This morning, I had the opportunity to speak to the Northern California Grantmakers’ meeting, which was a fantastic chance for me to speak to a group of people who really help make society better.

Among the many warm, intelligent people I met this morning was Lucy Berhholz. She very kindly blogged a lot of my presentation, but also made me really happy by pointing out a horrible cultural assumption I made while talking:

on timeframes and multi-tasking. His example: being in a meeting getting interrupted by an email newsletter that breaks his train of thought about the email he was looking for. Most of the audience is of a generation that uses email to be less intrusive than the phone.

Lucy’s post is great, it even includes audio of the presentation. I pride myself on trying to not talk about things that are too insular or too geeky for an audience, but here I revealed myself for the geek I am. These reminders are really helpful if you’re trying to not simply talk to people who are just like yourself.