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Frame from How to sound smart in your TEDx Talk | Will Stephen | TEDxNewYork Plays via YouTube's privacy-enhanced embed

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

49 videos recommended on HN
YouTube
6 HN users recommended this talk5 months2015–2024 score 6.5
Years with an HN recommendation, 2007–2026

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

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

“spent 6 minutes talking about nothing” (HN, 2022)

3 strong recommendations · 3 recommendations · Talks

6 Hacker News comments

From the HN archive; up to 20 kept per video, favoring different commenters. Recommendations first.

@randycupertino Feb 2016 Strongly recommends
on HN thread 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]
TED talk about nothing
@light_cone Feb 2022 Strongly recommends
on HN thread 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.
Shows appearance of meaning is not actual meaning
@friendzis Oct 2024 Strongly recommends
on HN thread Google’s AI thinks I left a Gatorade bottle on the moon
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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 every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong" -- HL Mencken. But knowing this answer makes you feel smart.
@JohnTHaller May 2015 Recommends
on HN thread 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]
Fun deconstruction of the pacing of TED talks
@johncessna Feb 2022 Recommends
on HN thread 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]
Six minutes talking about nothing

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