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Instantly Better Presentations • Damian Conway • YOW! 2014 — Transcript

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0:04well thank you very much thank you for
0:06coming out tonight and thank you for
0:08inviting me here I'm always excited to
0:11talk about presentation skills
0:13mainly because my entire job is speaking
0:18I earn basically no money at all from
0:20anything that doesn't come out of my
0:22mouth and yes I know I got some
0:24technical books but let me tell you
0:25technical books are not the royal road
0:27to riches so if you're thinking about
0:30one of the technical book don't think
0:32that you're going to become the JK
0:33Rowling of technical news it ain't going
0:36to be like that
0:37for the last 15 years every significant
0:40dollar that I've heard I've earned from
0:43presenting that's taken me all around
0:45the world to conferences on almost every
0:48continent except Antarctica
0:50and it's made me sit through some of the
0:53worst technical presentations of all
0:56time
0:57because if you're a keynote speaker you
0:59get to stand up and speak for 45 minutes
1:01or an hour and then you've got to sit
1:03through three days of other
1:06presentations
1:07now sometimes that's a joy and I have to
1:10be honest with conferences like Yao and
1:13qcom and the other sister conferences
1:14they have it ain't going to be that bad
1:17because they have invited speakers
1:19and that really helps
1:21but if you go to any other kind of
1:23conference where it's just whoever put a
1:25paper and gets to talk what's the
1:27experience like
1:28well it's kind of 50 50 I think
1:31sometimes you get a really great talk
1:33from someone you've never heard of
1:34before and sometimes you've got someone
1:36you really wanted to go and see and they
1:38give the worst talk of all time
1:42and all of us who are technical people
1:45have to give presentations it may not be
1:48a conference environment it may be just
1:50to our own group or it may be to our
1:53customers it's to someone and all of us
1:57nowadays have to at some stage get up
1:59and do it and most of us unfortunately
2:02don't do it well
2:05and it's not our fault
2:06no one ever told us how to do it well
2:09they told us how to code they told us
2:12how to use an editor they told us how to
2:14use git
2:15didn't tell us how to talk
2:18you're supposed to already know that and
2:20most people don't
2:21so that's what tonight's about
2:23I want to share with you some ideas
2:25about when you have to get up
2:28how you can make it a better experience
2:30for your audience and more importantly a
2:32better experience for yourself how do
2:34people here don't really like getting up
2:37and speaking many people here are a
2:39little bit uncomfortable with it
2:41yeah that's about what I usually see
2:46how many people really love getting up
2:47and sleep
2:49that's about what I usually say and
2:51everyone else is kind of in between
2:55so let's get started
2:57let's start with the bad news it's
2:58always good to get the bad news out of
3:00the way first
3:01and the bad news is this talk is called
3:03the instantly better presentation but if
3:06you check the dictionary instantly is
3:08not the same as effortlessly
3:13so I'm afraid I'm going to have to use
3:14two very unpleasant four-letter words
3:18to describe what you're going to have to
3:20do in order to become a better presenter
3:24and I've censored them a little bit but
3:26I think you get what it is
3:28now the thing the thing about this is
3:30many of you who are making presentations
3:33are already working pretty damn hard
3:36and not getting the rewards for it so
3:38what I'm really wanting to talk about
3:39tonight is not just hard work but
3:41smarter work
3:43hey you can take the same amount of time
3:45and get a much better result for it
3:48there's also some good news quite a bit
3:51of good news in fact the first bit of
3:53good news is this is not just going to
3:55be me talking to you I am very keen to
3:58take your questions if you've come along
4:00with things you always wanted to know
4:02about how to speak better how to present
4:04better that I'm Keen for you to have
4:07that opportunity
4:08but rather than just sticking your hand
4:10up at any random point I'd like you to
4:12wait to the end of each topic so I'm
4:14going to go through a topic and then
4:16I'll give you a chance and you'll know
4:18that it's time to ask questions because
4:19the slides will look like this
4:22so if the slides are blue you can ask
4:24questions
4:26it's not blue shut the hell up
4:29and you have to say that because there
4:31are certain individuals in the technical
4:32communities who have no social sense
4:34whatsoever
4:36and if you don't say that in a typical
4:38presentation people will just stick
4:39their hand up at any time and they won't
4:41even wake you to call them they'll just
4:42start talking
4:44so I'm very happy for you to stick your
4:46hand up at any time
4:48but anytime the slides are blue
4:51there's even better news than this
4:53you don't have to frantically scribble
4:55down everything I'm going to say or more
4:57likely just listen and forget about it
5:01if you go to my website
5:03damien.comway.org
5:05and look up
5:07ibp.pdf
5:09instantlybetterpresentations.pedia this
5:10is the one thing you do have to
5:11frantically scribble down
5:13if you frankly scribble this down you
5:15won't have to frantically say yes yes
5:17take a picture of it
5:22then you won't have to scribble down the
5:24rest of it
5:29and there's even better news possibly
5:31the best news tonight is I am not going
5:34to give you any communication in theory
5:37I am not going to go into the depths of
5:41rhetorical method or anything like that
5:43I am just going to give you practical
5:45suggestions
5:48things that you can actually walk out of
5:49this room and use immediately
5:51I'm going to give you seven of them
5:54the first is going to be you have to
5:57talk about things you know and love the
5:59second when you talk about those things
6:01you have to do it in some kind of story
6:02the third is you are working out what to
6:06say completely wrong
6:09I'm going to show you how to do it right
6:11the fourth is your slides suck
6:15as a general first level approximation
6:17your slides suck
6:20and it's not you individually it's
6:22everybody's slides suck I'm going to
6:25teach you how to reduce the suckage
6:29for technical term
6:32I'm going to talk a little bit about
6:33managing questions and how to deal with
6:35them appropriately I'm going to talk
6:37about showing code how many of you have
6:40to show code or data formats or some
6:43kind of text-based information all right
6:46I guarantee you're doing that wrong too
6:50so this is a great talk isn't it it's
6:52basically you guys are hopeless you do
6:54everything wrong
6:56but the nice thing is I'm going to tell
6:57you what you should be good against
6:59you and finally I'm going to talk a
7:01little bit about that anxiety that
7:05almost everybody feels when they're up
7:07on stage and I'm going to give you a
7:09couple of ideas about how to be more in
7:12control of that and how to make it work
7:14for you instead of work against you so
7:18let's get stuck into it first piece of
7:20advice is very very simple whenever you
7:23are talking in front of an audience even
7:25on a technical subject you must talk
7:29about something that you are passionate
7:31about
7:34for the simple reason that most people
7:37when they're about to get up on stage
7:38kind of look like this
7:41young female in Asia
7:44no
7:46young female and anxious just anxious
7:50and almost all of us can relate I think
7:52to that feeling of standing over on the
7:55side waiting for your turn and just that
7:58smile that doesn't actually reach the
8:00eyes
8:01I'm so happy to be going on next
8:04and the high frequency vibration that
8:07makes it impossible to actually read
8:08your notes
8:13one of the great keys to feeling
8:15confident in front of an audience is to
8:18actually be competent about what you're
8:20talking about
8:22experience having to stand up and talk
8:24about something that you weren't
8:25entirely sure that you understood
8:27completely yourself
8:30how does that feel
8:32not good not good at all
8:35so first rule is you must only talk
8:39about subjects that you genuinely
8:41understand
8:42when it comes to technical subjects that
8:44almost always means that you should only
8:46talk about techniques that you are
8:48actually using
8:50or have actually used
8:53or if you're going to talk about
8:54experiences and what happened you better
8:56talk about things that really happened
8:59instead of theoretical Duncan happenings
9:02that didn't actually happen
9:04and the consequence of that is because
9:06we don't always get to choose what we're
9:08going to talk about the boss says go and
9:10talk about this
9:12but I I yeah go
9:16you're gonna take person go
9:19if you have to talk about it your first
9:21job is to learn about it
9:24to use it to do it to practice it
9:27do not be staying in front of an
9:29audience talking about something that is
9:31entirely theoretical knowledge to you
9:33that you just read in the book last week
9:38and the reason for this is simple if you
9:40know that you know the material
9:43then you're going to be much more
9:44confident that you're not going to be
9:45get get caught out because that's the
9:47thing isn't it you're standing in front
9:49of the audience and you're just waiting
9:50for the person in the back to Road
9:51excuse me and I will have that voice I
9:54don't know why because I really have it
9:55actually excuse me that's not correct in
9:591968
10:00and at this point you just want the
10:03floor open and swallow you hop all right
10:06if you know you're not going to look
10:07stupid in front of an audience that's a
10:09really important step to feeling
10:12confident and you can look like this
10:13instead
10:15which is better for the audience the
10:17last thing the audience wanted somebody
10:18said hi I'm I'm so glad to be here I've
10:22got a lot to tell you
10:25what does that do to an audience
10:27well it does one or two things the
10:29people who have any tread of sympathy in
10:31them are now feeling awkward and
10:33uncomfortable for you
10:35and only the psychopaths are enjoying it
10:38and you don't want to either of those
10:40things happen
10:42it turns out that standing up and
10:44talking about something you know
10:45incredibly well isn't enough by itself
10:51if the effect of you talking about this
10:53thing that you know incredibly well is
10:55this
10:59and you've been in that audience
11:02you've gone to that talk that you were
