So I’m spending the better part of this Sunday afternoon working on a 10 minute presentation I’m giving on big data at Defrag and like serendipity, I came across James Altucher’s tips on public speaking.
Like most people, I dislike having center stage but I’m determined to make it second nature. And like anything James Altucher does, he ‘puts it all out there’ and gives you tangible and realistic advice (well beyond the ‘imagine everyone is in their underwear’ which never worked for me).
Best of all, I’m hoping for the chance to meet him at Defrag (he is keynoting) - I’ve become an avid and honest follower ;-)
Hearing Mr. Hoffman wax philosophical about technology, it’s easy to understand why so many here seem to view him as something of a yoda. When he talks about “scale” — Internet-speak for having enough people use a network to make the network actually useful — he often invokes Archimedes, the great mathematician and inventor in ancient Greece.
According to lore, Archimedes created a device with a revolving screw-shaped blade to pump water against gravity: the Archimedes screw. Mr. Hoffman urges his followers to find their own levers and devices to encourage people to adopt their technologies. Entrepreneurs, he says, often spend too much time creating products and too little figuring out how to get people to use them.
