with things less seriously helps us handle them with a fresh look and approach.

• A comment on Talk: Bonnie Bassler: How bacteria "talk"

  Mar 25 2012: Actually, this resonates with how our brains function (see "Godel, Escher, Bach") and how bees decide to move to a new nest (see Thomas Seeley's work) !

• A comment on Talk: Barry Schwartz: The paradox of choice

  Jan 23 2012: I think minute 12:00 to minute 14:00 are pretty much the 2 minutes of any talk I've ever seen with the highest life-changing potential. More choice means higher expectations means higher odds of being disappointment. The secret to happiness is low expectations. Greed is great for so many things in life. It can boost the chances for success. But "stay hungry, stay foolish" isn't about that. It's not about going through life without ever choosing : "Don't flip through life like nothing matters because one day you'll wake up and realize you don't have the life you want".
  
  So no. Choose. Eat life as it comes at you. AND stay hungry. That's what foolishness is all about ... I guess

• A comment on Talk: Sarah Kay: How many lives can you live?

  Dec 7 2011: If you want to see "Sarah Kay"s in the making, go to the Bowery Poetry Club whenever you're in New York