11:04quite looking forward to and the first
11:06hi I've come along to talk to you about
11:09uh JavaScript JavaScript is an important
11:12language I'm very excited to be here and
11:15I've got a lot of great things to tell
11:21the only way you can stop your audience
11:24going to sleep is if you talk about
11:25something that you care about
11:28because if you care about it that will
11:30come through in your voice in your body
11:33language in everything that you do
11:36you have to have some degree of passion
11:39for the topic that you're talking about
11:41it has to excite you in some way
11:46because if the internet has taught us
11:47anything at all
11:49it's that seeing someone who's excited
11:53it's exciting
11:56so you've watched those kind of nature
12:00you always go for low interpretation
12:02damage
12:04you've seen those Nature Documentaries
12:06where you've got a group of chimpanzees
12:08sitting around in the forest glaring and
12:10they're basically banging on rocks
12:12trying to invent spaceships and things
12:15and they're just sitting around quietly
12:16and it's a very peaceful scene until one
12:19of the chimpanzees runs out of the
12:21forest like this and it's extremely
12:23excitable jumps about
12:26now I'm presuming the chimpanzee
12:28language isn't sophisticated enough so
12:30that sort of thing corresponds to I say
12:33ladies and gentlemen there is 11
12:34approaching from the southeast I suggest
12:36we Ascend to the trees to avoid this
12:38known Danger
12:41I'm assuming that chimpanzee language
12:42doesn't really mean very much at all
12:48and yet
12:49running on the stage jumping about
12:53screaming out even nonsense
12:58is an evolutionary Advantage for
12:59chimpanzees
13:02why
13:03because what are the other chimpanzees
13:05do when the one chip comes in all
13:08excited
13:10did I just sit there saying I'm saying
13:12gerwood seems upset about something
13:15no what do they do
13:18I'll check it up and jump around as well
13:20why is that an evolutionary advantage
13:24because when the leopard does enter the
13:26clearing if you're up and jumping around
13:27you just jump a bit higher up into the
13:29tree and you're okay
13:31the chicks that just sitting around on
13:33the ground watching the show are the
13:34ones that get eaten
13:39and the problem is
13:42for most of us
13:44who have to give presentations
13:46our audience will primarily be composed
13:51of primates
13:56and that's how primates work
14:00if they see something that is very calm
14:03and very boring and very loud
14:05they respond in the same sort of way
14:10if they say something that is
14:11interesting that is energetic
14:14that is
14:15varying in pitch and tone and voice
14:19by respond in that way
14:22so unless you're not speaking to
14:24primates
14:26my recommendation is that you find some
14:29way to be energized in front of your
14:32audience and the best way to be
14:33energized in front of your audience is
14:34to actually care about what you're
14:36talking about
14:40so even if your boss sends you to talk
14:42about JavaScript and frankly JavaScript
14:44foreign
14:47find something that moves you about that
14:52if necessary just talk about how awful
14:55JavaScript is
14:57now I reckon I could do that for like 10
14:58hours
15:00and that would inject a great deal of
15:01passion into my presentation
15:06because the alternative is if you're
15:08just standing there and now I'm talking
15:09to you about JavaScript
15:11what's going through the mind of the
15:12audience you know what
15:14the presenter is bored by this how can I
15:17be interested in it
15:21people sometimes ask me
15:23who do you think the best
15:25technical presenter in the world is
15:29and modesty for business to me from
15:30saying the actual answer to that
15:32question
15:34so the anthem I always give them
15:37is this guy
15:39so David Attenborough
15:43and the thing that makes David
15:44Attenborough the best technical
15:46presenter in the world
15:47is not that he runs around in front of
15:49an audience and pretends to be a
15:51chimpanzee or anything like that because
15:52she's a very calm and quiet kind of guy
15:56but in every single picture that you
15:58ever see of him whether he's actually
16:00doing the technical presentation or
16:03giving a lecture or reminiscing about
16:06something or arguing about something or
16:08even just showing a little girl a
16:10butterfly you can see his absolute
16:14passion for the natural world in
16:16everything that he does in everything
16:18that he says even though he says it in
16:20that very calm quiet British voice
16:23and that's what makes him
16:25extraordinary
16:27he really really cares
16:34so that's my first suggestion to you you
16:36have to talk about things that you know
16:39and things that you love or love
16:43either way is fine you have to find some
16:46way to be excited or frustrated or
16:48intrigued or thrilled or scared or
16:50irritated or compelled or enthralled or
16:53moved about your topic if you are going
16:56to do that for your audience
17:01and someone's recognized the blue slide
17:04stuck his hand up and gets the first
17:06question so
17:11before it didn't turn out very well do
17:13you have any suggestions so the question
17:15is I had to give a talk some a little
17:17while ago we were handing over some code
17:19which was quite boring
17:22do you have any suggestions for that
17:23well for a start getting rid of code is
17:26the most exciting thing we ever do it's
17:29the best day of your life this crappy
17:32awful code
17:33that I either created or I had to
17:35maintain someone else is doing so
17:37naturally there's going to be a certain
17:39energy
17:43but what you could do is you could find
17:45the bits that interested you about this
17:47so you might not just talk about here's
17:49the general structure of the code which
17:51you have to do I guess but you might
17:52talk about here are some of the real
17:54problems that we found here's why the
17:55structure is wrong or bad or difficult
17:57okay so if you hate that code that's
17:59okay too that will motivate a certain
18:02level of energy in you
18:05anyone else want to try a question
18:07no no too much beer and pizza okay let's
18:11move on
18:14second suggestion you have to tell them
18:16a story
18:18and the reason you have to tell them a
18:20story is that intellectually speaking
18:24no matter how smart we are no matter how
18:27technically sophisticated we are in
18:30evolutionary terms we are more or less
18:33visco
18:38the human brain has not significantly
18:41changed in the last hundred thousand
18:43years in fact in the last hundred
18:45thousand years the human brain has
18:47shrunk
18:49neanderthals and cry magnets had bigger
18:51brains than we do
18:54as is evidenced by the fact that neither
18:57of those species ever invented
18:59JavaScript
19:03and for the last hundred thousand years
19:06we've been contending with two
19:09fundamental problems in those
19:12primitive brains
19:14two deficiencies the first of them is
19:18our memory is incredibly volatile unless
19:21it's continually refreshed we forget
19:23things almost instantaneously
19:26you got about seven or eight seconds
19:29unless you're rehearsing that phone
19:31number it's gone
19:33and the same is true when you're
19:34presenting information in an environment
19:36like this
19:38if there isn't some kind of
19:39reinforcement
19:41it's just going to go in one ear and
19:44literally out the other
19:46the other problem with that memory is
19:50that we don't even have very much of it
19:52you've probably heard that old saw that
19:55most people can cope with seven plus or
19:59minus two pieces of information
20:01but we can actually go into the research
20:03on this that was an initial guess that
20:06had virtually no research backing
20:08whatsoever once they did the research
20:11they discovered that the news wasn't
20:13even that good
20:15the actual number is four plus or minus
20:17one
20:19most people can deal with somewhere
20:21between three and five bits of
20:23information at the same time
20:27so for a hundred thousand years we as a
20:30species and as a culture have been
20:33developing tools to overcome the
20:36inherent limitations of our processing
20:39and memory capacity
20:41and probably the oldest information
20:44processing tool that we have is the
20:47story
20:49before we had writing before we even had
20:51cave painting we had older men and women
20:54sitting around the campfire telling the
20:58stories by which the younger generation
21:01was educated and by which the
21:03accumulated knowledge of the culture was
21:06transmitted
21:07can we still do it today
21:10when you're a child
21:12tucked up in bed and your mum or your
21:16dad one of the servants
21:18one of the robots
21:20we're sitting there telling you a story
21:25the stories have two characteristics
21:26that make them excellent for helping
21:29people acquire and maintain information
21:31the first of those characteristics is
21:33called flow a well-written story follows
21:37a reasonably logical sequence
21:40yeah I know there are exceptions I've
21:42seen Memento too
21:44but generally speaking
21:46they make some kind of sense
21:50and they flow in some kind of way and
21:52one thing happens and then something
21:53else happens the consequence that helps
21:55it means we don't have to remember all
21:57the details we can infer the details
22:00again from the remembered story
22:02structure so that helps us to acquire
22:04the information because information
22:06comes in in a reasonable and memorable
22:09sequence and it helps us to store that
22:12information because if we remember the
22:14structure
22:15we don't have to remember the details
22:17and the recent research on memory
22:19indicates that we never remember the
22:20details
22:22that all memory is basically
22:23Reconstruction from stories that we have
22:26stored about events that happened
22:30the second thing that stories do is that
22:33they have hierarchy
22:35so a story is typically broken up into a
22:39number of separate apps often it's like
22:41three Acts
22:42and within each Act there'll be maybe
22:44five scenes
22:48and the advantage of that is if you can
22:50remember the structure of the three acts
22:52and for each Act the structure of the
22:54five scenes and remember those numbers
22:56three and five they're right in The
22:57Sweet Spot of what we can remember
23:00then overall you've remembered 15 things
23:02which you cannot do just flat
23:08So Stories give us a way of structuring
23:11and conveying information that works
23:15efficiently and that your audience has
23:17been taught from the time they were very
