[follower]

I would recommend you seriously consider re-wording the "reactionary rather than anticipatory" sentence on your blog. (The number of confused/questioning comments here on HN about the use of those terms suggests I'm not the only one. :) )

The sentence in your post above explains your intention much more clearly:

"There are more than enough other things to worry about going into your first talk that it's really comforting to talk about your past experiences than try to prepare a new project or a 'what-if' for an arbitrary conference date."

As I understand it, what you're wanting to convey is that it's better to choose a topic where you can talk about "what I've done" rather than "what I hope to do". The "reactionary"/"anticipatory" terms don't clearly convey that intention and seem to me to be incorrect terms to use.

(I don't have a specific suggestion for replacement terms--"retrospective" is one option but has a slightly negative connotation.)

Aside from that, thanks for sharing your experiences. :)