Image by guendal via Flickr
I was working this morning in Starbucks, and overheard a conversation between and a young woman and an older one. Possibly a mentor relationship, but what struck me was the older woman’s comments about working with a travel agent: “…she works for you… ask for a breakdown… itemized… you are in charge…” etc. All of these comments are valid, and true. But it made me consider the value we put on expertise. Or the lack of value in many cases.
The internet has allowed all of us access to information that was formerly the domain of “experts.” However, we seem to have forgotten that information does not equate to expertise. The value in a professional relationship is not only in the information, but in the expertise that puts that information to work for you.
And this is the reason just telling jokes doesn’t always work well. If jokes are knowledge then the internet is the motherlode. Any one can find any joke about any thing at any time. Fat jokes and skinny jokes, puns and shaggy dog stories. Jokes you can tell at church and jokes that would make a pervert cringe. It’s all out there, (and that’s where a lot of it should stay!)
Use your knowledge of your audience, the topic, and the situation to develop possibly appropriate humor. And then use your expertise to select what will work best for you and your style.
Carefully pick and choose your humor using your knowledge and expertise. Some will come from late night television, some will come from magazines, some from the radio and some from personal experience.
Where it comes from is not so important as how you present it. The best humor won’t work if you can’t present it well.
Better a simple story than a complicated one if that is what works best for you.
Over time, you’ll get better.
If speaking, practice speaking aloud. If you can’t say it clearly, if you stumble over the words, it isn’t going to work as well, and may not work at all.
A coach can help. Buying expertise is perfectly acceptable. Make sure anyone you work with has your best interests in mind, rather than just filling time writing jokes until their next gig.
There is an old story about a multi-million dollar power plant that had mysteriously ground to a halt. All efforts to restart it had failed and an expert was brought in. After studying the problem for a few minutes he took a hammer and hit one of the valves. With a rumble, the plant came back to life. Incredulous glances were shared, grateful cries and high-fives were exchanged. Later, the expert’s bill arrived for the amount of $10,000.00. The outraged executive in charge thought “All he did was hit a valve with a hammer, this bill is ridiculous.” he asked for an itemized breakdown and the consultant responded with a bill that read: “Hitting valve with hammer $10.00. Knowing which valve to hit: $9,990.00.”
The value of expertise.
The internet has made it easy to find a flight, book a hotel, order parts or download gigabytes of jokes, but it is still impossible to download expertise. That still has to be learned and earned.
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As always, your commnets are encouraged and appreciated.
More later.
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on Oct 22nd, 2008 at 2:46 am
I certainly agree. When it comes to knowledge, the internet has reshaped the landscape forever. But it is not information which should be inhaled with reckless abandon, it must be filtered because it is literally a free market and cannot always be trusted. Therefore, it cannot be considered as expertise.
on Oct 22nd, 2008 at 8:23 am
Dan,
I did not know you worked at Starbucks! Which one?
Eve
on Oct 22nd, 2008 at 9:32 am
Jacqueline: Thanks for the comment, you sound like an astute, intelligent judge of material. (And I am not just saying that about you because you agree with me, I say that about everyone who agrees with me.)
Eve: I work AT Starbucks sometimes, but I don’t work FOR Starbucks. Sorry for the confusion. No free coffee I’m afraid.
on Oct 23rd, 2008 at 2:58 pm
I agree with you. I also feel that the internet has cheapened the definition of ‘expert’. For example, just because I might have been blogging since 1999 (no, I actually haven’t) doesn’t make me an expert at blogging necessarily. I might be doing the same idiotic things I had been doing the whole time.
on Oct 23rd, 2008 at 9:25 pm
Good point. For some people ten year’s experience just means they repeated the first year ten times.
I stopped by your blog today… I am one of the loser blogs who haven’t commented yet. But that will change.
Thanks for commenting.
on Oct 24th, 2008 at 4:08 pm
Aren’t they going to start giving out college degrees from reading Wikipedia? If so, I’m half-way to my associates. (2.5 GPA)
I have a lot of original content, and can tell jokes and funny stories aloud with the best…but the delivery is sometimes…icky in writing. That’s why I started blogging…to improve it.
on Oct 24th, 2008 at 10:21 pm
Thanks Matt,
I really like your posts on That Tears It, your post on the five hottest TV babes from your childhood TV watching days is classic, and you are entirely correct Soleil Moon Frye is definitely still on the list.
I am strongest speaking aloud myself. Many times I read written material to see if it flows when I speak. I feel if it flows when I say it, it should flow when people read it as well. Past that, I am learning just like you.
on Nov 1st, 2008 at 6:57 pm
Great post Dan. I have really had to work on translating myself on paper. In general, I am very expressive when I talk and I use my hands a lot! I try very hard when I’m writing to be that expressive without totally losing my readers. It’s definitely harder to express yourself on paper, but I think that I am doing fairly well. No expert of course. I’m learning as I go.
on Mar 9th, 2011 at 10:58 pm
lol. I work at Starbucks a lot too..I think more than some of the people who actually work for the company.