Control
There are two ways to convince people that you are intelligent.
Talk fast.
Or talk slow.
Fast talkers overwhelm you with the sheer quantity of information they can project. Surely someone that talks this fast must also be able to think fast!
Slow talkers convince you of their wisdom by gradually withdrawing their responses from the depths of knowledge.
The slow talker and the fast talker share a common talent:
Control.
The fast talker controls the conversation by ploughing over all obstacles. Other people’s thoughts are shoved aside before the onslaught. The fast talker is always on the edge of going out of control, of spiraling off into incoherence or circuity. But the talent of the fast talker lies in staying just below that threshold, and generating a pulsing stream of discourse at the threshold of listeners’ comprehension.
The slow talker, on the other hand, controls the conversation by forcing everyone else to stop and listen. The slow talker can remain silent for most of a session, and then, finally opening his or her mouth, can change the entire structure of the conversation through sheer force of will. The slow talker’s talent is to speak with a richness, and a pregnancy of meaning, that sweeps aside other people’s words as but a pale reflection of the underlying Truth.
In this ever-changing universe,
the successful are those who can
create some measure of certainty and
familiarity. Intelligence is the ability
to see the emerging patterns as they form;
to slow, if only for an instant,
the hurtling mass of reality to a point
that is comprehensible to others.