I have a dream...

[kickaha]

Probably not a surprise to anyone, but I'm a devotee of Edward Tufte, and I think he's spot on when he says that PowerPoint is Evil. I can't tell you how many bland, mundane, and BORING talks I've sat through, where the bullet point list is just read off the screen, and I fall asleep. If that's all someone's talk is, please just give me the handout so I can read it in 5 minutes instead of wasting 30 listening to them read it to me. I thought I'd left that behind in kindergarten.

So I have a goal for my defense talk.

Zero bullet point list slides. None. Not a damned one.

I'll put up an illustrative diagram, an animation, or even just a couple of words that are the main point I'm trying to make, but y'know, if I can't talk about my own research off the top of my head, then I probably need to rethink it.

But no bullet lists. Should be interesting to see how close I get.

Comments

[jinasphinx.livejournal.com]

I can always tell the people who learned to give talks without Powerpoint because their talks are so much more interesting, and their slides are mostly photos or charts, not an outline, at least not every step of the way. (With something technical, I think it does help to show people your general outline at the beginning and at points during -- just so they don't get completely lost.)