Kernel Recipes 2025
It is my honor to be designated as Godfather of the 2025 edition of Kernel Recipes. The conference organizers made it quite clear that they would like some focus on increasing the speaking skills of the presenters. This blog series is a first step in that direction.
Now, I freely admit that I cannot claim to be the best speaker in the Linux-kernel community. Nor can anyone else, given the wide range of skills that contribute to the overarching skill of public speaking. The probability of anyone being the best at all of them is extremely low.
Goal and Means
Which leads me to a possibly apocryphal story about the great American composer George Gershwin, who is said to have sought lessons from the great French composer Maurice Ravel. Ravel reportedly refused, asking Gershwin why he would want to be a second-rate Ravel when he was already a first-rate Gershwin. Like Ravel, my goal is not to make you be a second-rate Paul E. McKenney, but rather to help you take the next step towards being the best that you can be, not be constrained by my limitations.
So why a public blog series?
Improving speaking skills takes time, and some speakers will not be identified until a few months before the conference. So if I am to give all potential Kernel Recipes speakers six months to prepare, I must reach out to to everyone, especially you.
But Why Improve Public Speaking?
First, let me be very clear: Improving your public-speaking ability is a choice, not necessarily an imperative. After all, such improvement will consume time and energy that might better invested elsewhere, for example in improving coding skills. Not only that, but there are prominent Linux-kernel community members who do not do much public speaking, perhaps more prominently Linus Torvalds. I have never heard Linus do a public presentation (other than his periodic Q&A sessions), but he has clearly mastered effective communication. Nevertheless, this document is aimed at Kernel Recipes, and will therefore focus on presentations.
On the other hand, (1) presentation skills stay with you through life, and (2) small improvements in presentation skills over months or years can provide you with great advantages longer term. An old saying credited to Thomas Edison claims a breakdown of 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration. However, my own experience with RCU has instead been 0.1% inspiration, 9.9% perspiration, and 90% communication. Had I been unable to communicate effectively, others would have extreme difficulty using RCU, as in even more difficulty than they do now.
Nevertheless, improving speaking skills might not be your highest priority just now. However, if you already speak regularly, before deciding not to improve, you owe it to yourself (and your future audiences) to watch a video of one of your talks. I do this from time to time, and I find that this helps shatter any delusions of adequacy that I might be harboring. On the other hand, it also highlights improvements over time.
What To Do?
Should you decide to work on your public speaking, here are a few blog posts to help you along: