Personal computing pain; Tech versus journalism; Hustle culture
Milk, No Sugar #280
💡Think
I gave an internal talk on “the art of public speaking” (not my title), and thought it might be worth sharing some key takeaways. I split it down into external, internal, and social media:
External speaking
Start light, ideally with a self deprecating but astute comment on your own content
Pacing! Slow down, you always talk faster than you think
Work backwards, analysing what the audience is expecting you to say
What’s in it for you, the hosts, the audience? If it’s more effort than it’s worth, politely decline or recommend someone else
Internal speaking
Add a hello to the beginning of your messages, colleagues are human
Respect timezones and don’t expect availability. Schedule messages if possible
Avoid acronyms at all costs, they alienate
Social media
Set goals. Why are you using the platform?
Avoid hashtags unless you want people to think you’re a bot
Be yourself, and commit to it
📷 Look
📖 Read
❶ Hustle culture and the big lies of success
Gary V, anyone? Tai Lopez adverts on YouTube? I’m sure we’re all a bit sick of the #hustle, but it’s important we analyse where and why it fails. It mostly comes down to people only telling parts of their story, and omitting significant parts of their past which led them to success. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to appreciate that this is more often than not access to rich parents.
—
❷ Silicon Valley versus journalism
CEOs, particularly those at “unicorn” businesses, already have enough power in the form of lobbying and driving industry trends, but this is stretching to journalism. We’ve seen a few instances in the past year (Coinbase being the biggest) where a CEO has outwardly rejected journalistic takedowns of their policies, and this extends to venture capital firms creating their own content and rejecting negative media as well. As you can imagine, this is awful for transparency and building an unbiased view of what goes on under the hood of the world’s largest businesses.
—
❸ The personal computer broke the human body
Alright, it’ll be no surprise that everyone is in a world of pain from the staring, hunching, and sitting that our modern working lives demand, but it turns out this isn’t a new issue. Tracking back to when being a "typist” was a job, this (long) analysis takes us through how we’ve been on this track for quite a while, and should probably do something about it.
—
Bonus round
🎧 Listen
A conversation with poet Sarah Kay
This podcast inspired me more than anything I’ve listened to in a long while.
Why? I haven’t done any creative writing in probably 6 months, but just listening to Sarah talk about her own poetry (and reading a bit) sparked a tonne of ideas. I’m certain it’ll give your creativity a kick up the butt as well.
I could listen to her talk all day.
Listen to this podcast (56 minutes, Spotify link)
🙌 Share
I’d really appreciate it if you would share my tweet, or forward this to a friend.
If you’re really enjoying it, purchasing a subscription would let me know I’m producing quality.
🙏 Thanks
Have a great week,
Luis Ouriach
@disco_lu