[kentonv]

I get this too.

Meanwhile, I wonder: are talks even worth it? A blog post can reach orders of magnitude more people, can be edited to perfection in advance, and is much easier for most people to consume (supports searching, skimming, quoting, out-of-order reading etc.). Even the Q&A part is much better conducted on a site like HN than live.

It seems to me that a good blog post is strictly better than a talk. Yet we're willing to spend way more money and effort on talks, for some reason?

[adimitrov]

I disagree. I prefer talks, most of the time, especially on stuff that isn't nitty gritty technical. Do I want someone explaining to me on stage how to install minikube and deploy a container? Hell no.

But take what Fowler did, namely talking about refactoring, organizing and structuring your code - the broad strokes stuff. I think it's a lot more enjoyable and effective to listen to a talk (esp in person) for that, than it is to read about it.

Humans are social creatures, and I do enjoy the human aspect of learning from another human. Teaching is performative. I don't get that from a text as much as from a talk.

Of course, everyone's different, and that's why it's good it doesn't have to be either or.

[campbel]

Yes! part of my speech anxiety is because the REASON to do it is so lacking. When I feel the importance of what I'm communicating it's almost entirely gone, but when I'm just up there spewing them same tired shit I can't get out of my head.

[qznc]

Writing is great to spread information. Talking is great to call to action. Different use cases.