Beta-blockers and alcohol are a shim, they don't help you get better at it. It's scary, but you can use the adrenalin if you let yourself. Yesterday I gave a t

Beta-blockers and alcohol are a shim, they don't help you get better at it. It's scary, but you can use the adrenalin if you let yourself. Yesterday I gave a talk - the first one I've ever given that wasn't a research talk. 30 minutes. I didn't pre-write it at all - just laid out the slides the day before. On the day of the talk I looked through the slides in the afternoon and thought about the main points I wanted to make and some funny stories and jokes I could slip in. Then I forgot about it until the evening, when I gave it. It was easily the best talk I've ever given, and people were coming up to me for the rest of the evening to thank me. I did have a small drink before the talk, and that definitely helped with the first 30 seconds of fear. But apart from that, it was the adrenalin that drove me the whole way. It felt really good. I absolutely don't agree that you have to memorize lines.