Tuesday, November 12, 2019
Ted Gibson of MIT
I was invited to an event at which Ted Gibson was speaking, 6:15-8:15. There were about 25 of us in the room, and he went over his research in linguistics and information processing. At the end he cheerfully said "This was the most ________ audience I have ever spoken to." Fill in the blank. Hint: I mentally took credit for about half of that.
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5 comments:
Challenging?
I was just going to give up and give the answer, as no one wanted to play...
The correct answer is "interactive." It's a remarkable coincidence. I have this uncanny knack for being part of audiences that turn out to be interactive with the speaker! In all seriousness, I am not always the first to interact nor the one who asks instant questions, or nods and chips-in the most, but I am very high on both categories, moving small-group speeches in that direction. Everyone learns more, because of instant feedback. However, I have noticed that pastors don't always like it as much, particularly if you are a visitor. You'd think they would happy with evidence that someone is listening and understanding, but not always so.
Throws them off stride, that does. Sometimes.
Interactive is great if it results in an interesting discussion. I can envisage awful interactions that involve debates, or attempts to avoid debates, with ill-informed and over confident fundamentalists of whatever kind.
It worked well in this context. There was at least one person I was glad didn't speak more, because he clearly didn't understand what was being talked about because he had a hobby-horse of his own to ride. But the moment came and went.
I suspect I had pushed to about my limit of what the rest of the crowd would enjoy as well, so it all ended at a good time. Of course, knowing that limit and not quite exceeding it is part of being voted "Most Interactive."
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