Matt Cutts vs. Terry Moore

“Try Something New for 30 Days” vs. “How to Tie Your Shoe”

Matt Cutts talks about trying something you have always wanted to do for 30 days. His talk is more focuses on the actual talk. He uses some visuals, but his words get his point across and I think the visuals are there more for entertainment. He makes fun of himself a little, calling himself a “desk-dwelling computer nerd” but this helps relate to the audience. It is like his way of saying “if I can do it, you can do it”. He is very casual in his sweater and jeans. He doesn't move around too much and seems very comfortable on the stage. I liked when he was talking about writing his novel and he says, “Is it the next great American novel? No! I wrote it in a month; it’s awful!”. I really liked his topic because he is to proposing some huge, life changing idea but a simple, doable suggestion to help enrich our lives. At the end he asks “What are you waiting for?” which I thought was a good way to end it because his idea is simple enough and he makes it so easy to relate to for his audience it makes me want to set a 30-day goal for myself.

Terry Moore’s topic alone caught my attention: How to tie your shoes. I immediately wanted to know what I had been doing wrong for the past 18 years. He is very funny in his approach and makes a lot of good jokes. I love when the audience applauds him for successfully tying the shoe. Unlike the other two TED talks, Terry has a prop. His prop is the focus of the whole talk and without it the talk would not have worked. He is more business casual in his coat and button up shirt but the way he presents and speaks is casual and easy. He is obviously comfortable talking and sure of his shoe-tying abilities and is fun to listen to. My only complaint is that he really doesn't explain the difference between the two styles of tying a shoe. He just says “go the other way around” and considering this is the whole point of his talk, I was hoping he would go into more detail about the science of why one knot works as opposed to the other. I did like, however, the way he ended it. He compared tying a shoe to living life by saying “finding a small advantage someplace in life can yield tremendous results someplace else” then throws out a Star Trek reference and walks out.