>> Hi, everybody, welcome to Authors@Google,
I'm please to introduce Garr Reynolds today.
He actually said he was going to do an introduction
of his own, so I'll keep this one really short.
But, Garr is a leading authority on presentation,
design, and delivery.
>> REYNOLDS: You're reading that. What is
that?
>> I am; so to cut to the chase. He is the
creator of the Web's most popular blog on
presentation design, presentation Zen as we
see here. And I did want to talk about it
on a personal note that he's definitely influenced
my sense of design and I probably given this
Website a few more hits by sending all the
people that I work with there and given that
do hundreds of PowerPoint and presently presentation
everyday, I think what he has to say is definitely,
sorely needed and with that I’ll give you
a welcome.
>> REYNOLDS: Oh, thank you very much; I have
my mic, thank you. Give it up ladies and gentlemen,
Katrina Thank you, first of all I do want
to say, thanks to everyone for coming, but
not just a small thank you but a really big
thank you, because I know you're very, very
busy and it's also sort of lunch time, so
I'll talk for about 45 minutes, 50 minutes
or so. And then I’d like a good Q&A as well.
And I have only four books left that I can
give away free, so if you ask a question you
get a book, right? So that's how we're going
to do it today. So, a little bit of the self-introduction,
I come from here, originally, well, specifically
here, which is Oregon in the United States,
anyone from Oregon? Anyone been to Oregon?
Okay, thanks for participating. So, this is
sort of been my life for the past 20 years,
basically, Hawaii, Oregon, Cupertino, Palo
Alto and Japan and Japan is where I live now.
Anyone been to Japan, anyone from Japan? Nobody
from Japan. So, this is where I live specifically,
if you want to come over later. This is what
it looks like, outside my house. So, you can
see the old and the new, it is a sort of my
environment. This is outside my house as well.
So again, sort of the noise I'm around, I'm
around a lot of noise as well and kind of
learn from that. I used to be a traditional
salary man, you know salary man, right? The
guy that wears a tie, I haven't worn a tie,
since I left Sumitomo fortunately. And currently,
I'm associate professor of marketing and management
for Kansai Gaidai University in Osaka. I also
run a design group call Design Matters and
we have--every month we have little Ted-like
presentations. Different designers and business
people come in, do their presentations in
the Apple Store Theater. We're agnostic, because
it doesn't have to be Apple related of course,
but that's something really cool, it's kind
of hard to see on this slides. You can see
it better on the net, but I still play music.
How many musicians do we have in the audience,
few people? So, I'm actually kind of a jazz
guy and I still play just for fun, now of
course, even in Starbucks, they don't pay
well but I get lots of coffee. But there's
a relation to this because the art of presentation
to me is very similar to The Art of Jazz.
Are there any Jazz fans here? A few people,
right. And Sir Ken Robinson is a great presenter,
maybe you've heard of him. Anybody heard of
Sir Ken Robinson? I'm just trying to get a
feel for the audience, a few of you know.
He's an expert in creativity, and he's a wonderful
presenter, he doesn't use slides. He has a
few ideas and he sorts of writes down on a
card and then he knows it. But he says, that
presentation is because there--there's a lot
improvisation in it, but it's very similar
to jazz and I agree with that. And I want
to show you something, I don't know if you
know this guy, Bill Strickland. He's an entrepreneur,
a very famous guy; you can see this presentation
on the Ted sit, ted.com. But he actually did
a presentation talking about, you know, his
story, which is an amazing story. It's a business
presentation, PowerPoint up here, and then
he got Herbie Hancock on the piano, and Herbie
is not only into music but as he listens to
Bill, he sorts of adjusting to music, to go
with that, if it's louder, it's softer. No,
I'm not suggesting that you get, you know,
Herbie Hancock with you for your presentations,
but it's just another example of ways that
you can sort of present different. And you
don't have to present with slides, of course,
that's just what I'm doing here today. But
there are many different ways that we can
present. More self-introduction, I used to
work here, you know where this is, right?
Cupertino and I have to give presentations
like you. How many of you have to give sort
stand-up presentations with PowerPoint or
something else quite a bit? So maybe half
of you, so I had to do that, as you know,
in my job, managing user groups, what the
heck happened? Well, this is very Zen in a
way, I guess. So we're not getting the feed,
oh, I saw myself. So, there I am giving a
presentation, here I am now giving the presentation,
and this is when I was working at Apple, sometimes
very formal, sometimes quite informal. This
is a more formal situation. So, many different
kinds of situation that I was out presenting,
and the thing about Apple audiences, maybe
you know, is they're quite demanding, they're
sort of enthusiastic. They're into the product,
the audiences are very smart, and so you have
to prepare well, so I work really hard to
prepare, often the night before. Well, you
got to keep up, you know, learning stuff,
get new information and stay awake, right?
And work hard to preparing eventually, it
goes into the computer. And then I made presentations,
situations like this, and it was a lot of
fun and I learned a lot. Actually, one of
the reasons I joined Apple; that sort of attracted
me to leave Japan was Steve Job's ability
to present. That's always been my interest
and I wanted to sort of see how they do it,
how they prepare for the Mac Worlds, he’s
a very inspirational figure, at least for
me. When he presents internally in the company,
he doesn't use slides of course, but pulls
up a stool, you know, and just has a conversation
and he is very, very conversational. But when
I was living in the States, I realized that
presentation was huge, and then if you could
really master this, it's isn't everything,
it's one thing, but it's one thing that can
make a big difference in your life, you know,
as a business person. But as I went around
the U.S., I found actually, that most very
creative, very smart people were not really
good at giving presentations and a lot of
meetings were pretty boring and it kind of
felt like we were wasting time. Anyone ever
been in a boring presentation? Raise your
hands. Few people? Hopefully not today, but
you know, maybe, so you can be blogging this
right now. This guy sucks, get off the stage.
