I like TED.com because it’s such a consistent source of inspiration. The people who gather at TED conferences are like the Lebrons, Kobes, and Tigers of their respective fields. They speak with passion and show the dedication it takes to be great at what you love. If you don’t know about TED…

“TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design. It started out (in 1984) as a conference bringing together people from those three worlds. Since then its scope has become ever broader. The annual conference now brings together the world’s most fascinating thinkers and doers, who are challenged to give the talk of their lives (in 18 minutes). “

TED has over 200 videos of the most jaw-dropping, fascinating, inspiring, ingenious, beautiful, persuasive, and courageous talks at the conference.  Believe it or not, the words I used to just describe the videos are the actual the navigation filters on the site.  You know you’re going to see something pretty good if those are the choices.  Let me save you some time and direct you to the top 15 TED videos that will make you smarter:

1.  Brian Greene on string theory

2.  Jeff Bezos on the next web innovation

3.  Hans Rosling’s new insights on poverty

4.  Juan Enriquez shares mindboggling science

5.  Malcolm Gladwell on spaghetti sauce

6.  Seth Godin on standing out

7.  Johnny Lee demos Wii Remote hacks

8.  Evan Williams on listening to Twitter users

9.  Michael Merzenich on re-wiring the brain

10.  Tony Robbins asks why we do what we do

11.  Richard St. John’s 8 secrets of success

12.  Bill Stone explores the world’s deepest caves

13.  VS Ramachandran On Your Mind

14.  Carolyn Porco flies us to Saturn

15.  Arthur Benjamin does “Mathemagic”

For more videos, check out TED.com.