Monday, September 03, 2007
John Huston
You walk through a series of arches, so to speak, and then, presently, at the end of a corridor, a door opens and you see backward through time, and you feel the flow of time, and realize you are only part of a great nameless procession.
Better Presentations
Good Books: (via Emergic) Cliff Atkinson book Beyond Bullet Points: Using Microsoft PowerPoint to Create Presentations That Inform, Motivate, and Inspire. is about how to improve presentations using PowerPoint. I thoroughly enjoyed the book and reviews. I really learned a lot.
Here is one of Cliff Atkinson’s blog posts entitled Center of Gravity:
Whenever I look at a PowerPoint presentation for the first time, I go to Slide Sorter view to get the lay of the land: Can I see a clear story across the entire experience? Then I'll shift to Notes Page view: Are the projected visuals and spoken words planned together? And last I'll go to Normal view: Can I easily understand the main idea of this slide?
It's usually the case that the answer is No to all three questions. More often than not, the presentations are very difficult to understand, packed with more text and data than anyone's cognitive ability can process; and little if any narrative structure. What I commonly find is that any single presentation is actually multiple presentations that are yearning to be liberated. Where we might try to load up the slides to save time by creating a one-size-fits-all presentation, we actually end up with a situation where one-size-confuses-all. One solution to the problem is the discipline of completing Act I of your story template. When you write the statements that form the headlines of the first five slides, you are making purposeful decisions that will sort, distill and structure information in a way that makes sense to your specific audience.
Franz Dill of IFTF Future Now writes:
Atkinson's approach is very nicely tailored for important, complex presentations. His model is that of telling a story ... storyboard it, use minimal text (no bullets), engage the audience. He picks a board presentation scenario and goes through it in some detail. Very thoughtfully done. I also like the fact that he covers other parts of the process ... how you present the slides, pacing, and how to tailor it for later emailing to people that could not attend, now a very common situation. I have been saving presentations for reference for some time, and am often amazed at how incomprehensible a slideshow can become. In fact the latter situation has often made me use more text and slide detail than I would otherwise.
Lars Bergstrom adds in a review on Amazon: I believe that the book's greater contribution is pointing out that most people structure presentations as a dump of data rather than taking into account their audience and the goal of their presentation -- why are people there? What do you want them to do or believe after you're done presenting? Even if you disagree with Cliff's convincing points on removing bullets from your decks, you should take to heart his framework for developing concepts and decks.
Cliff Atkinson said in an interview with Management Consulting News:
When we start talking about text on a slide, it’s important to begin by affirming the research: presenting text that is identical to narration actually harms the ability of the audience to understand. Removing the text from the screen improves the ability of the audience to retain the information by 28%, and improves their ability to apply the information by 79%. Keeping in mind the imperative to minimize text on the screen, the bulk of writing text for a PowerPoint presentation should be in the headlines that form your story structure. Then you write the narrative explanation of each of those headlines in Notes Page view. Because the words have already been captured in the form of the headlines and notes, the screen is much less dependent on text to convey information and more dependent on you to communicate it with your spoken words and expressions. With this approach, the PowerPoint screen becomes a much more creative and interesting tool that can hold a few words, or no words at all.
Dave Pollard has an excellent analysis of the process:
What this book does is provide a process to supply the pictures to go along with the story, so your presentation becomes "a blend of movie and live performance". The process has three steps: Writing a script to focus your ideas, storyboarding the script to clarify the ideas, and producing the script to engage the audience. My previous posts have told you about the art of crafting a good story. The storyboard for a movie script is actually sketches of visuals, but for purposes of this book it's merely parsing of the critical parts of the story onto successive slides. Then you use graphics -- and few words -- to reinforce the key points of the story with memorable images.
Here is one of Cliff Atkinson’s blog posts entitled Center of Gravity:
Whenever I look at a PowerPoint presentation for the first time, I go to Slide Sorter view to get the lay of the land: Can I see a clear story across the entire experience? Then I'll shift to Notes Page view: Are the projected visuals and spoken words planned together? And last I'll go to Normal view: Can I easily understand the main idea of this slide?
It's usually the case that the answer is No to all three questions. More often than not, the presentations are very difficult to understand, packed with more text and data than anyone's cognitive ability can process; and little if any narrative structure. What I commonly find is that any single presentation is actually multiple presentations that are yearning to be liberated. Where we might try to load up the slides to save time by creating a one-size-fits-all presentation, we actually end up with a situation where one-size-confuses-all. One solution to the problem is the discipline of completing Act I of your story template. When you write the statements that form the headlines of the first five slides, you are making purposeful decisions that will sort, distill and structure information in a way that makes sense to your specific audience.
