Public speaking tip: Believe you know something worth sharing

👋 Welcome back to the Medium Newsletter
Issue #162: on using doors in video games, what MFA annotations can teach writers, and radical attention
By Carly Rose Gillis

A few weeks ago, I saw a video clip of a teenager asking VP Kamala Harris a question: “You’re a good public speaker — how are you so good?”

I’ve been thinking about Harris’ answer ever since:

“When you’re standing up to speak, remember that it’s not about you… The most important thing is that everyone knows what you know, because they need to know what you know… You know something that you have to share with people that they need to know.”

I’ve found this to be encouraging, but felt there was one nuance missing that I couldn’t quite put my finger on — until I found this recent story by communication consultant Karol Ward, LCSW.

She says many of her clients think they haven’t earned the right to speak — or don’t have the authority to identify that “need to know” information Harris references. When they stand up in front of a room, they feel like they don’t deserve to be there in the first place.

To shake yourself out of that negative self-perception, she recommends asking yourself these questions:

• What would you notice, or feel, if you had the right to be in the room?
• How would you be standing, sitting, or speaking if you had the right to be in the room?
• What would other people say to you if you had the right to be in the room?
• What is one step you could take today if you knew you had the right to be in the room?

As these questions illuminate, the path to building a confident public speaking skill involves persuading yourself just as much as your audience, and giving honor to your own expertise. As Ward says: “When you recognize the value of who you are, there are lots of rooms waiting for you.”

What else we’re reading

• When I first read the headline of one of Alex Rowe’s latest meditations on gaming, “I Love A Good Video Game Door,” the classic Resident Evil door animation popped into my mind, as well as the dramatic vault doors of Fallout, and then the soothing swish of them in my first true gaming love, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic. Doors! I love them, too. But beyond the aesthetics, Rowe explains how their placements, mechanics, and qualities (locked or unlocked? huge or small? hidden or obvious?) add a tremendous level of complexity that we often take for granted, and especially help segment “open word” games into differently sized spaces, which helps avoid monotony and gives a more concrete form of progression to nonlinear gameplay.
• Aimee Liu shares an annotation crafted by one of her MFA students to shed light on just how meaningful the practice can be for any writer. “The goal of any annotation is to help you figure out how an author accomplishes something that you’re struggling to do in your own work,” says Liu. An example: By identifying one passage as using the literary technique of “litany” (prayerful, repetitive chanting), Liu’s student gave herself an easy reference to develop the device in her own work.

Your responses to Wednesday’s newsletter on why AI bugs us…

On Wednesday, we sent out a newsletter about the philosophy of AI. You had lots of thoughts, including some thoughtful disagreement (we’re big fans of that):

Disagree with that statement. AI bothers us not because we have trouble accepting that there are different kinds of beings. There are already millions of kinds in terms of other lifeforms, some quite strange on this planet.

AI bothers us because we know deep down that it is technology out of control, that supersedes the purely biological with the technological, and that going forward with AI is a nearly irrevocable step away from harmony with nature.

Siemers sounds like the type of philosopher trying to fit AI into a theory, rather than someone who actually understands technology. — Jason Polak, mathematician and wildlife photographer

AI bothers us because we keep focusing on the intelligence side and not the artificial side. Yuval Noah Harari calls it “alien intelligence.” I agree. He points out that we have never had a technology that can make decisions without human intervention. Even bombs needed someone to press a button. — Carlyn Beccia, author, illustrator, and speaker

Your daily dose of practical wisdom: on “radical attention”

Writer Brenna Lee provides a new take on mindful listening that she calls “radical attention,” which emphasizes a focus on reality, instead of inner fantasy, when we are listening to or learning from others:

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Edited and produced by Scott Lamb & Harris Sockel

Questions, feedback, or story suggestions? Email us: tips@medium.com