Patrick Collison is always interesting to read, but the 103 occurrences of "kind of" and 54 of "you know" remind me why I tend to avoid podcasts.
Polish of delivery is just a nice to have feature, substance matters most of all.
I've attended public speaking courses, which tend to emphasize polish, but seeing some of the most effective speakers using fillers like 'ums' 'ahs' and 'you know' just goes to show polish doesn't matter all that much. Reality supersedes theory.
> Most of the smartest people I know lean on these verbal crutches
Yes, “most” smart people never spend much deliberate effort on improving verbal communication. (Just like “most” smart people never put deliberate effort into their cooking skills, or their running form, or their mental calculation speed, or their tree climbing, or their drawing, ....)
There are a lot of skills people might choose to work on, and only so much time, and if you pick any particular one (unless it is something unavoidable for most adults like eating or reading), you will find most people to be unpracticed at it.
But that doesn’t mean intellectuals shouldn’t work on verbal communication skills.
I never suggested otherwise.
I listened to this podcast and rarely read transcripts. When listening to podcasts, at least for me, the "umms" and "awws" allow me time to think about what is being said.
If you prefer reading. Read the article that the interview is based upon: https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2018/11/diminish...
And Stubborn Attachments by Tyler Cowen: https://www.amazon.com/Stubborn-Attachments-Prosperous-Respo...
I did read the article when it came out. The interesting part here is the way the presenter might challenge some of the contents of the article.