4 ms·

If a speaker should specifically train him/herself for a talk, the talk is not worth listening.

watwut 9y ago
Why so? I would guess the opposite - if the speaker is not prepared the talk might be fun, but you are less likely to learn something meaningful from it.
ilanco 9y ago
I don't agree. Not everyone is born a good public speaker.
caseysoftware 9y ago
So athletes shouldn't practice before the game? I've given close to 300 sessions at about 100 events over the last 10 years.[1][2] The top three things you can do are practice, practice, practice. There are nuances to the material that you don't even think about at this point. Saying it out loud makes you think about them. There are jerks in the audience who will say "do you know about X?" which is semi-related but not completely.. you need to respond and either a) connect back to the topic or b) shut it down and redirect back to the topic. When someone asks "that's great but I need to worry about B instead of A, what do I do?" you need to either punt to something like "catch me after" or "Oh, there's a setting/plugin/tool for that!" Finally, there are transitions and a flow to the talk that you don't know about until you try it. And sometimes you'll need to look up things - about tools or even your projects - to refresh your memory. Admittedly, I go lighter on practice because I was a theatre geek (only 3-4x out loud before the first time) but it is still the most important step. 1 - http://lanyrd.com/profile/caseysoftware/past/ http://lanyrd.com/profile/caseysoftware/past/ 2 - https://joind.in/user/caseysoftware https://joind.in/user/caseysoftware
juskrey 9y ago
People here don't get that if your work depends on how you present it on some talk, it worth nothing.
anjc 9y ago
I know people who are very engaging and entertaining when speaking, but who are frankly not creative or clever enough to have anything ground-breaking to say. On the flip side there are people who are terrible speakers who do have ground-breaking things to say. In a different sphere, there are people who are naturally very funny but fail as professional comedians. There are people who are not naturally witty who do make good comedians, due to approaching it like a challenge of writing and performance. I don't think you can simply say that people who are unable to wing it aren't worth listening to. Having said that, I do admire people that can wing it.

Why so? I would guess the opposite - if the speaker is not prepared the talk might be fun, but you are less likely to learn something meaningful from it.

ilanco 9y ago

I don't agree. Not everyone is born a good public speaker.

caseysoftware 9y ago

So athletes shouldn't practice before the game? I've given close to 300 sessions at about 100 events over the last 10 years.[1][2] The top three things you can do are practice, practice, practice. There are nuances to the material that you don't even think about at this point. Saying it out loud makes you think about them. There are jerks in the audience who will say "do you know about X?" which is semi-related but not completely.. you need to respond and either a) connect back to the topic or b) shut it down and redirect back to the topic. When someone asks "that's great but I need to worry about B instead of A, what do I do?" you need to either punt to something like "catch me after" or "Oh, there's a setting/plugin/tool for that!" Finally, there are transitions and a flow to the talk that you don't know about until you try it. And sometimes you'll need to look up things - about tools or even your projects - to refresh your memory. Admittedly, I go lighter on practice because I was a theatre geek (only 3-4x out loud before the first time) but it is still the most important step. 1 - http://lanyrd.com/profile/caseysoftware/past/ http://lanyrd.com/profile/caseysoftware/past/ 2 - https://joind.in/user/caseysoftware https://joind.in/user/caseysoftware

juskrey 9y ago

People here don't get that if your work depends on how you present it on some talk, it worth nothing.

anjc 9y ago

I know people who are very engaging and entertaining when speaking, but who are frankly not creative or clever enough to have anything ground-breaking to say. On the flip side there are people who are terrible speakers who do have ground-breaking things to say. In a different sphere, there are people who are naturally very funny but fail as professional comedians. There are people who are not naturally witty who do make good comedians, due to approaching it like a challenge of writing and performance. I don't think you can simply say that people who are unable to wing it aren't worth listening to. Having said that, I do admire people that can wing it.