Nay worries. I'm decidedly mute.
I'm in our library, but it's awfully loud in here. I mean screamingly loud. It's in my head.
And when it calmed down and I decided to hit these keys, I thought:
The singular most powerful idea you have is YOU.
Now this sounds atypically oxymoronic. **** you might even think narcissistic, and best of times, stupid.
We spend our times chasing the tornado and each time it eludes us. It has to.
The quick fixes we search for, only fix a short term habit. The long term solutions require more thought, considerations and commitment.
Look, see, consider, share, act.
Ideas to share
The best idea is You because you know what it is that lights your fire. You're just, a bit like me, a bit flummoxed, how to find it. And when you don't know where it is, the best person to help you is the conversationalist.
Society got so ancy about it, they called them Psychiatrist ~ someone who evokes talk.
A room full of people - all with different needs. Some will inevitably leave a conference bitterly disappointed. Those that don't often attend in the first place to hear what it is that makes them think about themselves.
Scenario 2.
A room full of people, with the same aims. I'd just let them talk to each other, and then come to a consensus. Stand-ups do it much better. "Oi you, what's on your mind?"
In presentation, it's not what you've done for yourself, but what the people present, will do for you.
Twittering on
I speak at a fair few dos, and each time I think: "What it is I would like to know, seated in the audience". In shape shifting mode, I begin to wrestle with myself. Damn it hurts.
Tips here, facts there - all good, but the overall tempo has to be one where the presenter is giving, engaging, clarifying, and making You feel that the world will not come tumbling down on you because 0.7 secs ago, you had not been on twitter.
Or that google wave came and went and you missed the set.
Good CEOs and managers, I learned, leverage their strategies by allowing the flow of modules one at a time. And these often take weeks, months, but what they give you upfront is the ability to start thinking about the differences.
OK, stop!
Why does this matter, because frankly, you're not supposed know everything. Unless you're a self appointed polymath.
I bet Steve Jobs can't shoot documentary as well as you. My point explained. If you're a tweet king or queen, great. If your video skills aren't ace, don't beat yourself up, and vice versa.
Plumbline
Lizbeth Goodman, the Dean of our Phd programme refers to it as your plumb line and circle of influence. Your plumb line is fixed. That's the thing YOU do exceptionally well. It's your comfort, no matter what happens you keep coming back to.
I'm obsessed with visualisation and narrative. My mind works in visualisation the same way I think I speak. It's not rocket science, If I have made/cut/produced some (5)000 videos.
Now you see, if I want to go web design mad, codecs n' all - I know a thing or two about them - I'd have to forgo my love affair with film.
Am I bored? Or plain mad.
Your circle of influence says as you grow your knowledge, expand beyond the realms of your comfort, you'll absorb all this new stuff, but your circle of influence, where you can make a change is the core.
And frankly I'm happy with that. It has nothing to do with tunnel vision, narrowness, but that each step that elevates or comes down supplements your core skills or depreciates it.
In a couple of weeks I'm about to shoot a series of films that last 20 seconds inspired by twitter.
You gave me that idea through us talking. Thank you.
You, You, You.
Postscript.
Now that I have got that out of my system, it's time I went home.
