I’m quiet. Kind of by accident. I’m uncomfortable in large groups, and I don’t tend to naturally find the space to say what I mean during conversations. So I listen more.
Plus, other people always have much more interesting things to say than me. Especially to me, since I already know what I’m about to say
I don’t wanna go psychoanalysis on you but that’s how I was brought up too. Family conversations are about the family business. And I’m not part of it, even remotely. I get it. They would shut up if the conversation was about websites and social media. It’s nothing personal. So I’m the one who shuts up.
That’s why it came as a huge surprise when I discovered that I was, in fact, a big yapper.
How did I discover that you’ll ask ? Well, in hindsight, the blogging and singing could have been big clues. The language learning too. But it was AI.
The dictation. Wow. What a revolution that was for me.
I started yapping about everything and anything, everywhere I could ! (and I optimise for solitude so I hang out in a lot yapping-friendly places)
My favorite way to yap is while walking now. That’s another revolution. I was not someone prone to movement in general. (Do I sound fun or what lol)
Yapping walks. Yapping laying on the sofa. Yapping workouts. Yapping cooking. Yapping before bed. Yapping while rolling a spiky ball in my palms.
(I yap with Monologue, by Every, which I already mentioned today in business model detours)
I’ll tell you one weird thing though. Good dictation made me a yapper but it did not make me a transcript reader.
I could yap without the little magic robot turning the audio into a long and windy wall of text that I’ll never read back. But I don’t. I did not. And I probably won’t.
I need the.. something to listen. Not even me, I don’t listen most of the time, I just flow yap for sports.
It does bring me benefits in other ways. I now know I always have something to say. Ive trained myself to not have to always be so literal and serious about what I say. It has improved my conversation skills (finding space to speak in groups is still challenging but I can hold much longer conversations now). I’m more at ease.
Neil deGrasse said : “hardly any sentence comes out of my mouth, unless I’ve written it before”
Well I think I’m like that with yapping. Yapping was my door to say more stuff.
Not that it solved everything. I still would love to :
- make YouTube videos without a full script
- be more articulate when I share something outside my area of expertise
- not say ‘euh’ so much (French “hm”)
- stumble less on my words (especially the language mixing type of stumble, and especially in front of my mother)
Ah well, progress was made. And it shall be made again.
What astonishes me, though, is that I grew up not knowing that about myself ! Imagine that. 34 years not knowing I could enjoy yapping that much.