Creative thinking
for complex times

Keynotes that Make Room


I speak to rooms where creativity has gone quiet, not from lack of talent, but from too much noise. In my keynotes, I clear that noise. To make space for remembering what creativity feels like when it’s alive, not optimized.

I talk about AI, but not the way headlines do. I trace how systems shape stories, how tools reflect our fears, and how reclaiming technology is often a way of reclaiming the self. These talks are invitations to slow down, to imagine otherwise, to build in ways that feel more human.

Creativity as Infrastructure


We don’t need more inspiration. We need architecture for creativity: Patterns, rituals, and tools that make the act of making feel possible again. My talks reframe creative practice as a form of infrastructure: something we can build and rely on, not just wait to be struck by. Whether it’s AI, big data, or bureaucracy, I help teams see how even the most rigid systems can become poetic — not by escaping them, but by bending them toward play, friction, and delight.

Artist as Hacker


A hacker breaks things. A poet rearranges the parts. These keynotes invite both: a mindset of curiosity over control, of intuition over optimization. They’re about reclaiming the logic of our tools — and with it, the logic of our lives. I share how thinking like an artist and moving like a hacker can help teams move with more clarity, more courage, and more creative permission than ever before.

Rewiring the System


Keynotes that shift not just mindsets, but methods. Each of these talks marked a live moment of transformation where creativity, code, and identity came into new alignment. From feedback loops to collective action, from the logic of joy to the architecture of trust, these stories help teams see systems differently, and build more courageously within them.

Weirding AI2024Gray Area, San Francisco
This performance-talk explores migration, memory, and machine intelligence through interactive poetry. Halim invites audiences to map displacement, deny border questions, and kneel before a printer god. Blending HTML, myth, and bureaucracy, the piece reimagines home as a drag performer: not a destination, but a longing, a glitch, a ritual.

The Death of Stars2016TED, Amsterdam, Netherlands
What happens when feedback flattens? Comparing Amazon stars and Facebook likes, Halim shows how binary signals silence dissent and erode trust. As feedback becomes popularity theater, we lose collective insight. This talk asks: what kind of digital democracy are we building when silence, not criticism, becomes the dominant voice?

Joy is a System2014TEDx Hackney, London, UK
Can peeing be a portal to joy? Halim hacks attention, hormones, and habit formation to rewire happiness. From neuroscience to stoicism to oxytocin rituals, he maps a practice of presence built on awe, repetition, and ridiculousness. Happiness isn’t the goal—it’s a side effect of marveling at your own mundane magic.

Inventing Viral Gods2013TEDx Beirut, Lebanon
From joke to church: Halim traces how a doodle became a god. This talk unpacks the anatomy of viral belief, arguing that leaderless movements thrive on shared purpose, interaction, and principles. Web 3.0 isn’t about tech, it’s about self-organizing systems remaking reality, from pirate parties to couchsurfing gods of noodles.

How to Hack a Body2013TEDx Bordeaux, France
Gutenberg hacked a wine press. You can hack your hormones. Halim traces a life of radical experimentation, from Bulletproof coffee to 5-day fasts, revealing how feedback, data, and embodied trials can reprogram our systems. A manifesto for reclaiming evolution as a personal project, this talk reimagines the body as both lab and protest.

The Army with No Flag2011TEDx Oujda, Morocco
What if armies didn’t need weapons, leaders, or even faces? In this talk, Halim explores Anonymous, Tahrir Square, self-organizing termites, and the future of collective action. From web forums to biohackers, he charts how inspiration, not hierarchy, builds the most powerful movements. The question isn’t how to lead. It’s how to ignite.

You Are the Black Box2011TEDxParis, France
Economists treat humans as black boxes. Halim opens that box, revealing butterflies, Hitler cats, and mammoths, symbols of emotional, networked individuals with outsized impact. He introduces “nano-economics,” a human-scale science powered by public data and collective action, reclaiming the economy from abstraction and returning it to its rightful scale: us.