Book Review: Talk like Ted by Carmine Gallo

I've recently been more and more involved in public speaking events. Eventhough I've read other books about the subject, I wanted to give Talk Like TED: The 9 Public-Speaking Secrets of the World's Top Minds a try.

As you could expect, book was made interesting to read. It covered variety of topics related to speaking via TED talks. Some of the TED talks were familiar to in advance, but some I had to watch right away to get more understanding about those.

The book is divided to three main categories: Emotional, Novel and Memorable. Under these topic book goes through all the important parts of creating a great speech. Book backs up the ideas with proper research and still keeps ideas easy and understandable.

Ideas as such were mainly familiar to me, but it still was interesting to read more about those. Storytelling and emotionally appealing to the audience is difficult, but works really well. Keeping audience focused is always difficult and this book introduced some good ideas for myself for that purpose.

As a Finn and European, I have to say that book is quite American. Having some experience on presenting in different countries, all the things don't work as well in different countries as they do in US. That's just a good to keep in mind, still the ideas are great and you need to find ways how to benefit those with your audience.

Overall I really liked the book. It's easy and enjoyable to read. It's full of great ideas and gives good tips for all presenters. I highly recommend to read this book,. Everyone will benefit from it.

Written by +Henri Hämäläinen

Mind wandering and happiness

I watched this nice TED talk about mind wandering and happiness. I actually got bit surprised on it's message. It suggests that people are happier when they are focused and don't let the mind wander.

It is a bit counterintuitive, but then on the other hand books like Flow and Drive tells exactly about those things. And I've noticed the same on myself, I'm lot happier, when I have things to focus on and I keep on doing things. When I start wander, time slows down and I'm bored quite soon.

It's refreshing to watch, so please check it out.

Matt Killingsworth's TED talk:


Written by +Henri Hämäläinen

Liar, Liar, Liar - We are all liars

I watched this eyeopening TED-talk about lying. Pamela Meyer told about lying and how it is everywhere and done by everyone.

There were two things that hit me the most, first was the statement: "Lying is co-operative act" and the second was "Everyone has a hunger for something". I interpreted these so that lying is most often a kind act from someone to be more co-operative. And also that there are some things that we are eager to be lied about. If we are uncertain of something, we want to hear things that are favorable for our thinking.

I admit I've often lied to someone to be seen more co-operative. When person or subject in question is not important for me, I've played the "yes man" to agree and get on with the situation. I'm sure you have too. Pamela Meyer tells that people are much more likely to lie to a stranger. I think that's a time management system also. I've at least coped with people just that I wouldn't need to waste any time with them.  I've said to myself often, that I don't have to win all the fights. Even if I disagree with someone or I have some more information some subject in question, I might act to be dumper than I really am to just get on with the situation.

Some of you have seen the movie Liar Liar. It's a comedy about lawyer (played by Jim Carrey) who for 24 hours can't lie. It's not a jewel of movie industry, but the strange situations happening in the movie are not that far away from truth as one might think. If we would talk 100% true all the time, there would be so many strange situations and wrangles all around that anything wouldn't really happen. All lying isn't that bad.

I still believe we are more and more going towards the world of truth. People are being much more open and honest about themselves and their interests. Organizations and governments have been forced to be more open. Movements around the internet and world are catching liars from governments, individuals and companies. Lying has become much harder these days and it will bring us towards better, more honest world.

Check the TED-talk from Pamela Meyer on How to spot a liar. There's a book from her also called Liespotting, I'll add it to my to-be-read list.




Written by +Henri Hämäläinen

Smile!

Inspiring TED speech about smiling and how it makes life better for so many. It would be so easy to start arguing if smile is a consequence or cause for better life, but I don't really care. Video is entertaining and definitely worth of watching. One thing is for sure, smiling is good for you.

Ron Gutman: The hidden power of smiling

 
Written by +Henri Hämäläinen

Seeing yourself, believing yourself

Wonderful and inspiring story from Caroline Casey. Ted talk: Caroline Casey: Looking past limits



It's amazing what people get done when they believe in themselves. Story from Caroline also shows the other side of it. You should really understand and accept who you are in order to really believe in yourself.  

Written by +Henri Hämäläinen

Will increasing use of social media guide us for healthier self-image?

This Ted talk about Social media and the end of gender got me thinking more widely about social medias affect on desired body-image. Increasing use of social media might help us to move slowly from admiring of always perfectly looking, well shaped and well trained body image to healthier view of a person.

Time spent on internet and social media is increasing and cutting time from old TV and magazine media. This old media is doing everything they can to make people look perfect. Meaning that people wouldn't have any flaws. Models in these picture and videos have perfect skin, hair, body and they are always dressed to coolest clothes. On the other hand social media also reveals true persons. Most of people have photos of themselves visible somewhere in the web. At least in their profile pictures, but increasingly in videos and pictures of real life situations.

People do want to look good and cool in pictures and videos, but most of the pictures and videos in social media are not photo-shopped and taken by professionals. Those photos reveal the real people. I think this will slowly turn the heads of all to realize that everyone has flaws and don't always look perfect.

