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NegaTED Update

I'm delighted (if a grombler can be permitted to show delight) that there's a fitting addendum to my previous post about the antidote to TED enthusasteria. You will recall NEGATED was conceived following a chance encounter with a delegate from Sydney at the final lunch. It seems she had put her name down for a TED cycle ride to end the conference - very TED. Skinny exercise fanatics demonstrating zero-carbon transport combined with off-the-beaten-path tourism and a shared sweating experience. Far too positive for my mind.... and, as it turns out, hers too. Here's what she has just emailed me:

Hi, Well actually I managed to squeeze in an extra TED story. One of my shoes spectacularly fell apart on the bike ride, and had to be tied up with a bike strap. The bike ride was actually a bit less organised than I expected and though we were taken there by bus they did not pick us up and, no one knew how to get back. It turned out we had to walk back (strangely challenging for me in the circumstances) and there were hordes of us trotting after someone who turned out to be Jodi Foster, frantically complaining there was no wifi connection so they couldn’t be expected to find a way. Rather comical and oddly appropriate in a way.

She went on to suggest a couple of refinements to the NEGATED charter:

I’m not sure we agree on the Negated Fellows. I thought there were quite a lot of fat 50 year olds at TED, and would not want to encourage accountants, or especially not golfers (one of my bete noirs). I think I’d like talks that are more about thought than feeling. And more ‘the anatomy of melancholy’ than ‘how to win friends and influence people’.

Fine grombling.
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