Graham Hill TED talk Blog #5

           Graham Hill, in his TED talk, “Less stuff, more happiness,” tells us that we have three times the amount of space we had fifty years ago. You would think we’d be much happier. But unfortunately, no, this wasn’t the case. With strange results, like Daniel Pinks Motivation 2.0, we still have more stuff than space. This leads to debt, huge environmental footprints, and our happiness “flat lines.” Hill asks the audience to think of places with not a whole lot of stuff. For example, places like college dorms, hotel rooms, and campsites have very little extra room. He says we tend to experience not only more freedom in places like these, but also more time. His point is, by eliminating so much excess stuff, we will save money, lessen that environmental footprint, and most importantly, be happier. Our world can be a better place by fixing problems like these, and that matters.

            Hill opens up his speech by sitting on his only prop. A brown, cardboard box sat unopened and this captured the audience’s attention and curiosity. 

This box remained unopened the entire time until Hill explained its significance at the end of his talk. He refers to a symbol more than once during his speech. It is a less than sign, followed by and equal to sign, and then a more than sign. This was the theme of his talk. Less equals more. He shares am example of a 400 square foot area where he lived instead of a 650 square foot, and that immediately saved him over a thousand dollars. One thing I would have liked to see is a story. Daniel Pink talks about the significance of story in his book, “A Whole New Mind.” 

This would have made Hill’s talk even better. As he concludes his talk, he assigns three tasks for the audience. These are to edit ruthlessly, think small, and look for multifunctional stuff. This leaves the audience with a way to “do” something about what they have learned.

            I chose Hill’s TED talk because it was about the length of the ones our English class will be giving. It demonstrated a way to condense and deliver the key points without just spewing facts for 5 minutes. Hill shows how to gain the audiences attention, and keep it for those few minutes. He made good use of the short time he had, which is something each and every one of us needs to figure out how to do in order for our talk to excel.