Bestest Friend and I are doing a blog project. Each day we will write a blog post on a pre-determined theme chosen by a random noun generator. The theme for the third day of the month is "Direction."
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On Wednesday and Thursday nights, my husband I went to lectures as experts talked about things that they know a lot about. One was held at the community center and the other was at a hobby farm of one of my husband's colleagues.
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On Wednesday, we had the city and county directors of parks and recreation from our local community talk about all the parks in our area and what services parks and rec offer. On Thursday, the director of the Stax Museum of Soul Music talked about the history of Stax Records and how the museum came to be what it is today.
Here's the deal. I am not particularly invested in the softball leagues in our town or the history of Otis Redding and Sam and Dave but I love hearing experts talk about things they are invested in. I also did learn a lot about some of the country parks I've never been to (am making a list of summer goals as we speak!) and I learned some great songs that should be on my playlist.
I sometimes marvel about people who can get up and talk about something with no notes for an hour at a time. What am I an expert in that I could give a lecture on? Fantasy books by female authors? Three ways to solve systems of equations? How to avoid gluten poisoning? Gift giving for all occasions?
What's your expertise?
Ha, yes, I think you could give a lecture in all those things! Plus dog care and training. Sometimes when I'm listening to a podcast I realize I'm not that interested in the subject matter, but I'm still enjoying it because I like hearing smart people talk about things they're interested in.
ReplyDeleteYes, I do this with podcasts a lot, too. If someone is enthusiastic, they can usually get me to go along with them for an hour or so.
DeleteI absolutely believe that you could stand up and give an hour long presentation about books, equations, gluten, and gifts with no rehearsal and that it would feel completely natural. Anytime you want to hear about old movies or payroll withholding, I'm your gal!
ReplyDeleteI agree that in some cases it almost doesn't matter what the topic is - if the person has enough passion for it and the skills to communicate it, chances are that they will get my attention.
I run a lecture series at the community center and I'm always looking for people with interests to give talks. Old movies and payroll withholding sound exactly like something I'd love for someone to come talk about! Ha!
DeleteFor me, it would be knitting and yarn, and hockey (specifically the Bruins). Reading is a passion but I would have trouble talking books without something to narrow it down. We could have a good conversation about fantasy books by female authors!
ReplyDeleteOhhhh...knitting and yarn is excellent! If yarn is anything like fabric, there are about a gazillion variations that non-knitters would never know about. Fun!
DeleteI think my expertise would be organization and time management? HOW BORING IS THAT? But I don't really feel like I'm an expert in anything...
ReplyDeleteI think it is such a gift (and mark of intelligence) when people can explain complicated/potentially boring topics in an interesting way. One of my uncles is a world-famous physicist and every time I hear him talk about his research I want to be a physicist (even though I loathe physics). Even though he is brilliant, he explains things so easily and with genuine excitement, I get pulled right in. On a related note, every time I watch a montage in movies about someone mastering any skill (studying law in Legally Blonde, physical fitness in Rocky, etc, I get SO motivated to do the same thing...until the movie finishes up - haha).
Well, I think if you talked about organization and time management in a compelling enough way, people would listen! There are so many podcasts and YouTube videos about just this topic, so clearly people are interested!
DeleteOne of the reasons I loved working at a university was going to all the lectures about things that I knew nothing about and coming away from those (sometimes obscure) lectures feeling like a pseudo-expert on something I didn't know anything about an hour before. I watched a talk about Tulip Mania in the 1600s and how climate changes impacts women more than men and I still think about those talks all the time!
I love listening to people talk about things they are passionate about! I think I mentioned the podcast We Didn't Start The Fire; on that pod there is a fellow who comes on to talk about boxing. I'm thinking specifically about the Sugar Ray episode. I have no interest in boxing, I am never going to watch boxing, I don't know anything about boxing, and yet this guy was absolutely fascinating. It was one of my favourite episodes because he was just so passionate about it! He was phenomenal to listen to. And I think it's a really good idea generally to listen to what people want to talk about, even if it's not "interesting" to me, because it expands my world a little. So I can see how this lecture would be very appealing! And I'm sure you could lecture on any of those things!
ReplyDeleteYes! I think people who are curious love to listen to things even if they're not exactly in their wheelhouse because it's interesting to think about what makes other people think it's interesting. I'd love to hear you talk about yoga or movement or caring for a giant fuzzy dog for an hour!
DeleteI like how diverse your topics are.
ReplyDeleteHmm...mine would be John Hughes and his movies, perimenopause (sadly), and I couldn't think of a third. Because post-menopausal brain fog. 🤣
I'm enjoying how many people have niche areas of expertise in popular culture, like movies or music. That's so much fun!
