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I would exempt Paul Buchheit because this is an integral part of all his talks.
by pg 17y ago
I would exempt Paul Buchheit because this is an integral part of all his talks.
- mrshoe 17y agoSpontaneity? Or announcing a lack of preparation at the beginning? As Jason notes in the article, spontaneity can be a huge boon. I don't immediately see how the latter can be, though it's possible. I suppose paul may truly be an exception, but it seems that I would get just as much out of his talks (which is to say, a ton) whether or not I knew how much time he had spent in preparation.
- cma 17y ago>whether or not I knew Then by the same logic it is still ok if he is exempt from the rule.
- mrshoe 17y agoI thought someone might say that. :-) I will get just as much out of paul's talks because I love his talks and will always pay attention to every word. Some percentage of the audience, however, will take a lack of preparation qualifier as a reason to zone out.
- pg 17y agoAnnouncing a lack of preparation. All PB talks begin with him saying that he hasn't prepared anything; that it doesn't matter anyway, because he doesn't have anything to say; and that in fact no one has anything to say. From which he proceeds to tell you interesting things.
- mrshoe 17y agoAh, so it is the contrast provided by lowering the expectations at the beginning which means they'll be shattered even more thoroughly by the rest of the talk. Makes sense.
- DanielBMarkham 17y agoWhat a very strange comment. I wish I had heard one of these talks.
- mrduncan 17y agoIf you haven't seen it yet, here is a highlights video which has a brief portion of Paul's talk as well as links to the justin.tv archived stream. http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=910426 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=910426
- herdrick 17y agohttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EZxP0i9ah8E http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EZxP0i9ah8E
- ivankirigin 17y agoThe issue isn't whether you prepare, but that you shouldn't tell your audience you haven't prepared. This is especially true if you _have_ prepared. Giving a talk about your experience without working on boiling down the information should be, by definition, possible without preparation.
- tomsaffell 17y ago>that you shouldn't tell your audience you haven't prepared Why not? A presenter transfers information and emotion to the audience. If meta-talk (such as commenting on their preparation) is a device for doing that, why shouldn't the presenter use it? In my experience PB has a very humble and modest style, which is integral to the overall message he delivers. I suspect that part of the that style is communicated via his meta-talk.
- ivankirigin 17y agoI don't think his statement helped his talk at all. It would be best to be explicit about it: "I don't think explaining a list of lessons learned is useful for you, so I've put together a few short slides to talk about my experience without presuming to prescribe an action for you" There is nothing in that statement that implies the speaker doesn't care about the audience.
- projectileboy 17y agoUmm... Your sample quote, is, in fact, almost exactly what he communicated during his talk. Am I missing something?
- ivankirigin 17y agoYes, he started out saying he didn't prepare. That's the whole point of the original post and this thread.
- projectileboy 17y ago
- budu3 17y agoI agree. I think that's Paul's shtick.