I highly recommend “The Pyramid Principle: Logic in Writing and Thinking” by Barbara Minto. It will change the way you think about communication, especially in a business context.
Summary: https://untools.co/minto-pyramid
Ask HN: Exercises to think, then speak, more clearly?
31–40 of 106 posts
Re: Ask HN: Exercises to think, then speak, more clearly?
#32Most people are incredible boring speakers. Learning even some basics around how to engage folks while speaking will make you a better X.
Toast masters and improv classes are the two that exist in pretty much every community and can be done a 1-2 nights a week to help with this.
Learn how to speak in front of people. Learn how to speak in front of people and get them to actually give a shit about what you are saying.
Re: Ask HN: Exercises to think, then speak, more clearly?
#33>> think clearly - Eat whole, nutritious food. Get good sleep and plenty of it. Exercise regularly. Make and keep social connections. Have an aim/goal/purpose, maybe more than one. Have/make healthy habits/rituals.
>> deliver message - Join toastmasters. Send voice messages instead of texting and listen to yourself talk. Practice talking more with others. Practice persuading more, if that's what you want to do. Study the psychology of people and how they react when you say things. Listen as much as you speak.
Re: Ask HN: Exercises to think, then speak, more clearly?
#34They don't call it the "gift of the gab" for no reason.
Kiss the 'ol Blarney Stone
Re: Ask HN: Exercises to think, then speak, more clearly?
#35Listen to recordings of your own speech, and then course correct
What do you do when the sound of your own voice being played back terrifies you?
Re: Ask HN: Exercises to think, then speak, more clearly?
#36The steps outlined don't go far enough in my opinion. They stop at 'deliver' as if that was the goal.
I've had several roles that involved a lot of presentations and public speaking. I've also been subjected to hundreds of terrible talks.
I think I'm reasonably good at it, and my best advice is to start from a place of "think of the audience first".
Clarity of the message isn't just an ordering of facts, but people's brains expect a story. I don't mean padding, or a made up narrative with characters. You need to set the stage, deliver your message in a way that engages, and you must have something compelling.
But if you can put yourself in their shoes during the preparation and presentation you will find it easier to chop out unnecessary content, change the dynamics, and engage.
You are there for them; they may or may not be there for you.
This is a tangent, but ... tangents are your enemy. The people I struggle the most to understand never complete a thought they started. That clarity of thought and speech comes from knowing the objective of the next sentence you say, even if you don't know what words you are going use just yet. If even you don't know the point, no one else will either.
Re: Ask HN: Exercises to think, then speak, more clearly?
#37I think the "ability to think clearly" is a bit too vague of a concept.
* Is it really important that the whole process of thinking is "clear" or do you wish for a more structured outcome in the end?
* Why do you assume that having a more "clear" process of thinking leads to better results? Based on the research I know in pedagogical psychology, "clear" thought processes are only a thing for persons of mid-seniority. Actual experts don't explicitely construct solutions to problems in their heads but rather recall/recompose them: They can just extrapolate a solution. But to add a caveat: Actually the peak performance of mid-seniors is sometimes better and one explanation is that they actually (need to) think about what they're doing. Experts get a bit more sloppy on single tasks but are more productive overall.
Re: Ask HN: Exercises to think, then speak, more clearly?
#38"Next to height, the most unfair advantage someone can have is the ability to walk into a room without preparation and persuade the audience on just about any subject."
A lot of the people I know who can do this are people that prey on people who either can't think well or are afraid to be assertive. Essentially, think car salesmen.
I don't know any people who can do it for "any subject" without preparation.
With that said:
1. Understand exactly what it is that you are saying, including all the words/phrases you use. As an example, I was going to use "Sword of Damocales" today in writing and then I realized that I don't know ALL the context, so I googled (and also corrected my spelling - Damocles!)
2. Practice speaking - watch your parasite words and phrases. Recording yourself speaking is painful, but useful. If you are average, you also likely have annoying deep speech patterns (tone of voice, pace, etc). Anyone who tells you that you can fix these without a ton of time or a ton of time and a speech pathologist is lying.
In short, practice, do little things, but if you want to be a world-class speaker, you better make it a routine like working out.
I can compensate by memorizing whole speeches when I need to speak in front of hundreds of people, but it's a painful process.
The worst is memorizing half-way - you try to use clever phrasing, then forget something, and it all falls apart.
For context, memorizing a six minute speech (about page and a half) takes me multiple days of 2-4 hour walks and just grinding paragraphs.
I only use this a few times a year if I need to present to the whole company or something. Otherwise I just get a brief outline and wing the wording.
Re: Ask HN: Exercises to think, then speak, more clearly?
#39The steps outlined don't go far enough in my opinion. They stop at 'deliver' as if that was the goal. I've had several roles that involved a lot of presentations and public speaking. I've also been subjected to hundreds of terrible talks. I think I'm reasonably good at it, and my best advice is to start from a place of "think of the audience first". Clarity of the message isn't just an ordering of facts, but people's…
Yep, this, tell them what they actually want to hear. Make it interesting, keep it light. Pick the right detail level for the audience. Tune the content for the things the audience cares about.
I often see people diving into the deep end at work, bringing up console outputs and spreadsheets when presenting. It's like we've completely forgotten everything we hated about lectures in in university.
Re: Ask HN: Exercises to think, then speak, more clearly?
#40[deleted]