
Stand Out as a Speaker - Anon84
https://science.sciencemag.org/content/365/6455/834.full
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ziddoap
I feel like any conversation about speaking/presenting skills should have a
link to Patrick Henry Winston's "How To Speak" presentation.

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RjbmPuhuFv0&list=PL9F536001A...](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RjbmPuhuFv0&list=PL9F536001A3C605FC)

~~~
zimbatm
Thanks, this was great to watch. Now I'm looking forward to my next talk to be
applying some of those techniques!

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bsder
The biggest advice to a speaker giving a fixed speech is: PRACTICE!

People never put in enough practice on a speech. When I build a new speech, I
practice it with a clock and record myself. And then edit the speech. And then
deliver the speech again. And do it again. And again. And again.

By the time I'm done, you can take my slides, destroy my computer, put the
room in a war zone, and I can still deliver that speech cold and make it at
least passably interesting to the audience.

Yes, making a good speech is a ton of work. I don't do it often, and when I do
I try to make sure I can give that speech multiple times to amortize some of
the work.

~~~
Rainymood
Completely agree, people don't grok this.

I once gave a presentation 4 times in a row (venue was large with 4 rotating
groups) and, man, the 4th time I gave it I was so freaking into it, it was so
freaking good. You really noticed that it got better at the second, third, and
fourth time. My talk actually got the highest rating of all presentations that
day by a LARGE margin.

~~~
JadeNB
> Completely agree, people don't grok this.

I think most people grok it for _others '_ presentations; it just appeals to
both vanity and laziness to think " _I_ can wing it."

~~~
kolanos
> it just appeals to both vanity and laziness to think "I can wing it."

Some people are just good at ad lib. What is charisma without improvisation?

~~~
JadeNB
> > it just appeals to both vanity and laziness to think "I can wing it."

> Some people are just good at ad lib. What is charisma without improvisation?

Indeed, some people _are_ good at ad lib, and _can_ give a good talk without
practice; but I think that it is almost always some combination of vanity and
laziness to think that one can give a _better_ talk without practice than with
it.

------
colmvp
I found Toastmasters to be fairly reliable for practicing and improving my
public speaking skills.

In my city, there are dozens of chapters that vary in quality and expertise.
One chapter is really good for people who are shy. Another is for people who
are quite advanced and are trying to get on the level of event speaker.

Over a few years, my speech writing and delivery improved to the point where I
got compliments during public events. And a friend of mine from the club got
to the point where he frequently gets asked to be an MC at friends/family
events.

Plus generally speaking, I have found the people who go to be friendly.

~~~
daphneokeefe
There's one in San Francisco on Thursday nights that's all comedy speakers.
Boost your confidence and make some fun new friends.

------
cbanek
From Planes, Trains, and Automobiles:

"Have a point! It makes it so much more interesting for the listener!"

In general, I find most technical and scientific talks are the person gushing
about whatever they think is cool, sometimes rushing from topic to topic, and
as an audience member, you're like, what is going on, and why is this
relevant?

All this knowledge in this article is really good. But I think most people kid
themselves about how much they can cover, and what is interesting to them
might not be interesting to their audience. Although if you know what the
takeaways are, you should be able to know that those are relevant for that
audience. I love the part about having one thing you're focusing on. It's
obvious, until you try to write something, and have a million good sounding
ideas.

------
yodsanklai
I still remember one of the first professional talk I had to give. I was an
intern in a company and I had to present my work to about 20 people, nothing
very impressive.. Yet it was a terrible experience. My mouth was so dry that I
could barely speak. I didn't think of bringing water, and too shy to ask.

I realised that I was much more stressed when I had to present my own
work/research than let say, a class, or somebody else's work. It wasn't simply
talking in public that affected me, but also the fear of being judged and
criticised.

Eventually, I got more experience (I was professor for a while) and it became
like second nature. It is really just a matter of practice.

That being said, I'm certainly not a great orator. For instance, I've always
disliked giving longer lectures where you need somehow to keep the audience
awake. In that context, because I can't rely on my eloquence, I try to engage
the audience with some questions, exercises, and alternate the unavoidable
boring parts with more interesting parts.

Another thing that I noticed when watching speakers on youtube, is that they
often do the exact same speech hundreds of time! When you watch several videos
of them, you realize that they tend to repeat the exact same sentences from
one speech to the next, even when they answer questions. No wonder they are
good speakers.

~~~
dredmorbius
Same speech, same jokes, same anecdotes, even many of the same answers ... to
different questions.

I've looked up presentation / lectures by people I've personally attended,
though at different times and locations. The similarity will come down to
timing and intonation.

It's far easier to appear polished when what you're delivering is a
frequently-repeated performance, than when doing a one-off. The frequent
advice and/or pressure for creativity and originality _all the time and under
all circumstances_ is also actively harmful. Far better to get the basic
framework right, perfect the delivery, and _then_ tweak or adjust slightly as
you go, than to try to randomly toss out something wholly novel at one go.

The fact that practice (see:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20771763](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20771763))
is a major component also makes drastic changes expensive, and hence, not
generally a good idea.

------
jschulenklopper
Zach Holman made a site with excellent tips on preparing and delivering a
(technical) presentation: [https://speaking.io/](https://speaking.io/). That
one covers a lot more ground.

~~~
dredmorbius
Thanks, that's very substantial and practical.

------
jedberg
If you want to make great presentations, I can't recommend this book/website
enough:

[https://presentationpatterns.com](https://presentationpatterns.com)

It completely changed the way I make presentations, and my evaluations
skyrocketed after making the changes.

------
killjoywashere
I definitely support the author's message: have a point, use pictures,
prepare. My style is derived from Lawrence Lessig's Free Culture (Flash, but
legendary:
[https://randomfoo.net/oscon/2002/lessig/free.html](https://randomfoo.net/oscon/2002/lessig/free.html))
and Edward Tufte (with whom I was fortunate enough to work for one summer).

~~~
dredmorbius
OT: Are there any Web-based (or other) tools which will ingest Flash and emit
video?

Because that format is so beyond dead to me.

------
dannykwells
I think it's on point that this article is written by a postdoc. It's true -
when you're young/less established to have to be very careful about these
things and do a good job. On the other hand, it's always amusing to me to
observe the inverse correlation between fame and talk quality, at least in
science. I once saw a Nobel prize winner give talk with pixelated images and
with large blocks of comic sans text. It's honestly somewhat rare, at least in
my field, to see a talk from an elder-statesperson of the field that isn't low
quality.

------
RickJWagner
I've spoken at a few conferences over several years. I feel (and the feedback
seems to reflect) that I've had some good talks and some that maybe weren't so
good.

IMHO, perhaps the most important thing is to know your subject inside and out,
upside and down. Given that, you can speak freely and ad-lib colorful comments
to fill time if needed. You are also a much better Q&A responder.

The soft skills count for a lot, too. But I think super-deep knowledge is a
must-have.

~~~
musiccog
Deep knowledge is important but I think I can add a few more thoughts:

\- DON'T 'make-stuff-up' If you get a tricky question about something you
don't know, just say you don't know - you will screw up and get caught out
when you get it wrong. No one knows everything.

\- DO only speak on subjects that you have a passion about I believe that this
is very important, and the difference between a good talk, a bad talk, and a
_transforming_ talk.

------
rlonstein
[https://perl.plover.com/yak/presentation/](https://perl.plover.com/yak/presentation/)