23:20young children
23:24there are all kinds of stories you can
23:26tell
23:26in a technical presentation you can give
23:29a historical Narrative of the
23:31development of the technology
23:33or you can talk about the actual story
23:36of using the technology to achieve a
23:39particular task
23:41or you can give anecdotes of what
23:43happened when I use the technology to do
23:46this or I attempted to use a technology
23:48to do that
23:49and all of those are stories so for
23:53example if you were going to talk about
23:54web development
23:57then you might talk about it from a
23:59historical point of view you might start
24:01off with the precursors to the web
24:04and then the old days when there was
24:06only HTML how many people remember the
24:08old days when they're I'm yeah that's
24:10really sad isn't it
24:12okay and everything was gray with black
24:14writing the good old days
24:18and then you talk about well that turned
24:20out to be inadequate so we had to
24:21develop presentation layers and then you
24:23introduce CSS and then you talk about
24:25well limited scripting so we introduced
24:27JavaScript and then web development
24:30wasn't painful enough so we you know she
24:32was Flash
24:34and very often when you're talking about
24:36a technology its own historical
24:39development provides a good sequence for
24:42introducing the various ideas because
24:44most Technologies go from simple
24:46inadequate solutions to complicated
24:50inadequate Solutions
24:52but that works well you start off with a
24:54simple and you get more complicated
24:56or you could actually do it as a process
24:58you could say supposedly wanted to
25:00create a website for x
25:02and then you just talk about well here's
25:04what we would do here are the sequence
25:06of steps that we would take we would
25:08devise the content and work out the
25:10presentation then we'd Implement some of
25:12the animation layers and so on and so
25:14forth now note you're talking about all
25:16the same topics there but you're doing
25:19it in a different kind of story
25:22or you might just get up and talk about
25:24the sad experience you had developing a
25:27website for x
25:29here's what we thought we wanted here's
25:31what happened when we implemented it
25:33this is where it went wrong here's how
25:35we redesigned it and this is what we're
25:36going to do in the future
25:39any of those is a story
25:43and what the story gives you is a
25:45logical and flowing order in which to
25:49convey the information
25:51one of the hardest things for me sitting
25:53in all of these audiences that I sit in
25:55is the seemingly random order in which
25:57people explain technology when they get
26:00up to talk about it
26:04if you can think of a story to tell
26:06that's not going to happen
26:09so if a story
26:10is a tool for making complex things more
26:14comprehensible by giving them an orderly
26:16flow and a reasonable hierarchy
26:19making the structure in the information
26:22recognizable by the various chapters
26:25and helping you remember the information
26:27because you can remember the outline of
26:29it
26:31there's one other thing that stories do
26:33incredibly well and that is stories make
26:37audiences feel more comfortable even if
26:41they're not recognizing a story in
26:44process
26:46why because for most people stories are
26:49associated with kinds of happiness and
26:52security and safety
26:54and relaxation and entertainment
26:57so anything that feels like a story
26:59generally feels better
27:02so second suggestion
27:05tell it like it's a story but don't
27:07necessarily tell them that you're
27:09telling them a story
27:10you'll notice that I haven't told you
27:12that we can begin with Once Upon a Time
27:15it's unnecessary to do that as long as
27:17there is some storyline that you are
27:20following
27:21the presentation will flow in a logical
27:23and reasonable sequence and be taken up
27:27better
27:30so the slide is blue
27:33question
27:34there are times that uh
27:36if discussing on a topic but you kind of
27:38split that topic into
27:40several vertical slices of the diagnosis
27:42that will be rich together like you
27:44might talk about something that some
27:46technology or some kind of contextual
27:48pattern about
27:50have a few flows and these flows are not
27:52necessarily connected together like if
27:54you do this this is going to happen
27:57at this option to tell a story that
27:59so the question is sometimes when you're
28:02talking about a technology one of the
28:04things you want to talk about is the
28:06problems with that technology and very
28:09often as we know the problems with the
28:10technology are not a coherent set of
28:13problems they are individual isolated
28:17problems that occur
28:19one otherwise you can do that because
28:20one of the things that stories often
28:23have is they have breaks in the story
28:27they have a size they have
28:32the technical term is a vicular it kind
28:34of connects two parts together but it's
28:38not part of the actual story
28:42that's a great place to put these kind
28:43of things
28:45to put okay here are the problems so I'm
28:47talking about the technology and at the
28:49end of every coherent thing that I say
28:51about it I say oh and by the way
28:53something that's terrible about this
28:54technology is this
28:56and then you launch into the second
28:58thing so as long as there's an
28:59overarching story there's room for that
29:02the only way you can do is it doesn't
29:04matter if there are four or five
29:05individual separate things to say you
29:08could cluster them all together at the
29:10natural point in the story where
29:11everything goes wrong
29:14and that's generally at the end of the
29:18second act
29:22so you go through and you introduce the
29:23technology and you say it's okay
29:26and then you say oh and here are the
29:28five problems room
29:30they don't have to be related they just
29:31have to be like a climax
29:34and now we're left with oh my god there
29:35are five terrible problems with this and
29:37then you better make sure that the last
29:39Act of your story somehow resolves some
29:42of that yeah
29:44or at least tells me how to get around
29:46them
29:48so that's a perfectly valid story as
29:50well it doesn't flow quite as much
29:52because it's kind of
29:53and then we're going to fire a machine
29:55gun of problems of the audience
29:57but then we go on and we say on how do
29:59we recover from these Grievous wounds
30:02that have been inflicted by JavaScript
30:04technology yes
30:10okay let's keep moving
30:16I think the single biggest mistake that
30:18people make when they're creating a
30:21presentation
30:22happens right at the very beginning
30:27and that is the way they select what
30:30they're going to talk about
30:33doesn't produce the best possible
30:35presentation
30:37so the very first question you face at
30:40any point when you're going to produce a
30:43presentation is
30:44what should I say it doesn't quite get
30:47any more General than that what am I
30:49going to talk about
30:51and I think as soon as you ask that
30:52question you are in trouble
30:54because it's the wrong question
30:57don't ask that question never ask that
30:59question
31:00the reason it's the wrong question again
31:02has to do with the abilities and
31:05disabilities of the human mind
31:08so here's a list of things that humans
31:11aren't very good at and things that
31:12humans aren't with just have a quick
31:14look through the list and see how you
31:15find that list
31:25I was so tempted to swap the last two
31:27around
31:28and make it all paradoxical but I didn't
31:31do that
31:33so
31:34there are things that humans are good at
31:36there are things that humans are not so
31:37good at I want to focus on two of those
31:40humans are really really bad at
31:42recalling important stuff
31:45just off the top of their heads
31:48they're really good though at
31:50recognizing important stuff if it's
31:52shown to them and there are very
31:54different skills and we're good at one
31:56moment about it now let me demonstrate
31:57that to you
32:01who knows the story of
32:03the Seven Dwarfs
32:06pretty much everyone
32:08yeah okay
32:10so I like the the George RR Martin
32:13version of it myself but you know any
32:16version of seven wars is fine
32:19name the seven dwarfs
32:24yeah
32:26it doesn't matter loud because they're
32:28helping everybody else and they're not
32:30getting all the value of the lesson
32:31which is that they are crap at
32:33remembering the Seven Dwarf names
32:37if you're alive you're getting out of
32:39this room alive dependent on being able
32:41to get those how many of us are going to
32:42make it out of life
32:44not me oh I am because I've given this
32:46talk before and I know the answer but
32:48the rest of you it's looking great
32:51on the other hand if I had shown this
32:54slide
32:56with a whole lot of dwarf names and some
32:58extras and rings
33:04then you might be able to pick all seven
33:07but you do considerably better than you
33:11were doing when it was just off the top
33:13of your head now we agreed on that is
33:15that a reasonable agreement and
33:17eventually you'd probably work out that
33:19was the seventh
33:23and that's the problem as soon as you
33:25say what should I say what you're really
33:27asking yourself is what critically
33:30important things about this topic can I
33:33just dredge out of my brain with no help
33:39and when it comes to doing that all of
33:42us are about at this guy's life
33:47the question that you should be asking
33:49yourself first is very close to that
33:51other question the question you should
33:54be asking yourself first is what could I
33:57say about this topic
34:01no no more moral imperative on it
34:06so if I was shown a list of everything
34:10about this topic that I know
34:12could I pick out the important stuff
34:16yeah obviously it's a skill that we have
34:20it's a skill that we developed on the
34:23Serengeti
34:25Serengeti complicated environment but
34:27your brain is fantastically able to pick
34:30out the important stuff
34:41so what does this mean in practice
34:43this means that when you are going to
34:45give a technical presentation on a
34:47subject your first job is to sit down
34:50with a piece of paper or 20 pieces of
34:53paper or a tablet or a text editor or
34:57some device and write out every damn
35:00thing that you know about this topic
35:03everything that you might possibly ever
35:06want to or be able to say about this
35:09topic
35:10and you don't worry about is it
35:11important to say you don't worry about
35:13is it relevant to say you don't worry
35:15about is it interesting to say you just
