I Must Speak

Awww yeah, did a little public speaking tonight at the Austin .NET Users Group meeting and it went quite well. I don't mean to share confidential company secrets, but when I showed my slides to my boss, he did mention that I really needed a picture of the Incredible Hulk in there. You think I defy direct orders? Especially when they make so much sense?

Here's the deal with public speaking. Yes, it is scary to speak in front of large groups of strangers. Think of something reasonably bad that could happen: you could forget what you're talking about, skip a slide or two, and accidentally curse. That actually qualifies as a total success in public speaking! People are so terrified that anything besides mind-numbing, pants-wetting fear is an incredible success.

I think that philosophy actually works well whenever you're trying anything new. Nervous about asking a girl out? Just do it; there's no way your slightly inept approach will compare to the time some random dude grabbed her chest and then started doing pelvic thrusts. Same thing with writing a story. Your story's not about a plucky Klansman, right? Then it's not even that bad a story, so just write it anyway.

In closing, Olympics anyone? The past few days are almost enough to make me want to give up the doggy paddle and learn some real strokes.