The beauty and torture and tedious agony of silence

For writers, there is no more bleak and dismal an emptiness than silence -- unsolicited, unnatural silence that "thwarts what struggles to come into being," as Tillie Olsen wrote in 1965, "but cannot".

The writer-dreaded silence is not the fundamentally necessary grief-silence or healing-silence, or learning-silence -- not Keats' agonie ennuyeuse. It's a miserable, uninvited guest in our brains; a Dante's hellion whose visits achieve nothing, produce nothing and leave nothing behind. During those silent times writers languish in mute despair as the "writing dies over and over again" inside of us and the pages of our history turn, blank after blank.

So when you see a writer writing furiously through the day or well into the night, don't disturb her. Let her enjoy a moment of your silence -- and be glad that she's not suffering through her own.

Imogen Heap plays "Wait It Out" | Video on TED.com

Imogen Heap plays "Wait It Out" | Video on TED.com



Frustrating to anyone with a heart and a sense of purpose - how something as simple and ridiculous as timing can be the difference between a world changed for the better and the tar pits of business as usual.

Robert Sapolsky: The uniqueness of humans | Video on TED.com

Robert Sapolsky: The uniqueness of humans | Video on TED.com



...and the theory of mind: How we think. How we think others think. And how we think about how others think about others.

Charles Fleischer insists: All things are Moleeds | Video on TED.com

Charles Fleischer insists: All things are Moleeds | Video on TED.com

Finally, someone who gets it. Charles Fleischer reminds us why we should carefully consider the people we name to the committees of people who name things (important things, like maps), and he shares his own version of math that everyone with a right brain will love - and probably understand.