35:16let it stream out of you in this flow of
35:19Consciousness writing down every single
35:22thing that you know about this topic
35:25on sheet after sheet after sheet on
35:27screen after screen after screen and if
35:29you can't do sheet after sheet after
35:31sheet or screen up to screen up to
35:32screen you shouldn't be talking about it
35:37so literally when I make a presentation
35:39I sit down and I'm old school so I use a
35:42piece of paper
35:44and I write down every single thing that
35:47I might think that I might want to say
35:48about it and I end up with 10 or 20 or
35:5130 sheets of paper full of information
35:53if I don't then I decide maybe I
35:56shouldn't be talking about this or maybe
35:57I should be frantically learning about
35:59this
36:01and then I go through and I say well
36:02what's important here I do that from the
36:04other end it's just that's not important
36:06that's not important that's not
36:08important I basically just scrubbed
36:10through things until I get down to five
36:13because five is the magic number
36:16upper limit of what the human brain can
36:19deal with at any one time
36:21I find five
36:24topics that I'm going to talk about
36:27and I just keep those
36:29those main points become the chapters of
36:32my story
36:34and then I find a story that connects
36:37those five
36:38and of course what happens I've picked
36:40out the five most important things I
36:42look for a story there is no story that
36:43connects those five so what do I do I
36:46throw some of them back
36:48they might be the most important but
36:50they don't fit into a coherent narrative
36:53so I throw two of them back and pick out
36:56the two slightly less important points
36:58that do fit the narrative you know what
37:01five not quite as important points that
37:04fit a narrative is better than five
37:06incredibly important points that are
37:08scatter shot throughout the space
37:11so you go back and forth with that with
37:13your list of course you don't throw away
37:15all the other points you just leave them
37:17there and tip across them
37:21until you have five points that make a
37:24story
37:26and then those Five Points become your
37:28chapter headaches they literally become
37:30your chapter headings you arrange them
37:32in the order that they're supposed to be
37:33in you make them into chapter headings
37:35you rule lines and then you take all of
37:38the other information that you already
37:39have written out
37:42and you classify under one of those five
37:44headings or throw it out most of it
37:47you'll throw out
37:49but you end up with a certain number of
37:52points to talk about under each of those
37:55five topics
37:58and if you only have one or two then you
38:00think about well do I know enough about
38:02this I might have to learn some more
38:04if you have eight or more
38:06then you repeat the the process at the
38:09next level down
38:11you look at the eight you say well which
38:12five of these are the most important and
38:14make a coherent storyline
38:17and so what you end up with is no more
38:20than five times five 25 things that
38:25you're going to say
38:26and they're already in the right order
38:30because of the stories
38:33and then all the work's done
38:36the rest is just mucking about with
38:38PowerPoint
38:39not even interesting
38:41the hard work is done
38:44the thing about this approach and I use
38:46this for every presentation that I
38:47create
38:49this approach makes the hard work less
38:52hard
38:54this approach makes use of your
38:57strengths which is recognizing things
38:59when you're shown them
39:02it does take some time though if you're
39:04going to brain dump everything you know
39:06about JavaScript that's going to take a
39:09lot of time
39:10hopefully
39:13but once you've done that that's a
39:15resource that you can reuse
39:19next time you have to give a talk
39:22so third suggestion they're only going
39:25to remember Five Points
39:27so the key is you have to decide which
39:31Five Points you want them to remember
39:36and then you have to find a narrative
39:39flow that travels through those Five
39:42Points smoothly
39:46question uh is it a trick or do you have
39:48seven points is it trick or do I have
39:51seven points in this talk I do have
39:53seven points in this call why do I have
39:55seven points in this talk because I'm in
39:57Queensland
39:59when I go to Melbourne and then to
40:01Sydney I will cut it back to Fox
40:05and I'll speak more slowly for them as
40:08well
40:09okay you're about that I knew you were
40:11above average audience so I gave you
40:12seven
40:16I love it when someone asked that
40:18question
40:21okay
40:24next thing
40:26you wiped out your content you've got it
40:29all there you've built your slide deck
40:31what's gone wrong now
40:34well the problem is that while it is
40:37critically important to get that content
40:40right especially in a typical
40:42presentation
40:44the really sad news is that even in a
40:48technical presentation content is not as
40:52important as Style
40:55oh God
40:58I didn't get into information technology
40:59to be stylish
41:04but the truth of this is
41:07in the typical kind of presentation
41:08you're going to give which is somewhere
41:10between 15 minutes and an hour let's say
41:14this is about how much content you can
41:16actually convey successfully in that
41:19time
41:20it's a very very small amount
41:22and those who have given presentations
41:24know that this is the difference
41:27but for that amount of content here is
41:29the amount of style you need to
41:32successfully convey it
41:38and the visual analogy is chosen
41:41incredibly carefully here
41:43your content is your payload it is the
41:47weapon that you want to explode their
41:49brains with
41:51foreign
41:52but in order to deliver a weapon of that
41:56size you need a delivery system of this
41:59size and complexity and sophistication
42:03and that's where people go wrong next
42:06they build their little information bomb
42:08and they put it on a goat cart
42:12an attempt to deliver it through a goat
42:14cart and the goat cart is called
42:16PowerPoint in fact it's an insult for
42:19goat cards to call PowerPoint of gocha
42:22so what the heck is Style
42:25it's not what you think it is
42:28my favorite definition of style is this
42:31one
42:33style is the things that you don't see
42:36that make sure that the things that you
42:39do see are the things that you should
42:41see
42:50for all you understood that Nick
42:52what this means is this
42:56bad style is absolutely anything that
43:00you show or say or do that prevents the
43:04audience from focusing on your message
43:08good style focuses the audience on your
43:12message bad style distracts them from
43:15your message that's all style is
43:18anything that helps Focus your audience
43:20that's good stuff
43:22anything that distracts them backs off
43:27and a single worst
43:30fault that almost all technical
43:32presenters have
43:34when it comes to setting out slides
43:37is this one
43:43what are you doing right at this moment
43:46frantically reading and it doesn't
43:48matter that I'm now interrogating you
43:49about what you're doing you're still
43:50reading the baby
43:52I'm just going to step over here and let
43:53your damn well finish it because there's
43:55no point in saying anything until you've
43:57read through this completely unnecessary
44:00essay
44:02on what I'm about to say
44:08can we do it done good good okay
44:13and you know what doesn't make something
44:16like this okay
44:18doing this
44:24bullets are not the magic fairy dust
44:27that solves this problem as soon as I
44:30put up a wall of text I lose my
44:33connection with the audience
44:35you're no longer focusing on what I'm
44:37saying on my message you are frankly
44:39reading
44:41and the other problem is the person who
44:43will make a slime like this
44:45will not stop there
44:48they will make a slide like this
44:54and all right I had to work a little bit
44:57on that slide but real slides look like
45:01this as well
45:05[Music]
45:07and I swear to you I didn't know that
45:09slide was coming up first thing that
45:11Craig arrived and gave me the slide deck
45:14and I just pasted him there as well
45:16same problem far too much text you're
45:19not listening to me you're you've seen
45:20this one when you're still reading it
45:25or something like this where we had like
45:27three levels of bullets
45:30and the text is not even in proper
45:32sentences so it's hard to read and let's
45:35throw in some clip art for some reason
45:36and a weird logo that makes no sense
45:41this is a real slide that someone uh was
45:45using my favorite example of this was
45:48from a qcom conference a couple of years
45:51ago where I was keynoting one of the
45:52other Keynotes was one of the data
45:56Managers from A Large Hadron Collider at
45:59CERN
46:01can you imagine how interesting that was
46:03how many people wanted to hear about how
46:05do we manage this groundbreaking stuff
46:09every one of his slides looked like this
46:15I mean not the same side obviously
46:18but the same
46:21like like mercifully he wanted him out
46:24who it was
46:28he put this line up and he spent five
46:30minutes doing this
46:36pointing things out with an invisible
46:38laser pointer
46:42and it eventually had to resort to just
46:45hand pointing the thing
46:47and the onion system
46:51disaster
46:53but if you look at Apple what Apple does
46:56in their presentations
47:00their slides Focus you like a razor on
47:04their message
47:06and whether it's some kind of clever
47:09visual analogy
47:11or whether they're just showing you the
47:13product
47:13or whether they're just showing you this
47:15year's Apple tax
47:20yeah
47:22and they're still doing it after Jobs
47:24died
47:26now almost all of their presentations
47:28kind of look like this they have some
47:30main point that's one or two words and
47:32then they have like a subtext to it
47:34that's four or five words
47:37and one of the most
47:39obvious advantages of this in this kind
47:42of large conference situation is that
47:45you can see the damn thing from the back
47:50but the real reason they do it is not
47:52for that it's because you can read that
47:55in a tenth of a second and then you can
47:57listen to the Kool-Aid
48:06but instead we could do these kind of
48:08things all the time
48:10how do you fix this it ain't hard get
48:13rid of your background I don't care if
48:15your boss says You must use the
48:17corporate background
48:18put it on the first line put on the last
48:20slide get rid of all the rest
48:23it's not helping
48:25it's seriously not helping
48:27do not have the slide number on the
48:31slide that's the actual slide number of
48:33this slide
48:34you said 136 like but it didn't feel
48:37like it
48:38but if you put the numbers there now it
48:41feels like it right and it's kind of
48:43like this Death March oh yeah I don't
48:46even know what the number has to get to
48:50I won't tell you what the number has to
48:51get to because then you'd be really
48:52unhappy
48:55so get rid of that you don't need your
48:57name and your the title of your talk on
48:59every slide just get rid of it you
49:01really don't need your corporate logo on
49:04every slide
49:06because if you put your corporate logo
49:08on every slide it's the only thing
49:09that's consistent from slide to slide to
49:11slide so it draws the audience's
49:13attention and it basically says
49:15salesperson sales person sales person
49:17corporate ship corporate ship corporate
49:20ship get rid of it
49:22if you get rid of that you don't need
49:24the stupid bar across the bottom
49:27and you don't need all the words I went
49:30through this and worked out what the
49:31important words that were relevant to
49:33the message were
49:35it was just those ones
49:38and as soon as you get rid of all the
49:40unimportant words you can see how badly
49:43this information is being laid out it's
49:46basically randomly on the page and you
49:47have to kind of hunt for it
49:50that's not what you want to be doing
49:53so how do you fix this well when you
49:56look at this there are actually four
49:58separate messages on this slide
50:02and that is three too many
50:05one slide one message
50:08Max
50:11so what do we name
50:12we need four slides
50:15and when we move the things around
50:17immediately the slides are better
50:20focused
50:21they allow the audience to understand
50:24what's the topic of conversation at the
50:25moment but not be distracted from the
50:28wonders of what I'm saying
50:30we hope
50:32so with a little bit more work you can
50:34take even that very simple example and
50:36you turn it into this this is Ludwig
50:39museven who's the guy that invented less
50:42is more
50:44because he was Dutch and he didn't
50:46understand it should be less is better
50:51every time you planner up a slide with
50:53anything
50:54you are overwhelming your audience you
50:57are filling up their five slots and they
50:59won't be able to take in your actual
51:01message anymore
51:04and the critical message here is
51:06hides are
51:08notes I know we like to write our slides
51:11so we can give them out afterwards as
51:13the handout that is the wrong way of
51:16going about it when you download
51:18damien.com.org
51:20ibp.pdf you'll see it's not the slides
51:23because did you really need 277 slides
51:27if you're doing the slides right they
51:29will be useless after the talk
51:32and what they need instead is some set
51:35of notes which you would write first in
51:38which then each point will become one
51:40slide on your deck
51:44it's easy
51:45but every time you add an unnecessary
51:48word that's making your message harder
51:50to see not just words extra fonts there
51:53are font junkies in the room I'm sure
51:57images
51:58colors any kind of decoration is just a
52:03distraction
52:04so the fourth suggestion is simply this
52:06show less
52:08but on more slides
52:11question do you think do you think it's
52:13a risk of going too minimal at all if
52:16not simply because
52:18it maybe has that Apple book for example
52:21and people think oh he's going to be you
52:22know
52:24it is possible to go too minimal the
52:26more minimal you go the more it looks
52:29like a sales presentation if you don't
52:31do it right and you can't in a technical
52:33talk always be minimal the next thing
52:35I'm going to talk about two things that
52:37I'm going to talk about is how do I deal
52:39with big chunks of code which I've got
52:40to show now obviously I'm going to say
52:42oh just take three words out of the code
52:43and show that
52:48no so yes it can go too minimal but the
52:51point is at any one time whatever's on
52:54the screen should be effectively the
52:57slogan of the moment
53:00it should be short enough to fit into a
53:02brain to be read very quickly and not
53:05distract the audience from the extra
53:06words that you're saying
53:09um what are also the sound effects
53:10playing about the presentation what a
53:12role the sound effects play in an ideal
53:14presentation absolutely none
53:19that's that's
53:22slides where the bullets come in like
53:24whoosh
53:25whoosh
53:28I call those kind of presentations
53:30justifiable homicide
53:34you really aren't allowed to kill anyone
53:36that does that the only time you should
53:38have sound is if that sound is relevant
53:40to your message you're giving a talk
53:42about cantatas of the 19th century then
53:46yes that would be perfectly appropriate
53:47then or if you're getting a talk about
53:49some technical subject and you say if
53:51the drive makes this noise
53:54that's a bad noise
53:55and if you can't do it just with your
53:57voice then you've got to have something
53:58that actually doesn't
54:00but sound for the the
54:02it's music it's no good don't happen
54:06uh this question here and then a
54:07question there no no you're too
54:09terrified now to ask the question
54:11um what are your thoughts about
54:12presentations
54:17what are my thoughts about presentations
54:19that are almost completely done with
54:22pictures
54:24those kind of presentations work
54:27incredibly well if you have brilliant
54:29pictures that are completely relevant
54:32and that work as well as a couple of
54:34words
54:36most people are incapable of doing it
54:40the other problem is that
54:44people who are capable of doing that
54:46often go for a very subtle picture where
54:49the picture is only peripherally related
54:52to what they're talking about what that
54:54does is make the audience sit there and
54:55try and work out a lot of pictures all
54:57about I think that's not very helpful so
55:00you'll notice that I don't use many
55:01pictures I do use them when they're a
55:04better way of expressing
55:06the message that I'm trying to express
55:09but I think they're kind of like salt a
55:12little bit improves the play with the
55:13presentation greatly nothing but soft
55:15not such a nightmare
55:18unless you happen to be incredibly
55:20talented at orchestrating that kind of
55:23thing and I've done presentations like
55:24that
55:25but it's a lot of work to get it to work
55:27as well
55:29okay but if you have the skills go for
55:31it it'll distinguish you from everybody
55:33else
55:35the other thing to say about that is
55:40not everybody is a visual person a lot
55:43of people are linguistic people
55:44especially in I.T technology a lot of
55:48people are linguistically oriented
55:49rather than image oriented
55:52and that can be a difficulty just in our
55:55field
55:57question I don't know which whoever's
56:00the tougher
56:03especially in universities I've seen a
56:06bunch of a lot of them I say oh
56:07especially for foreign students provide
56:09a lot of things to make sure people
56:10understand
56:12in case you have two stakehold accent
56:13then you don't have
56:16I think if you are speaking not in your
56:18native language that is a justification
56:20for having more tips
56:22but what I've tended to do and I've done
56:24that in for example I was speaking in
56:26Japan
56:28but what I did in Japan
56:30my subtitled my talk
56:33I actually had the critical points that
56:36I wanted to say is full sentences in
56:38Japanese down the bottom
56:41and that works perfectly okay but I
56:44would still not even if I were not a
56:46native speaker have a lot of text up on
56:49them if they don't understand you they
56:52should put their hand up and say I
56:53didn't understand that and you should
56:55say it again some other way
57:00question behind
57:01um you might cover this later but what
57:03about if you've got a slide that's
57:04showing Rich data so I'm thinking
57:08I can slide
57:11those detailed words
57:14oh excellent question do you hand them
57:16at the beginning or the end there are
57:18two schools of thought about this one
57:19school of thought is I want it at the
57:21beginning so that I can annotate as I go
57:24along
57:25the second school of thought is if I
57:26hang out at the beginning no one's going
57:28to pay attention to the talk because
57:29they're frantically reading the entire
57:31set of numbers
57:32personally I prefer to hand out at the
57:34beginning
57:35and be interesting enough that people
57:37don't do that
57:38but they can annotate as they go along
57:40the other thing you have to do is you
57:42have to make sure that all your
57:43surprises and your tricks and your jokes
57:45and everything that you put into it if
57:46you brought them in aren't in the notes
57:50but my view is hand man at the beginning
57:52my viewers Cinemas a pdf online and
57:55people can get them whenever they want
57:56them
57:57and that to me is the easy way nowadays
58:02we need to move on
58:08I kind of already talked about this one
58:10so I'm going to just skip through it
58:12fairly quickly
58:17presentations aren't primarily for your
58:20benefit as a presenter
58:24the real beneficiaries of a presentation
58:25should be the audience
58:29and if they're not the ones that are
58:31getting the most benefit then there's
58:32something dreadfully wrong
58:37so a presentation
58:40then you've got to try and ensure that
58:43you convey to the audience the
58:45information that they need and unless
58:47you have an extraordinary psychic powers
58:50you have no idea what information they
58:52need you know the basics of what they
58:55need to know to understand this but you
58:57don't know the way that they're going to
58:59interpret what you say you don't know
59:01the blind spots that they're going to
59:03have or the misunderstandings that
59:04they're going to have
59:07and that means that questions are
59:10actually one of the most important parts
59:12of any technical presentation
59:14if there's no opportunity for questions
59:17then a large proportion of your audience
59:19is going to go away unsatisfied in some
59:22way
59:24now there's always only unlimited
59:26opportunity for questions
59:28but even if they don't get to ask their
59:31question if they see other questions
59:32being answered they will go away happier
59:36and probably more knowledgeable
59:39so questions are absolutely essential to
59:42make sure the audience gets what they
59:44actually need the problem is from a
59:47presenter's point of view questions are
59:48a damn nuisance
59:51because I've sat there and I've worked
