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Andrew Tobias

Money and Other Subjects

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Andrew Tobias
Andrew Tobias

Money and Other Subjects

TED

March 27, 2015

All my best books were written by other people, beginning with David McClintick’s 1982 Indecent Exposure — look! my name in the center of the front cover of a New York Times best-seller! — and now, as I stall and stall trying to find the energy to deliver the TED recap I’ve been promising . . .

. . . how do you recap 90 talks?! not to mention dinners, exhibits, the oxygen bar, and chance encounters? . . .

. . . I am rescued by a comedian whose TED act ddn’t grab me (about her sitting on a Western-style ceramic toilet in Iran that somehow cracked in half) but whose write-up of the 2015 TED experience is way better than mine would have been — and with pictures!

So “my work here is done.”

#

But let me add just a few personal highlights to which Negin, no matter how Farsad-ed, could not have been privy.

Like my solo test-drive of this thing, of which there are only three in the world, each valued at $300,000 so I drove it very carefully, with a top speed of 35mph (or in my cautious case, maybe 15mph) — and a range of about 30 miles (or in my case, averaging maybe 7mph for 5 minutes, about 3000 feet) — taking three hours to charge.  Basically, it’s a high-tech three-wheeled electric motorcycle with pedals and a steering wheel, if there were such a thing, all enclosed so you can’t get wet in the rain.

No, they didn’t let us out on the street; we drove around a little obstacle course set up in a portion of the enormous basement of the Vancouver Convention Center.  If it’s ever sold here for under $10,000, I’ll bet a lot of folks will buy it.  (Certainly more practical than this bizarre vehicle, that you actually can buy for $300,000 today.)

Except in cities.

What city-dweller needs a car anymore when he or she can have his own car and driver for way cheaper?

Except in Vancouver which, to the consternation of the assembled TEDsters, still, for now, lacks Uber.

#

You know what?  Let me stop here . . . and perhaps up date this page tomorrow or Monday with more stuff for those who are interested.

But in the meantime:

What if 3D printing were 10 times faster?  It’s coming!  Watch it here — free!.

Why do ambitious women have flat heads?  Watch it here — free!

And, yes, what did Monica Lewinsky have to say?  Watch it here — free!

Have a great weekend.

 

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