20 Minuten (20 Minutes)

How valuable can 20 minutes be? In a time where technology allows us to seek information with a greater speed than we are able to filter, a third of an hour can have much more value than you would expect. A late bus, a line in the bank, waiting for an order or simply taking that extra nap after the alarm clock has gone off. Simply 20 mere minutes.

What if you could get in touch with some of the most incredible minds of our time without leaving the comfort of your home, in ultra-condensed, geniously crafted 20-minutes presentations? TED Talks offers you this opportunity, showing that with the right words and multimedia, ideas can be shared with amazing comprehensibility and speed.

Some of my current favorites:

-Do you want to understand better the nature of human happiness?

-What is the world's most famous atheist view on the misteries of the universe?

-How does the excessive amount of choices make people more unsatisfied?

-Using smart data to debunk some of the biggest third-world myths.

These oasis of wisdom make me wonder why do we still spend hours in classrooms where teachers don't want to teach and students don't want to learn, if in twenty minutes you can get such great insight from the people that are dealing directly with up-to-date issues. It makes me wonder if there is any way the educational system can survive as it is and how much time we are wasting.

This kind of initiative is invaluable and it's here, available to all of us, at our fingertips, literally. In the past people had to dig for information. Besides, no information was presented in attractive, dynamic ways as they are now.

How much easier it is, therefore, for us to deal with our ignorance, when it is truly a matter of choice to remain ignorant or not? How much can these pieces of 20 minutes change our life?

Go figure it out.