this post was submitted on 16 Apr 2024
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[–] johannesvanderwhales 8 points 10 months ago (3 children)

I'm more prone to making the slides be my notes, possibly with data-driven visual aids. 3-5 short bullet points per slide is usually reasonable. I don't actually give a lot of presentations these days, though.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 10 months ago (2 children)

I take this to the extreme: my slides have little to no text, or even white space. Each slide is basically a collage for pointing at while I rant about the thing. I'm a mechanical engineer, so I also imitate the sounds the machine makes.

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[–] mkwt 6 points 10 months ago (10 children)

CDR time!

(except I've had CDRs that were scheduled for a full work week, 40 hours)

[–] apocalypticat 6 points 10 months ago

You had a 40-hour Colonoscopy Debris Removal procedure? Big ups to you!

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[–] [email protected] 6 points 10 months ago

One of my side projects at work is to record training presentations and I try to be so conscious about this--both trying to avoid the word salad slides, and also trying to make my lecture not just reading the slide word-for-word but actually explaining and expanding on the slide content (with my verbal lecture transcribed as a note in the slide and handed out for anybody who might be hard of hearing/doesn't want to sit through a 30-minute video)

[–] taiyang 5 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Ugh, I always tell students to avoid this.

That said it reminds me of Larry David on Conan podcast of how he got out of a movie test screening. "I've got one question and then I've gotta go...".

Ah, treasures, both of them.

[–] smowtenshi 8 points 10 months ago (2 children)

I remember back in high school my teachers would always warn students for doing presentations like that, yet all of them did exactly the same thing. And it was even worse in university, when we had to listen to 2 hours presentation read word by word with monotone voice.

[–] taiyang 3 points 10 months ago

Yup! I even tell them to experiment a little because they get full points either way (my logic is, the social pressure alone is enough to get a good effort, and usually that's true lol).

It's because they didn't trust their ability to remember stuff. But when I lecture, I'm often elaborating beyond the bulletpoints, engaging my audience with questions, making eye contact, etc, so it's not like I'm not setting a good example. I guess my university it's just too late to teach?

[–] ours 3 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (2 children)

Ugh the monotone voice is the worst. A colleague of mine does that. If you are making a presentation and you sound bored all the way through, guess how your audience is going to feel?

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 10 months ago

Rather than simply give you a piece of text to read, they do it like this so that you can't scan it to figure out what is actually important and focus on that. Every moment and detail must be indulged to the full.

Proper dickhead move.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 10 months ago (3 children)

I always feel obligated to reword so it doesn't seem like I'm reading off the slide. But then people are reading the slide and listening at the same time and I'm not sure it's better.

[–] droans 7 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (1 children)

If the slide has all the information, then it's a poor slide deck.

The slides are supposed to be an outline. The rule of thumb is max seven lines and max seven words per line.

Here's a couple examples.

Good slide:

  • Revenue: -10% vs Estimate
  • Industry trends
  • Low demand for new products
  • Strong demand for XYZ

Also good slide, depending on who you're presenting to:

  • Revenue: -10% vs Estimate
  • Industry: -3%
  • New products: -30%
  • XYZ: +4%

Bad slide:

  • Revenue is 10% below estimate
  • Industry has seen a 3% drop in sales
  • New products ABC and MNO have had a 30% lower demand than we expected
  • Product XYZ has higher demand than anticipated with sales 4% higher than estimate

All the extra information on the bad slide can be delivered by the presenter. It's not necessary on the slide. The slide is for people to glance at to assist them during and after the presentation and to help them anchor themselves in the discussion.

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