Ultraspeaking trains you in confident, effective speaking; and is also a path for spontaneous personal transformation. Vajrayana trains you in confident, effective action; and is also a path for spontaneous personal transformation. We find them startlingly similar, although one offers courses in a consequential everyday competence, and the other is an ancient Indian religion. This thirty-nine-minute video records a spontaneous, mostly-unplanned conversation between Charlie Awbery and David Chapman. Charlie is an Ultraspeaking coach, currently leading the Fundamentals Level Two course; and co-founder of the Evolving Ground Vajrayana meditation community. David writes about Vajrayana at Vividness, and has written previously about his brief Ultraspeaking experience. We are married, and co-teach Vajrayana sometimes. Ultraspeaking’s Fundamentals course trains you to let go of trying to sound polished or professional while speaking, in order to communicate confidently and naturally, which connects you with your audience emotionally. That means being fine with “um”s and silences and restarts and garbled syntax. Your audience doesn’t care about that—they care about you! Accordingly, when David edited the video, he left all that in—where he’s usually edited his videos to “sound more professional” with constant cutting. Effective conversation, and also effective professional presentations, depend almost as much on eye contact and body language as on what is said. Although this recording is available as an audio podcast, you will find it more engaging, and it will make better sense, if you watch the video, at meaningness.substack.com/ultraspeaking-and-vajrayana. Transcript Charlie: So you were shy about recording a game, and you said you didn’t want to record a game. David: Yeah, I’m feeling better today than I was. Uh, we could try it and, uh, see what happens. Charlie: I’ll go into coach mode and, uh, share my screen with you and… What’s your favorite game? David: So I haven’t done any of these in six months, so I don’t remember what any of them are. I think the one that is, uh, a whole series of three second prompts was, was fun. Charlie: Autocomplete, rapid. David: Yeah. Charlie: I’ll put it on fairly slow too. Let’s give you 15 rounds so you can get into it. All right. David: I said, “I don’t want to do this!” Charlie: Yes, you did. David: Okay, coach! Charlie: That’s, that’s contrary. That is totally contrary to the spirit of Ultraspeaking. David: Right. Charlie: You can spontaneously leap into it. It doesn’t matter if you make a mistake. The whole point is that you should make a mistake. Otherwise you’re not at your edge, right? You’re not pushing yourself beyond your usual capacity. But anyway, this is a warmup. So off you go. David: Ready, set, go! Rolling windows down is like cash because you have to peel them off. Paper is like a dentist because you can clean your teeth. DNA is like artificial sugars because it’s sweet. Blue cheese is like sweating because it’s salty. Meeting your soulmate is like building a bridge because it’s a connection. Staying up late is like plumbers because, I don’t know! Time travel is like alcohol because it’s disorienting. A judge is like… A puzzle is like babies because they’re annoying. Toothpaste is like breathing because you put them in your mouth. An engine is like beards because it’s um. Breaking your phone is like fear because it’s horrible. Shame is like reptiles because they’re scary. Underwear is like tipping because they’re annoying. Anxiety is like friendship— bleagh! Charlie: You haven’t done it for six months. Not bad. You didn’t end strong. You did, you did a bleagh at the end. So, do you remember one of the tenets is “end strong”? So it doesn’t matter what you say, you end with a good, strong line. And “staying in character” is you, um, you stay in the mode, you don’t bre