Comments on: Talk faster! No, slower!

By: Beth Kanter

Beth Kanter — Thu, 27 Sep 2007 04:09:00 +0000

Hmm .. I’ve never been accused of talking slow. Jon, did you slow down the speed? Maybe it was the jetlag or the fact my latte machine was busted.

Peter, I totally understand what you are saying. I find that I can’t just listen, I have to do something. Whether it is typing or surfing .. rapid attention shifting or add.

I loved the interview .. but I listened to it while I was watching TV and updating my facebook profile .. :-)

By: Jon Udell

Jon Udell — Tue, 25 Sep 2007 22:14:59 +0000

“Just for the record, that was not intended as insult.”

No offense taken, it’s just fascinating to receive two such contrary bits of feedback, and to be reminded that you really can’t please all the people all the time!

“I can always tell when Jon edited the audio because the silence transition was too quick”

That’s a really valuable tip, thanks, I’ll correct for that.

“I don’t think Jon has no pauses in between words.”

He was actually referring to Rohit Khare who has the kind of rapid-fire speech that Peter Williams would probably appreciate.

By: Minh

Minh — Tue, 25 Sep 2007 20:37:55 +0000

I just read Peter King’s comment (maybe I should’ve before agreeing with it). I don’t think Jon has no pauses in between words. I just think pauses between sentences are more important than people realized.

By: Minh

Minh — Tue, 25 Sep 2007 20:34:28 +0000

I tend to agree with Peter King. I used to process audio files for IT conversations, and part of the job was to cut out extraneous pauses. I came to notice that the transition between one speaker (asking a question) to another (answering a question) must have a minimum length to sound natural. I find this length to be about 1 second. I can always tell when Jon edited the audio because the silence transition was too quick :)

And anyone who used to watch “The Gilmore Girls” would also notice the un-natural pace the editors gave the dialogs. There were not enough silence in between lines.

By: Peter Williams

Peter Williams — Tue, 25 Sep 2007 19:11:21 +0000

Just for the record, that was not intended as insult.

As for pauses framing and structuring, perhaps… except that I tend to get distracted during the pauses and then I miss the next three sentences because I am reading my email, or whatever. Perhaps this is just a personal flaw of mine but it is a real issue for me.