How to sound smart in your TEDx Talk | Will Stephen | TEDxNewYork
Why Hacker News recommends it
HN recommends it as a funny deconstruction of TED talk style, and as a favorite example of the appearance of meaning without content.
What it is
Will Stephen's humorous six-minute TEDx talk shows presentation techniques that make you sound brilliant while saying essentially nothing.
Recommended by 6 HN commenters across 5 different months, 2015 to 2024.
What Hacker News said
Strong rec randycupertino · 2016-02 · on “We Are Now at Peak TED”
That's why the "Ted Talk about Nothing" is one of my favorites: [this 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]
Strong rec light_cone · 2022-02 · on “What Was the Ted Talk?”
Obligatory meta TED talk: [this 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.
Strong rec friendzis · 2024-10 · on “Google’s AI thinks I left a Gatorade bottle on the moon”
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: [this video] The more pseudo-intellectual consumerism infiltrates our collective psyche, the more the substance becomes irrelevant. Nuance requires thinking. "For eve
Recommends JohnTHaller · 2015-05 · on “The Sound of TED: A Case for Distaste”
Will Stephen's How to sound smart in your TEDx Talk is a fun deconstruction of the pacing and process of most TED talks: [this video]
Recommends Stratoscope · 2021-05 · on “GitHub repository for Sedgewick's Algorithms is taken down”
There are some great TED[x] talks, like "Ducks Go Quack, Chickens Say Cluck": [LINK] And "How to sound smart in your TEDx Talk": [this video]
Recommends johncessna · 2022-02 · on “What Was the Ted Talk?”
I used to binge watch Ted Talks and then ran across How to sound Smart in your Ted Talk[1] Ted Talk where William Stephen spent 6 minutes talking about nothing. [1] [this video]