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Comment by hluska | Hacker News Reader

Your donts are all about nervous people lacking experience. But people who are nervous about speaking will read this, recognize themselves and be even less likely to gain the experience to overcome their nerves.

Each of those can be fixed with practice. You don’t need notes or a script, you just need appropriate practice. There are proven methods, many opportunities to practice them and even more people who will help. Most importantly though, it’s okay to screw up when you’re nervous and each of these donts is totally fine. They’re things to work on and reasons to keep practicing with reasonable, skilled speakers.

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> Each of those can be fixed with practice.

Practice can and should be done before giving the presentation to the public. You should record yourself and watch it back.

If you consider practice to just be giving presentations in front of people at a conference, I'm sorry, but no. For example, if you want general practice: seek out your local Toastmasters.

> Your donts are all about nervous people lacking experience.

They aren't. Many of them has nothing to do with lacking experience.

> You don't need notes or a script,

Technically, no, but that's like saying you technically don't need a windshield on a car, or doors, or numerous other things. I have no issue getting up and giving a presentation, and I still use notes.

> Most importantly though, it's okay to screw up when you're nervous and each of these donts is totally fine.

It depends on the context. I'm sorry, but using a conference as your means of practicing is not considerate. People spent money to be there. Often thousands in tickets, travel, and hotels. Speakers frequently get compensated as well. So no, it's not totally fine.

At a local meetup which is usually free? Sure. At some presentation you give at work? Great. There are numerous other ways to get practice, but the context of this thread is conference talks.

As someone who has helped people become speakers at conferences and colleges, I think rather than babying them, it's important to provide clear and actionable guidance.

At conferences I've attended I think it's extremely rare to have a speaker be compensated (maybe outside of the cost of flights/hotels). Perhaps this colors my view on the situation and might be true of the other folks here who are more open to novice presenters.

Also, it's more than reasonable to expect someone to rehearse, but I don't think there is any substitute for the real thing. It's like the saying about testing... everyone tests in prod, just some people try test before that too.

> At conferences I've attended I think it's extremely rare to have a speaker be compensated (maybe outside of the cost of flights/hotels)

Flights, hotels, and tickets are all compensation and what I was referring to. These conferences are all open to newer speakers.

> Also, it's more than reasonable to expect someone to rehearse,

Apparently not, judging by comments.

> but I don't think there is any substitute for the real thing.

But you don't need to go from not speaking to speaking at a conference. There are many other steps in between where you can get experience in public speaking.

> You don’t need notes or a script, you just need appropriate practice.

Especially inexperienced speakers should prepare notes or script to give it a structure and transmission from topic to topic.

Else one quickly ends up with a talk like "uh, now what's on this slide, oh, yeah" which takes out any flow and doesn't present a good flow of thought.

How much those notes are used and how much one can deviate makes the expert. But the better talks are well prepared.

You need to know what you want to talk about. What the key points are.

Agree, but then throw away (or only have them as backup) the notes during the actual talk. Find the sweetspot where you've practiced enough that you remember all the content and how the different parts flow into each other but haven't yet memorized your script entirely.

I once read a book that could have been a pamphlet or maybe a paragraph that boiled down to “Don’t have a script you memorize, but do practice over and over and over and over and over until you feel entirely comfortable with the material”. This made an enormous difference in my ability to give talks.

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