Saying More by Saying Less
Photo by victor nuno (license)
This past Saturday, I was killing a little time by watching Fantastic 4: Rise of the Silver Surfer. It was predictably cheesy, with the main characters as barely-held-together comic book stereotypes. But what struck me most was the character of the Silver Surfer himself. He only speaks a couple of times through the whole movie. But next to characters who were constantly saying things that were silly or obvious, he was strangely compelling.
Harry has been pointing out the huge volume of useless noise in the blogosphere. It seems as if most everything out there is repeated and rehashed endlessly because people don’t have anything to say. You may feel like you need to constantly be saying something just to be heard. But that’s not necessarily true.
When a room is full of people who can’t stop repeating themselves, it is the person who remains silent that stands out from the crowd.
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It’s funny that you post this - Harry and I often talk about our personality differences and the way we work. I’m out there in the spotlight, making people pay attention, commenting all over, and generally ensuring I’m seen.
Harry stands back. He rarely comments. He doesn’t put himself forth much. He doesn’t like the spotlight. He often says, “When I have something worthwhile, then I’ll say it. Right now, I don’t have anything to say.”
Sure enough, each time he decides to write on something he feels strongly about, people sit up and take notice. Then Harry tells me, “You see? People listen when the person that says little speaks up.”
I’ve found that to be true as well. While I am happy to talk about things I know, I try not to talk much about things I don’t know. Consequently, people seem to take me more seriously when I am actually talking.
@Joshua: This is why I’m not a comment whore. It’s like that old commercial (I can’t remember who it was for, but the tag line sticks in my head) “When X talks, people listen.”
@James: You make me laugh, bro.
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Okay, let’s try this out: