I enjoyed Plover’s Conference Presentation Judo. I especially like how he gets rid of the repeat yourself three times thing.
I’ve been slowly giving more and more talks so I’m trying to improve my public speaking habits. It’s hard to tell how well I’m doing because people say nice things about every talk. Although I work really hard to be clear and informative, it’s hard to believe I’m any good.
I guess the solution is to go to good presentations and pick up their styles. (Hopefully I can do some of this at OSCON.) I really like Steve Jobs’ presenting style (slides should be as simple as possible and illustrate not narrate). Too bad I never got an opportunity to hear Edward “Power corrupts. PowerPoint corrupts absolutely.” Tufte speak because I expect his advice would be pretty good. The price was prohibitively expensive and I already had the expensive books but they wouldn’t give me any discount if I didn’t take them. I have the same problem with the upcoming contigency design workshop from 37signals.
However, after suffering thru a series of let-me-read-useless-facts-that-you-can-already-see-from-the-garishly-colored-powerpoint-on-the-screen presentations at school I have some sense of what not to do. But getting things right is quite hard. I’d appreciate advice other people have.
I guess a similar thing is going on with this weblog. I’m experimenting with different styes and kind folks (notably CoryD and RussS) are pushing me in the right direction. It’s hard to find the balance between linking to interesting things and going on boring rants or crusades. Again, let me know if it’s working or you have suggestions.