Video
Draft
Hi everyone. This is my Ice Breaker speech, to introduce myself. My topic today is - living, as an engineer.
Let me ask you a question first. What will you describe life as? A trip? A marathon? One word, please. Come on, any volunteers?
(... gather answer & give comments)
Well, for me, I'd like to describe it as a project. I'm the product, you're the users. It sounds a little strange, but there do exist some similarity.
Life is full of stages; a project is full of milestones. For example, crying baby, climbing baby, walking baby... Yeah, very happy to release a new version, isn't it?
People may set expectations for your life, while a project should meet many requirements. My teacher may say, "Finish your homework!" Issued. My friend may say, "Repair my computer!" Well, as a programmer, issued. And you! You're watching me~ Want a fantastic speech? Issued. And me. I'm the most important user, so give me a star. Be interesting.
Life is a project, I'm the engineer.
When I was young, like a new hire, I was very ambitious. I just accept all requirements, seldom refuse others. No priority, no risk management. It's easy to guess the ending. Although I'm very happy to help others, it's beyond my ability soon.
It takes me a long time to understand that it's impossible to satisfy all users. A good engineer should build the best product. Set a reasonable target, identify the priority of different issues, test under a controllable environment to identify problems, then iterate. For life, I should start with an end in mind, first thing first, practice and gather feedback, and keep refreshing myself. To be a good person. That's why I'm here.
But, there is some subtle difference. Difference between good, and great.
Good engineers may control the whole progress. But great engineers, they start from a simple thought, then just enjoy themselves. But what they create, is out of imagination.
See Bill Gates, "a computer in every home". See Julius Caesar, "I came; I saw; I conquered". See Albert Einstein, "Any fool can know. The point is to understand".
I don't mean that I should be so successful. The key point is, "Follow your heart, and everything goes as it should be".
This is me, living my life as an engineer. I'm trying to be a good engineer, and hoping to be a great one.
May my product please you. Thanks.
Feedback
Excellence
Interesting idea
Humorous language
Good opening, very attractive
Simple slides really help audiences understand the idea & follow the speech
Pass clear information in the body
To improve
Weak control of anxiety, so keep rocking the body, full of unconscious gestures
Should stand closer to the screen
Lack (vivid) story to make abstract ideas be concrete and easy to memorize.
A little short, using up 4:17 of 6:30 (to my understanding, lacking story is the key point. Short means that I could have added some more stories without cutting my mainline)
Weak closing. Should emphasize the key idea in closing part. For an icebreaker, some concrete description of myself may be a good choice. For general speech, sentences easy to memorize, like parallelism, can be a good choice.