Media houses and admiring the models and actors in TV, movies and magazines will not suddenly disappear. Social media is lot about sharing and big part of content shared is still produced professionally. Fan culture will always be there and there will always professional models and photographers. Maybe media will still start to turn for more to realistic and amateurish looks with models and content just because of those which are done by amateurs are getting more and more popular. Already now, in some cases it's hard to tell from some of the videos or photos that are those made professionally to look like an amateur or are those really amateur ones.

Even though problems accepting your self-image are often considered as problems of young and teenagers, I believe that most of people have some problems with it. Think about constant diet, gym and other seasons, when there's lot of people trying to do some good about themselves. I'm not saying that's a bad thing, but the driver for healthier body, shouldn't come from outer pressure, but from internal drive to feel better. That's the only way to make it last.

Maybe it's just me dreaming, because of two small daughters at home. But I genuinely hope that my daughters would live in a world where not only the slimmest and model looking people would get admired.

Written by +Henri Hämäläinen

You choose to have an awesome life

Really inspiring TED speech about how your own choices decide how your life is. It's all about Attitude, Awareness, Authenticity.

From Neil Pasricha author of the blog 1000 awesome things.



I loved the sentence "being you and being cool with that".  

Written by +Henri Hämäläinen

Interesting video of using practical wisdom

How conveniently I ran into this TED video from Barry Schwartz about using practical wisdom. I see this to go actually really closely with thoughts there are about motivation in Dan Pink's Drive I recently read and reviewed.

Both talk about what moves people. This video talks about when the smartest ones out there know when to bend the rules and improvise to make good things happen in world and eventually change the system to serve all of us better.

The connective factor here is the purpose. Having an understanding of the whole and vision how something or some things could be better in the future is driving force (a.k.a the motivation) for behavior.

It's a longish talk, but it is worth of all of it.



If you don't have the time to check the whole video, go to 20:20 where he talks about what makes people happy. There's a lesson for all of us. "Research has shown there are two things that make people happy, love and work..".

The more I check these Ted talks, the more I love those.

Amazing stuff with using existing images in social

This is stuff that if someone would present this with decks it would look wow, but you wouldn't really believe that it can work. This is just amazing what these guys have done with images. Beginning part of the video is nice and it has some great ideas for webpapers in tablets for example.

But what made me really post this was the latter part. What had been done with existing flickr images was just beautiful. Soon you can really web travel to all popular location in the world and see all the details from your home already.

I really recommend to watch this Ted Talk:



And you can also try photosynth directly in here (requires silverlight):



It's just so nice to see what all social media, people sharing their photos and videos and all amazing technology will bring us in the future.

Written by +Henri Hämäläinen

How to prevent interruptions in workplaces

I watched recently Ted talk from Jason Fried. He is the author of Rework I read lately. Jason talked about why work is not done in the work places, but rather in almost anywhere else.

His main point is interruptions. He identifies two types of interactions. Un-voluntary interruptions (or distractions like he calls those), when someone or something else interrupt you without you having possibility to affect on it. And users voluntary interruptions, like reading mail, checking FB or going to grab coffee. He makes a valid point here. When you check your mail, it's your decision, when someone comes to talk to you, it's not.

He blames meetings and managers on these interruptions. I tend to think good on people. I don't believe managers and others are interrupting people by plain evil. Also I think meeting organisers often do think their meeting has a meaning. And often these interruptions, managers or meetings do have a value. The problem is more on the timing and the actual interrupting. So what could we do.

Jason had already couple of ideas you can listen, but I'll bring couple of my own. Maybe some meetings could be kept as a chat type of a thing. Someone is typing in a stream and others have the possibility to participate when they want. It could be for example announced, that during this 4 hour window, this chatroom is dedicated to this subject. Feel free to join to discuss or read the stream later.

Other idea is to have an actual traffic lights next to your desk. Available and Do Not Disturb. Those do require environment, where you can say to your boss and colleagues, that I know what is important, let me do my job.

Maybe the main thing still is to recognizing this on your workplace. Are people interrupting each other. Are people doing things that require concentration and takes some time to really get back to the mood again. If yes, then talking about this will definitely be the first step.

If you have any good ideas and expertise on this area, it would be nice to know more.

TED talk - Keep Going Until We Stop

TEDxOakville - Scott Stratten - Keep Going Until We Stop

It just makes sense. So obvious, still so hard.

Games are changing the way we behave

Interesting Ted talk about game dynamics being the thing for this decade. Seth Priebatsch: The game layer on top of the world:



I've seen this happening for some time already, so it's not really a new thing. 2002-2004 I used to play Hattrick for a long time and it totally changed my week schedules. There was something specific for each day, but main days where Wednesday as practice/cup match and Saturdays for league matches. That's what Seth is really talking about, how games change people.

The Machine is (Changing) Us: YouTube and the Politics of Authenticity

How Youtube ans other social media have influenced the way we can influence, and how we communicate. It's not about the tools, but how we reveal our via the tools we communicate.

Eyeopener for me. Really worth of watching.