Trailer of “From Here to Andromeda” by David Sereda:
This film is devided into four series. You can watch the first series below.

Series I, Part 1:

Series I, Part 2:

Series I, Part 3:

Series I, Part 4:

Series I, Part 5:

Series I, Part 6:

Series I, Part 7:

Series I, Part 8:

Series I, Part 9:

Series I, Part 10:

Series I, Part 11:

Part I.1/11:

Part I.2/11:

Part I.3/11:

Part I.4/11:

Part I.5/11:

Part I.6/11:

Part I.7/11:

Part I.8/11:

Part I.9/11:

Part I.10/11:

Part I.11/11:

Part II (93 min):

Note: The video screen is black the first 30 seconds. In the Question & Answer part the video just shows a slide for several minutes instead of David Sereda standing at his lectern.

Go to the Reverse Graffiti Project.

I’ve never found that easy way of explaining what I do. I tell people that I make pictures by cleaning. [...]

I create a contrast. So where it’s dirty, where it’s clean, you can see things like they are black and white.

Tonight we are making a mural that’s about 140 feet long. It’s downtown San Francisco, broadway tunnel. It is really dirty. It’s like a massive canvas. [...]

Seeing how dirty a wall is by cleaning it in this way — it kind of gets people immediately. [...]

I recommend you the talk by Jill Bolte Taylor:

Jill Bolte Taylor got a research opportunity few brain scientists would wish for: She had a massive stroke, and watched as her brain functions — motion, speech, self-awareness –- shut down one by one. An astonishing story.

Melbourne is beautiful! I wonder if I could live there for a year or two.

Her website is an authentic presentation of her character: MIAuk.com. After a few seconds looking at it a got dizzy.

Fairness, idealism and other atrocities

1. Go out and make a bunch of money!
[...]
There’s nothing the matter with honest moneymaking. Wealth is not a pizza, where if I have too many slices you have to eat the Domino’s box. In a free society, with the rule of law and property rights, no one loses when someone else gets rich.

2. Don’t be an idealist!

Don’t chain yourself to a redwood tree. Instead, be a corporate lawyer and make $500,000 a year. No matter how much you cheat the IRS, you’ll still end up paying $100,000 in property, sales and excise taxes. That’s $100,000 to schools, sewers, roads, firefighters and police. You’ll be doing good for society. Does chaining yourself to a redwood tree do society $100,000 worth of good?

[...]

So make your contribution by getting rich. Don’t be an idealist.

3. Get politically uninvolved!

All politics stink. Even democracy stinks. Imagine if our clothes were selected by the majority of shoppers, which would be teenage girls. I’d be standing here with my bellybutton exposed. Imagine deciding the dinner menu by family secret ballot. I’ve got three kids and three dogs in my family. We’d be eating Froot Loops and rotten meat.

[...]

But the problem isn’t politicians — it’s politics. Politics won’t allow for the truth. And we can’t blame the politicians for that. Imagine what even a little truth would sound like on today’s campaign trail:

“No, I can’t fix public education. The problem isn’t the teachers unions or a lack of funding for salaries, vouchers or more computer equipment The problem is your kids!”

4. Forget about fairness!

[...]

Well, I am here to advocate for unfairness. I’ve got a 10-year-old at home. She’s always saying, “That’s not fair.” When she says this, I say, “Honey, you’re cute. That’s not fair. Your family is pretty well off. That’s not fair. You were born in America. That’s not fair. Darling, you had better pray to God that things don’t start getting fair for you.” What we need is more income, even if it means a bigger income disparity gap.

Read the full text

Read more about Isabel Allende on TED.com.

He talked about how knowledge, courage and respect can lead to success. Although he was praised as one of the top of the speaker scene I got confused by his style of presentation. Looking at his reference I believe CEOs and managers love that.

I guess his prime concern was to teach us that people around us, cultures, societies and religions tell us what is right and wrong. They convey values. Their values. To become free of necessity you have to revalue everything in your life. That might be frightening because you have to stand on your own feet and can not rely on the leadership of religion, politics or your parents anymore.

You choose for yourself what is good and bad for you, what opinion you have on certain topics. You think for yourself and do not let others dictate directly or indirectly your behaviour. “Men do not cry!”, “I real Indian does not behave like that!”, “Women can not do this!” are not valid anymore.

He also emphasized that intelligence or brilliance alone do not make a great leader. You need emotional as well as spiritual intelligence, too.

For me it is hard to judge his speech. He did not tell me anything remarkable new, he mainly confirmed my thoughts.

Do current executives really need to be told what Mr. Kunjappu told the audience today?

(Mr. Kunjappu talked about more than I have picked up here.)