“Solving the problem of needing to give a talk” by Kaj_Sotala

An extended version of this article was given as my keynote speech at the 2025 LessWrong Community Weekend in Berlin.

A couple of years ago, I agreed to give a talk on the topic of psychology. I said yes, which of course meant that I now had a problem.

Namely, I had promised to give a talk, but I did not have one prepared. (You could also more optimistically call this an opportunity, a challenge, a quest, etc.)

So I decided to sit down at my computer, work on my presentation, and then go from the world where I had no talk prepared to a world where I did have a talk prepared.

However, I found that it did not quite work out that way. Whenever I tried moving toward the goal of having a finished talk, I instead found myself moving sideways.

And whenever I did end up [...]

The original text contained 1 footnote which was omitted from this narration.

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First published:
September 28th, 2025

Source:
https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/u9znAFunGJKpybSNd/solving-the-problem-of-needing-to-give-a-talk

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

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