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What are some outlets that technically-skilled people can partake in to get experience in the "persuasion coursework" he describes? I'm a CS undergrad and dabble in probably half of his list in my downtime, but would like to get more experience with sales, economics, and general persuasiveness. Dabbling in groups like Toastmasters comes to mind, but what are some others?

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2 suggestions:

1. Here are some good books on psychology (specifically behavioral change): http://astore.amazon.com/iwillteachyou-20?_encoding=UTF8&...

2. Hang out with persuasive friends. Try to understand the meta-lessons of what they do. You can ask them, but often people don't have cognitive access to explain what they do, so sometimes you'll just have to observe.

When you combine theory with practice, you can get powerful results.

I highly recommend Dale Carnegie's "How to Win Friends and Influence People". This book goes a long way towards explaining a bunch of these skills and shows you both how to do them and why they work. It was probably the non-technical book that advanced my programming career the most.

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