TED 2012: Full Spectrum – Day 2 & Overwhelmed

There really aren’t words to describe how overwhelmingly amazing TED2012 has been so far, but I’ll try. Imagine a really super-amazing lecture — one that engages every bit of your mind and heart and leaves you thinking for weeks.

Now imagine five or six of those in a row, with maybe a bit of international music or multimedia dance mixed in. And then repeat that…four times a day.

It will truly take me weeks to process everything I saw and heard today alone, and today was just day one of four. As raw, unprocessed and bursting as my thoughts are right now, all I can share tonight is a sleepy montage from the day…a few photos and favorite quotes.

Here’s TED host Chris Anderson introducing the first session. Yesterday, at our speakers’ briefing, Chris was reminding us not to worry if other speakers’ talks are different from ours.  “Let a thousand experiments bloom. Be proud of what you’ve prepared and how you do it.”

Toy Story and WALL-E creator Andrew Stanton on the greatest commandment of storytelling: “Make me care.”

Seth Godin on creativity and the need for failure: “Innovation is just repeated failure until you come up with something that works.”

Gary Kovacs on web tracking: “With every click of the mouse, we are like Hansel and Gretel, leaving a trail of breadcrumbs through the digital woods.”

Billy Collins gave his talk today, showing some animated videos that have been created for his poems. When he was done speaking, TED host June Cohen came on stage, clearly delighted by Collins’ humor. “Poetry can be funny!”

“Yes,” Collins agreed. “Someone said once that I put the fun back in profundity.”

Other things I learned about today:  India, biological dark matter, Yosemite’s founder, a texting hotline, string theory, space archaeology, Pixar and storytelling, kinetic sculpture, doctors and checklists, transcendence, comebacks, and why the letter x represents the unknown.

In a word, amazing.