Spoke really fast, which isn't so bad except for when you turned away from the microphone, most often for your more throwaway remarks, which was isolating as an audience member who wasn't right next to you.

Have to agree with the above comment - it's your presentation style, and it works well, and I enjoy it, but you do tend to let your pitch drop off at the end of things, and so on occasion things are lost.

It's fun to nitpick :-P

I appreciated this talk because it gave me a new vocabulary on some things. The idea of only having 7 "slots" for mastery in one's lifetime is crucial, and it really makes me think about whether I'm living "intentionally" or not.

Also noting that it is OK to settle for mediocrity or adequacy in most things is a nice stress reliever. Again, it's important that we CHOOSE those things, not just let things languish without a thought.

I found it very interesting that Ben began his talk by telling the audience that they were there because they wanted to master Ruby, but that later, when he asked the audience if anyone was "on the path to mastery in anything", no one raised their hands.

I'm sure part of that was social, and I also think that many people have just never thought about it in these terms before, but I think Ben should exploit this phenomenon in future versions of this talk.