[HN Gopher] Getting into Public Speaking
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Getting into Public Speaking
Author : jbrooksuk
Score : 74 points
Date : 2025-12-10 10:03 UTC (4 days ago)
(HTM) web link (james.brooks.page)
(TXT) w3m dump (james.brooks.page)
| drsim wrote:
| I love public speaking, think I'm above average at it, and am
| aiming to do more of it. Has anyone here tried Toastmasters?
|
| Went to my local group last week and was pleasantly surprised
| with the quality of speaking.
| robaato wrote:
| Would heartily recommend Toastmasters - get's you lots of
| practice, encouragement and you can learn from some excellent
| speakers.
| euroderf wrote:
| They do a variety of speaking formats. Exercise!
| somethingsome wrote:
| I'm always surprised by the amount of advises in rehearsal.
|
| I like to give public speaches, but I organize myself completely
| differently. I spend much time making Slides that are easy to
| follow and logically ordered, and in each I know that I can say a
| little more or a little less without disrupting the message. I
| know that I can count on 1 slide = 1 min. Unless lots of images.
|
| I don't rehearse as I know that I prepared well my slides. Then
| during the talk I add more or less informations naturally
| depending on the time left and on the facial expressions of the
| audience. I usually finish exactly on time.
|
| Usually I read my slides and think about what exactly to say only
| just before the talk.
|
| I find this way more natural, and less scripted, and I usually
| get compliments on my presentation and naturalness. I think
| rehearsing removes much of the naturalness of a talk, unless that
| aspect is worked extensively, but that could sound a little too
| scripted for my taste.
|
| One trick that I use often if I tend to forget some information
| that is important to say, is to put one word that trigger the
| information IN the slide, but in very light Grey, and in a
| natural place, like close to an image. So if I ever forget what
| to say, I have my landmarks in each slide to guide me.
| doomerhunter wrote:
| I often tend to integrate talking passionately about a topic in
| my head with an imaginary interlocutor. While not directly
| being a rehearsal in itself, it really helps with developing
| ideas and chaining concepts - at least for me.
|
| I guess everyone is different in regards to handling the
| pressure when talking in public, but I do agree that you can
| feel it, most of the time, when someone rehearsed too
| "scholarly".
| ghaff wrote:
| On the one hand, I tend to not do formal rehearsals a lot of
| the time. On the other, I also find that if I give a live
| talk for the second or third time, it often _is_ better
| because I find some things that worked in my head don 't work
| as well on stage.
|
| All that said, an overly-rehearsed talk can come across as
| stilted/reading from a script.
| tannerc wrote:
| This is how I present as well.
|
| When what you're presenting is something you have actual
| knowledge about, it can be easier to say what you think rather
| than stress about "sticking to the script."
|
| True of public speaking just as much as interviewing.
|
| Many people unnecessarily stress about public speaking because
| they believe the script is the only thing that matters.
|
| Though I admit there is no one size fits all when it comes to
| speaking.
| matwood wrote:
| I do almost your method, except I do the presentation a few
| times as practice to make sure the flow works. When I give the
| presentation it's not scripted, but since I practiced it is
| much easier for me to improv. My slides are typically very
| sparse and simply act as a trigger for which part of the topic
| I'm speaking on at that time.
|
| But, to your point, I agree that your method is the best way if
| you know the subject matter. When I practice it's mainly for
| transitions/flow and not the information.
| gunnarmorling wrote:
| This approach can work for experienced speakers, in particular
| if you have spoken about the given topic before, but I'd
| strongly advise against not rehearsing for folks a bit newer
| into their speaking career. So often I have seen talks where
| folks either were time after half of their time slot, or they
| ran out of time towards the end. Or they lost track of the
| plot, went off on a tangent for way too long, etc.
|
| All this is not great for the audience (who have "invested"
| into your session, by paying for the ticket, spending time away
| from work and family, not attending other concurrent sessions,
| etc.), and it can so easily be avoided by rehearsing.
|
| The most common reason I have seen for folks skipping to
| rehearse is the awkward feeling you might have when speaking
| loud all by yourself. If that's the issue, it can help to do a
| dry run in front of colleagues. In any case, "winging it" is
| best reserved for later on, after having gathered quite a bit
| of speaking experience and having spoken about the same, or
| very similar, topics before.
|
| I'd also recommend to avoid reading from slides during a talk
| as much as possible, it's also not a great experience for the
| audience. There shouldn't be much text on slides to begin with,
| as folks will either read that, or listen to what you say, but
| typically have a hard time doing both at once.
|
| (All this is a general recommendation, not a comment on your
| talks which I have not seen)
| mnky9800n wrote:
| I love to give talks but I find I only do them at science
| conferences where I've submitted things out as an invited speaker
| at universities. How do I find new places to give talks about my
| interests?
| doomerhunter wrote:
| Depends on your hobbies. I'm into cybsec, there's a ton of
| small events where you can either be on stage (so submit a
| proposal), but there is often what we call "rumps" which are
| usually unplanned 5 minutes talks about a subject. They're a
| great way to practice.
|
| Besides that, i guess schools/student groups that seek
| professionals. Non-profits works as well, I did that when I was
| younger (advocacy).
| captn3m0 wrote:
| Good advice. One of the things I suffer from is speaking too
| fast, and yet to find a good solution for it. I put a sticky note
| on my screen reminding me to slow down these days, but it only
| helps so much.
|
| Another comprehensive guide for tech-speakers is
| https://speaking.io/ by Zach Holman.
