Do Hackers Need Public Speaking Skills?
I believe developers could greatly benefit from learning how to effectively communicate in front of a group of people, as from my experience, the archetypal coder tends to shy away from such circumstances. Yet, in today's world, these skills are necessary in order to climb the corporate ladder. Not only do I believe these skills are necessary for developers, but also for entrepreneurs who need to be able to market and sell themselves and their services.
I understand that there are many people who teach communication skills to a general audience, but I feel like this specific group needs to be addressed in accordance with their situation and unique needs. I believe this is how I can provide the most value to this community, but want to verify that this community would even be interested in such a skill set.
Please let me know your thoughts on this; any suggestions, comments, or concerns are all appreciated.
17 comments
[ 4.2 ms ] story [ 58.6 ms ] threadIf I'm hired to work on solely the technical side of things, just about the only time I'll ever need to speak in a public setting is if i decide to speak at a conference, which is a normally a decision not a job requirement. If I am an entrepreneur then this is a different story however as public speaking is an absolute must have skill.
I'm not saying that it's not a good skill for people to have in general, but as a developer alone I don't think it is relevant enough for me to choose learning over something technical or design.
Perhaps "public speaking" is not the word I'm looking for, what about the ability to communicate effectively, not just to a group of people, but to your boss or to a coworker? Maybe not you specifically, but do you feel like other developers struggle with being heard? And is learning oratorical skills and technical skills mutually exclusive?
I do think the ability to communicate effectively is always important regardless of who you are or what you do as others have said. As far as developers specifically struggling with problems with communication I think that it depends on who they are trying to communicate with. I can't not remember a single developer I have met that had significant difficulty communicating to other people who are technical. Pretty much every one I have met has been quite articulate about technical matters and appear well versed in rhetoric. Now this may be skewed since if in fact they were not able to communicate with other developer then they would not be able to communicate well with me.
This being said I have met developers who have struggled with communication with non-technical personal, but my personal opinion on this is it's the result of a lack of a shared vocabulary with things as oppose to a lack or oratorical skills on ether side.
As far as whether learning oratorical skills and technical skills are mutually exclusive, while they are not the limiting factor is time. I have an ever growing list of languages I'd like to learn, frameworks I'd like to try, work I need to do and side projects I'd like to start. That does not even include my interest in becoming better at design. Even with the little sleep I do get, I am not able to keep up with what I would like to do and I would prioritize these things over learning oratorical skills. But again that is a personal opinion and choice and it is likely there are other who would disagree with me on this.
A CS graduate I know that was rejected because of his speaking / interacting skills (both were bad) from a job in Silicon Valley. They liked him enough to fly him out and he easily implemented their programming challenges, but they told him that he didn't have the right social skills when it came to speaking (and interacting) with people. They told him as much and it hurt him, but it will only make him better so it was good it happened.
The other example was actually seeing YC alum Alexis Ohanian (YC alum and Reddit founder) in person. He might have always had good at speaking in public, but if he wasn't, he certainly is now. In the middle of his speech, whether he did it consciously or not, his hands became more animated exactly when photographers for the local paper took their photos from the side of the room--Which will obviously make for a more lively shot in the local papers/blogs.
Is there an email address I could contact you at? I would love to bounce ideas off of you at some point.
If you want to pitch your ideas for funding you'll probably have to be a good speaker too. Other than that I think you could get by without it unless you wanted to give talks at developer conferences.
Public speaking isn't easy but I think good programmers tend to be some of the best public speakers. You just need a clear head and know exactly what you want to say.
Look at someone like John Carmack. He has weird ticks but his train of thought is unmatched. He knows the material so well that he can just sit there and speak about a topic without missing a beat.
I think that is the most important thing about speaking publicly. If you take it slow and know exactly what to say then you'll be good at it.
My opinion is that people who have had to speak value those skills and everyone else has no idea that it is even a skill, so it will be necessary to teach people that your services are needed or should be wanted.
Edit: Just to be clear, I know Paul must value these skills. I meant by the first paragraph that his idea of good public speaking is at odds with what is commonly considered to be good public speaking.
http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5186131
Disclaimer: I'm german and this is my bad school english.
Your English is not bad at all, you conveyed your thoughts in a manner that most importantly is unambiguous. I know exactly what you're saying and that's what is most important.