How to Deliver a TED Talk: Secrets of the World's Most Inspiring Presentations, revised and expanded new edition, with a foreword by Richard St. John

INTRODUCTION

Confessions of a TED Talk Addict

I still remember the day, back when I was eight years old, when I decided what I wanted to do for the rest of my life. It was a time before TED Talks, before the Internet, which made them a global phenomenon, even existed. In those days, the people who created electronics built them to last, and the people who purchased electronics cherished them. My family, like all the other families I knew, squeezed every ounce of life from our gadgets until the switches and fans and lights became so arthritic that even the electronics repairman pronounced them too far gone to resuscitate.

The piece of electronics I cherished most was the flip-style alarm clock in my parents’ bedroom. If you have never seen one ...