It’s already December and the year 2015 is near to end.

It’s already that time in the year when you start evaluating all the best things of the year that passed and you start making retrospectives about yourself in order to set goals for the next year.

One thing is sure, is that it was a great year at TED for all kinds of mind-blowing talks.

Here are the 9 TED talks of 2015 you need to watch:

Monica Lewinsky: “Public shaming as a blood sport has to stop”.

In 1998, Monica Lewinsky found herself in the middle of a media maelstrom. Unlucky, in 1998 it was also the beginning of the digital era. So the attention gave to her was not just from newspaper, TV and radio. It was accessible online. Everywhere, anywhere the information could be accessed.
So she was the patient number #0 to lose her personal reputation on a global scale.
Nowadays, the public shaming that Monica went through has become constant- and can turn deadly.
In her talk, she makes an analysis about our online culture of humiliation and asks for a change of behavior.

Getting through public shaming, or what is mostly known as cyberbullying nowadays, is not easy, painless or quick. But it’s possible!

Bill Gates: We need to get ready for the next epidemic.

The Ebola epidemic last year killed more than 10,000 people. Yet, it could have been worse for many reasons, like the nature of the virus itself. Ebola doesn’t spread through the air, if it was the case, the deaths and infections would have been in millions.
But where are we concerning our fight against these viruses? Apparently we are not prepared at all, and we could fail miserably.

Bill Gates shows in details what could be done to improve the situation and give a data backed talk to make his point.

Gary Haugen: The hidden reason for poverty.

Statistically, the number of people who live under the bar of $1.25 has drastically decreased over the past generation. Same for the number of people who die due to poverty reasons. Yet, poverty is still here. The number has decreased, but there are still over 2 Billion people who live under $2 on a daily basis. Why? Why is poverty remain? Is there anything we can do about it?
That’s what Gary Haugen detail to us on his TED talk. It’s an eye opener.

David Eagleman: It’s time to feel the data.

Our biological sensors and abilities are very restricted. Yet, they are enough according to what our brain evaluates as being our “real world”. But there a way much more. And we don’t have to wait until Mother Nature give us new biological abilities or wait thousands of years to see the evolution taking effect.
It’s time for the human race to start enlarging its world and daily abilities. But how can we really do it?
That’s what David Eagleman shows in his TED talk.

Paul Tudor Jones II: We ripped the humanity out of our companies.

During the last 40 years, corporate profit margins have raised about 12.5% in America. Sounds like a good news? Yes, but it’s good only for the shareholders. For the average American worker, the things are just getting worse.
Income and wealth inequality are raising a lot. Capitalism is good. But we need to improve the situation.
We need to bring back fairness and justness to the system so that we will be able to take back our humanity.

Donald Hoffman: We don’t see the world as it is really.

We used to think that the Earth is flat. We also thought that the earth is the motionless center of the universe. But we were wrong in both cases. It’s because we described the reality as we perceived it. And the way we see the world is not necessarily the reality.
We are not perceiving the reality. So what are we seeing? What is the reality? That’s what Donald Hoffman explain on his TED talk.

Bill Gross: The biggest reason for a startup to either succeed or fail.

Startups are all about ideas. At least that what most people think, and it’s mostly true. But why some great business ideas fail miserably then? It’s because the idea is not the only factor when it comes to startups success. In fact, there are 5 factors. Which one is the most important one?
That’s what Bill Gross, who analyzed 200 companies, will say in this TED talk:

Dan Ariely: What we want? What we think? What we have?

The inequality in our societies is a fact. But the way we want to have equality is surprising.
There is a huge gap between what do we want to have. What we think we have. And what we really have.
And that concerns many aspects of life.
But what are we supposed to do concerning it? Dan Ariely has some answers to you.

Last but not least:

BJ Miller: What really matters at the end of life.

In this talk BJ Miller goes through his experience with life and death. He shows what he experienced and how the experience of life can and have to be wonderful.
He shows what are we lacking in our lives these days. How to resolve it. And how we should live our lives to its fullest.
Because after all, there is only one thing that really matter in life. What is it? I simply can’t find better words or say it better than BJ Miller.

 

These are the top 9 TED talks of 2015 you need to watch. Did you like other ones in 2015? Share them with us! I would love to see everyone and discuss its main subject.

Image credits: Steve Jurvetson