Entertaining
I threw my first independent, unsupervised , bombastic New Year party when I was 15. It was one hour before the winter break, I was secretly in love, and I did not want to let the girl go away from me for such a long time. I wanted to see her again, see her soon, but I did not have the guts to ask her out. So right there and then, I decided to improvise a party.
But remember, we're talking about Soviet Russia here. I did not have a big house to invite the guests over. We lived in a 1 bedroom apartment I did not have funds to sponsor a bombastic event. I wasn't old enough to buy alcohol. And worst of all, It was the first year of high school, in a special physics and mathematics honors program, and I had no idea if I was cool enough to throw a party...
Ladies and gentlemen, do you ever entertain an idea of trowing a party? Do you entertain guests? Do you want to be a more entertaining speaker?
Today I'll show you three approaches to entertainment. I used the first approach when I was 15, 1 hour before the winter break.
What do you do if you don't have money, don't have a place, don't have a reputation, but have a burning desire to entertain?
You become selective.
You see, there are two reasons a person can be inclusive: either the person has unlimited resources or the person did not make up his mind. Either way it's not very effective. People value exclusivity.
We were sitting in the class, people were talking to each other, and I was hand-picking 'the cool kids'. In a nerdy class, in the 80's, after just three months of classes nobody bothered to create a social structure, and I was building it on the fly. People knew something was going on, but I was very discrete.
20 minutes later, we had separated the cool kids from everybody else, and one of the girls had an apartment to spare, one boy had an older brother who could get us booze, but most importantly, everyone who got in was so psyched to be in, because everybody else was out!
When I was 17... It was an awful New Years. The party was very inclusive, but had too much alcohol and too little food. The morning after I woke up and said: NEVER AGAIN. So one year later I used the second tool for entertainment: Preparation.
So one year later. Before the New Years party, in the dorm I told my roommates about the perils of parties that have more booze than food, and We started a cooking marathon. During the New Years, our room became the most popular party because we actually had food. The more you prepare , the better your party will be.
When I am 41... I don't have many chances to be selective, And I don't have so much time for preparation. And that leaves me with the third resource for entertainment.
What do you do if your cool friend's wife is not cool? What do you do if they have kids who do many things that are totally uncool? You can't be selective. What if after full workweek your son has a birthday and at the last moment he decides to invite the entire class instead of 4 friends? You can't be prepared enough.
What do you do?
There's just one option left for you: Be kind. Today I feel like I could have been more selective with my words, but that's the words I had. I could be more prepared, but I volunteered to give a speech at the last moment. But the overall message of my speech is kind and you're a kind audience, so please pretend that you're entertained.
But remember, we're talking about Soviet Russia here. I did not have a big house to invite the guests over. We lived in a 1 bedroom apartment I did not have funds to sponsor a bombastic event. I wasn't old enough to buy alcohol. And worst of all, It was the first year of high school, in a special physics and mathematics honors program, and I had no idea if I was cool enough to throw a party...
Ladies and gentlemen, do you ever entertain an idea of trowing a party? Do you entertain guests? Do you want to be a more entertaining speaker?
Today I'll show you three approaches to entertainment. I used the first approach when I was 15, 1 hour before the winter break.
What do you do if you don't have money, don't have a place, don't have a reputation, but have a burning desire to entertain?
You become selective.
You see, there are two reasons a person can be inclusive: either the person has unlimited resources or the person did not make up his mind. Either way it's not very effective. People value exclusivity.
We were sitting in the class, people were talking to each other, and I was hand-picking 'the cool kids'. In a nerdy class, in the 80's, after just three months of classes nobody bothered to create a social structure, and I was building it on the fly. People knew something was going on, but I was very discrete.
20 minutes later, we had separated the cool kids from everybody else, and one of the girls had an apartment to spare, one boy had an older brother who could get us booze, but most importantly, everyone who got in was so psyched to be in, because everybody else was out!
When I was 17... It was an awful New Years. The party was very inclusive, but had too much alcohol and too little food. The morning after I woke up and said: NEVER AGAIN. So one year later I used the second tool for entertainment: Preparation.
So one year later. Before the New Years party, in the dorm I told my roommates about the perils of parties that have more booze than food, and We started a cooking marathon. During the New Years, our room became the most popular party because we actually had food. The more you prepare , the better your party will be.
When I am 41... I don't have many chances to be selective, And I don't have so much time for preparation. And that leaves me with the third resource for entertainment.
What do you do if your cool friend's wife is not cool? What do you do if they have kids who do many things that are totally uncool? You can't be selective. What if after full workweek your son has a birthday and at the last moment he decides to invite the entire class instead of 4 friends? You can't be prepared enough.
What do you do?
There's just one option left for you: Be kind. Today I feel like I could have been more selective with my words, but that's the words I had. I could be more prepared, but I volunteered to give a speech at the last moment. But the overall message of my speech is kind and you're a kind audience, so please pretend that you're entertained.