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

[Alain Williams]

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.

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.

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.


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


-- 
Alain Williams

#include <std_disclaimer.h>

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