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How to sound smart in your TEDx Talk | Will Stephen | TEDxNewYork

TEDx Talks · 15.9M views · 2015-01-15 · 5:56

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Overview

Will Stephen's humorous six-minute TEDx talk shows presentation techniques that make you sound brilliant while saying essentially nothing.

On Hacker News

HN recommends it as a funny deconstruction of TED talk style, and as a favorite example of the appearance of meaning without content.

Recommended by 6 HN people across 5 months · HN mentions 2015–2024

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What people said

friendzis · 2024-10 · Strong recommendation

Pseudo-intellectual consumerism, as I like to call it. How many people do you know who turn on the news on TV, sit in front and take notes? Who put on some music, relax in the sweet spot and immerse themselves? Who read a book, stop and ponder, continue? Versus people who turn on the TV while cooking, who put on headphones with music while working out for background noise, who put on sped up version of audiobook while driving to tick off another checkmark? It's form over substance all over the place. I absolutely love this TED talk: [VIDEO] The more pseudo-intellectual consumerism infiltrates our collective psyche, the more the substance becomes irrelevant. Nuance requires thinking. "For every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong" -- HL Mencken. But knowing this answer makes you feel smart.

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light_cone · 2022-02 · Strong recommendation

Obligatory meta TED talk: [VIDEO] Personally the TED talk I liked the most. It's funny but I actually find it interesting, showing that appearance of meaning is not actual meaning.

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randycupertino · 2016-02 · Strong recommendation

That's why the "Ted Talk about Nothing" is one of my favorites: [VIDEO] Their manner of speaking reminds me of American Dad making fun of Ira Glass. Why is pausing??! Doesn't he know what he's going to say next??? AAAAHH. [LINK]

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Video by TEDx Talks, played through YouTube.

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