59:53out this beautiful flow of information
59:54and these elegant turns of phrase and
59:57everything beautiful and then someone in
59:59the middle of this wonderful rhaps
1:00:01obvious thing I'm Saying sticks their
1:00:03hand up and asks something irrelevant
1:00:05hmm
1:00:06God damn it
1:00:09and more important than just being
1:00:10irrelevant it throws the rest of the
1:00:12audience off either because they think
1:00:13it must be relevant and now they're
1:00:15confused or they know it's irrelevant
1:00:17and they're annoyed
1:00:18you've been annoyed at that guy
1:00:22yeah
1:00:23we professional presenters call the
1:00:26person that does that that guy
1:00:30because when you go back to the speaker
1:00:31room did you hear that God and it's not
1:00:34a sexist thing it's almost always a
1:00:36guide
1:00:37we don't know why this is
1:00:40and they almost always sit on the aisle
1:00:42in the second or the second last row
1:00:44so you can think about that
1:00:52for which I am is profoundly grateful
1:00:56there'll be three of them in Sydney
1:00:58Sydney is basically the city of that God
1:01:03so the problem is how do I provide the
1:01:07audience with the opportunity to get
1:01:08what they need by asking questions
1:01:09without messing up the beautiful flow
1:01:12and story of my presentation the answer
1:01:16is simple you do what I did at the very
1:01:17beginning of this talk you have an
1:01:20explicit
1:01:21questions policy
1:01:23at the very beginning of your talk
1:01:24before you've said any content
1:01:26whatsoever you say look I'm really Keen
1:01:29to take questions but there's a great
1:01:30deal of color that only a limited amount
1:01:32of time so could you hold your questions
1:01:34to the end of each topic when the slides
1:01:36turn blue
1:01:39and that way we can integrate questions
1:01:41but it doesn't destroy the flow of each
1:01:44chapter
1:01:47and more importantly it relaxes the
1:01:48audience the audience knows when it's
1:01:50okay to ask a question so you get people
1:01:53other than that guy who doesn't care
1:01:55when it's okay to ask questions
1:01:57asking questions as well
1:01:59and that guy is now constrained
1:02:02if it ain't blue no questions
1:02:06it works very very well it doesn't have
1:02:08to be the end of each topic you can say
1:02:10look I really do want to cover this
1:02:13material so at the end of the talk I've
1:02:14left five or ten minutes just for
1:02:17questions
1:02:18people will be happy with that as well
1:02:20or in a very small group environment or
1:02:24if you have loads of time incredible to
1:02:26say you can say
1:02:27ask me questions any time of your life
1:02:30and that's fine now what you will most
1:02:31want to do is use this one
1:02:35because you really don't want questions
1:02:41you can't say that
1:02:42all you have to say is this I'm very
1:02:45keen to take the questions but there's
1:02:46just not going to be time in the time
1:02:48that's been allocated
1:02:50but I will be on the corridor afterwards
1:02:52and I'll be happy to take any questions
1:02:54you have then and you just make sure
1:02:55there's an extra exit for you but leave
1:02:59somewhere else
1:03:01whatever you better do whatever policy
1:03:04you're going to dictate always be Keen
1:03:07to do it
1:03:08always say even if you're not kidding
1:03:11even if you're not going to actually
1:03:12answer any questions
1:03:14saying I'm Keen to take questions says
1:03:18to the audience your opinion your
1:03:20learning your interaction with me
1:03:22matters
1:03:24and that's a great way to set up an
1:03:26audience to begin with it makes them
1:03:28feel part of the presentation rather
1:03:31than just the targets of it
1:03:35so the fifth suggestion is
1:03:38you absolutely have to make time for
1:03:40questions
1:03:42but you have to make the questions fit
1:03:45in with the timing that you want for
1:03:47your talk
1:03:49now when you do that is by saying so in
1:03:51advance and I don't want you just happy
1:03:53with that they're actually happier with
1:03:54that they're not knowing whether it's
1:03:56okay to ask a question
1:03:57question how are you dealing with that
1:04:00guy that asks questions outside of your
1:04:02explicit question policy follow-up
1:04:04question is Andrew does it a second time
1:04:07and then a third time okay so the
1:04:09problem with dealing with that guy is
1:04:12that the rest of the audience may not
1:04:13know that that guy is that guy
1:04:16it may just be that makes you think oh
1:04:18that's an interesting question and so if
1:04:20you say
1:04:21shut the hell up and never speak again
1:04:25then you'll get no more questions
1:04:26whatsoever
1:04:27oh my God he just went handhome
1:04:33that guy doesn't actually want his
1:04:36questions answered
1:04:38what that guy wants is to be identified
1:04:41with you as being as knowledgeable and
1:04:44appear to you in knowledge and wisdom
1:04:47and respect
1:04:49that's all they're doing it for they're
1:04:51doing it so that they can be part of the
1:04:54play
1:04:55as it were
1:04:57so what do you do is you give them what
1:04:59they want
1:05:01you take their first question if they
1:05:03answer if they're asking outside the the
1:05:07question period you can just say I'll
1:05:09just remind you when the screen's blue
1:05:11you can ask your questions
1:05:12and then you just ignore them if I keep
1:05:14their hand up you just need more because
1:05:15then the audience understands okay this
1:05:17is someone with mental problems
1:05:20I'm not gives you an example I'm just
1:05:22gonna go with it
1:05:24all right okay
1:05:27and when the question comes and it's
1:05:29long and rambling and irrelevant and
1:05:32complicated
1:05:35then the first time you answered as best
1:05:38you can as briefly and concisely and
1:05:40trying to steer the conversation back
1:05:42into the way
1:05:43as soon as that happens
1:05:45you turn to someone else and pray there
1:05:47was another question why if there's not
1:05:50then the hand will go back up again and
1:05:51the second question will be even worse
1:05:54and on the second question you say this
1:05:56you say
1:05:57that's a really fascinating question but
1:05:59I actually think that it's a typical
1:06:02level it's a little bit above where most
1:06:04of the rest of the audience are maybe we
1:06:06could discuss that just two of us
1:06:08afterwards out the corridor
1:06:12and you know what you've given them
1:06:14exactly what they wanted that's all they
1:06:16wanted was
1:06:17yes you are at my elevated level and we
1:06:20will have private and deep conversations
1:06:29it's a miracle I will just be quiet
1:06:31there
1:06:32because I don't do anything to ruin
1:06:35the coming book and then you absolutely
1:06:37have to make sure there's that second
1:06:38exit
1:06:40foreign
1:06:46excellent question
1:06:48where do you get a question when you
1:06:50don't know the answer the only thing you
1:06:51can do is say something smart instead
1:06:55and the only smart thing to say is that
1:06:57I don't know the answer to that
1:07:01because at all
1:07:03if they have nothing else has an
1:07:05incredibly good [ __ ] detect
1:07:08they will know when you're making it up
1:07:10or someone else in the audience will
1:07:12know when you're making it up
1:07:14so what you say is
1:07:15I'm not sure about the answer to that
1:07:17I'd like to know the answer to that
1:07:19um can we talk about it afterwards and
1:07:21maybe we can research a bit or I can get
1:07:22back to you on it but I just don't know
1:07:24that the next problem is what happens
1:07:26when the next command goes up and ask me
1:07:27I don't know the answer to that I know
1:07:30the answer
1:07:31generally speaking I allow the first two
1:07:34I don't know the answers and on the
1:07:36third one I say you know what this is
1:07:39clearly an area of this topic that I'm
1:07:41just not an expert in so I'm not going
1:07:42to waste your time or mine going on with
1:07:45this so I think we'll just move on you
1:07:47know what an audience will be vastly
1:07:49happier with that
1:07:51because the worst thing is to see
1:07:53someone try and make up an answer
1:07:55because you can tell you can always tell
1:07:59and that makes you look very very bad
1:08:02that destroys almost all your
1:08:04credibility immediately and audience
1:08:06will actually think your credibility
1:08:07goes up if you say I don't know
1:08:10and that's the right thing to do but
1:08:12you've got to numb it on the hand you
1:08:13know like the fifth one I don't know the
1:08:16answer to that well there's a kind of a
1:08:18bell curve where the criminal stops
1:08:20going up and starts Plumbing
1:08:27ah fantastic what if you don't
1:08:29understand the question
1:08:31have you noticed that with all the
1:08:33questions I've been asked I have
1:08:34repeated the question back
1:08:36usually in a slightly different word
1:08:38except when it's like four words long
1:08:40and there's no other way to say it
1:08:42that's part of the trick
1:08:44if you uh answer the question you need
1:08:47to repeat it because the only person in
1:08:49the room that everyone can consistently
1:08:51hear is you
1:08:53because the people in the front of the
1:08:55room their ears are getting in the way
1:08:57especially if they're part of the Greek
1:08:59royal family it will be impossible and
1:09:01people at the back can't hear a question
1:09:03from the front because it's the voice is
1:09:05going that direction
1:09:06so it's your job to repeat the question
1:09:08and if you paraphrase it then they will
1:09:10say no that was the question I asked at
1:09:12all or if you just can't make any sense
1:09:14of the question at all you have to say
1:09:16I'm sorry I didn't quite understand that
1:09:18could you rephrase it and when they
1:09:20rephrase it it's no clearer than that
1:09:22then possibly someone around them will
1:09:24say I think that he or she is asking
1:09:26about this or that
1:09:28um or ultimately you just have to say
1:09:31I'm sorry I'm just not understanding the
1:09:32question can we talk about it afterwards
1:09:34there is a great power in deferring
1:09:37things to afterwards
1:09:39because you don't want to lose the flow
1:09:41you don't want the audience to kind of
1:09:43get kicked out of the flow state that
1:09:46you try and get them into
1:09:49okay
1:09:53perhaps I talk about code
1:09:57and again most descriptions of code that
1:10:01I see don't seem to work for me
1:10:06I see a lot of code thrown up on screens
1:10:08and I don't understand a lot of it
1:10:12now I'm a pretty smart guy
1:10:14I've written books about programming
1:10:17and I can't follow what's going on on
1:10:19the screen and I'm going to bet that
