My First TED Talk in Life

I still remember how amazed I was after watching the first TED talk in my life by Sheryl Sandberg, the COO of Facebook. In that talk, she talked about why we have so few women leaders in the corporate world and encouraged women to “lean in”.  It really inspired me at that time and opened a new world of ideas in front of me. That talk remains one of my favorite TED talks, along with Sal Khan’s talk on Khan Academy and Angela Duckworth’s talk on grit.

A couple years later, I had the opportunity to present a TED talk myself along with my teammates in the ENGL119 class. It was a fantastic learning experience and I really enjoyed the entire process including brainstorming, researching, writing script, creating slides and the final presentation. (yay!😊)

I learned how to create entertaining and convincing presentation contents, how to make elegant and informative slides, and most importantly, how to stand bravely in front of everyone and present my own ideas. I have always been a rather introverted person and have always been scared of public speaking. 

But for this time, I was able to overcome the fear and deliver the presentation confidently in front of the whole class. I really appreciate the TED Talk project as an opportunity for practicing public speaking and the entire class for creating a friendly and supportive environment.

My teammates and I presented on the topic, the financial market and millennials. Our presentation offers some realistic financial advice to millennials from four perspectives: saving, spending, investing and borrowing. We really hope the audience can benefit from our presentation and manage their personal wealth better.

I was responsible for the investment section and recommended robo-advisor as an investment option. Robo-advisor is a lot younger than other traditional investment options such as mutual funds. However, after careful research, it has proven itself to be a good investment option for millennials based on both risks and return.

Other groups did an excellent job presenting as well. The TED talk that I particularly enjoyed is the one on algorithms. They talked about how algorithms affect our world and lives from four different aspects, including healthcare and financial markets. At the end of the healthcare section, they raised the question of “do we trust these algorithms in controlling our lives?”, which really got me thinking. In the financial market section, they talked about the 2010 flash crash, which is a perfect example of algorithms might not be reliable all the time. The ending question, how far should we rely on algorithms, got me thinking as well. Overall, I am really amazed at their detailed observation and deep understanding of the subject.

It was really a pleasure working on the TED talk project and hearing all these captivating presentations. I gained exposure to a variety of topics such as algorithms, maths and sports etc. I would definitely like to do it again sometime in the future if given the opportunity!