3 ms·
Whenever I give talks (2 or 3 sizable tech talks a year), I practice... a LOT. Like, go through the full, whole talk at least 15 times in its polished final fo
by redsymbol 17y ago
Whenever I give talks (2 or 3 sizable tech talks a year), I practice... a LOT. Like, go through the full, whole talk at least 15 times in its polished final form. If you count the more exploratory earlier practices, I think it's more than 30 or 40 practices, every talk.
So far I've only ever been paid a portion of travel expenses, which is why I don't practice more (honestly, I think practicing the final version only 15 times is kind of lazy). At $5,000 a gig... I think in the end I'd still be making a bit less per hour than I do programming, because I'd practice a lot more. The good thing is that I could suddenly afford to take the time to practice more :)
- simonw 17y agoWow, that's a lot of practices. I generally go by Damian Conway's rule of thumb: 10 hours preparation time for every hour of talking, or 20 hours prep if it's a difficult talk. I make sure the preparation includes at least one full run through (out loud in an empty room, usually my hotel room) with plenty of time to spare to fix things that inevitably come up. I'll do another run through once I've made the changes.
- pbhjpbhj 17y agoI rarely give talks but I find it difficult to do a full talk-through as prep as I don't have the adrenaline buzz and can't put the enthusiasm into speaking to a wall that I do when talking to people. Any tips? I'm a very nervous speaker!
- imp 17y agoBut if you speak professionally, you wouldn't have to write a new speech every time. Just reuse most or portions of other speeches to cut down on prep time.