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I think you've got it backwards, at least when it comes to good talks. It's always seemed to me that at least 80% of the important content is usually discernible from the slides (especially since you can probably infer the other things that the speaker was talking about, minus stuff like stories and jokes which are usually fluff anyways).

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I don't really have it backwards - I'm just describing my experience. :/

I also always heard that slides are supposed to be guideposts to a presentation, not the main point of one.

I also always heard that slides are supposed to be guideposts to a presentation, not the main point of one.

I've increasingly been viewing slides as a means to get people to just look up from their keyboard or phone and stop twittering or chatting for at least a minute or two.

I was too; that's why I said "I think". I've heard that too, but it nearly always seems like the "good bits" get put in the slides while a lot of the other things that the speakers say I could have done without. Of course, the rest of the stuff is often interesting, just not usually nearly as useful.

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