People & Blogs
Is Luck Random — or Can You Cultivate It? | Christian Busch | TED
When the 2025 Los Angeles wildfires destroyed his home and neighborhood, scientist Christian Busch encountered the opposite of serendipity: “zemblanity,” or bad luck by design. Drawing on more than a decade of scientific research, he explores how people can navigate unpredictability by adopting a serendipity mindset that transforms setbacks into unexpected new beginnings. He asks:…
People & Blogs
3 Ways to Create a Truly Original Design | Lope Gutierrez-Ruiz | TED
In a world where design trends are quietly converging — same color palettes, same typography, same illustration styles — how do you make work that actually looks different? Designer and TED Fellow Lope Gutierrez-Ruiz distills his answer into three sharp, counterintuitive ideas, ticking through his studio’s own funky creations to show how you can make…
People & Blogs
The relationship between farmers and the sun just got an upgrade #TEDTalks
Exhausted from carrying water up a hill to keep her small farm in Kenya thriving, Josephine Waweru received an unexpected call that offered a nearly unbelievable solution. She shares how one simple device allowed her crops (and her dreams) to flourish — and offers a glimmer of hope in the face of growing climate uncertainty.
People & Blogs
Why the World Is Still Not Built for Women | Virginia Santy | TED
Design consultant Virginia Santy set out to create an office space built specifically for women, flipping the script on the subtle (and not-so-subtle) ways that workplaces and cities still fail them. The results were striking: greater productivity, deeper collaboration and an environment where women felt genuinely valued, leading her to ask a simple question: What…
Joby Tests Air Taxis Between JFK Airport and Manhattan
OpenAI Drops Exclusivity Deal with Microsoft | Bloomberg Tech 4/27/2026
Big Job Cuts Come Ahead of Big Tech Earnings
-
Science & Technology6 years agoNitya Subramanian: Products and Protocol
-
People & Blogs4 years agoSleep Expert Answers Questions From Twitter ???? | Tech Support | WIRED
-
CNET6 years agoWays you can help Black Lives Matter movement (links, orgs, and more) ????????
-
Wired7 years agoHow This Guy Became a World Champion Boomerang Thrower | WIRED
-
Wired7 years agoNeuroscientist Explains ASMR’s Effects on the Brain & The Body | WIRED
-
Wired7 years agoWhy It’s Almost Impossible to Solve a Rubik’s Cube in Under 3 Seconds | WIRED
-
Wired7 years agoFormer FBI Agent Explains How to Read Body Language | Tradecraft | WIRED
-
CNET7 years agoSurface Pro 7 review: Hello, old friend ????
@stefanbrown7277
April 7, 2026 at 11:06 am
I love this
@22ffffff
April 7, 2026 at 11:10 am
👍👍
@drchristianbusch
April 7, 2026 at 7:47 pm
Thank you for watching!
@kipo3
April 7, 2026 at 11:07 am
Ted talks have fallen off dang…
@TinaSadeghi-g8q
April 7, 2026 at 11:38 am
Love this. Zemblanity was new to me and just as compelling as serendipity. The luck matrix is a helpful way to visualize it.
@drchristianbusch
April 7, 2026 at 7:37 pm
Thank you, I’m glad that it resonated!
@onjulraz754
April 7, 2026 at 12:04 pm
excellent advice. thank you for your Ted talk
@drchristianbusch
April 7, 2026 at 7:39 pm
Thank you!
@MattLang-x2h
April 7, 2026 at 12:10 pm
I found this really helpful. I will try to incorporate more of a serendipity mindset into my daily life.
@drchristianbusch
April 7, 2026 at 7:38 pm
That’s wonderful to hear, thank you for watching!
@Solomon-w3j8y
April 7, 2026 at 12:25 pm
9:32 i would disagree regret of not trying goes away quickly but consequences are woven into reality.(Ignoring the bad side of action is also ignorant behaviour)
I do get your point that trying has more chance of success than not trying
But u have a flawed logic and ignoring many variables,it wasn’t just the unexpected situations which led to the love of their life it was both their personality, situation and what they were feeling and thinking.
If u just see the unexpected situation u risk regretting ever taking such actions like when u were a kid all u wanted was to be dependent on ur parents as Adults all u want is to be independent desires can change in the future,even robust values may change or adapt with time and you never know the future so always consider what’s the most worst thing which could happen and are u willing to risk it for the biscuit.
@AshleyAlexopoulos
April 7, 2026 at 12:29 pm
👆🏼👏🏼
@drchristianbusch
April 7, 2026 at 7:47 pm
🙏
@harveykarp8746
April 7, 2026 at 12:29 pm
In a world that feels so out of control, it is empowering to see how to flip random acts into opportunities and how to sidestep inevitable pitfalls.
@drchristianbusch
April 7, 2026 at 7:50 pm
Agreed, that shift is often where (almost) everything changes. Thank you!
