While I don't necessarily disagree with this, its clear this is from a CEO's perspective where public speaking is a very important role. If you have 1000 hours

While I don't necessarily disagree with this, its clear this is from a CEO's perspective where public speaking is a very important role. If you have 1000 hours of personal and technical development a year at your disposal and you spend 500 of those at toastmasters instead of learning libraries, tooling, and messing around with robotics projects, then who do you think will win out during an interview? You or the guy who had his nose in robotics textbooks and websites for that 1000 hours? I'd rather hire the guy who is a little mumble-mouthed and who knows his shit over the chatty guy who can't compete technically with the first candidate. The original guy can work on his social/speaking/managerial skills as his career develops. In the meantime, he needs to compete as a skill worker.