Wednesday linkfest « Scott Berkun

Wednesday linkfest

Here are this week’s links:

How the spaceship got its shape - All innovations someone fought for over years are taken for-granted when they succeed. If ever you’ve thought space travel was cool, you owe it to yourself to read this article.� (Thanks Gernot)
Chess on a roller coaster – These people are goofballs, yes, but it’s hard not to appreciate people spending lots of effort to do things this silly. Love it.
Why good writers are bad conversationalists – A well considered exploration on the difference between writing well and conversing well. There are many different kinds of charm, but few people are charming in all media.

Confessions of a Public Speaker:

Why do people make bad slides? May have complained for years about bad, ugly, hard to understand slides. Why then are they still so popular? I offer my pet theories and want to hear yours.
Early reviews of Confessions of a Public speaker:� endorsements have been strong and here’s the first batch of early reviews.

Posted Wednesday, September 30th, 2009 at 9:52 am

in linkfest | 2 Comments » |

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Mike Nitabach - September 30, 2009 at 10:36 am #

That NY Times piece on speaking versus writing is worthless. Yeah, even though they both involve language, speaking and writing are very different. Beyond that blazingly obvious truism and a bunch of boring analogies, the article provides absolutely no insight whatsoever into *how* writing and speaking differ.

Scott Berkun - September 30, 2009 at 10:52 am #

Mike: I can’t counter that argument, but somehow I still enjoyed it. I liked some of the analogies, and thus liked the piece more than I was annoyed by it’s limitations.

I guess I’ve had that experience of someone who read one of my books and loved it is entirely disappointed when they actually meet me. There’s a clarity to written language, or a power in reading a book, that few writers can provide in real life, and somehow since my name is on the cover they expect me to be like the voice of the book all the time.

Perhaps that perspective, one the writer (Krystal) mentions. is why I liked it more than you did.