This often hilarious and insightful talk from Darius Kazemi starts off as perhaps the best parody you’ve ever seen of a TED Talk, someone explaining their secrets of success and how you too can use the internet to achieve fame and fortune. It’s a cutting piece of satire, taking to task the solipsism and overexuberance of the internet age, the unwavering faith in online communities and some of the absurdities of sharing culture.

That would be enough on its own, but Kazemi then follows up the parody with a deeper level of analysis, looking at his own creative projects and trying to understand why some have caught on and drawn attention, while others withered on the vine. In the end, he realizes the randomness of recognition, that it is largely a matter of luck and prior privilege. Well, either that or a butterfly flapping its wings in the rainforest at the right time…

David Crotty

David Crotty

David Crotty is a Senior Consultant at Clarke & Esposito, a boutique management consulting firm focused on strategic issues related to professional and academic publishing and information services. Previously, David was the Editorial Director, Journals Policy for Oxford University Press. He oversaw journal policy across OUP’s journals program, drove technological innovation, and served as an information officer. David acquired and managed a suite of research society-owned journals with OUP, and before that was the Executive Editor for Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press, where he created and edited new science books and journals, along with serving as a journal Editor-in-Chief. He has served on the Board of Directors for the STM Association, the Society for Scholarly Publishing and CHOR, Inc., as well as The AAP-PSP Executive Council. David received his PhD in Genetics from Columbia University and did developmental neuroscience research at Caltech before moving from the bench to publishing.

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