| rolandog wrote:
| Do you think one's tendency to speak faster originates from
| listening to podcasts at 2.x+ speed?
| R_D_Olivaw wrote:
| You know, I think that might certainly have something to do
| with it, but I've also noticed that anytime I'm using tech
| (video call/voice call) the conversation is at a much faster
| pace.
|
| It's as though the natural state of the machines and tech is
| so fast, that we're trying to keep the information
| transmission as dense as possible so we can end the call.
|
| Side note, I was watching an interview with Cory Doctorow and
| because of the tv segment style, both he and the interviewer
| were BLASTING through their talking points.
|
| I wonder how much of our speech is being affected by the "say
| as much as you can before commercial break" model.
| captn3m0 wrote:
| Not for me. I listen at 1-1.25x, and not an avid listener. I
| just speak fast, especially in english
| ghaff wrote:
| Which is something I have zero interest in doing. If it's a
| good/interesting podcast, it's not about getting fed
| information "efficiently" for me.
|
| That said, I have recorded some podcasts with people where I
| felt I really needed to go into Audacity and have it
| automatically cut out a bunch of pauses because there were
| just too many of them.
|
| I've also found that having both video and audio of yourself
| is a great way to uncover both visual and audio quirks.
| sgc wrote:
| People have been speaking too fast in public since the
| beginning of public speaking. It's just nerves making us
| press forward too quickly, and sometimes people are worried
| it will be too boring if they speak slowly. I was taught to
| speak far slower than is comfortable - and it will come out
| just right.
| ghaff wrote:
| I've taken a few public speaking classes and I remember one
| made a point of remembering to pause.
|
| I also remember a senior IBM exec who, during Q&A at
| analyst conferences, would make notes (or seemed to) which
| served a few purposes including just taking a few seconds
| to collect his thoughts.
| probably_wrong wrote:
| The problem with speaking fast predates 2x speed by decades.
| From what I've seen it's usually the result of not rehearsing
| beforehand - beginners tend to panic and speak fast as a
| result while experienced speakers overestimate how much
| information an audience can retain and/or how short a minute
| is. Experienced speakers can tune it in real time, though,
| and rehearsal time is expensive so they simply don't.
| Rendello wrote:
| I wonder if speaking fast is a problem in and of itself. Bryan
| Cantrill's talks are some of the best around, and he talks very
| fast. For other speakers, I usually put them at 1.5x speed.
|
| It seems to me that the problem isn't speaking fast per se, but
| almost speaking where you're tripping over yourself
| unconfidently. Bryan, for example, often does trip over his
| words, but he's confident in what he has to say and enunciates
| very clearly (he's basically yelling).
|
| During the pandemic I made a few Youtube videos, basically
| public speaking without an audience. I was amazed at how hard
| it was, I spend hours and hours trying to speak with any
| confidence. Funnily enough though, at tech meetups, I'm pretty
| comfortable presenting in front of everyone even though I see
| others struggle so much. Not sure what's the difference.
| ghaff wrote:
| :-)
|
| I think one of the problems with speaking for video is that
| you're self-conscious and feel you need to be perfect. When I
| started doing a lot of recorded presentations during COVID, I
| just felt uncomfortable in a way that I didn't with an in-
| person audience.
| btilly wrote:
| Mind-body techniques provide a good solution to this.
|
| First exercise. Breathe out. Take a full breath in for a mental
| count of 2. Hold for a mental count of 4. Breathe out for a
| mental count of 6. How do you feel?
|
| It sounds ridiculous that this does anything. But it relaxes
| you because your brain recognizes the rhythm of a contented
| sigh - then rushes to put you in that state. Do that the moment
| that you stand on stage. Do it again any time you need it.
| You'll be amazed at how much of a difference it makes.
|
| Next exercise. Put, commas, in. The act of standing silent is
| an act of control that leaves you feeling in control. Trying to
| slow down results in, "I'mRacing,I'mRacing, SlowDown, I've
| slowed down, I'mRacingAgain!" But putting in a comma makes it
| easy to slow down.
|
| This has a second benefit as well. If we're feeling nervous
| silence is hard on us. So we put in those filler "ahs" and
| "ums". It is very rare for people to be conscious of how much
| we do that. Instead we process it subconsciously, as an
| awareness of anxiety. And our awareness of our own anxiety,
| creates more anxiety, and off we go!
|
| And so I like to say, "Put in a pause, or you'll say your ahs!"
| Try it. Those commas really work.
|
| The third thing is this. When we stand in front of an audience,
| most of us get a shot of adrenaline. We frame it as "social
| anxiety". But it's really not. It's social adrenaline. If you
| learn to interpret it as "on a rollercoaster" instead of
| "there's a tiger", it goes from scary to fun.
|
| This takes a bit of practice. But (with the mind-body skills),
| less than you'd expect. And it is easy to find a place to
| practice if you join a local Toastmasters club.
| lucidplot wrote:
| if you don't fancy toastmasters, sign up for a beginner's improv
| class in your area.
| macintux wrote:
| A collection of related resources:
| https://gist.github.com/macintux/5354837
| rednafi wrote:
| It's different for everyone. I love public speaking but tend not
| to over-rehearse. Also, I prefer smaller conferences and meetups
| than large sprawling ones.
| Jnr wrote:
| How to speak from Patrick Winston at MIT is my go to. A must
| watch! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Unzc731iCUY
| csswizardry wrote:
| My own (similar) advice from 2016:
| https://csswizardry.com/2016/06/speakers-checklist-before-an...
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