What is Digg?34 Comments
- Twoodge, on 10/12/2007, -2/+57Because that wouldn't be needlessly T074£L¥ µb3r £337, would it?
- OpticalLiam, on 10/12/2007, -0/+39Didn't you hear? 'Hack' is the new buzzword for anything you can think of.
- greenrider, on 10/12/2007, -1/+28I'm sorry, there's no way I'm taking tips from someone who writes "everything get’s magnified"
Finish middle school first. Then you can give me pointers. - SkyFire360, on 10/12/2007, -1/+26Hack #6: Use spell-check and grammar-check before writing articles about presentations
- 12340987, on 10/12/2007, -1/+20yeah, and it's annoying, make it stop.
- apachedisco, on 10/12/2007, -1/+12Misuse of the word "hack"? Yes sir!
- Link459, on 10/12/2007, -0/+9I hate how all sites call everything "hacks" nowadays... Sigh...
- Tourney3p0, on 10/12/2007, -0/+8"Hack".. ***** like that is why Digg is becoming a laughingstock of the internet community.
- MadNuke, on 10/12/2007, -2/+10The douchebag who wrote this:
http://www.scotthyoung.com/blog/img/Headshot2.jpg
..ha - estvir, on 10/12/2007, -2/+10.. and add that to the stupid use of the word hack and we have a buried story. Ta-Da !
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -3/+11the best tip is to not give a ***** whether you presentation goes well or not.
do your home work, satisfy your curiosities on the topic you are preparing for. don't study for the presentation, study for the fun. bask in the attention of your listeners. its a privilege to be able to address a group. enjoy it.
no biggie
the author is apparently a nervous wreck. ignore him and his "hacks" - TokenUser, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6I'll be taking presentation advice from an 18 year old?
Great - I'll remember those tips next week as I make the 8 60-90 minute presentations I have on my calendar.
Extra Tip A. - Know your subject material. Be able to speak knowledgeably on the material without visual aids.
Extra Tip B. - Read your audience. Know their pain points, and respond to visual cues they are giving in areas where they agree/disagree with you. Be prepared to emphasize/de-emphasize as required for your audience.
Unfortunately, most of my presentations are online. That makes Tip B harder to execute, unless you have someone else on your side in the room that can reiterate and feed you cues. Presentations should never be solo if they can be avoided. - scotticus, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5Having gone from a crappy public speaker to a pretty good one I suggest "the four *****":
a) Know your *****. Read up on background and read as much as you can before your impending presentation.
b) Practice your *****. Before any big presentation I get my slides together a week ahead of time, and find an empty room and actually speak through the talk, standing with a laser pointer. Your presentation will evolve with time, and with each session, you'll feel the "ums" and "uhs" leaving your speech patterns. If you have a fear of public speaking, (and most do) a pseudo-scripted talk will get you through the jitters. You're also more likely to find stupid typos as you practice.
c) Drop the ***** animations. They waste time and distract from what you're saying. Stick to simple wipes/appears/and motions, and make sure they are all set on the fast setting.
d) Skip the ***** backgrounds. Backgrounds with shading/textures look cluttered. Think web 2.0 in your design... clean and uncluttered with minimal (but some) color is best. - Waredgo, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4I give presentations all the time. there is a place and a time for presentations that are graphic-heavy and for presentations that only contain a few words per slide. If you are expected to give examples and to show off the assets that your company has, you need visuals. If there are points to make and these points come from convincing an audience that what you are telling them is the absolute last word on the subject, you need powerful dialog.
- Digitalmarley, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4This reminds me of a Digg post of a cooking website where some dude was adding salt during the boiling stage of a several famous recipes and calling it '10 great cooking hacks'
lay of the word hack, its....hacky - QuizMasterDigit, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4Writer is a newbie....
What the HACK he is writing... - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5Agreed.
- adc86, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Seriously- look at the difference in anti-aliasing and pixel interpolation in Keynote vs. Powerpoint- it's incredible.
- sishgupta, on 10/12/2007, -3/+5If you ask me this is just blogspam.
The tipoff was the buzzword "hack" incorrectly used in the title.
It becomes more obvious that it is blogspam when you actually read the article. All of the TIPS are obvious and common sense, useful to maybe a high schooler or someone who has _never_ given a presentation. - reyitocazador, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Ditto due to the stock photo ***** shot
- dattaway, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2Having a website that stays up might improve a presentation.
- neel360, on 10/12/2007, -2/+3http://duggmirror.com/tech_news/5_Powerful_Hacks_to_Immediately_Improve_Your_Presentations/
- Lasthorseman, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1A presentation. Power point perhaps?
www.edwardtufte.com
Comrade! - ChaperonNoir, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Not a hack. Tips.
Good tips though. - sv650touring, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I work at a medical school, and we have doctors giving presentations several times a week. While I do think PowerPoint offers many more options than Keynote, you can always tell which one the presentations were made in. It might just be the built-in templates, but Keynote presentations are invariably easier to look at. Most of these doctors don't want to put a lot of time into their slideshow, and I think Keynote can make cleaner shows in less time than PowerPoint.
Of course either one can make a nice show, as long as the presenter avoids animation, sound, video, and complete sentences. - loopdee, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Weebit: Ask an 18 year old or other young person if "hack" is being used correctly. Sure it is. It is a new usage of the word.
thebadguy: Your take on this was quite nicely expressed. It is far too easy to criticize and does not take much thought. Sometimes it seems that people come on line just to trash others. I wish they wouldn't. They take cheap shots. The discussion you speak of is what has value; it takes a certain level of intelligence to participate in a discussion with others.
