So you have an audience of any size, 1 person, 10 people, 1 billion people and they are planning on listening to you or attempting to listen to you, for however long you plan on talking. What would you talk about?
Sometimes I like to knock people like Bill Nye for not being a Scientist(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Nye) but he has something to talk about. Mostly, palatable Science for the public. And that is all he talks about. He knows how to work it. I think this is an interesting characteristic of many public figures, find something to talk about and then talk about it, alot.
Anyways, this post was originally intended because SXSW submission for talks is due July 25th and I have not decided on what I would propose. I do lots of things and I have lots of angles so it is hard to choose and figure out what people would be most interested in hearing about.
It also needs to have substance. I mean sure people need to be entertained. I understand that. But I don't think I have ever listened to something like a TED talk and learned anything from it. I guess that is somewhat the opposite end of the spectrum though as they are mostly substanceless.
Last year when I was at SXSW I was disappointed in the fact that most of the talks I went to were neither entertaining or had any substance(I'll be honest I only went to like 5). One of the exceptions was a talk by Ernie Cline(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernest_Cline). I am sure there were others.
What kind of substance do people want? Though people think it is incredible to pretend like they are interested in a quantum mechanics lecture, they obviously have never sat through one. Yay, let's go over the derivation of the Schrodinger equation and then apply it to the Hydrogen atom. Too much substance.
Do people even want substance? Maybe I do but I don't know if my views are generally aligned with others in the human population.
I have really been involved in genetic engineering bacteria for useful or fun things in my job or on the side and I want to talk about that in some way. I also do lots of DIY.Maker.Hacker.whatever you want to call it stuff. I wonder how I can give a new perspective on things such as that?
I don't know what to talk about.
And I should.
