Ivan Stamen

Brainstormer, Idea generator, World traveler

Just a guy

The work and achievements of the man who fed the world. Norman Borlaug. He is a man that through his efforts in agriculture saved billions of lives. I feel like not enough people know the scope and importance of his work on creating crops that will go on to feed generations. A shameful thing is that we have not ended world hunger, even though we were left with amazing tools to do so.

I've heard about TED, and got a link to a talk. I watched it, but can't say which one it was. And then I saw all the categories, and started browsing. I stumbled upon the talk by Mick Ebeling: How to unlock a locked in artist. It was actually the first I saw that made an impression on me. It changed the way I think about volunteering and it amazed me. The selfless act of helping someone in need made me think about how much I do to help...not much. So I became a volunteer! I saw the option to turn on subtitles, but no Croatian ones. I wondered for a minute why was that, and then I saw "Translate". From that point on, the OTP has been something I enjoyed, and was exhilarated to bring the ideas to my country. Watching the talks, I was encouraged to do more, so I've volunteered at animal shelters, workshops, food drives, a whole bunch of stuff to make a difference. I'm thankful that I've gotten the opportunity to get advice from so many diverse sources via TED, making me a better person