HN Theater @HNTheaterMonth

⬐ hahamrfunnyguy

I find that amateur presenters need to work on delivery the most. Many times people speak too fast and as a result they're adding filler words, ahs and umms which make the presentation a lot more difficult to listen to. Using gestures, modulating cadence and volume can help make the presentation more engaging.

⬐ bjelkeman-again

Recording yourself while practicing is really helpful, but can be painful to watch. But creates a great incentive to improve.

⬐ AlbertCory

I have a Substack post on "Public Speaking for Engineers" all ready to go. I viewed this one with some trepidation: what if she's stolen all my thunder?

However, as lumenwrites hints: I soon relaxed.

It took a while to notice that her head, with headphones on, is in a tiny rectangle at the top right. At first it seems like a disembodied voice.

As athrowaway12 says: slide decks are a relic of the 90s. If you view your talk as "speaking from the slide deck" you've already lost.

Lastly, you can't get there all at once ("there" == being as good as the most captivating public speakers). All you can do starting out is be decent, have the audience not hate you, and get better with practice.

⬐ lumenwrites

I'd love to read it when it's published!

⬐ AlbertCory

I'm running a poll over which post comes next: that, or the one about working at Oracle 1991-98. Subscribe so you can vote! https://albertcory50.substack.com/

⬐ athrowaway12

Thanks for reading my comment; sorry I deleted it -- to me it didn't make sense on a second reading. I do agree with your quote from it. Definitely I got baited by this OP and made an account to rant.

⬐ user3939382

I learned more in high school from debate than many other classes put together. How to write and persuade, how laws work and how to read them, confidence, organization, research, the list goes on.

If most students learned even half of what I did from debate I would make it required.

⬐ athrowaway12

I've never found it more efficient to watch a video presentation than just reading a transcript.

In my experience the people who prefer video or live presentations are many of those in managerial roles and many of those who can't write or understand written English properly. Because in this aspect, of quickly skimming content, they are outcompeted and obviously that's bad for them.

But the truth is slide decks are a relic of the 90s and 00s Office Space-esque business culture, and the efficiency in conveying information of alternative mediums such as developer documentation, Googling, and forums such as SO, Twitter, and reddit.

⬐ candiddevmike

The place where I struggle with public speaking is the anticipation and the first couple of minutes. Once I'm in the flow, everything is great, but before that I'm a nervous wreck.

⬐ garbanzoPDX

Totally get this. I spent over 10 years in Toastmasters to help me with a phobia of public speaking. In a much better place now but definitely still get butterflies before speaking events at work which subside quickly after I start presenting.

⬐ quickthrower2

1. Toastmasters

2. Video yourself and watch/listen

3. Some Udemy course on improving sound of voice

4. Maybe… travel to pick up extra layers of accent. I love mixed accents!

⬐ _tom_

And practice, practice, practice

⬐ lumenwrites

She seems like a really nice and smart lady, and this is a topic I'm really curious about and want to get better at, but her speech/presentation itself didn't work for me at all. Completely failed to grab my attention, I started speeding up the video, and then skimming, and finally ran out of patience and closed it without having learned anything new.

Getting to the point quickly, skipping to the most valuable and insightful points, and talking in such a way that grabs people's attention and gets them excited to hear what you have to say are essential public speaking skills, but very hard to learn.

The most captivating public speakers can speak with cadence and energy that makes every sentence entertaining, makes it impossible to stop listening (for great examples, see Max Landis' Superman pitches on youtube, or Dan Harmon's Harmontown podcast, or any good stand up comedian).

I really wish I could learn to do THAT.

⬐ athrowaway12

The speaker in the video: they didn't really have anything to say in my opinion.

Dan Harmon, etc. are interesting to listen to because they have a point, a good argument, or an interesting idea, and they are explaining it clearly and simply. In other words, they speak honestly and from the heart.

No amount of public speech training will make you better at having a good point. There are some tactics that will make your delivery more effective and it easier to convince/trick your audience. But at the end of the day, you need to offer to the audience something of value that can solve their problems.

If you are forced to fill 50 minutes and don't have 50 minutes of things to say, then these cheeses and tactics make sense. And many people are forced into these scenarios, which is why you see so many crap presentations, and why the speaker's advice is reasonable on how to survive in the business world.

But I think people like the speaker are implicitly demeaning the value of having a good point, saying it, and being done.

Kurt Vonnegut's lecture is a perfect example of this. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=GOGru_4z1Vc

⬐ astura

This is someone that is very bad at public speaking trying to teach public speaking skills. Truly bizarre.

⬐ athrowaway12

What I took away from their presentation:

1. They are very smart because they work on ML compilers (what are those?), but for some reason decided to work on public speaking now.

2. Something about presentations and delivery. "The medium is the message"

(Skipped ahead)

3. Here are some PowerPoint templates that are good

(Skipped ahead)

4. The end.

(Skipped back)

5. Here are some cool code editor templates, carbon, etc. They even have the MacOS 3 dots.

(Skipped forward)

6. Color palette of slides, where to get slides

(Gave up)

Where was the section about how to convey valuable information to the audience? And make arguments and how to reason?

I'm just curious: to them, what is the value in a presentation? Why is their job valuable and worth doing? These were the burning questions I had and must have skipped over the answers to.