Franz Dill of IFTF Future Now writes:
Atkinson's approach is very nicely tailored for important, complex presentations. His model is that of telling a story ... storyboard it, use minimal text (no bullets), engage the audience. He picks a board presentation scenario and goes through it in some detail. Very thoughtfully done. I also like the fact that he covers other parts of the process ... how you present the slides, pacing, and how to tailor it for later emailing to people that could not attend, now a very common situation. I have been saving presentations for reference for some time, and am often amazed at how incomprehensible a slideshow can become. In fact the latter situation has often made me use more text and slide detail than I would otherwise.
Lars Bergstrom adds in a review on Amazon: I believe that the book's greater contribution is pointing out that most people structure presentations as a dump of data rather than taking into account their audience and the goal of their presentation -- why are people there? What do you want them to do or believe after you're done presenting? Even if you disagree with Cliff's convincing points on removing bullets from your decks, you should take to heart his framework for developing concepts and decks.
Cliff Atkinson said in an interview with Management Consulting News:
When we start talking about text on a slide, it’s important to begin by affirming the research: presenting text that is identical to narration actually harms the ability of the audience to understand. Removing the text from the screen improves the ability of the audience to retain the information by 28%, and improves their ability to apply the information by 79%. Keeping in mind the imperative to minimize text on the screen, the bulk of writing text for a PowerPoint presentation should be in the headlines that form your story structure. Then you write the narrative explanation of each of those headlines in Notes Page view. Because the words have already been captured in the form of the headlines and notes, the screen is much less dependent on text to convey information and more dependent on you to communicate it with your spoken words and expressions. With this approach, the PowerPoint screen becomes a much more creative and interesting tool that can hold a few words, or no words at all.
Dave Pollard has an excellent analysis of the process:
What this book does is provide a process to supply the pictures to go along with the story, so your presentation becomes "a blend of movie and live performance". The process has three steps: Writing a script to focus your ideas, storyboarding the script to clarify the ideas, and producing the script to engage the audience. My previous posts have told you about the art of crafting a good story. The storyboard for a movie script is actually sketches of visuals, but for purposes of this book it's merely parsing of the critical parts of the story onto successive slides. Then you use graphics -- and few words -- to reinforce the key points of the story with memorable images.
Provocateurs, Ghosts, Accomplices, And Starz
Konstantin Akinsha writes about the Moscow Biennale of Contemporary Art + interest (s) in Russian art circles about new ideas, concepts and interpretations + other viewpoints @ http://artnews.com/issues/article.asp?art_id=1821
Hidden Glory
I liked the poem because of the inspiring note + the passion factor.
It is a feeling that Mr and Mrs Fred Richards, of Murrarie, Brisbane, Australia expressed very clearly in the poem in stone which they dedicated to Mr Gan Timur because of his love for agate.
The verse was written by Mrs Edna Richards in praise of Queensland’s beautiful rainbow agate. She calls it ‘Hidden Glory’ and it reads:
A man picked up a stone one day,
While walking beside a stream;
He looked at it, then threw it away,
It chipped and lo! a gleam.
He took it home and studied it,
And saw to his surprise,
That beauty lay beneath its crust;
It was indeed a prize.
When cut through with a diamond saw
A picture did unfold
Of hills and dales, red sunset, too,
A glory to behold.
So, whenever you see an ugly stone,
Don’t pass it by with scorn;
It may contain a treasure trove
Just waiting to be born.
These words now glitter in a panel of blue and gold at the Richard’s home. Each of the 478 letters has been cut and polished from one of a score of different Australian rocks and gemstones. It was a labor of love that took Fred Richards 300 hours. The result combines jasper, agate, chrysoprase, prase, trachyte, rhyolite, petrified wood, common opal, obsidian, onyx, grass stone, aventurine quartz, blue sodalite, tourmaline, rock crystal, amethyst, pitchstone and granite.
It is a feeling that Mr and Mrs Fred Richards, of Murrarie, Brisbane, Australia expressed very clearly in the poem in stone which they dedicated to Mr Gan Timur because of his love for agate.
The verse was written by Mrs Edna Richards in praise of Queensland’s beautiful rainbow agate. She calls it ‘Hidden Glory’ and it reads:
A man picked up a stone one day,
While walking beside a stream;
He looked at it, then threw it away,
It chipped and lo! a gleam.
