XFrequentist comments on More art, less stink: Taking the PU out of PUA - Less Wrong

66 Post author: XFrequentist 10 September 2010 12:25AM

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Comment author: XFrequentist 11 September 2010 05:29:40PM 0 points [-]

I'm still on the fence about Toastmasters, I've heard mixed things.

There's a chapter at my work holding an open house this week, I may go and give them a second chance.

I have some books in mind, but I don't think this is the type of thing where any major gains will come from reading. Many of the authors I like (Cialdini, Carnegie) have already come up in this thread.

Comment author: MartinB 11 September 2010 07:13:12PM 0 points [-]

Groups differ alot! If you live in a big US city, you have many to choose from. If you decide it is not useful, I would like to understand why. It is - as was noted earlier - extensive practice.

Comment author: XFrequentist 11 September 2010 09:13:51PM 1 point [-]

It's practice, but it's non-field practice of a subset of the skills I'm interested in. It might have potential as one among several methods, but I don't think it's sufficient for what I'm after.

Inter-group variability in quality is a good point, I should be more careful to qualify my experience as particular to a single group and not Toastmasters in general.

Comment author: MartinB 12 September 2010 08:01:54AM 0 points [-]

As a side note it might be interesting to note when a group has important study points that you have already ingrained. TM is a point where some people learn to hold and structure meetings, which might or might not be something one already can do.

For the training of abilities I do not think that field experience is the only thing that counts. I would suggest to develop an accurate model of how to learn behavioral changes effectively, because so far there are way to many contradicting ideas.