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Spontaneity? Or announcing a lack of preparation at the beginning?

As Jason notes in the article, spontaneity can be a huge boon. I don't immediately see how the latter can be, though it's possible.

I suppose paul may truly be an exception, but it seems that I would get just as much out of his talks (which is to say, a ton) whether or not I knew how much time he had spent in preparation.



Announcing a lack of preparation. All PB talks begin with him saying that he hasn't prepared anything; that it doesn't matter anyway, because he doesn't have anything to say; and that in fact no one has anything to say. From which he proceeds to tell you interesting things.


What a very strange comment.

I wish I had heard one of these talks.


If you haven't seen it yet, here is a highlights video which has a brief portion of Paul's talk as well as links to the justin.tv archived stream.

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=910426



Ah, so it is the contrast provided by lowering the expectations at the beginning which means they'll be shattered even more thoroughly by the rest of the talk. Makes sense.


>whether or not I knew

Then by the same logic it is still ok if he is exempt from the rule.


I thought someone might say that. :-)

I will get just as much out of paul's talks because I love his talks and will always pay attention to every word. Some percentage of the audience, however, will take a lack of preparation qualifier as a reason to zone out.




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