Comment by dantheman | Hacker News Reader

Comment by dantheman | Hacker News Reader

I have to disagree with number 4:

  4. Don’t have hand outs

unless we qualify it some. In certain cases, introductions, solving a problem etc then the handouts may be a problem. But when briefing someone, especially someone who is busy a handout allows them to quickly find information they are looking for so that they can request clarification/give you feedback - which is the point of the meeting.

Tufte makes this argument much better than I can, it is his field, in the essay The Cognitive Style of Powerpoint http://www.edwardtufte.com/tufte/books_pp

but overall i think it's pretty good advice, I especially like point 2 - avoid home team, away team dynamics.

In 20 years of giving & receiving presentations I can tell you that this is actually the second most important advice I can give: if you can avoid handouts do so. (the most important is the importance of "the narrative" which I'm going to write about in the next week or two on http://www.bothsid.es).

It is your job to control the tempo & information in the meeting and handouts destroy that. I do sometimes give them after the meeting.

If you're not doing an overhead projector presentation then I agree that you need to give handouts. If a projector - there's no feedback that the other person could give you with paper in front of them that they couldn't with a handout unless it's detailed financial or other information (you could hand this out as you get to that place in the presentation).

In particular, if the material on the handout is material you want your audience to refer to again, by working through the handout in a presentation you are making it easier for your audience to do that.

I sometimes have handouts, but I, well... hand them out at the end of the presentation.

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