I recently went to a lecture that I wanted to leave even before it began. There was something about the speaker’s monotone voice and the stuffy setting of the room that made me certain in advance that I wasn’t going to be interested by this talk. Nevertheless, I stuck around.

I won’t pretend that the talk didn’t bore me. That monotone voice never improved. I was restless throughout much of the lecture. The topic was green building which is something that interests me but the way that the topic was approached by this particular speaker just couldn’t keep my attention. Throughout the event, I kept looking at the clock on my cell phone and wondering how rude it would be to spend the hour texting people.

However, after I left the lecture, I discovered that I had learned a little bit. I met a friend for lunch and was telling her how boring the talk had been. Then I found myself saying that at least I had learned something interesting about green lighting. Suddenly I found myself discussing the pros and cons of high pressure sodium light bulbs and giving my friend some information about what a metal halide ballast is. I didn’t know that until I went to the talk. This just goes to show that you can learn something from anything even if you aren’t really trying too hard.

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