Chris Anderson

But throughlines that connect large numbers of concepts don’t work.

There’s a drastic consequence when you rush through multiple topics in summary form.

They don’t land with any force.

You know the full background and context to what you’re saying, and so the insights you offer may seem profound to you. But for the audience, which is coming to your work fresh, the talk will probably come across as conceptual, dry, or superficial.

It’s a simple equation. Overstuffed equals underexplained.

Show why it matters . . . what’s the question you’re trying to answer, the problem you’re trying to solve, the experience you’re trying to share?

Flesh out each point you make with real examples, stories, facts.

To provide an effective talk, you must slash back the range of topics you will cover to a single, connected thread—a throughline that can be properly developed.

But, no. The only way the talk can truly soar is if you take your ego out of it and let yourself be a delivery vehicle for the ideas themselves.

leave space and SAY LESS.

How can you route around that? The first step is to think of your talk not as being about an issue, but about an idea.