[Gllug] Talk by Richard Stallman in London, 12 Feb

[gllug at uncertainty.org.uk]

On Sun, Jan 27, 2002 at 02:11:10PM +0000, Alain Williams wrote:
> On Sun, Jan 27, 2002 at 12:17:30PM +0000, Alex Hudson wrote:
> > On Sun, 2002-01-27 at 11:23, Richard Cottrill wrote:
> > > To NOT pitch to one's audience is to be unable to
> > > communicate effectively. In this case RMS did not communicate effectively.
> > > If he assumes that everyone wants to hear about him and his opinions rather
> > > then about the free software movement then frankly it suggests that not only
> > > does he have a problem communicating; but also that he's a touch
> > > egotistical.
> > 
> > I didn't say he doesn't pitch to an audience. When he talks, he
> > generally makes stuff relevant to his audience - I doubt he talks about
> > the RIP bill elsewhere to the same length he does here - but to suggest
> > that he should take on the etiquettes and mannerisms of his audience in
> > some faux method-acting manner is silly. Who cares if he wanted to take
> > his shoes off? When you attend a lecture/talk (by anyone), you sit and
> > listen. Some people are better than others at giving talks, but by and
> > large the listener only gets out what they put in. 
> 
> I agree that people were going to listen to RMS, but equally RMS was talking to a bunch
> of people -- it is a two way thing. The trouble is that if (for instance) taking your shoes
> off [**] it is likely that the audience is going to remember just that and nothing else.
> This means that the time RMS spent evangelising is wasted (or not so effective) because
> they were distracted.
> 

maybe he thinks that the right to take your shoes off is also important

after all he has provoked this debate - maybe it will encourage some
people to think about thier judgements of others (of course making
people think is not the same as changing thier minds)

> Many people do not understand that in order to convince people of something, you need
> to start your arguments from their position and move to yours. If you start from
> your point then your words get lost in the distance.
> 

I think RMS suffers from his point of view being so far removed from
'normal' that he cannot start arguments in this way - the language
doesn't make sense !

He starts from a fundamentally different position, if he were to try and
cover that up surely he would end up making no sense at all.

> RMS is great technically, but is not so good on the presentation front; as do, I suspect,
> most people on this list -- but that is why we are tekkies and leave the marketing/...
> to others.

I think he is quite interesting on the marketing front, since he is
marketing a non-marketing society ;)

> 
> 
> ** something that I am known to do when working on site at customers'.

is this a sign of confidence or absent mindedness :) ?

-- 

Sean


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