TED Talks Summary
Communication and presentation are very important part of my day-to-day work. As an immigrate, English is not my first language, I strongly feel I am lacking public speaking skill, that’s the reason I look for books to improve it.
TED Talks is a creative way to share ideas, innovations, and to learn from the prominent experts from every subject of knowledge and to get inspired. Also the author shows the important of connectivity of knowledge and unification of knowledge. To prove his point, In this book the author asked a provocative question: “Is it really true that knowledge has to become ever more specialized? That the only way we can achieve success is by knowing more and more about less and less? The specialization of every field – medicine, science, art – seemed to suggest this. But Deutsch argues that we must distinguish knowledge from understanding. Yes, knowledge of special facts inevitably become specialized. But understanding? No. Not at all. To understand something we need to move in different direction. We had to pursue the unification of knowledge.” By watching different ideas from variety area of knowledge, we can connect theories that tie together more than one field to improve our humanity and economy.
This book also offers great insights what it takes to deliver an inspiring talk. The following are the takeaways I learned from this book:
- Maintain a through-line to anchor the message – Through-line is the connecting theme that ties together each narrative element. Every talk should have one. Once you have your through-line, you are ready to plan what you’ll attach to it. There are many ways to build ideas such as connection, narration, explanation, persuasion and revelation.
- Show vulnerability if genuine — One of the best way to disarm an audience is to first reveal your own vulnerability. Please note, vulnerability is not oversharing. There is a simple equation: vulnerability minus boundaries is not vulnerability. If it’s not vulnerability, then it doesn’t lead to connection. Very simple principal.
- Metaphor – Using metaphors to explain the terminologies of your talk, it makes explanation easily replacing the existing elements to a new element in a more satisfying way. We start with what we know, and we add bits piece by piece, with each part positioned by using already understood language, backed by metaphors and examples. Metaphors reveal the shape of the new concept so that the mind knows how to slot it in effectively.
- Campfire story – Story telling is always the best way to prepare your talk. A good story teller will definitely be a successful speaker.
- Value substance over style – Once you have something worth saying, then how you says it follows.
- Rehearse — Rehearse! Rehearse! and Rehearse! When you rehearse enough, then you will be comfortable and confident with the message, but don’t make sounds like scripted and robotic which will not connect with the audience.
This book also highlights many interesting and inspiring TED Talks, I have listened most of his recommendations. If you have some free time to kill, please check the following talks from TED:
“The price of Shame” – Monica Lewinsky
“My Stroke of Insight” – Jill Bolte Taylor
“The power of vulnerability” – Brene Brown
“The new bionics that let us run, climb and dance” – Hugh Herr