1:10:21most of you have had that experience
1:10:24I think the reason for it is the way
1:10:26that most people show code
1:10:29is not helpful
1:10:32so whether it's code or it's some kind
1:10:34of declarative structure or it's a data
1:10:37format or something what you typically
1:10:38get is something like this I'm going to
1:10:40throw the thing up on the screen and
1:10:42then I'm going to laser point at points
1:10:43of it and talk about it for a couple of
1:10:46minutes
1:10:46I'm going to say this is a grammar and
1:10:49this is a way of specifying the behavior
1:10:52of a parser blah blah blah blah doesn't
1:10:54matter what it's about there's enough on
1:10:56the screen here that I'm going to have
1:10:57to stop and talk about each of these
1:10:59components and what they are for about
1:11:01three to five minutes
1:11:03and then I'll say and when you have a
1:11:05grammar like this it builds a syntax
1:11:07tree like this
1:11:09and now what am I going to do
1:11:11I'm going to apply the various bits of
1:11:13it and try and explain how it relates to
1:11:15the previous thing which is no longer on
1:11:17the screen in which most of your
1:11:18audience has now forgotten
1:11:20the details of
1:11:22and they'll say and they need to go from
1:11:24this we execute a piece of code and it
1:11:27kind of looks like this and the code is
1:11:29the pillar code so no one understands it
1:11:32so we spend five or ten minutes just
1:11:34going through the code trying to explain
1:11:36what it is
1:11:38and you say and when you execute that
1:11:40code you go to balance culture like this
1:11:44and that's what you see all the time
1:11:46you see it all the time in technical
1:11:48presentations add to disastrous way
1:11:51except for maybe one percent of the
1:11:53audience who have no lives
1:11:55but eidetic memories
1:11:58and for the rest of us is just hopeless
1:12:00the problem is that when you have four
1:12:04very complicated text-based slides that
1:12:08have been explained over 10 or 15
1:12:10minutes
1:12:12as soon as you move to the second slide
1:12:13everything from the first flight gets
1:12:14forgotten
1:12:15and there's no way of correlating what's
1:12:17going on
1:12:20so when I'm doing that particular
1:12:22explanation of parser technology in
1:12:25Pearl which I really do teach from a
1:12:28particular class remember I said talk
1:12:30about things you actually know and
1:12:31experiences you've actually had
1:12:33well this is what I actually do I start
1:12:37off saying
1:12:38we want to see whether this represents a
1:12:41sentence and how do we do that housing
1:12:44technology does that by saying if it's a
1:12:46sentence then the sentence can be broken
1:12:47down into these components a subject of
1:12:50a an object and some kind of modifier
1:12:53and they in turn break down into smaller
1:12:56components and they break down into
1:12:58multiple components and eventually you
1:13:00break it on there and of course I
1:13:01wouldn't talk this quickly about it I'd
1:13:03go through and explain what each of
1:13:04these were but here if you don't care
1:13:07you're just saying that you think
1:13:10and once you get down to a one-to-one
1:13:12relationship then you've classified
1:13:14everything
1:13:15and then the question is well how do I
1:13:17work out that that was the structure of
1:13:19the graph and the answer is that's what
1:13:21a grammar tells us a grammar is a static
1:13:24way of declaring that kind of structure
1:13:27so we say the synthesis of these things
1:13:29a clause consists of these things a
1:13:31compound verb consists of this or that
1:13:35and now you're seeing the relationship
1:13:37between those two things and then we go
1:13:40back to the actual graph
1:13:42it's like okay well that's great but how
1:13:44do I get a data structure out of this
1:13:46I get a data structure out of it by
1:13:48reversing all the arrows
1:13:51and then I use each of the things being
1:13:54pointed to as a label for each of the
1:13:57things from which the arrow leaves and I
1:13:59literally just join them together
1:14:02label value label value label value and
1:14:05then I recursively do the same thing at
1:14:07the next level up so if we look at the
1:14:08compound words
1:14:10then the same thing happens
1:14:13and again
1:14:15and again
1:14:17and ultimately all the way up to that
1:14:19third structure and again I would do it
1:14:22more slowly explaining each step along
1:14:24the way but do you see what I'm doing
1:14:26here
1:14:27I'm allowing the audience to follow the
1:14:31Transformations and the relationships
1:14:33between components
1:14:35by animating them
1:14:37now did that take some time to get the
1:14:39animation right in PowerPoint damn
1:14:41straight up there
1:14:44but the benefit of it is I can spend
1:14:47less time in the presentation and get
1:14:50much more understanding across to the
1:14:52Audience by doing it that way and that
1:14:56makes it worth doing
1:14:58same thing if you're doing some kind of
1:15:00code work through so this is the actual
1:15:02code that does that step of
1:15:04consolidating things with their labels I
1:15:07would actually explain it by saying well
1:15:09we start off in this code block and we
1:15:11can see it's a code block because it's
1:15:12got this incredibly ugly code block
1:15:14delimiters around it
1:15:17and then we localize it I don't care if
1:15:20you know what localization is in Pearl
1:15:22you know there are only four people on
1:15:23the planet that know what localization
1:15:25but I think only one of them is in the
1:15:27room so let's not worry about it but we
1:15:30localize the stack and then we push onto
1:15:32the end of the stack an extra stack
1:15:34frame and then we match our sub rule
1:15:36going down the tree and then capture
1:15:40that information then we do another
1:15:41Block in the other block we relocalize
1:15:43the step and of course if I'm actually
1:15:45explaining this in Pearl people I
1:15:46explain why we localize this that not UK
1:15:49and then we pop the stack and one is
1:15:51being popped off the sack that thing
1:15:53that we just push onto the stack but now
1:15:55it's filled with all kinds of Glorious
1:15:57data as well and we put that back into
1:16:01the next level up the stack under the
1:16:03name of the rule that produced That
1:16:06Snack frame
1:16:09right now even if you don't understand
1:16:11what's going on there did you notice how
1:16:12you knew exactly where to look and
1:16:15exactly what I was talking about all the
1:16:16time and at no stage did I have to do
1:16:19this
1:16:21okay
1:16:23do not use laser pointers
1:16:27because laser pointers I'll always use
1:16:29like I don't know why you'd have to do
1:16:31that but you have to move them around
1:16:32all the time and it's just the same
1:16:34laser variety of the pointers take an
1:16:37audience of primates and turn them into
1:16:38felines you might as well do this
1:16:46now what I'm explaining that putting it
1:16:49into the stack under the same name I
1:16:51would go back to the animation and say
1:16:53and that's literally doing that
1:16:56and then go back to the code and keep
1:16:58the sliding in
1:17:00if I'm refactoring some code I can
1:17:02animate that as well so I want to take
1:17:05this local time function out and make it
1:17:07more powerful so I literally say I'm
1:17:10going to take Global time function out
1:17:13I'm going to put it into some subroutine
1:17:15I'm going to add some more stuff to the
1:17:17subroutine and then I'm going to call
1:17:19this up routine minutes twice
1:17:23I'm going to bet that's the clearest
1:17:25example of refactoring you have ever
1:17:27seen
1:17:29and it literally took me 30 seconds to
1:17:32produce it because that's not fancy
1:17:34animation
1:17:35that's literally just eight slides in a
1:17:37row where I change one thing on each
1:17:39slide but at every point the thing
1:17:42that's standing out is the thing that
1:17:43I'm talking about so it holds your focus
1:17:45style is the things that you don't
1:17:48notice that make the things that you do
1:17:50see the things you should say
1:17:54when I'm transforming code I talk a lot
1:17:57about how to do functional programming
1:17:59to people who only know how to do
1:18:01procedural programming
1:18:03and when I'm trying to explain that to
1:18:04you they might say you don't have to
1:18:06leave your beloved Pearl I'd work with
1:18:08full people on the streets
1:18:12and go the hassle or something like that
1:18:14you can do functional programming pool
1:18:16so I say here's a typical kind of
1:18:18procedural code we create a variable we
1:18:22go through a for Loop selecting out
1:18:24certain elements and populating that
1:18:26variable we sort those elements into a
1:18:28very complicated sequence
1:18:31we make another variable and we go to
1:18:33another for Loop pulling out the things
1:18:35in the appropriate sequence so it
1:18:37doesn't matter the details of this this
1:18:38is actually from a real class that I
1:18:40teach as well by the way what matters is
1:18:42okay that's typical procedural
1:18:45programming variables for Loops Etc
1:18:49so how do I show them how to do it in
1:18:51functional product well the first thing
1:18:53I don't do is then say Oh and here's
1:18:55another completely different slide with
1:18:56a functional version
1:18:58because that doesn't help you understand
1:19:00how is it the same
1:19:02so what I didn't say is I say procedural
1:19:05code has a whole lot of what we call
1:19:07infrastructure in it and these are the
1:19:10parts of the code that are only there
1:19:12because the language is so stupid
1:19:14if the language is smarter we would make
1:19:16them
1:19:17so we can get rid of them rearrange the
1:19:21remaining components put a very small
1:19:24amount of functional infrastructure in
1:19:26instead and we get exactly the same
1:19:28thing
1:19:29and what we'll do now I go through it
1:19:31again but of course now I go through it
1:19:32backwards take the elements out of
1:19:35the data structure select the ones
1:19:37you're interested in sort them
1:19:40pull out the information you actually
1:19:42want
1:19:43and put them in the barrier
1:19:46and for the first time someone says oh
1:19:48that's a lyrics to functional
1:19:49programming I'm not scared anymore
1:19:53but I did that in a way that allowed
1:19:55them to see the relationship between
1:19:57what they knew and what they didn't know
1:20:01and that's a little bit of effort but
1:20:02much less than you'd expect the only
1:20:05slide that required some kind of
1:20:06complicated animation was the one where
1:20:09Whirlpool around
1:20:11everything else was just done very very
