Are you ready?
...
I can't hear you. I said Are You Ready?
...
I still can't hear you. I said ARE YOU READY??????
Ok, now I want everyone to stand up. C'mon, stand up! Now shout, in as loud a voice as possible "I'M READY!!!!!!"
Good!
Now sit down, you're embarrassing yourself.
Did you sit down? Why?
Think about what just happened. If you stood up and shouted out, then either you're not afraid of what other people think about you, or you're alone. If you didn't stand up and shout, then you're either afraid of what others think about you, or you're somewhere "decorum" (or possibly safety) doesn't allow that sort of thing.
You know what I say to that. Who Cares!!!! If you want to stand up and shout, or stand up and sing, or even sing off key, then as long as it doesn't jeopardize anyone's safety, go ahead and do it. Not because you want to, but because anything you do that gets you up and out of your chair, or up and away from the television, or just up and doing something is wonderful. We've become a society of people who hide out in our homes or our cubicles/offices and don't interact with anyone except via E-Mail, Chat, or Cell Phones. We hardly ever actually get up and get in peoples faces and talk to them.
Just a few weeks ago I had an opportunity to secretly do some research in the "real world". Okay, so it was at a convention filled with software developers and other extreem and supreme geeks, but the important thing was that it wasn't at my home or office. It was out in the world.
At the convention (JavaOne), the first day during the keynote speech, the Grand Emcee of the show, John Gage, stood up and announced that for the entire week of JavaOne, everyone attending was Brazillian. Why? Because there's something in the way Brazillians behave that says "I don't care who you are, I'm going to walk right up to you and say 'Hi'!" It's one of my favorite parts of JavaOne. Not just because I had based a large part of my JavaOne presentation on that statement, but because after he says it, I get to watch the slow degredation from "Everyone is Brazillian" to "Leave me alone" and marvel at how fast it happens. This year it took until about Thursday afternoon for most people I saw to slowly regrow their cocoons.
There were still some Brazillians (Alex, Fabianne, Maurice, Bruno, et. al.) and some honorary Brazillians (Christine, Mike, Pratik, et. al.) that I saw, and of course the whole Sun crew, who continued chatting with people everywhere we went through the end of the conference and beyond, but most people I saw retreated back to their comfort zones. (Sidenote: If you want to see if someone is in their comfort zone or not, there's a real easy test. Walk up, stick out you're open right hand [palm facing up at about a 20 to 45 degree angle] and say 'Hi there! How are you?' -- If you want to see if they're paying attention too, use your left hand ;-) )
I was amazed by Friday at the number of people who literally jumped when I stood next to them in line and either started up a conversation, or just reached out my hand and said "Hi".
But I really said all of that to say this.
One of the things I noticed at JavaOne was the relative nervousness of the majority of presenters I saw. There were some who were obviously polished professionals, and there were others who all but fell apart at the slightest technical glitch. But they all have one thing in common.
They all got up out of their seats, stood up in front of a crowd and presented something they thought was important/neat/amazing to other people.
Did you hear that.
A bunch of technology super-freaks who can find their way around the darkest recesses of a computer, jump long pointers until they are blue in the face and decipher binary in their sleep all got up in front of a crowd and spoke for an hour.
And while many of them were scared. While many of them were terrified that their demos wouldn't work. While many of them swear they will never do it again. The fact is that they did it.
THEY ARE READY!!!!
ARE YOU?
...
I can't hear you. I said Are You Ready?
...
I still can't hear you. I said ARE YOU READY??????
Ok, now I want everyone to stand up. C'mon, stand up! Now shout, in as loud a voice as possible "I'M READY!!!!!!"
Good!
Now sit down, you're embarrassing yourself.
Did you sit down? Why?
Think about what just happened. If you stood up and shouted out, then either you're not afraid of what other people think about you, or you're alone. If you didn't stand up and shout, then you're either afraid of what others think about you, or you're somewhere "decorum" (or possibly safety) doesn't allow that sort of thing.
You know what I say to that. Who Cares!!!! If you want to stand up and shout, or stand up and sing, or even sing off key, then as long as it doesn't jeopardize anyone's safety, go ahead and do it. Not because you want to, but because anything you do that gets you up and out of your chair, or up and away from the television, or just up and doing something is wonderful. We've become a society of people who hide out in our homes or our cubicles/offices and don't interact with anyone except via E-Mail, Chat, or Cell Phones. We hardly ever actually get up and get in peoples faces and talk to them.
Just a few weeks ago I had an opportunity to secretly do some research in the "real world". Okay, so it was at a convention filled with software developers and other extreem and supreme geeks, but the important thing was that it wasn't at my home or office. It was out in the world.
At the convention (JavaOne), the first day during the keynote speech, the Grand Emcee of the show, John Gage, stood up and announced that for the entire week of JavaOne, everyone attending was Brazillian. Why? Because there's something in the way Brazillians behave that says "I don't care who you are, I'm going to walk right up to you and say 'Hi'!" It's one of my favorite parts of JavaOne. Not just because I had based a large part of my JavaOne presentation on that statement, but because after he says it, I get to watch the slow degredation from "Everyone is Brazillian" to "Leave me alone" and marvel at how fast it happens. This year it took until about Thursday afternoon for most people I saw to slowly regrow their cocoons.
There were still some Brazillians (Alex, Fabianne, Maurice, Bruno, et. al.) and some honorary Brazillians (Christine, Mike, Pratik, et. al.) that I saw, and of course the whole Sun crew, who continued chatting with people everywhere we went through the end of the conference and beyond, but most people I saw retreated back to their comfort zones. (Sidenote: If you want to see if someone is in their comfort zone or not, there's a real easy test. Walk up, stick out you're open right hand [palm facing up at about a 20 to 45 degree angle] and say 'Hi there! How are you?' -- If you want to see if they're paying attention too, use your left hand ;-) )
I was amazed by Friday at the number of people who literally jumped when I stood next to them in line and either started up a conversation, or just reached out my hand and said "Hi".
But I really said all of that to say this.
One of the things I noticed at JavaOne was the relative nervousness of the majority of presenters I saw. There were some who were obviously polished professionals, and there were others who all but fell apart at the slightest technical glitch. But they all have one thing in common.
They all got up out of their seats, stood up in front of a crowd and presented something they thought was important/neat/amazing to other people.
Did you hear that.
A bunch of technology super-freaks who can find their way around the darkest recesses of a computer, jump long pointers until they are blue in the face and decipher binary in their sleep all got up in front of a crowd and spoke for an hour.
And while many of them were scared. While many of them were terrified that their demos wouldn't work. While many of them swear they will never do it again. The fact is that they did it.
THEY ARE READY!!!!
ARE YOU?
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