Writing and Speaking
Пол Грэм размышляет о разнице между навыками письма и устной речи. Он признаёт, что сам не очень хороший оратор, но больше хотел бы быть лучшим писателем, чем лучшим спикером, потому что главное — иметь хорошие идеи, а это намного важнее для письма, чем для устных выступлений. По его наблюдению, для хорошего письма наличие хороших идей — почти всё: если понимаешь, о чём говоришь, можешь выразить это простейшими словами и тебя сочтут стилистом. В устной речи всё наоборот — хорошие идеи играют тревожно малую роль. Грэм описывает случай на конференции, где другой докладчик вызывал всеобщий смех, а сам Грэм казался неуклюжим; лишь расшифровывая речь того спикера в уме, он понял, что тот сказал очень мало.
March 2012
I'm not a very good speaker. I say "um" a lot. Sometimes I have
to pause when I lose my train of thought. I wish I were a better
speaker. But I don't wish I were a better speaker like I wish I
were a better writer. What I really want is to have good ideas,
and that's a much bigger part of being a good writer than being a
good speaker.
Having good ideas is most of writing well. If you know what you're
talking about, you can say it in the plainest words and you'll be
perceived as having a good style. With speaking it's the opposite:
having good ideas is an alarmingly small component of being a good
speaker.
I first noticed this at a conference several years ago.
There was another speaker who was much better than me.
He had all of us roaring with laughter. I seemed awkward and
halting by comparison. Afterward I put my talk online like I usually
do. As I was doing it 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.
Maybe this would have been obvious to someone who knew more about
speaking, but it was a revelation to me how much less ideas mattered
in speaking than writing.
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