WAIT. WAIST. — What Elders Know: Part One
Episode Summary: Mark explores Off-Topic Verbosity (OTV), a scientifically documented phenomenon in which older adults wander from topic to topic. He shares a conversation with his friend Becky that sparked the realization, introduces the CIA's WAIT and WAIST acronyms for managing conversation, and explains how his AI team uses the walk-and-talk method to extract his weekly stories.
Key Topics:
Off-Topic Verbosity (OTV) research
Why less coherent speakers tell better stories
CIA interview techniques: WAIT and WAIST
The walk-and-talk process with AI agents Bruce and Sarah
Context-dependent communication strategies
Notable Quotes:
"The wandering isn't a bug. It's a feature."
"WAIT: Why Am I Talking? WAIST: Why Am I Still Talking?"
"The condition doesn't go away. The awareness just gets sharper."
Links:
Part Two: Become a Sherpa (next Sunday)
Coastal Intelligence: coastalintelligence.ai
TEDx Santa Barbara: tedxsantabarbara.com
SOURCE CITATIONS
OTV Research: James, L.E., et al. (1998). "Production and perception of verbosity in younger and older adults." Psychology and Aging.
Semantic Knowledge Study: "Older people produce less coherent speech because they have a larger set of semantic knowledge to select from." — eLife research summary
Gender Differences in OTV: Research on emotion recognition and verbosity in older men vs. women (PMC studies)
CIA MasterClass: "The Art of Intelligence" featuring Dawn Meyerriecks (former Deputy Director CIA for Science and Technology)
WAIT Acronym: Common in leadership/coaching circles, featured in CIA interview training
WAIST Acronym: Extension of the WAIT concept, from the same MasterClass source
