a thoughtful web.
Good ideas and conversation. No ads, no tracking.   Login or Take a Tour!
comment by ecib
ecib  ·  4632 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Writing and Speaking
A great speaker can deliver the content in an engaging way without dumbing it down. Great writers do the exact same thing. I think it's harder to be a great speaker than a great writer because you have much less time to reflect and edit, or even go into detail. That doesn't mean that great speakers are lacking in substance:

| I tried to imagine what a transcript of the other guy's talk would be like, and it was only then I realized he hadn't said very much...a famous speaker. Boy was he good. So I decided I'd pay close attention to what he said, to learn how he did it. After about ten sentences I found myself thinking "I don't want to be a good speaker."...Being a really good speaker is not merely orthogonal to having good ideas, but in many ways pushes you in the opposite direction|

...as Graham claims. It's just harder. Much harder I think. Graham isn't the best public speaker, and that's ok. I'm sure he's a hell of a lot better than me. I agree, he came of as very defensive, and I am just not buying his defense. Great speaker does not have to = weak content, even if it can do so easier than in writing.