In an article called “What Can Be Done About Listening” (.doc, html), author Ralph G. Nichols outlines Ten Bad Listening Habits. These habits include pre-judging (the subject, the speaker, the facts) and being distracted (outlining, disturbances, challenging subject matter, emotions). The amusing point here is the last: “Wasting the differential between speech and thought speed.”
Americans speak at an average rate of 125 words per minute in ordinary conversation. A speaker before an audience slows down to about 100 words per minute. How fast do listeners listen? Or, to put the question in a better form, how many words a minute do people normally think as they listen? If all their thoughts were measurable in words per minute, the answer would seem to be that an audience of any size will average 400 to 500 words per minute as they listen.
Here is a problem. The differential between the speaker at 100 words per minute and the easy thought speed of the listener at 400 or 500 words per minute is a snare and a pitfall. It lures the listener into a false sense of security and breeds mental tangents.
However, with training in listening, the difference between thought speed and speech speed can be made a source of tremendous power. Listeners can hear everything the speaker says and not what s/he omits saying; they can listen between the lines and do some evaluating as the speech progresses. To do this, to exploit this power, good listeners must automatically practice three skills in concentration:
- Anticipating the next point
- Identifying supporting material.
- Recapitulating.
Content choice, habits, self-determination
A good deal of the paper crowding my life is interesting articles and thinking I would like to have been influenced by.
For example, on my wall I used to have a quote from “Made to Stick,” on Simplicity. The part I will borrow for this post, and which I will learn to use as a guiding light, is this:
To strip an idea down to its core, we must be masters of exclusion. We must relentlessly prioritize.”
Life choice, self-determination
One thing about being horizontally organized and not entirely digital in my “interesting resources” is that I occupy a lot of surface area. Since my currently available surface area is at a premium and much of my interesting resources are unavailable to me anyway (most is in boxes, mixed with other stuff), I’m motivated to go through a lot of it, evaluate and summarize, then dispose of the physical part.
This is all in support of my new plan: be more consistent about blogging, get rid of boxes, and ultimately move to Hawaii.
This is an ambitious plan. Much of my life has been in storage for more than a year. Boxes and more boxes of paper (files, books), office hardware (filing cabinets, old computers & gear), kitchenware (including packaged food that has, I’m certain, passed the expiration date), clothing, sheets and towels, and a lot of shelves. Oh, and a really big desk. You can bet that I’ll be sorting, shredding, recycling, freecycling, and selling this stuff as soon as I can get myself properly motivated. Right now, I’ll confess: it’s overwhelming.
The remedy, of course: one box at a time.
Life choice, self-determination