Okay, being more serious this time, I have to disagree with you on the implicit assumption that pictures of animals make a boring lecture less boring. On the contrary, I find the more time lecturer spends on window dressing, the less confidence the lecturer has in the material - and on this, they're often right. Unless the picture is relevant, leave it out. In fact, you can generally improve a presentation by orders of magnitude by getting rid of the powerpoint and just saying what you have to say. Eliminating distraction helps both you and the audience focus on your talk. Same thing with jokes - I can assure you, no matter who you are, that comedy is a lot harder than you think it is, and you're not as good at it as you think you are. If you have something to say, say it. If it's worth saying, that's all you need. If it isn't, no amount of clever pictures or bad jokes will help.
On Thu, Jul 5, 2012 at 4:28 AM, Joe Sondow <[email protected]> wrote: > Every audience member responds to a presentation based on their mood, > preconceptions, and the style of the presenter. All programmers have > emotional responses because all programmers are human beings. For any given > topic, a boring presentation is less effective for a large group of > programmers than an interesting presentation. > > On Wednesday, July 4, 2012 3:11:40 PM UTC-7, Jon Kiparsky wrote: >> >> Clearly if someone has emotional responses, they're not suited to >> programming, and not going to understand the presentation - and probably >> don't have an attention span or any sort of retention. >> Duh. >> -jpk >> >> >> (please insert a smiley face if you require one) >> >> On Wed, Jul 4, 2012 at 6:05 PM, Joe Sondow wrote: >> >>> I'm curious what your thesis is. Why do you assert that an animal >>> picture automatically ruins the message of a slide, before you've even seen >>> the presentation or slide deck? >>> >>> In my experience a well-chosen image that evokes a relevant emotional >>> response increases the attention span and memory retention of audience >>> members. >>> >>> >>> On Tuesday, July 3, 2012 12:50:38 AM UTC-7, Martijn Verburg wrote: >>>> >>>> Hi all, >>>> >>>> So I'm looking to do an Ignite talk on "the greatest threat to tech >>>> conferences today" at Oscon. Basically it's going to be a very >>>> tongue in cheek presentation where I present 20 slides, each slide >>>> containing: >>>> >>>> 1. The Speaker + a link to their talk >>>> 2. The important point they were making >>>> 3. The picture of the (probably cute & fluffy) animal >>>> 4. How the animal ruined the message >>>> >>>> e.g. Something like "So here's X, talking about Y (note the link!), an >>>> awesome <technology> for <this reason>, >>>> important knowledge right?! Well this particular <animal> came and >>>> ruined that, <mini rant>" >>>> >>>> So if you've ever given a presentation with a cute and fluffy animal >>>> then I'd like to grab the 4 points from you + a copy of the >>>> picture. Full accreditation etc of course! >>>> >>>> -- >>>> Cheers, >>>> Martijn >>> >>> >> -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "Java Posse" group. > To view this discussion on the web visit > https://groups.google.com/d/msg/javaposse/-/E-eLXywbpc4J. > To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > [email protected]. > For more options, visit this group at > http://groups.google.com/group/javaposse?hl=en. > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Java Posse" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/javaposse?hl=en.
