Talking Drivel

You know you've been spending too much time alone in the house with the cats when human faces start looking surprisingly bald, and lacking in triangular ears.

Anyway. It seems that writing talks is surprisingly difficult -- particularly talks to a lay audience about your academic research. Who would have imagined?

I read my first attempt to B. last night, and after ten minutes she pointed out the following:

1. It isn't a lecture.
2. The audience aren't going to be examining me.
3. They won't have been supplied beforehand with a comprehensive bibliography from which to arm themselves with counterarguments against which I need to defend myself pre-emptively.
4. They're likely to respond better to someone talking to them in a friendly, informal manner than to someone who constructs a full and watertight argument with plenty of citations and supporting evidence.

...all of which would seem, rather irritatingly, to be true, and means I've wasted a week's work.

For God's sake, Why does nobody ever TELL me these COMPLETELY OBVIOUS, COMMON-SENSE FACTS?