1:20:14simply
1:20:16so you don't have to have complicated
1:20:18animations you can just do cell
1:20:20animation literally that's what I do
1:20:22whenever I'm going through a piece of
1:20:24code
1:20:25I make one copy of the code all yellow
1:20:29and then I copy it like 50 times and I
1:20:32go through with a white highlighter tool
1:20:34and just highlight what I'm going to
1:20:35talk about next
1:20:37you know the other advantage to doing it
1:20:39this way I never mark up the description
1:20:42or the explanation
1:20:44because whatever goes wide is what I
1:20:46talk about next
1:20:48so like an orchestrate the right way of
1:20:51explaining this even if I don't go Line
1:20:54to Line to Line but Jump Around
1:20:57and I always get it right this really is
1:21:00a much better way of showing code and it
1:21:01works just as well for XML or it works
1:21:04just as well the file formats or for
1:21:06anything else that's a lot of text
1:21:08it also works for things like graphs or
1:21:11charts or tables you do exactly the same
1:21:14sort of thing use a different color a
1:21:17different intensity to highlight what
1:21:19you're supposed to talk about next or to
1:21:21highlight relationships between things
1:21:26so
1:21:28code simulations
1:21:30refactorings for walkthroughs for
1:21:32Transformations on code on i o on file
1:21:36formats on any kind of text
1:21:39animate
1:21:43I have questions if I've only got about
1:21:45five minutes to go so I'm going to defer
1:21:48you to the corridor
1:21:50actually I'll prefer you to come up
1:21:52afterwards I apologize but we've had so
1:21:54many good questions that I've wanted to
1:21:55let them go wait I mean we outnumb McRae
1:21:58quite considerably so we could probably
1:21:59hold the room as long as we need to
1:22:03but I think I should just move on the
1:22:05questions are important I'm sure and I
1:22:07want to answer them
1:22:09but we are supposed to finish shortly
1:22:14last week
1:22:16I want you to be able to get up in front
1:22:18of an audience and if not delivering
1:22:20your message fearlessly at least less
1:22:22fearfully
1:22:24because that's the worst four-letter
1:22:26word isn't it
1:22:28fear
1:22:30the thing is fear doesn't look like that
1:22:32it doesn't feel like that fear feels
1:22:34like this
1:22:37and once again it's Evolution messing
1:22:41around with your emotions
1:22:45so let's consider a typical
1:22:48presentation scenario and here is one
1:22:51so you've got the audience all sitting
1:22:53together and facing in One Direction and
1:22:56you've got the speaker at some distance
1:22:58removed facing the opposite direction
1:23:01and this is the problem you look at this
1:23:04just as a chimpanzee scenario which chip
1:23:07don't you want to be
1:23:09yeah
1:23:11the one standing behind him or herself
1:23:13while everyone else is staring
1:23:17yeah you want to be in the group but of
1:23:20course when you're speaking you're not
1:23:21in the group you're isolated you're
1:23:24facing you're the only person in the
1:23:26room facing this direction everyone else
1:23:29is facing the other direction this is
1:23:30not the chip you want to be because when
1:23:32you're this chimp what completely fills
1:23:35your field of vision is best
1:23:38okay
1:23:39I'm a primates staring at you
1:23:43this is not a naturally comfortable
1:23:46position for a primate
1:23:48even for a human primate it's not
1:23:50something we experience very often
1:23:53unless we're completely delusional about
1:23:55our own attractiveness yeah yes I just
1:23:57understood people saying about me all
1:23:59the time
1:24:00and there's only one thing worse than
1:24:02being in a room with a whole lot of
1:24:05people focusing their attention on you
1:24:07and that's when they do this
1:24:09keep going now
1:24:12humans have managed to convert that
1:24:14correct this way into smiling and
1:24:16laughter so if you're doing this job
1:24:18well if your audience is enjoying
1:24:20themselves you're going to feel worse
1:24:23because they apparently take at you stop
1:24:25doing it just
1:24:26pull down
1:24:28now the good news here is if you can't
1:24:30actually fight back against these
1:24:32evolutionary urges you can actually
1:24:35harness and make use of that nervous
1:24:38energy but you have to do that not here
1:24:41but here
1:24:47when you're getting ready for something
1:24:49that you really are not looking forward
1:24:51to
1:24:52like standing up and speaking if I'm
1:24:53gonna lose
1:24:54and Lincoln getting ready for doing
1:24:57something that you really are looking
1:24:58forward to
1:25:00going out on the first date with the
1:25:01love of your life
1:25:03the actual Sensations are almost
1:25:06completely identical
1:25:09it's just the severe activation of the
1:25:12nervous and the parasympathetic nervous
1:25:14systems
1:25:16predominantly in your stomach because
1:25:18that's where all the nerves are
1:25:22the way you interpret that depends on
1:25:25the concept you know you're going out
1:25:27for that big first aid you're going to
1:25:29be feeling good about it
1:25:31you're going to talk in front of
1:25:33you know some big audience you're not
1:25:35happy about and feel bad about it but
1:25:37it's all up here it's all the label you
1:25:40put on the sensation
1:25:42so if you reconsider the way that you
1:25:45classify and label these Sensations
1:25:50which you will continue to have
1:25:52that will change how you feel about
1:25:54speaking
1:25:56so when you're having that sensation if
1:25:58you label it a spear guess what
1:26:01it's fair
1:26:04but if you label it as energy
1:26:08and you can say ah I'm energized
1:26:11if you call anxiety you'll be anxious
1:26:14if you call it excitement hopefully
1:26:16you'll be excited
1:26:18now it takes a conscious effort to do
1:26:21that
1:26:22feel that and say I reject the
1:26:25interpretation that this is fear or
1:26:26anxiety or worry or stress
1:26:29and I substitute this other positive
1:26:31word instead
1:26:33but I guarantee you the very first time
1:26:35that you've been out to do this and you
1:26:38do that
1:26:39absolutely nothing will happen
1:26:41it will make no appreciable difference
1:26:43whatsoever you'll still feel fearful and
1:26:45anxious and nervous
1:26:47and if you keep doing it then you will
1:26:49start to rewire your automatic
1:26:52association between the sensation and
1:26:55what it means
1:26:56and eventually you get to the point
1:26:58where you long for that and when you
1:26:59don't have that feeling you're thinking
1:27:01uh oh something is horribly wrong here
1:27:06the other even more practical way of
1:27:09decreasing your anxiety is actually
1:27:12reverse
1:27:14I have this very strong rule that I
1:27:16never give a presentation for the first
1:27:18time and I am aware of a logical
1:27:21difficulty of that
1:27:23but what I mean is I never give it to a
1:27:26meaningful important audience for the
1:27:29first time if you see me speaking any
1:27:32presentation I will have given it live
1:27:34at least three times beforehand
1:27:37and by live I mean I would have been
1:27:39standing up I would have done it out
1:27:41loud I would have done it in the actual
1:27:43time that is available and I will have
1:27:44done it to some kind of audience
1:27:48maybe I'll rope in some colleagues over
1:27:50lunch and say look I've got to give this
1:27:52talk for our company you guys have got
1:27:53to sit there and listen to the talk
1:27:55first
1:27:56or if you're in a relationship and
1:27:58you're getting a bit tired of your
1:27:59significant other and you're not sure
1:28:01how to end it
1:28:02you can ask them to listen over and over
1:28:05and over again until you're rehearsing
1:28:07your talk
1:28:10or if you have a cat
1:28:12cats are Sensational practice audiences
1:28:15because almost any cow for the first
1:28:18couple of seconds we'll be doing this
1:28:21if you can hold the cat's attention
1:28:23human beings would be no difficulty
1:28:26whatsoever
1:28:27don't use your doctor
1:28:33that just does not help you
1:28:35the real trick here is use the internet
1:28:43I'm saying the internet has hundreds of
1:28:46thousands of pictures of audiences
1:28:49and you can just go and find one that
1:28:51best approximates the kind of audience
1:28:53you're expecting to have you know I'm
1:28:55going to Sydney later this week so it'll
1:28:57be something like this
1:28:58actually they're all in black so that's
1:29:01Melbourne um
1:29:05throw it up on a big Monitor and talk to
1:29:08it
1:29:09because all that's going to do is give
1:29:11you the experience of talking out loud
1:29:15do a whole lot of primates sort of
1:29:17staring at you and they're staring at
1:29:18you with a really thick stair you can
1:29:20cope with that you can come with a real
1:29:22audience doing that as well so you have
1:29:24to pick your audience picture carefully
1:29:25you don't want one that's kind of too
1:29:27aggressive because that's really only
1:29:30like one step away from
1:29:35so the fear that you feel is a natural
1:29:39evolutionary response
1:29:41to a genuinely uncomfortable and
1:29:43unfamiliar situation so the way you fix
1:29:46it is by reading labeling what that into
1:29:50that interpretation isn't that
1:29:52of changing your response to that
1:29:56condition
1:29:58and becoming more used to the actual
1:30:01experience
1:30:04by talking more by practicing more by
1:30:07having some kind of even synthetic
1:30:10audience
1:30:12in front of you
1:30:15so sum up
1:30:17how can you instantly present better
1:30:18well everything I've said tonight is all
1:30:22about communication it's about knowing
1:30:24the topic that you're communicating very
1:30:27very well so you feel comfortable with
1:30:28it it's about caring about that so you
1:30:31feel energized by it it's about
1:30:33structuring your communication to some
1:30:35kind of story which allows you to
1:30:37communicate more effectively it's about
1:30:40having visuals that actually enhance the
1:30:43communication rather than distracting
1:30:45from it
1:30:46it's about scheduling the questions that
1:30:50you take so that doesn't interfere with
1:30:53the communication process and in fact
1:30:55improves it
1:30:58and it's about rewiring yourself so that
1:31:01you communicate confidently which
1:31:03relaxes the audience and makes them
1:31:05enjoy the experience
1:31:07and if you do any one of those seven
1:31:09things or better still all seven of
1:31:12those seven things then I promise you
1:31:14your presentations will indeed instantly
1:31:17become better
1:31:18so thank you very very much
1:31:23[Applause]

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