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I find the TED format of a talk disturbingly creepy. Yes, rehearsing and dumbing-down a bit your public talk is a good thing. But when it is done to such absu

I find the TED format of a talk disturbingly creepy. Yes, rehearsing and dumbing-down a bit your public talk is a good thing. But when it is done to such absurd extremes it becomes really disturbing, almost scary. It is a purely US-style thing; like exaggerated smiling and plastic-white teeth. Sure, smiling is nice and brushing your teeth is also nice. But when somebody has teeth that are unnaturally white and they show them all the time through their forced smile and uninterrupted eye contact, it becomes very scary. The stuff of nightmares. Like a TED talk.

thinkingemote 5y ago
For the radio version of creepy, the Moth Radio Hour creeps me out so much. There's something which I cant put my finger on, it's like the real emotional stories have been produced and refined by a team to become a kind of product. Each story is told in a similar way, using hooks, pauses, climaxes, introductions, wavering voice and a personal message at the end to give maximum listening impact. They are crafted as much as a TED talk. It's creepy and doesn't feel natural because the stories are all true and personal. It's like an uncanny propaganda but where you know the content is real and true, it's just the way its being told which is weird. You can hear the persons stories have had many people working on them.
- floren 5y ago
  I get the same way about a lot of modern NPR shows and the podcasts that ape them... carefully scripted and produced to sound like two friends just hanging out and talking about the interesting article one read in The Atlantic. Notice how any "guest" gets their interview chopped into sub-sentence snippets with the hosts interjecting between... who knows what the original actually said before it got edited to fit the story!
  - thinkingemote 5y ago
    Yes! Completely agree! It's like the conversation is pre planned and totally unnatural as in its impossible to occur in real life. It's so off putting and weird to me.
deleted 5y ago
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enqk 5y ago
It seems the American format loves preaching. TED is one example, the other is the Apple keynote format.
- atulatul 5y ago
  +1 for observation about apple keynote format. It seems I am not alone.
sebastianconcpt 5y ago
That's what happens when the propaganda part of the project gets pushed too far. Fakeness, impersonation, histrionism and convincing more by use of producing psychological impressions, confirmation bias and peer pressure, than the often uncharming nature of the real.
throwthere 5y ago
I guess I don’t see the creepy connection? Putting on a fake smile with simplifying the way you present your work? Or is it the way the ted talks focus on one generally animated person that is creepy? Or that it’s the speaker adjusting themselves or their message in some way according to some circumstances?
dang 5y ago
Please keep nationalistic flamebait out of your posts to HN. There are plenty of people all over the US who don't like that style either. A lot of them are on HN for that matter. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

thinkingemote 5y ago

For the radio version of creepy, the Moth Radio Hour creeps me out so much. There's something which I cant put my finger on, it's like the real emotional stories have been produced and refined by a team to become a kind of product. Each story is told in a similar way, using hooks, pauses, climaxes, introductions, wavering voice and a personal message at the end to give maximum listening impact. They are crafted as much as a TED talk. It's creepy and doesn't feel natural because the stories are all true and personal. It's like an uncanny propaganda but where you know the content is real and true, it's just the way its being told which is weird. You can hear the persons stories have had many people working on them.

floren 5y ago
I get the same way about a lot of modern NPR shows and the podcasts that ape them... carefully scripted and produced to sound like two friends just hanging out and talking about the interesting article one read in The Atlantic. Notice how any "guest" gets their interview chopped into sub-sentence snippets with the hosts interjecting between... who knows what the original actually said before it got edited to fit the story!
- thinkingemote 5y ago
  Yes! Completely agree! It's like the conversation is pre planned and totally unnatural as in its impossible to occur in real life. It's so off putting and weird to me.

deleted 5y ago

[deleted]

enqk 5y ago

It seems the American format loves preaching. TED is one example, the other is the Apple keynote format.

atulatul 5y ago
+1 for observation about apple keynote format. It seems I am not alone.

sebastianconcpt 5y ago

That's what happens when the propaganda part of the project gets pushed too far. Fakeness, impersonation, histrionism and convincing more by use of producing psychological impressions, confirmation bias and peer pressure, than the often uncharming nature of the real.

throwthere 5y ago

I guess I don’t see the creepy connection? Putting on a fake smile with simplifying the way you present your work? Or is it the way the ted talks focus on one generally animated person that is creepy? Or that it’s the speaker adjusting themselves or their message in some way according to some circumstances?

dang 5y ago

Please keep nationalistic flamebait out of your posts to HN. There are plenty of people all over the US who don't like that style either. A lot of them are on HN for that matter. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html