A lot of the problems in my life have to do with convincing people I have talents which I do have, but many people claim to have. I find these situations fascinating.
For instance, suppose Hasbro sacked everyone involved with 4E and was looking to hire a new design team for 5E. You're talking to a manager who has never played an RPG. How would you convince him that you are a better designer than Buhlman? I like to think there are some principles of rationality that carry over--that you could describe your methodology in a way that, say, a non-gaming scientist would recognize as worthwhile.
Admissions and scholarships are another problem. How do you convince a bureaucrat on your college admissions committee that you are likely to have brilliant insights into the meaning of world mythology?
Selling your expertise to laymen
Moderator: Moderators
Be personable. Tell them stuff they didn't know. Don't be condescending about it.
I got max points on a geology poster presentation because I knew stuff about pottery glazes. One of the people present said he'd like to take a pottery class and experiment with different minerals/rocks in the kiln to change the glaze quality and I mentioned how there's an old legend that getting a real, deep red is extremely hard to do. But apparently it happens if you burn something with blood in it, and corpses of animals were were used for the purpose. -Possibly- hematite might do the same job. Other minerals would produce effects that you just couldn't tell.
He was impressed that I was able to suggest stuff like that.
Likewise, I impressed a co-worker. His birthday is on Leap Day, but he'd never knew exactly why you have a leap day. So I explained the 365-days-and-six-hours thing to him. and he was all "I'm 13 and I would NEVER have known that if you hadn't told me".
We joke around that he's not allowed to drink until he's 21.
"I'll be DEAD then."
I got max points on a geology poster presentation because I knew stuff about pottery glazes. One of the people present said he'd like to take a pottery class and experiment with different minerals/rocks in the kiln to change the glaze quality and I mentioned how there's an old legend that getting a real, deep red is extremely hard to do. But apparently it happens if you burn something with blood in it, and corpses of animals were were used for the purpose. -Possibly- hematite might do the same job. Other minerals would produce effects that you just couldn't tell.
He was impressed that I was able to suggest stuff like that.
Likewise, I impressed a co-worker. His birthday is on Leap Day, but he'd never knew exactly why you have a leap day. So I explained the 365-days-and-six-hours thing to him. and he was all "I'm 13 and I would NEVER have known that if you hadn't told me".
We joke around that he's not allowed to drink until he's 21.
"I'll be DEAD then."
Last edited by Maxus on Tue Feb 22, 2011 8:20 am, edited 2 times in total.
He jumps like a damned dragoon, and charges into battle fighting rather insane monsters with little more than his bare hands and rather nasty spell effects conjured up solely through knowledge and the local plantlife. He unerringly knows where his goal lies, he breathes underwater and is untroubled by space travel, seems to have no limits to his actual endurance and favors killing his enemies by driving both boots square into their skull. His agility is unmatched, and his strength legendary, able to fling about a turtle shell big enough to contain a man with enough force to barrel down a near endless path of unfortunates.
--The horror of Mario
Zak S, Zak Smith, Dndwithpornstars, Zak Sabbath. He is a terrible person and a hack at writing and art. His cultural contributions are less than Justin Bieber's, and he's a shitmuffin. Go go gadget Googlebomb!
--The horror of Mario
Zak S, Zak Smith, Dndwithpornstars, Zak Sabbath. He is a terrible person and a hack at writing and art. His cultural contributions are less than Justin Bieber's, and he's a shitmuffin. Go go gadget Googlebomb!
Re: Selling your expertise to laymen
It's just job interviewing. You reference tangible achievements you have, then to 'make it real' wheel out an anecdote.
For example, when discussing client engagement/stakeholder management, I have a specific range of high profile projects that I mention and my role in them, then tell a story about a time I thought I was going to be physically assaulted by a client and managed to talk that around into general happiness with our work to date and some on-sell.
You'll find many people claim to have shit, but can talk through a specific scenario in an engaging way that emphasises their competence.
'Game designing' is a big overarching thing, you'd break that down into skills and go back to why you are the best guy for the job in each category.
For example, when discussing client engagement/stakeholder management, I have a specific range of high profile projects that I mention and my role in them, then tell a story about a time I thought I was going to be physically assaulted by a client and managed to talk that around into general happiness with our work to date and some on-sell.
You'll find many people claim to have shit, but can talk through a specific scenario in an engaging way that emphasises their competence.
'Game designing' is a big overarching thing, you'd break that down into skills and go back to why you are the best guy for the job in each category.
Orion wrote:A lot of the problems in my life have to do with convincing people I have talents which I do have, but many people claim to have. I find these situations fascinating.
For instance, suppose Hasbro sacked everyone involved with 4E and was looking to hire a new design team for 5E. You're talking to a manager who has never played an RPG. How would you convince him that you are a better designer than Buhlman? I like to think there are some principles of rationality that carry over--that you could describe your methodology in a way that, say, a non-gaming scientist would recognize as worthwhile.
Admissions and scholarships are another problem. How do you convince a bureaucrat on your college admissions committee that you are likely to have brilliant insights into the meaning of world mythology?
You know, that's one of the plot twists in Gilbert and Sullivan's Pirates of Penzance. The poor boy who was supposed to be apprentenced to a pilot and instead was apprentenced to a pirate was under contractual oblication until his 21st birthday, (as opposed to being 21 years of age) and having been born on the leap day, was stuck for most of his life in the profession. (Fortunately the pirates all surrendered, because of the invocation of the name of Queen Victoria, and since it was discovered that they were all noblemen gone wrong, all crimes were pardoned and they went into government.)Maxus wrote:We joke around that he's not allowed to drink until he's 21.
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Draco_Argentum
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