•:*TEDTalks - Scott McCloud on Comics*:•

            There were a number of things in the TED Talks video that I found valuable. There were also a couple of things I didn’t know about the first time I watched it. Scott McCloud is extremely talented at public speaking and in engaging his audience. The varied tone in his voice and speed at which he speaks keeps people in tune with what he’s saying and keeps them interested.

            One of the things I learned from McCloud was the three types of vision: vision based on what one cannot see, the vision of things that have already been proven and that can be ascertained, and the vision of something that can be true based on knowledge, but has yet to be proven. The three types of vision, in turn, lead to the four basic principles coined by McCloud: learn from everyone, follow no one, watch for patterns, and work like hell. I don’t necessarily agree with the last principle because as Jimmy stated in class, design should not be considered “work,” it should be considered as something fun. Work is work; it is tedious, tiresome, and requires x amount of effort. Design should be something one enjoys doing and something that is worthwhile.

            One of the things I didn’t understand the first time I watched the video was McCloud’s concept of durable mutation. After watching it again, it made perfect sense. A durable mutation is a variation or an advancement of something that has a sort of “staying power” that will eventually adapt to the present environment and can be utilized in the future.

            I also didn’t know much about the people he was naming in his speech. McCloud gave brief comments about the ideas and visions these individuals had, but he didn’t delve into their background as much. One of the individuals is Charles Babbage. Babbage had this vision of steam driven computers that never took flight, but the idea behind it is very interesting. I had never heard about this idea before watching this video. He was essentially the first pioneer of the computer. Ada Lovelace is also someone I hadn’t heard of before. She was one of the few people that understood Babbage’s vision. She was intelligent and skilled in writing and is widely known as being the first computer programmer.