Mr. Gates
February 20th, 2008
Bill Gates was on campus today, so I went to his speech about “Software, Innovation, Entrepreneurship and Giving Back.”
It was decent. He played a longer cut of his hilarious “last day at Microsoft” video from CES 2008. Better yet, he didn’t use any PowerPoint slides!
The novice speaker will attempt to answer the actual question during audience Q&A. The expert speaker will simply use the question as a starting point to talk about some other topic with which they have greater comfort; a clear answer to the original question is not required. Bill was a professional: he didn’t give one straight answer during the Q&A part of the presentation.
The link is broken. It’s right now http//www.youtube.com/watch?v=i1M-IafCor4&feature=related
Thanks for the video link! I’ve actually never until now seen that.
Fretting about this is rather like complaining about the heat – but what you wrote touched a nerve so here goes…
In ‘The Fog of War’, Robert McNamara championed the idea that you should always answer the question that you wish you were asked, never the actual one. He, as I, could not recall exactly where that pearl of “wisdom” came from, but it seems gained a general level of acceptance that chafes against my notion of what I think a free and open society should aspire to in our discourse. The people who lack the courage to answer tough questions, or worse, lack the faith that the audience is intelligent enough to digest their answer for what it is – bother me.
The acceptance and in some cases admiration of somebody who obfuscates genuine inquiry (as opposed to have you beat your wife lately? type questions) bewilders me. It’s bad enough there’s been a noticeable decline in the overall quality of discourse (Chris Matthews, et al) making one go out of one’s way just to find vaild inquiry into important subjects* as opposed to whatever zips in the 24hr news cycle. But now, Presidential debates have succumbed to the idea that the public cannot synthesize an answer longer than a minute or two – sometimes reverting to “show of hands”* questions.
Before we blame the questioner for ridiculously simple questions – are we as an audience not guilty of a failure to demand forthrightness from those pushing ideas in the public marketplace? It seems that everyone has resigned themselves to the fact that our best and brightest, if given the opportunity to expand on a question will just bs the question away. As a result it seems logical that through frustration – we/the press have tried to squelch such opportunities by asking oversimplified questions or offering false choices as to nail down a concrete answer. This of course discourages important questions that involve nuance.
I’m confident I will be accused, and justifiably found guilty of conflating Bill Gates and presentation Q&A with political discourse, but I see some of the ideas you have hinted at appear in the evaluation of our civic leaders as well and I find it bothersome.
I appreciate what I interpret the tone of your last line is: people who don’t give straight answers are best called out on the practice. But I had a difficult time deciphering if the whole paragraph was tongue in cheek. Maybe you can correct me? But, certainly those who give eloquent, thoughtful, answers to the actual questions they have been asked are not “novices”?.
*www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2007/12/22/candidates_on_executive_power_a_full_spectrum/?page=1%22%3Esent%20out%20a%20questionnaire
**www.youtube.com/watch?v=yUn8GSbUl_4&feature=related
Though I did not have politics in mind, I agree that the principles apply.
I wrote the commentary out of disdain for the practice. The characterization of “novice” and “expert” speakers was, of course, an intentional oversimplification. There are evasive novices and direct experts, but I find that my generalization is all too often accurate.
Aside from politics, I notice evasive Q&A sessions to be especially prevalent in corporate America. Perhaps the modern roles of executives as PR men and politicians has infected them with the practice.
It is a sad commentary on the state of the world today when not answering a question is considered “expert speaking”. I think it is a load of crap. It is actually easier to not answer a question than it is to give a good honest answer. I think it is not “expert speaking” at all, but the lowest quality of speaking that exists. It is rude and doesn’t respect the questioner. It is a technique, to avoid answering, it is not expert speaking. I know many people practice this technique, and have studied it for years. I recognize its nuances It is up to the people who ask the questions now to stop accepting this avoidance technique as legitimate answers.