He took it home and studied it,
And saw to his surprise,
That beauty lay beneath its crust;
It was indeed a prize.
When cut through with a diamond saw
A picture did unfold
Of hills and dales, red sunset, too,
A glory to behold.
So, whenever you see an ugly stone,
Don’t pass it by with scorn;
It may contain a treasure trove
Just waiting to be born.
These words now glitter in a panel of blue and gold at the Richard’s home. Each of the 478 letters has been cut and polished from one of a score of different Australian rocks and gemstones. It was a labor of love that took Fred Richards 300 hours. The result combines jasper, agate, chrysoprase, prase, trachyte, rhyolite, petrified wood, common opal, obsidian, onyx, grass stone, aventurine quartz, blue sodalite, tourmaline, rock crystal, amethyst, pitchstone and granite.
What Makes A Painting A Painting?
Linda Yablonsky writes about new interpretations of painting by the experts, and artists of all colors and disguises + the hybrid, the crossover, the many-splendored concepts in the art arena + other viewpoints @ http://artnews.com/issues/article.asp?art_id=1824
A Gem Miner's Tip
The golden rule on mine dumps is to look for the spots where the grass and weeds are growing undisturbed. Those are the best places to search for gems.
Life’s A Gamble, But Worth The Risk
I think Bob is right. It's a unique reflection when you realize how impermanent our world is. A minute you are Mr Somebody, and the next minute you're gone.
(via NationMultimedia) Bob Kimmins writes:
As you drive to work every morning, are you aware that your chance of dying in a crash is 84 to 1? This means that anyone placing a Bt 100 bet on that untimely end would stand to win Bt 8400. Life is a gamble, and everything we do involves some sort of risk, from high-chance favorites such as road accidents and disease to long shots like choking on a banana.
And I wonder what the odds would have been in 1923 when jockey Frank Hayes died of a heart attack during a horserace, with his mount, Sweet Kiss, finishing first and Hayes still in the saddle. Perhaps it’s uncertainty in life that leads people into gambling—a subconscious effort to overcome fate. Anthropologists agree that gambling was in evidence 4000 years ago in China, India, Egypt and Rome. Dice dating back to 1500 BC were found in Thebes, and related writing were discovered on tablets in the Pyramid of Cheops. Thailand, too, has a rich history of gambling.
More than 1000 years ago, bean guessing was probably the earliest game of chance in the Land of Smiles, and in the 1800s King Rama III legalized gambling to generate tax revenue. That decision led to widespread debt and bankruptcy and increased crime, however, so King Rama V outlawed it again.
In a turnabout decision, just after World War II, the Finance Ministry became responsible for running legal casinos—only for the well to do. But the law was flouted by allowing all comers to play, and the resulting debts and decline in social values prompted the ultimate clampdown.
(via NationMultimedia) Bob Kimmins writes:
As you drive to work every morning, are you aware that your chance of dying in a crash is 84 to 1? This means that anyone placing a Bt 100 bet on that untimely end would stand to win Bt 8400. Life is a gamble, and everything we do involves some sort of risk, from high-chance favorites such as road accidents and disease to long shots like choking on a banana.
And I wonder what the odds would have been in 1923 when jockey Frank Hayes died of a heart attack during a horserace, with his mount, Sweet Kiss, finishing first and Hayes still in the saddle. Perhaps it’s uncertainty in life that leads people into gambling—a subconscious effort to overcome fate. Anthropologists agree that gambling was in evidence 4000 years ago in China, India, Egypt and Rome. Dice dating back to 1500 BC were found in Thebes, and related writing were discovered on tablets in the Pyramid of Cheops. Thailand, too, has a rich history of gambling.
More than 1000 years ago, bean guessing was probably the earliest game of chance in the Land of Smiles, and in the 1800s King Rama III legalized gambling to generate tax revenue. That decision led to widespread debt and bankruptcy and increased crime, however, so King Rama V outlawed it again.
In a turnabout decision, just after World War II, the Finance Ministry became responsible for running legal casinos—only for the well to do. But the law was flouted by allowing all comers to play, and the resulting debts and decline in social values prompted the ultimate clampdown.
Saturday, September 01, 2007
Robert Redford
I can't think of anything outside of having the gift yourself and creating yourself. I can't think of the next better thing to do than being able to put it back. Creative expression, I think, is vital to the success of any society. ... A society without art will die.
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