I have to say that this talk played out basically exactly like pg's "List of N Things" article (http://www.paulgraham.com/nthings.html). In particular, these quotes seemed apt: "a few main points with few to no subordinate ones, and no particular connection between them", and "I use it when I get close to a deadline. If I have to give a talk and I haven't started it a few days beforehand, I'll sometimes play it safe and make the talk a list of n things".
It wasn't very useful, or interesting, and just seemed like a talk for the sake of giving a talk, with maybe years of knowledge behind it, but very little useful or new information actually conveyed.
very little useful or new information actually conveyed
Really? So e.g. the scifi test, the point about design and open source, hotels and efficient markets, the unified theory of the decline of empires, and economic inequality following automatically from higher resolution were all things you'd already thought about? They were all surprises to me.
It wasn't very useful, or interesting, and just seemed like a talk for the sake of giving a talk, with maybe years of knowledge behind it, but very little useful or new information actually conveyed.