My name is Hudson Lines and I'm on the internet:
“I think like a genius, I write like a distinguished author, and I speak like a child.” - Vladimir Nabokov, Strong Opinions (1973)
For one of the points above I feel a certain kinship with Nabokov - no, not for his celebrated writing or unrestrained ego, but for his well-known inability to speak in public. I am the last person to volunteer for public speaking of any kind. It’s one of my biggest fears, a very universal fear at that. Not that it justifies an inability to improve, but the US is full of mediocre public speakers. We just aren’t schooled in the arts of oratory and rarely have public figures who can speak eloquently in public. But that’s a rant for someone else to give, be sure to cite the Lincoln-Douglas debates, why not, the British House of Commons and more. This is a post about myself and my own challenge. Surely I could do something to confront this fear. Nabokov wrote down every word he would speak for his lectures and on-camera interviews.
So, recently I saw an opportunity and submitted a talk idea for the latest Ignite NYC event. Here is the format of Ignite: you have five minutes to present a geek talk using 20 slides that auto-advance after 15 seconds. My talk was accepted, oh crap, I prepared and it went great. Done. If you missed it live on June 1, then here it is on youtube. The crowd, which you can’t see, was said to be over 500 people at New World Stages.
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