What fear can teach us | Karen Thompson Walker

Imagine you're a shipwrecked sailor adrift in the enormous Pacific. You can choose one of three directions and save yourself and your shipmates -- but each choice comes with a fearful consequence too. How do you choose? In telling the story of the whaleship Essex, novelist Karen Thompson Walker shows how fear propels imagination, as it forces us to imagine the possible futures and how to cope with them.

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[TheHouseOffice]

Lesson: Accept your fear as a story, and not a guide to control your actions. You are the reader of that story, but you use your logic (the inner scientist) to make the decisions.
Shaboom.

[theultimatereductionist]

I reached into my bag of chocolate chip cookies while watching this, petrified by the thought that I may have eaten my last.
What should I do? My mind raced with the dreaded choices: whom should I kill and roast? My cat or my dog?
Just when the nightmare was darkest, my hand broke through the plastic seal into ANOTHER sealed bag that I had completely forgotten about.
The second sealed bag contained over six dozen more chocolate chip cookies. My hunger satisfied, my ordeal over,
I set myself upon the task of recording my adventure for future generations (your kids, not mine: I don't "do" kids) so that my story may teach youth
to ALWAYS buy that second bag of chocolate chip cookies whenever in doubt at the dollar store.

[djcwittz]

Fear is not evil, it teaches us what our weaknesses are, and once we know that, we can become stronger."
-Gildarts Clive

[fearlessandfar]

"What if we think of fear as an amazing act of the imagination"
This is an incredible thought 🔥

[annadobysh]

Your speech is amazing. We all have fears inside our soul and by overcoming them we are becoming stronger. Don't run away from fears, go towards them

[ashyymarievlogs]

my teacher really wanted me to read this 😳

[Shindai]

"Fear is the friend of extraordinary people." Geoff Thompson. Great book of the same title, and a necessary read for people struggling with fear.

[FreeFromWar]

Without fear, we would all be dead by now. Fear and pain, the two things that people hate are the most important things that kept us alive and got our species this far.

[allisonleighandrews]

Finally a TED talk that's just quality, informative, engaging content. Zero pretense attached, love it. Thank you for posting.

[RuvenCH]

This pretty much holds true for all the emotions in the spectrum. Though calling it just an imagination or storytelling just means, that there's some unresolved or surpressed emotions in that regard, which cloud the view. Else emotions form an extremely appropriate and helpful response to the actual situation.

[RichardRoy]

Fear as a story? Interestingly put. Food for thought. I think of fear as a trigger emotion. It's a response to a perception we evaluate as a threat.

[Corsonmcnash]

“I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain.”
― Frank Herbert, Dune

[dilansilva]

It's a fantastic lesson. Her choice of words was amazing and beautiful

[bsfun]

first KNOW YOUR fears I figured that when I know the right thing to do and I DO NOT do it. ....even if i do not do it because it is uncomfortable, ... am a coward. i did Not know this about myself. so i looked for the answer to fear and REALLY APPRECIATED THIS presentation. This is needed by all who know what is morally right and Do Not Do It.

[ballabon]

Thank you Karen. I learned many useful lessons that can help me overcome my biggest enemy - fear.

[mekumekum]

Beautifully delivered :) eloquently and precisely!

[coscomosco]

Awesome, I started reading my fears. Thanks Madam.

[MickManMusic]

This is a philosophic topic, everyone will perceive it differently based upon their previous life experiences.

[riderlibertas]

Loved this, loved how she weaved the story into it to make her point. Good speaker.

[thawtar]

I thought fear is my strongest weapon against many exams during my undergraduate course. This video explains the mechanism I have been using. :)