How to Speak

Background

Around 40 years ago, Professor Patrick Henry Winston ’65, SM ’67, PhD ’70 gave his first talk on How to Speak. As he wrote in this Slice of MIT article from 2010:

Robert Sjoberg, SM ’81, made me do it.

We were sitting in my office, whining about somebody's horrible lectures, when he said, “You should do an IAP class on how to speak.”

“No,” I said, “I've never given a lecture I rate at better than a B+; I'd be depressed for a month afterward; it would take a week to prepare; and, besides, nobody would come.”

“I'll come," he said.

Actually, that first edition of How to Speak drew about 100. This past week about 250 showed up. It's a little hard to say exactly because [the lecture hall] officially seats 150 and perhaps another 100 sat on the stairs and floor or stood in the back or watched from the hall.

It became so popular, in fact, that the annual talk had to be limited to the first 300 participants. Every year, Professor Winston improved upon the talk. As he put it, "There is much more now, of course, because I keep learning new things. I've added techniques for passing oral exams, delivering successful job-interview talks, and ensuring that ideas become as famous as they ought to be.

Outline