We are just apes picking nits off of other apes. The entire human economy is basically this: “Oh, there’s a nit, do you want me to pick it off?”

“Oh, you have a stain on your shirt? Let Tide get it off.”

“Oh, you don’t know what your strategy should be? Let me help you figure it out.”

We spend a lot of time learning, eyes on the prize, thinking that if we just unlock that ONE piece of knowledge, our lives are going to change.

But if we are just apes picking nits off of other apes, everything we need to know is already in us. We don’t need to learn anything. Everything we need is already inside of us.

What does this mean for your presentations?

We tend to think that we need to learn more, get more practice, etc. Hell, I’ve been co-hosting a podcast for over four years now, and all we do is talk about presentations, like a little bit more knowledge is going to help.

But if we’re apes picking nits, and the knowledge is already in us, what we need is not looking upwards trying to fill a gap, listening to someone providing some knowledge that is somehow going to make us better, what we need is to tune out the external noise so we can hear the voice inside us telling us what we need to do. It already knows.

(yes, I see the irony of a guy who makes his living off of teaching presentation skills telling you to stop listening to people teaching you presentation skills)