Friday, May 4, 2012

Graham Hill

Graham starts off his Ted Talk with a question to the audience that only he knows. Throughout the presentation he works towards the answer to the question, " Whats in this box?" Grahams idea for his Talk is that less stuff equals more happiness for a couple of reasons. He shows a picture with storage facilities and says that in today's world more than 22 billion dollars are spent on storage facilities every year. To explain why this is he presents a fact that says compared to the 1970's each person has around three times more space then the people who lived in the 1970's. When I heard that fact I wondered how do we use up all of that space? Which is exactly what he asked next. His explanation is that we as consumers do our job well and never let companies down. He mentions that each and everyone of us buy things that we don't need every day which leads us to needing storage space in the long run, because even though we don't need it for some reason we always hold onto it. Before he begins talking about his huge project he did with his own room he tells the audience to ask a very important question to their self before they buy their next item. Which is, " Does buying this truly make me happy, and will it make me happy for at least a couple of years?" Then he mentions that less space/stuff equals less debt, a smaller footprint on the environment, and a happier person. Throughout his presentation he has very interesting pictures on the slide show behind him which really make his story interesting. Although his idea is very relevant the way he talks is really boring and flat which has a huge affect on his overall presentation. Graham then goes onto explain what he has done in his life to prove that less space does indeed achieve all of the goals he mentioned. He first rented an apartment, and immediately saved two hundred thousand dollars buy renting one which is 420ft squared apartment instead of a 600ft squared apartment. He then goes onto say that because of that decision alone he will save more money because he will buy smaller appliances and " edit " out what he doesn't need. The finish product of his room really does show how he limited his space but yet put in his room everything that makes him happy, and in return saved a whole lot of money. This Ted Talk opened my eyes to realize that I to have a lot of things I don't need and may bring me happiness if I were to get rid of them. Graham's Ted Talk presents and idea that is relevant to everyone because everyone over consumes and buys things that they don't truly need. At the end of his presentation he tells the crowd that it doesn't matter what is in the box because he doesn't need it, and by getting rid of it he will be happier. 

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