The Beautiful Unknown

This past week, I was scrolling through TED talks and came across one that seemed particularly interesting to me: Underwater Astonishments. In this TED talk, oceanographer David Gallo discussed many of the intriguing feats accomplished by sea creatures. As someone who loves the mysteries of the ocean, this caught my immediate attention.

The thesis of this TED talk is not that deep as it simply argues in favor of exploring the ocean. Gallo’s argument for this relied on the idea that the ocean has been barely explored and that it holds incredible wonders. He pointed out that humans have only explored 3% of the world’s oceans. With so many wonders such as the interesting abilities and nature of the octopus or the cuttlefish already discovered in the depths of the ocean, the length of “astonishment” the rest of the ocean can provide us is unlimited.

The speech did not expand my knowledge as much as it expanded my curiosity, which I argue is more important. He did not come up with a theory about the way the world works nor did he propose some kind of brilliant solution to a pressing problem. While those are useful, he took a different approach. Instead, he ignited the audience’s curiosity. In fact, after watching this TED talk, I heavily considered switching aspects of my career paths. I will be pursuing information about the ocean a lot more. Instead of expanding my understanding of something with twenty minutes of knowledge, Gallo provided me with curiosity that could lead me to pursue hours of knowledge.

What made Gallo’s speech so effective is his use of visual aid. He marketed oceanography and exploring the ocean by demonstrating how “aesthetic” the wonders of the ocean were. With a visually appealing presentation, Gallo was able to make an impression on his audience. As far as weaknesses go, there were not many. However, I was hoping he would go a little more in-depth into the nature of the ocean or demonstrate other wonders of the ocean.

This demonstrates to me that delivering a speech requires framing the topics and arguments in ways that interest the audience. That is why hooks are so often emphasized. However, with presentations, while framing is important, demonstration can be a really critical component. Presentations allow the speaker to appeal to the audience in more ways than through words. In other words, there should be some form of demonstration in order to gain the audience’s attention. Demonstrations act as a supplement to speaking.