DeleteI could talk about interior design from an active amateur's point of view, making some sense of all the contradictory information online. I could talk about fiddling around with recipes, tweaking them to your own specific tastes. I could talk about the good and bad about how people communicate, both in person and online.
ReplyDeleteOh, those are excellent topics. I'd love to be more brave when it comes to tweaking recipes. I generally follow recipes to the letter because I'm nervous I'll ruin the whole thing with any changes. Also, interpersonal communication is always a topic worth examining! You'd be an excellent guest for any lecture series.
DeleteThis is how you know when someone's passionate... when they can talk about something NONSTOP and make YOU excited about it, even though the topic is boring to you LOL and it doesn't even have to be something that is your job.... I think most people are more passionate and knowledgable about things outside of the stuff they do to pay their bills (exceptions exist ;)).
ReplyDeleteI DO think most people are more excited about their "extracurriculars" rather than what they do for a living. I try to ask people about their hobbies ("what do you do for fun?") instead of what they do for paid work.
DeleteWhat a great question! Hmm... apart from all the talking I do for work (literature, gender studies) I really don't know what I could talk about for an *hour*!
ReplyDeleteI think a talk about a subset of what you do for work would be great - poetry, a particular author/thinker - and people would get swept away by your enthusiasm.
DeleteHow interesting! Gosh, what could I talk about for an hour? I know a lot about running, rock painting, and wasting time on social media. Ha.
ReplyDeleteI would actually really be interested in a talk about using social media for marketing! I actually don't know anything about marketing and think it's all mystifying. Is it just guesswork about what people will like? How do you get data about the different platforms? It's all mysterious to me!
DeleteMy literal job is to be a subject matter expert. Reproductive rights is my area of training, but I teach classes about all manner of public address and feminist social movement
ReplyDeleteAh, but work stuff is boring, right? Sure, I can teach a class on my subject area, but it's a lot harder to come up with something fun and interesting for a general audience who didn't register for your class, right?!
DeleteWell my areas of expertise would probably bore you - basically bonds, investing, mutual funds, preferred securities - things like that! I don't think my parents really know what I do for a living. I'm so hesitant to talk about it because I fear it is exceptionally boring to everyone else. I'm trying to talk more about work with my parents because they seem to genuinely want to understand what I do.
ReplyDeleteI give presentations but I do not love that part of my job. I much prefer one-on-one conversations. Unless the presentation can be very dynamic w/ questions/comments from the listeners.
Oh, I love to be the center of attention and give presentations. :)
DeleteI will say that while I do not think your area of expertise sounds riveting, I also sort of thought the Stax Records presentation was going to be boring, so if you do it in an interesting way, it can be exciting!
Some of that might be boring, but you're right...listening to someone with a passion about what they're speaking on would be different.
ReplyDeleteI could go on and on about Butterflies and how to raise them, garden for them, etc...
OOOhhhh! Yes! We had a bee expert do a talk at our lecture series and it was FASCINATING. For that hour, I was convinced I was going to go out and do bumblebee identification. I think a butterfly talk would be super popular and fun!
DeleteOoh, this is fun. I could talk about personality typing all the livelong day. I've actually forced my department at work to find out their enneagram numbers and recently did a presentation on enneagram types at work, specifically as writers. It was SO MUCH FUN! I could also talk about reading for hours.
ReplyDeleteYes, reading is definitely something I could talk about. I could just talk about how to discover books to read for an hour all by itself, let alone getting into genres. I think I could talk pretty coherently about romance, SFF, and historical fiction. Books!
DeleteI find it fascinating that some people went directly to work expertise, while others mentioned, well, other things. Which brings up the question for me - and my answer is, I don't feel like an honest to goodness expert in ANYTHING. Including my work. (Imposter syndrome, much? :>) there is this dopey thing at UW-M called the "Experts database", where you can search for others on campus with self-described expertise on certain topics. I have yet to enter my info in there, because... what on earth can I claim to be an expert on? This is why I hate annual reviews that include self-evals. Hate. Them. So yeah, can't help you here. I can listen, though! I'd be a great audience member for all the other experts! :) (And I would totally come to listen to any of your TED talks. Just sayin...)
ReplyDeleteYes, I purposefully left off things I've actually lectured about for more than an hour in a classroom setting because no one wants to hear me ramble on about the changing nature of racial identities in the United States. No one. I do like it better when people have expertises outside of their workplaces. It reminds me that we're all more than our jobs!
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