David McCandless, award winning designer, writer, and author, speaks at TED on his passion for exploring data and creating meaningful visualizations that convey information in the form of a story. With a plethora of examples from his latest book, Information Is Beautiful, the talk is both facinating and inspiring. In one example he displays the carbon output from the Icelandic volcano that grounded thousands of flights over Europe in 2010. By comparing the carbon output that those flights would have produced themselves, the eruption was the first carbon-neutral volcanic event the world has seen. David posts his visualizations on his website and it is worth diving in to take a look.

Robert Cialdini, professor of marketing at Arizona State University, studied for 3 years working in the fields of sales, fundraising, and advertising. In this short excerpt from the documentary “Social Reality” with Philip Zimbardo, Cialdini shares the 6 universal principals of influence he distilled from his experiences. If your interested in learning more, his book Influence: Science and Practice is a good quick read with practical advice and great anecdotes about his experiences researching this topic.

Bill Gurstelle, author of book like Backyard Ballistics and Absinthe and Flamethrowers, speaks at Gel 2009 about risk taking and its correlation with life satisfaction. Both inspiring and informative, Bill shares multiple stories of his own and others’ risk taking adventures.
Do you take risks? Take the test here.

Dan Ariely, a professor of behavioral economics at Duke University, shares examples from his book Predictably Irrational illustrating why people fail to make logical decisions. Dan shows how the complexity of options will drive people away whether it is trying a couple more pills vs. hip replacement surgery or even checking a box to opt-out of organ donation. Also shown, is how presenting an inferior third choice can influence people to choose the similar, but better choice, which in one case translated to significantly higher subscription rates for The Economist. Take note, if you are going bar hopping, take a similar but uglier version of yourself with you.

Thomas Friedman, New York Times columnist and author of The World is Flat, speaks at MIT. Friedman discusses his experience of being inspired to write the original book, the fundamental ideas mentioned in his later edition The World is Flat 3.0, and how shares how that has lead to his latest book Hot, Flat, and Crowded.

Don Norman, one of the Godfathers of user experience and known well for ‘Norman Doors’, talks at TED in 2003 about beauty, fun, and emotional design. Don talks about the three ways that good design makes you happy, including the visceral, behavioral, and reflective aspects of design. For more, check out his now ubiquitous book The Design of Everyday Things.

Richard A. Muller, physics professor at Berkeley, talks about the importance of educating everyone about physics. While he reaches about 1000 students a year, over the past few years he has been reaching thousands more through his class’s online web cast and popular book. Muller stresses the importance for policy makers to have an understanding of physics and his course teaches principals in an entertaining way that everyone can relate to.

Scott McCloud, author of several books including Understanding Comics, presents at TED a sketch of his life growing up and and a look into the future of comics. After a brief overview of understanding comics, the meat of the presentation lies in how the medium has moved from printed media and into fully interactive mediums such as those offered through the computer.

Janine Benyus, author of Biomimicry: Innovation Inspired by Nature, talks about utilizing engineering principals developed by nature to tackle modern day challenges in every aspect of industry. Between frogs, spiders, and leaves, Janine inspires designers, architects, and engineers all the same.

Chris Anderson, editor-in-cheif of Wired Magazine, discusses the content of his book The Long Tail. The book takes a look at the emerging trends in relation to having access to nearly endless amount of information and content.