David McWilliams originally planned to speak early at TED and use the remaining time to relax and be inspired by others' ideas.
He relates a change in the schedule to Mike Tyson's quote about plans failing when faced with challenges, humorously noting the extra difficulty of remaining sober.
McWilliams remarks that the TED talks collectively deal with the impact of rapid change across various dimensions of life.
The speaker points out Yeats's accurate prediction of political chaos, contrasting it with experts’ failed economic forecasts of the early 20th century.
He argues that artists like Yeats can often foresee tipping points better than conventional thinkers because they permit themselves to think unconventionally.
He cites the Dunning-Kruger effect, where individuals overestimate their abilities, as exemplified by a humorous anecdote of a would-be bank robber believing he was invisible after covering his face with lemon juice.
The effect is observed more in men than in women, an observation McWilliams humorously notes is evident in his family experiences.