Do you have any suggestions on how to deliver a solid presentation? | Hacker News Reader

Do you have any suggestions on how to deliver a solid presentation?

3 pointsemontero14 comments

I just got out of a thesis defense presentation. Since my own thesis defense is likely going to occur soon, I've started to attend other people's presentations in order to get a sense of what's required/expected. I've already been to three presentations and I can say they all have one thing in common: they were utterly dull! Irrespective of the very interesting nature of the projects (software development and robotics), the presenters not only lacked luster, but they also struggled mightily during the introduction and further explanation of their work. One of them was so nervous, his advisor had to ask him to "take 5 and relax". I've learned two important things already: 1) take it easy, nobody knows your subject better than you do, and 2) focus on the "why" more than the "how".

Since I have the utmost respect for the HN community (I've learned an awful lot from you guys), I'd like to ask you the following: Do you have any presentation hints for hackers? What do you think works best when presenting a project/product/idea/paper to both technical and not technical folks alike?

Thanks for your consideration!

I'm not sure if this would apply to thesis defenses, but it's at least relevant for more general presentations: make a presentation on the essentials of your research. Your research is too complicated to explain to an audience (even an expert one) if your were to talk for the whole day. Your choice is between describing a very "narrow" (and boring!) view of your work, or simplifying it!

The problem with simplifying your work is that it's not actually as simple as you'd have to pretend it to be. You will end up telling half-truths. This sounds dishonest, but I'm not sure if it truly is. I think good presenters know this. Read a pop-science book. The authors that are good at explaining a broad topic have thought very hard about which caveats to slip buy you without mention.

I find making presentations to be very difficult. But I've been getting much more excited feedback from my audience (physicists, ecologists and mathematicians, depending) when I tell them the interesting parts at the expense of rigour. They catch some of the gaps (which are there intentionally) and ask me questions afterwards, at which point I'm happy to fill in the details.

The trade-off is between rigour and relevance. Choose relevance. It's why you've done your work in the first place.

Thank you so much, fburnaby!

Look at Guy Kawasaki's information on presenting and Tufte for ideas on how to present information effectively.

One of the more interesting ideas that I've come across recently is that a presentation should tell a story. Which is what the pop-science books (see fburnaby's post) are doing.

Thanks, bavcyc! I'm also looking a bit at Steve Jobs (presentation skills) and Obama (diction, tone and speed). Good stuff!

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