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13. Have a message you're actually enthusiastic to tell people.

The audience can quickly tell if someone is there because they want to talk about the topic they're presenting, and having a receptive audience makes it much easier to get on stage to talk about it. If the audience knows you're there because you want another line on your resume or because you're trying to sell them something the atmosphere can turn quite cold and that is a world of pain for a speaker.





it's physically painful for me to stop talking about my topic

it's physically painful for everyone else to listen to you talking about your topic.. if you talk for too long that is. :)

The (in)famous astronomer Tycho Brahe died from a bladder infection after politeness prevented him leaving the audience on such an occasion.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tycho_Brahe#Illness,_death,_an...


Indeed! It's said that no talk should be longer than a microcentury.

https://www.ams.org/notices/199701/comm-rota.pdf

https://susam.net/microcentury.html


> if you talk for too long that is

I've made that mistake. Talking for longer than 50 minutes is a bad idea.


LOL. I get writers' cramp every time I write a check.

That’s funny because I get dementia every time I have to use my debit card. No matter how many times I think I know where it is, it isn’t there.



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