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Comment by JohnCarmack | Hacker News Reader

I am aware that my presentations aren't optimal for communicating targeted information, and it does weigh on me more and more as the years go by.

So far, I haven't been able to justify to myself the time required to do a really professional job, so I just show up and talk for a few hours. I like to think there is some value in the spontaneity and unscripted nature, but I don't kid myself about it being the most effective way to communicate important information.

I'm taking some baby steps -- I at least made a rough outline to guide my talking at last year's Oculus Connect instead of being in full ramble mode.

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Ha, it's funny because for me the format is just perfect. There are numerous presentations on the internet focused on one specific topic but your free form style is just like I'd talk with a friend. The interdisciplinary nature and hands on examples are nice added bonus.

Please don't change this unique approach too much.

Actually I really like the format of your presentations: just yesterday I watched your live coding session with vrscript (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ydyztGZnbNs) and it was fantastic because, first, you were showing to your audience how to work with Racket (and some of the features in DrRacket), and second, you build from zero a demo in a very casual, easy going way. I honestly don't think that a standard slide-based presentation would have been better in any way...

While this may be true, please don't let it cause you to shy away from "full ramble mode" when the opportunity presents itself! I know I speak for many when I say that I have learned much from hearing these sorts of talks of yours over the years. Your willingness to share your wealth of experience is inspirational, regardless of the format.

Agreed, full ramble isn't something many people do well and it's fun too watch. Random but useful information will fall out of peoples brain and it's great!

Along the lines of 'functional' programming, Jonathan Blow reposted an old email of yours which I thought was a nice format for getting across some points about reliability, consistency, and minimizing side effects:

http://number-none.com/blow/blog/programming/2014/09/26/carm...

Just to say, from my perspective I love your talks, zero distractions, just a long cogent train of thought to follow. Please don't feel the need to make too many changes.

For me, at least, it's not a problem that it doesn't optimally communicate targeted information. I watch talks like this for entertainment and maybe to pick up some information by osmosis and the undirected style is good for that. This was a very good talk by the way, and reinforced my positive feelings towards functional programming, thanks for doing it.

Really interested in hearing if the ideas on how to transform game programming into a more productive form panned out. Did you end up using the ideas in a later product?

Your contributions to computing over the years more than outweigh any lack of preparation for a presentation.

I actually prefer your data dump continuous talking style. I find myself having a hard time paying attention in talks with lots of pauses or segues.

I really appreciate your insights because I'm dabbling in functional programming after 25 years of c/c++/objc

Actually I prefer it a lot more to something scripted. It's normally hard to stay focused watching a guy talking for 1 hour on a youtube video. But with your presentations, I find myself looking for more at the end of the hour!

Might not be the easiest if you intend to get a certain thought or point across but I really enjoy the format. Reminds me of long-form radio shows.

When exploring lisp, did you have a chance to play with Clojure?

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