Review of How To Deliver the Perfect Ted Talk

Akash Karia's book follows the format of Chip and Dan Heath's acronym for creating memorable messages, talks and presentations. Each chapter ends with a short 'In a Nutshell' summary and the pages are loaded with tips and techniques about preparation, content and delivery. The genius of this is that the book is an immediate ready-reference or checklist for the person preparing a presentation or talk.

I would have liked more on preparing of self mentally prior to giving a presentation, and something on de-briefing post-presentation in preparation for the next one.

I also am hesitant about using stated or implied, over-the-top big promises. This can backfire.  But overall, a very well researched and presented addition to the speaker's/ presenter's/ influencer's library
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17725296-how-to-deliver-the-perfect-ted-talk

Dorian on Arriving in a Story Workshop:

Let us say I am here because of you

and you are here because  of me.
(Nasrudin)

we’ve arranged the chairs
in café style, six to a table.
when we begin the story
only half of the people are here

though all the workshop seats

have bodies sitting in them.

one’s still traveling on the crowded train.

a mother still burps her child, fevered on her hip.
another slumps with a black cloud boss problem.
the man at the back table yawns like a hippo
trapped in a falling high rise dream.
one mutters “I don’t have time for this.”

we tell of Nasrudin riding his donkey

down an open road  when he spies men
on their donkeys, trotting towards him.
he fears they are thieves come to do him harm

in a rush of silence

the other half of each participant
shows up. you can see
the sudden arrival in their eyes
and the way their bodies lean in to the tale
in the curious shape of the question mark -
what will happen next?

by the time Nasrudin dismounts

and climbs over a cemetery wall,
tumbling into an open grave,
the work-shoppers are riding with him
on the donkeys their ancestors in-spanned
to pull carts down dust roads in trying times
with belongings bundled high above them. 

as they listen, what’s deep inside climbs

out of the hole under the floor boards
of the venue and sits at the table.
for the other donkey men turn out to be neighbours
who ask Nasrudin, “why are you hiding in an open grave?”

by the time we share Nasrudin’s response,

people are sipping the narrative
rich as a cappuccino,
with a heart motif in the foam.
froth and muffin crumbs line their lips.

now they sit relaxed at this roadside inn

connecting story to story, each to each,
while the donkeys, grazing green grass,
bray in unison, exchanging wisdom
for work and well-being.

 

The Thrill of the Kill

The Thrill of the Kill

Pictures evoke responses and stories. When you look at this picture, what stories spring to mind about the trophy hunter, the hunt, the elephant, the owner of the reserve, other animals, gun lobbyists, environmental activists ….?

What beliefs and feelings come to the fore?

I wondered if the tusks would be sold, if the feet would be used as stools or ashtrays, the ears as floor mats, the tail as a wall-hanging. Is the photo a sort of medal celebrating ‘the kill’? Does the act itself satisfy some sort of blood-lust, an addictive testosterone-driven dominance and aggression, a need to prove ‘manhood’? I wondered about the one-sided ‘contest’, the hollow ‘victory’, about the land-owner’s role in things, about the hunter’s pose and self-satisfied smile.¹   Or is it amusement?

I felt repulsion, disgust, sadness.

“Animals in a social group have relationships with each other…….. One African herd always travelled slowly because one of its members had never fully recovered from a broken leg suffered as a calf” and “…baby African elephants who have seen their families killed by poachers, and witnessed tusks being cut off bodies: these young animals wake up screaming in the night”.  “’If I learned anything from my time among the elephants’ writes the scientist Douglas Chadwick:

It is the extent to which we are kin. The warmth of their families makes me feel warm. Their capacity for delight gives me joy. Their ability to learn and understand things is a continuing revelation for me. If a person can’t see these qualities when looking at elephants, it can only be because he or she doesn’t want to’”²

Elephants are critically endangered/endangered in a number of countries and vulnerable in Africa.³     Yet in response to this post I expect specious, spurious, fallacious arguments and protests from hunters.

 Bibliography

1. McCallum, Ian Ecological Intelligence: rediscovering ourselves in nature Africa Geographic 2005

2. Masson, Jeffrey Moussaiff & McCarthy, Susan When Elephants Weep: the emotional lives of  

    animals  Delta Book by Dell Publishing NY 1995

3. http://worldwildlife.org