Dear non-native English speakers (I am one too :).
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I know. Quite some of you prefer to have it all spelled out. Others (like me) prefer to talk freely, with just a few bullet points in the speaker notes. That takes experience (not talent!) to do. But it is so worth it. It allows you to react immediately to the (unconscious) feedback of your audience. It makes for better presentations. It's never about the slides. It's not about a perfect text you've prepared. It's about you. The audience wants to know who you are and why you care!
2/3
@jwildeboer One of the best presentations I have ever witnessed had no slides at all. It was them (Ed Yong) just talking, and not on a simple, easy to understand topic either. Not something I'd have the courage to ever do but a goal worth aiming for if you have the talent for it.
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I know. Quite some of you prefer to have it all spelled out. Others (like me) prefer to talk freely, with just a few bullet points in the speaker notes. That takes experience (not talent!) to do. But it is so worth it. It allows you to react immediately to the (unconscious) feedback of your audience. It makes for better presentations. It's never about the slides. It's not about a perfect text you've prepared. It's about you. The audience wants to know who you are and why you care!
2/3
@jwildeboer that's how I (used to do) my slidedecks
no more then three short phrases per slide, me talking about what's there
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@jwildeboer One of the best presentations I have ever witnessed had no slides at all. It was them (Ed Yong) just talking, and not on a simple, easy to understand topic either. Not something I'd have the courage to ever do but a goal worth aiming for if you have the talent for it.
@JonnyT As an old friend used to say "You either have something to say or you have slides"
My slides typically look nice but don't have much content. I rather focus on writing a white paper that I can link to on the final slide 
I also did many presentations with 3 slides. Slide 1: Title and who am I, Slide 2: max 3 bullet points on the topic. Slide 3: Thank you and links. Yes, needs experience to work, but is so, so satisfying as it gives you freedom on stage -
Dear non-native English speakers (I am one too :). Your presentations do not get better when you let ChatGPT or another LLM go over your speaker notes before presenting. Trust yourself. Be yourself. Your audience is forgiving. But when I notice you are just reading what the LLM has strung together, you lose my attention
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@jwildeboer I'm dropping of at this point: But when I notice you are just reading... This presentation could have been an email
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I know. Quite some of you prefer to have it all spelled out. Others (like me) prefer to talk freely, with just a few bullet points in the speaker notes. That takes experience (not talent!) to do. But it is so worth it. It allows you to react immediately to the (unconscious) feedback of your audience. It makes for better presentations. It's never about the slides. It's not about a perfect text you've prepared. It's about you. The audience wants to know who you are and why you care!
2/3
@jwildeboer@social.wildeboer.net
I care enough to prepare self-sufficient slides that people who couldn't attend can use to learn what I have to say at their own pace, without needing me.
It's also a way to take full accountability for what I share because verba volant, scripta manent.
Then I don't simply read the slides, but use them to structure and focus the conversation.
In general to me "bullet-free presentations" smells like red-herrings that try to spread evocative but ungrounded propaganda. I've seen them used a lot by lobbists who lacked strong arguments but had to convince the attenders (or, in a couple of cases, spread FUD). The lack of clear written statements is well suited to adjust the presentation to strong and valid objections, so that the lobbist can negate what he just said by "let me better explaining what I meant".
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@jwildeboer@social.wildeboer.net
I care enough to prepare self-sufficient slides that people who couldn't attend can use to learn what I have to say at their own pace, without needing me.
It's also a way to take full accountability for what I share because verba volant, scripta manent.
Then I don't simply read the slides, but use them to structure and focus the conversation.
In general to me "bullet-free presentations" smells like red-herrings that try to spread evocative but ungrounded propaganda. I've seen them used a lot by lobbists who lacked strong arguments but had to convince the attenders (or, in a couple of cases, spread FUD). The lack of clear written statements is well suited to adjust the presentation to strong and valid objections, so that the lobbist can negate what he just said by "let me better explaining what I meant".@giacomo See https://social.wildeboer.net/@jwildeboer/117438340935366749 on my preferred approach. Also: Keynote presentations, that I often give, work differently by design. But sure, dismissing people that focus on the audience rather than the slides as propagandists is your absolute freedom.
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@jwildeboer@social.wildeboer.net
I care enough to prepare self-sufficient slides that people who couldn't attend can use to learn what I have to say at their own pace, without needing me.
It's also a way to take full accountability for what I share because verba volant, scripta manent.
Then I don't simply read the slides, but use them to structure and focus the conversation.
In general to me "bullet-free presentations" smells like red-herrings that try to spread evocative but ungrounded propaganda. I've seen them used a lot by lobbists who lacked strong arguments but had to convince the attenders (or, in a couple of cases, spread FUD). The lack of clear written statements is well suited to adjust the presentation to strong and valid objections, so that the lobbist can negate what he just said by "let me better explaining what I meant".@giacomo@snac.tesio.it
Also nobody give a shit about English grammar.
Most US people can't even write their own language because their school system is designed to reinforce structural inequality.
So there's no need to use a LLM anyway.
@jwildeboer@social.wildeboer.net
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@giacomo@snac.tesio.it
Also nobody give a shit about English grammar.
Most US people can't even write their own language because their school system is designed to reinforce structural inequality.
So there's no need to use a LLM anyway.
@jwildeboer@social.wildeboer.net@giacomo I guess it really is impossible to post something nice and encouraging without someone like you immediately jumping on a soap box to turn the discussion into negative politics. So Welcome to my blocklist.
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I know. Quite some of you prefer to have it all spelled out. Others (like me) prefer to talk freely, with just a few bullet points in the speaker notes. That takes experience (not talent!) to do. But it is so worth it. It allows you to react immediately to the (unconscious) feedback of your audience. It makes for better presentations. It's never about the slides. It's not about a perfect text you've prepared. It's about you. The audience wants to know who you are and why you care!
2/3
My preferred way to reach people beyond those in the room isn't to send them the slide deck, but to turn the presentation into a blog post or a white paper (or both). As these are different target audiences, it doesn't always work to just take the speaker notes and copy paste them into a blog post. It needs more work. That's just the way it is
But that's just me. Take from this short thread what works for you and ignore the parts that don't
We are all different 3/3
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@giacomo See https://social.wildeboer.net/@jwildeboer/117438340935366749 on my preferred approach. Also: Keynote presentations, that I often give, work differently by design. But sure, dismissing people that focus on the audience rather than the slides as propagandists is your absolute freedom.
@jwildeboer@social.wildeboer.net
"focus on the people" is such a wonderful, populist statement that one might argue you just proved my point.
On the other hand, providing self-sufficient slides is caring about the people you are talking with: you'll give them all they need to recall, deepen, share and even criticize what you said.
All without you.
On the other hand, producing clear slides doesn't exclude "focusing on people" during the presentation.
For example, an interesting approach I've seen is to propose a question on a slide, let the audience provide his answers and then show the speaker ones in the following one.
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My preferred way to reach people beyond those in the room isn't to send them the slide deck, but to turn the presentation into a blog post or a white paper (or both). As these are different target audiences, it doesn't always work to just take the speaker notes and copy paste them into a blog post. It needs more work. That's just the way it is
But that's just me. Take from this short thread what works for you and ignore the parts that don't
We are all different 3/3
This works well for any language not in your native language.
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A anderslund@expressional.social shared this topic