There is no challenge in just bashing something...anything. - k3vin, on 10/12/2007, -3/+2Communication is a skill. That means if you want to blow the interviewer away, knock them out with your slide show or have them cheering after your speech you need to practice. Unfortunately since formal presentations, interviews and speeches are often an infrequent occurrence, you can’t become a master overnight.
But even in my own limited speaking I’ve discovered a couple hacks that can be used to improve your communication right away. They can work immediately to give you an edge in an upcoming event.
Hack #1: Rephrase Questions
When you get asked a question, spend a few seconds to rephrase the question. If you are giving a speech to an audience this has the first benefit of clearly stating the audience members question for everyone to hear. But the hidden benefit of doing this is that it gives you a few extra seconds to prepare a response.
Polished professional speakers and interview veterans can prepare for common questions in advance with a great reply. But if you don’t have the experience or a question throws you off balance, you can maintain composure by rephrasing the question. To everyone it looks as if you immediately knew an eloquent response, but in reality you were given a few seconds to process a response.
Hack #2: Pause, Don’t Trip
When you are nervous, everything get’s magnified. During an interview, speech or presentation forgetting what you intended to say or losing your flow of speech can be terrifying. When this happens remember to stop and take a deep breath. This pause feels incredibly unnatural for the speaker, but it is usually barely noticed by the audience.
Pausing is far better than tripping over your words and making incoherent sentences. Most people end up speaking too fast when they feel nervous, so intentionally slowing down and taking time to pause can prevent tripping over your words which is a lot more noticeable.
Hack #3: Write Out the Tricky Parts
If you have to talk for over five or ten minutes, it can be difficult and incredibly time-consuming to prepare every single word of your speech and memorize it. Many professional speakers instead choose to just write major topic headings so they understand the structure but can deliver the speech naturally.
When you get a chance to practice your presentation, notice points where you trip up. These are usually the same points you will have trouble with when presenting. Write out those few sentences word for word before presenting. The easy parts of your speech will continue to flow and you can be thoroughly prepared to handle the harder parts.
Hack #4: Watch Your Apologies
Never apologize when the goal of that apology is to soften the criticism of the audience. Some speakers apologize for appearing nervous when giving a speech. The truth is most the people in the audience wouldn’t have realized the speaker was nervous until he apologized for it. Apologizing from where you lack confidence only draws more attention to your weaknesses and detracts from your performance.
Apologies for legitimate errors are acceptable, but apologies designed to elicit sympathy won’t help your performance.
Hack #5: Don’t Distract With Powerpoint
Powerpoint presentations are very popular among presenters. But remember that as a speaker you want the focus to be on you. Slides should enhance your presentation, not form a backup. If I can get all the information I need out of your slides, why should I pay attention to you?
If you watch any presentations done by hugely successful speaker and marketer Seth Godin, you quickly notice how many of his slides are nothing more than a single image or word. These slides enhance the message he is trying to convey but they don’t steal the spotlight since they don’t contain enough information to distract.
If you are going to be doing a lot of presentations, interviews or formal communications in your work or life, I’d suggest joining Toastmasters. A non-profit organization dedicated to improving communication skills they can give you practice. But if you are concerned about an approaching presentation you’ll just have to hack it. - weebit, on 10/12/2007, -2/+1This never should of been published on Digg. The website story is miss leading, and clearly doesn't use the word "hack" correctly.
- anagoge, on 10/12/2007, -4/+3You can't really blame the site when you get a few thousand Diggers all trying to access it at once. Everyone buys the bandwidth that they need for every day service, not in preparation for a digg effect.
- Ai3d, on 10/12/2007, -4/+2Adding vidoes to the slide without sound helps in explaining complex points IMO...
- loopdee, on 10/12/2007, -6/+2Tourney3p0, It is my sincere hope that someone like you who finds harsh criticism flows easily from his brain, will now disappear from the Digg site since you no longer find it edifying.
MadNuke: What's with you? The writer is adorable. Perhaps you were not so appealing when you were 18. Perhaps you are currently 13 and jealous. Who knows what would make you trash this smart, creative kid?
Quite a nice article with several new and good suggestions. As for "hack" having a new definition--it made me read the article to see what it meant. And, it seems quite appropriate for an 18 year to use the cool, new terminology. Right? - thebadguy, on 10/12/2007, -4/+0I agree with loopdee; if you bash this article for it's most blatant flaws and ignore it for its core intentions and value then you need to reevaluate why you are even taking the time to read the blog post or comment on it. I felt that the word "hack" was misused as well and was expecting to read about PowerPoint or Keynote app "hacks" or tips, but didn't feel that the body of the blog post was misleading or invaluable to its core audience (beginner public speakers). Just so, I was expecting the article to instigate a conversation and sharing of presentation tips. Instead, I have found destructive cynicism instead of constructive ideas. So instead of leaving my post as cynical as well, I'll add a constructive idea from my own experience both developing and delivering product demos and training presentations.
Always leave Q&A until the end of the presentation. When under time constraints, it can be easy to be sidetracked with random questions, which can extend your presentation by 10-20% in length. By starting your presentation with (e.g.) "...and there will be an XX minute Q&A session at the end of the presentation," you will set the expectation to your audience to hold questions until the end. The added value is that by the end of your presentation, you will encounter fewer frivolous questions. - mntalkase, on 10/12/2007, -10/+45 hacks? I only need one:
"Use Keynote"
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