In a piece originally written in the late 1860’s, but published in The Atlantic many years later, Henry James Sr., the father of Henry James the novelist and William James the philosopher-psychologist, sought to explain just what it was about… Read More »Presentation Skills: The Magic of Ralph Waldo Emerson
I have found that if you go every summer to the same place, whether it’s the mountains, a lake, or the beach, every summer feels the same. They all bleed into one another, and when you sit around trying to… Read More »The curse of knowledge
When we watch TED talks, such as Rory Sutherland’s on the power of advertising, or Hans Rosling’s on the power of data, we are watching two men who know their way around the presentation platform. Both speak without notes, use… Read More »Using speaker’s notes
After seeing David Mamet’s play Race on Broadway, Sharon and I had half-an-hour until our train left New York’s Penn Station for our home in Montclair, New Jersey. We went to a bar. I ordered a Heineken and she a glass… Read More »Don’t read this one
Under the shadow of Armando Galarraga’s stolen perfect game, and umpire Jim Joyce’s human imperfection, I am moved to ponder the word pitch. In baseball, when a pitch comes at you, it is meant to either intimidate, bamboozle, or go… Read More »The Perfect Pitch
The famed defense attorney, F. Lee Bailey, was once asked what the key was to a successful case. People expected him to say a spellbinding closing statement or a good jury selection process or an impressive cross-examination of a crucial… Read More »Facts Make the Speech Writer