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Created December 28, 2020 18:40
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Notes on "How To Speak" by Prof. Patrick Winston

How To Speak by Prof. Patrick Winston

MIT 2018 talk

How to start

  • Suggests not starting with a joke.
    • Audience isn't necessarily attuned to your mode of speaking.
  • Start with an empowerment promise; what will the audience get from the talk.
  • Audience should be focused on the speaker; no laptops or mobile phones.
    • People have one language processor; if that's distracted, makes it be more difficult to focus on the talk.
    • Distracts others around the person using the laptop/phone.
    • Distracts the speaker.

Conveying ideas

  • Cycle ideas several times.
    • Gives people chance to pick up the idea
  • Fence off your ideas.
    • Distinguish from other people's ideas.
  • Verbally punctuate points where people can pick up if they've stopped paying attention.
  • Ask questions.
    • Not too difficult as no-one will answer, but not too simple.

Time and place

  • Mid-morning, e.g. 11 AM, is a good time to have lectures.
    • People aren't tired.
    • It's not right after a meal.
  • Room should be brightly lit.
    • Avoid people wanting to go to sleep.
  • You should check the room out before speaking.
  • Don't want an empty room; use a smaller room if necessary.
    • Makes people wonder why they are there.

Boards and props

  • Chalk and boards are good for teaching.
    • Can use graphics easily.
    • Speed is similar to that at which people can absorb ideas.
    • Provides a target to direct your hands.
      • Avoid putting hands in pockets or behind your back.
  • Props can be very effective; as in theatre.
  • Prof. Winston thought the use of boards and props was also effective due to empathetic mirroring. Can "feel" yourself writing or interacting with props.

Slides

  • Slides are good for exposing ideas.
  • But use with care.
  • Don't read the slides.
  • Don't stand far away from the slides; it means people have to continually switch where they look.
  • Don't use silly clipart.
    • Pictures are good, but use simple to understand images that convey your ideas.
  • Don't use background patterns; they make the slides harder to read.
  • Laser pointers are bad.
    • Looking away from the audience and lose connection.
    • If you need to direct attention, use an arrow on the slide.

Simplify slides

  • Remove the need for the audience to not focus on the slides:
    • Remove most of the words.
    • Minimum font size needs to be large to be legible.
      • This also makes you remove more words.
    • Remove any logos.
    • Remove the title; can convey the title.
    • Remove any clutter, e.g. even bullet points.
  • Can print out slides on paper and look at them to see if there's enough space to them.
  • Hapax legomenon: something that only appears once.
    • Can have a complex slide, but only do that once in a presentation.

Informing people

Inspiration

  • For younger people, inspiration might be conveyed through a belief of the speaker that the audience can achieve something.
  • For more experienced people, inspiration might be conveyed by a passion of the speaker about what they are doing.

Promise

  • Provide a promise upfront about what the audience will get out of the talk.

Teaching people how to think

  • Prof. Winston believes that storytelling teaches people how to think, in an educational context.
  • Provide people with:
    • Stories they need to know.
    • Questions they need to ask about those stories.
    • Mechanisms for analysing those stories.
    • Ways of putting stories together.
    • Ways of evaluating how reliable a story is.

Persuading people

Exams

  • People often fail verbal exams due to:
    • Not situating; not giving the context for their work fully.
    • Not practicing.
      • Need to practice with an audience that aren't experts in your work, and are unafraid to give you criticism.

Job talks

  • Demonstrate vision.
    • The problem is one that the audience cares about.
    • There is something new in your approach.
  • Demonstrate that you've done something.
    • List the steps needed to achieve the solution to the problem.
  • You don't have long to demonstrate these: maybe five minutes.
  • Contributions: demonstrate what you've added to the field.

Getting "famous"

  • You want to use these techniques to present your ideas so that they are recognised.
  • Symbol, slogan, surprise, salient (one idea), story (tell how it works).

How to stop

Final slide

  • Put collaborators at the start, not the end.
    • It can diminish your role.
  • Don't use "conclusions", "questions?", "thank you", a web address etc.
  • Contributions is perhaps better.

Final words

  • Telling people you've finished speaking.
  • A joke can be a good way to conclude.
  • "Thank you" is not; it implies the audience has stayed out of politeness.
  • Examples from political speeches: finish with a call to action.
  • Can "salute" the audience: express how much you value your time at a place.
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