The hippie's doing a news conference now and every other fucking word is uhh uhh. You're supposed to be educated and every other word is uhh.  He's a master bullshiter so the shit should flow out of his mouth with ease. Why do
people always do this instead of just pausing instead of saying uhh uhh.  It's annoying.  Just saying, rant over.

at least you're not standing there in the sun at attention

Here comes Pogo.....


I think Pogo Poge was smarter!

It's an interesting psychological need.  When you are having a conversation, you only hold attention as long as there are sounds coming out of your mouth.  When the sounds stop, someone else can start making sounds and pull attention.  Your lizard brain realizes this, and craves attention, because attention equals importance and/or acceptance.  Therefore, it is less important to worry about what the sounds are than it is to just keep making them. 

The term, if you study communication, is vocal interference.  It's something that public speakers need to learn to overcome, but make no mistake, it's not a learned behavior, it's an instinctive one.  Just like crying or yelling or whimpering when you are hurt is instinctive.

Here's a challenge to you: carry around a recorder, and spend a week using it constantly. You don't have to be sneaky, or use it when inappropriate, but put it in your shirt pocket and just let it run.  Forget it's even there.  Then, after the week is over, spot check yourself.  My bet is you'll be surprised at how many meaningless noises you make while gathering your thoughts.

Now, carry this through to the next logical conclusion.  Vocal interferences happen when your mouth is outrunning your thoughts.  This does not happen on prepared speeches unless the speaker is suffering anxiety.  So, either the hippie was not using a prepared speech, or was suffering anxiety over the content of that prepared speech.

It's an interesting psychological need.  When you are having a conversation, you only hold attention as long as there are sounds coming out of your mouth.  When the sounds stop, someone else can start making sounds and pull attention.  Your lizard brain realizes this, and craves attention, because attention equals importance and/or acceptance.  Therefore, it is less important to worry about what the sounds are than it is to just keep making them. 

The term, if you study communication, is vocal interference.  It's something that public speakers need to learn to overcome, but make no mistake, it's not a learned behavior, it's an instinctive one.  Just like crying or yelling or whimpering when you are hurt is instinctive.

Here's a challenge to you: carry around a recorder, and spend a week using it constantly. You don't have to be sneaky, or use it when inappropriate, but put it in your shirt pocket and just let it run.  Forget it's even there.  Then, after the week is over, spot check yourself.  My bet is you'll be surprised at how many meaningless noises you make while gathering your thoughts.


Now, carry this through to the next logical conclusion.  Vocal interferences happen when your mouth is outrunning your thoughts.  This does not happen on prepared speeches unless the speaker is suffering anxiety.  So, either the hippie was not using a prepared speech, or was suffering anxiety over the content of that prepared speech.

Or uhh uhh uhh he's 76 years old. I just hope I'm friggn alive at 76!

It's an interesting psychological need.  When you are having a conversation, you only hold attention as long as there are sounds coming out of your mouth.  When the sounds stop, someone else can start making sounds and pull attention.

One of the gifts of being a semi-deaf olde-farte: you no longer give a shiite if anyone pays attention to you. 

Just walk away, got better things to do!

Like, uhhh, see what I'm sayin'?

That umming and ahhhing sometimes bothers me when I'm watching an informational video (YouTube or other).  OK, they're knowledgeable and informative, and not professional speakers, but a run-through from a written script  before the camera is turned on would be very helpful.

I've had a number of occasions where I had to teach or lecture (no, I'm not a professional teacher) on various subjects and I always prepared with a written guide to hold or have on the lectern or table while speaking.  Not that I read from it directly, but it was right there as a guide.

Another thing I found* was that if you're going to use a numerical example, work out the problem in advance no matter how simple or trivial it is.  In these cases, I would start with something like "Let's pick a number, ohh, just plucking one from the air, say, 132," and write it on the board.

But you can bet the number wasn't just "plucked from the air."  The problem had been thoroughly worked out in advance.

And sometimes to keep the class attention, I'd  say something like, "OK, so that works out to 147 times 34... anyone got a calculator?" and write down the class's answer**.... knowing it in advance anyhow, of course.

I've seen a couple of tutorial videos where the speaker screwed up, and had to put overlays on the screen for corrections.  Deucedly annoying.

Terry, 230RN

* Through trial and very embarrassing error.   

** 4,989