@RavindarSingh-w9b
April 8, 2026 at 6:37 am
L 0
Mjoot 1:04
@lilifakhari6033
April 7, 2026 at 1:26 pm
Such an interesting take on what luck is
@drchristianbusch
April 7, 2026 at 7:38 pm
Thank you! 🙏
@nitinsinghbros
April 7, 2026 at 1:28 pm
Wowo it’s really given a realistic solution to all problems.
Even at the last moment you can change the outcome, if you are positive
@drchristianbusch
April 7, 2026 at 7:48 pm
This last-moment-shift is so crucial, thank you for watching!
@LexiMontée
April 7, 2026 at 1:35 pm
I didn’t know that there was a word for this, Zemblanity… or that so many of the things I perceived as just plain bad luck that happened to me in my life were actually because of the way I designed the situation (or some cases the way others designed the situation). Just having awareness of this will help me not design things the same way any longer. Super helpful to open my eyes to this!
@drchristianbusch
April 7, 2026 at 7:37 pm
Agreed, once you start seeing it, you can’t unsee it!
@KatarinaHogan-r1c
April 7, 2026 at 2:34 pm
This really hit home…changing how I see things and treating challenges as opportunities instead of obstacles has me feeling inspired to stay open, embrace surprises, and turn even small moments into something positive!
@drchristianbusch
April 7, 2026 at 7:36 pm
Love this, that openness is definitely where it often starts, thank you for watching!
@nele.terveen
April 7, 2026 at 6:13 pm
Eye opening!! Zemblanity helps us to spot and understand the fragility built into the systems around us – and ultimately, hopefully, to prevent it from turning into bad luck, once we see clearly.
@drchristianbusch
April 7, 2026 at 7:49 pm
Agreed, there’s so much opportunity in zemblanity-spotting!
@TheWarrrenator
April 7, 2026 at 8:01 pm
Of course a German gives us a newish word for concerted misfortune. Although flirting on the bus with strangers is apparently appropriate in Deutschland, here in the U. S of A, don’t do it, it’s harassment. Speaking of which, I’m surprised he didn’t mention gun violence since the zemblanity of it occurring in Europe is lower than would be here.
@Miss_Anne_Thropic
April 7, 2026 at 8:19 pm
Absolute BS, this guy is like so many other humans who think we can control nature. He lost me in less than 2.5 minutes.
@sheilalang1178
April 7, 2026 at 9:18 pm
What a fascinating talk! This really clicked for me. The idea of contingency planning and preparedness is something we take seriously at my company to deliver consistent results but I hadn’t thought about it in terms of zemblanity vs. serendipity before. I really enjoyed the perspective the matrix gave to these concepts.
Cheers to cultivating more good luck!
@drchristianbusch
April 8, 2026 at 9:21 pm
Thank you, I’m very glad it resonated, and the link to contingency planning is such an interesting one, that’s often exactly where we’ve seen serendipity (and zemblanity) show up in practice!
@amandafarrell6063
April 7, 2026 at 10:19 pm
I love this!!! What an amazing perspective i think everyone can learn and apply to business or their personal life
@sviaxqu4072
April 7, 2026 at 10:24 pm
agency
risk of doing it → risk of not doing it
9:39
@FriendlyAlpaca
April 7, 2026 at 11:40 pm
Sounds like Gavin Nuisance
@PetraDallinger
April 7, 2026 at 11:53 pm
Thanks!
@BrianMcInnis87
April 8, 2026 at 2:32 am
Luck refers to probability factors we don’t have influence over, so no, you can’t cultivate it. Any favorability factors you can influence are not luck.
@sarabamossy3929
April 8, 2026 at 4:03 am
Nice one Christian, I especially loved the closing line “Start building a world that’s designed more for serendipity and guards against zemblanity.”
@drchristianbusch
April 8, 2026 at 3:26 pm
Thank you, and yes, here’s to more serendipity and less zemblanity!
@MarcoBz1
April 8, 2026 at 6:38 am
An inspiring talk from a great mind! Many probability spaces can actually be designed in ways we might not intuitively think are possible. Thanks, Christian, for delivering this gem to us.
@drchristianbusch
April 8, 2026 at 3:25 pm
Thank you for your kind words, much appreciated! And very true, those probability spaces often only become visible at second glance.
@wutytiz
April 8, 2026 at 7:30 am
Very Intriguing!!!✌️😎
@Atjayvang21
April 8, 2026 at 3:15 pm
I already lnow whats coming. I won’t engage. She does
@KaterynSalazar-p1f
April 9, 2026 at 1:09 am
I love it!! It’s a nice way to see bad luck in a different way.
@Philipp-s7f
April 9, 2026 at 3:10 pm
Good stuff. I have followed this guy for a while and he seems to buy his own story – I like that. It reminds me of an old german movie called Victor Vogel.
@drchristianbusch
April 9, 2026 at 7:33 pm
Vielen Dank!