Okay, why does it matter? Who thinks presentations
matter? Anyone? It matters, right? It's not
everything, but it's one thing. Now, I look
at all of you as leaders, now you may not
be a CEO someday, or a vice president or a
director, but you all are leaders or many
of you want to be a leader of some type. And
if you're going to be a leader, you have to
be able to tell your story, right? You have
to be able to communicate. Usually, if you
want to rise, for example, to the level of
president, you would want to be a great communicator.
Usually, it works out that way, right? Not
always. Now this--I love jazz, so I like to
quote some jazz guys, the great Art Blakey
said, "If you're not appearing, you're disappearing."
And it's true within a company too, one way
to get out there and tell your story is to
volunteer for presentations. Things like I'm
doing now, and I'm sure internally too you
have many opportunities to do that. And this
reminds me of the--sort of a mean, maybe you've
heard of this before by Guy Kawasaki. You
all know Guy Kawasaki, maybe you've heard
of him, but he has this, oh, this is Guy,
actually, this is in the backyard of his house
in Africa, it's kind of hard to see on this
screen. But some of you know he has written
about eight books. These are his recent books.
But I think it was in the rules, oh, you can
also see the Guy wrote, if you get the book,
hopefully, you've gotten it free today. He
wrote the foreword, but it's not actually
written, you'll have to get the book to see
how he did it. But, Guy always says, eat like
a bird and poop like an elephant. And that’s
sort of my philosophy and that's why I'm here.
That's the spirit, we call it, the pooping
spirit and that's what I come here today with.
And what does that mean? Well, birds actually,
eat a lot and of course, elephants, you know,
they do their thing, a lot. Well, what does
that mean? It means, to get out there, like
you're doing consuming information, knowledge,
growing, I mean, Google is great for that,
giving all these great opportunities to expand
yourself and then spread it around, right?
Give it away. And it's infectious, and it
changes the world, right? So, I think that
sort of a good means, so remember that, right?
Eat like a bird, poop like an elephant, makes
the world a better place. And that's why I'm
here today. So, why does it matter? It matters
I think to all of us because, it all matters,
right? The little things matter and that sometimes
the difference between winning and losing,
it certainly it isn't sports at the highest
level and in business, right? What's the difference?
Often in those very, very small details, right?
The competition is great, that's why we call
them competition. So, presentation isn't everything,
but it's one way that we can make a big difference.
Here's an example; oh, can you think, I should
ask you, can you think of an example, someone
famous who was not known for presenting well,
and he had a story and then he learned how
to present better and then suddenly the same
story he has been telling for many years,
kind of took hold, can you think of anyone?
>> Al Gore
>> REYNOLDS: What? Brilliant, it's like I've
known you my whole life. So, yeah, Al Gore
is my example. You all know him of course,
and you know him from this movie and many
of you have--maybe have seen this, he sort
of presents this way, no bullet points, he
said, somewhat technical topic but to non-technical
audience, to the sort of a lay audience, right?
But his front and center, you know, simple
graphics behind him, but he's in the front,
telling the story. But this the Al Gore of,
oh, remember this guy, do you remember that
phone, by the way? Not that long ago, but
what were some of the things we said about
Al Gore in those days. He's a nice guy, all
of that, but you might have said, stiff, robot-like,
whatever, no one said, what a great presenter
that guy is. I can't wait to hear him speak.
But, you know, he sort of reinvented himself,
I guess, but he didn't learn a new story,
it's the same story he's been telling for
a long time. What he did though, is he got
together with Duarte Design. How many people
know Duarte? Probably the biggest design firm
when it comes to presentation anywhere, certainly
in the valley. They're just across the road
here; this is what their office looks like.
Started by Nancy and Mark Duarte, they have
about 60 employees now. I don't work for them,
this is not a commercial. But if you have
any serious kind of presentations you want
to do, go see these guys, they do the stuff
for Apple, HP, Cisco, all those guys and they're
great. So they help him sort of do it this
way, right? And before-after they’re very,
very effective, if you're using visuals. So
that's why, that's one of the techniques they
used, before and after, now and then and that
sort of helps. You get it instantly; you can
focus on the presenter, in this case Al and
his message. And of course, he really benefited
from that, right? Sort of becoming--the same
message becoming a better presenter, he won
an Oscar, Nobel Peace Prize and they were
even clamoring for him to run for president,
months ago, right? So, I'm not saying that
could have the same effect on you, but it's
just one example, how presenting differently
can make a difference. Do you think people
would be saying the same thing about Al, if
he presented it this way? I wonder. Right
or how about this? If he's talking about,
you know, Antarctica, maybe it's more simple--simpler
to talk about it this way and then concentrate
on the data and the content, the visuals don't
get lost that way. So, the point is, if your
ideas matter, we know presentation matters,
right? Presentation matters, communication
matters, everyone knows that. But we have
a problem don't we? Do you know this problem?
Have you ever experienced this problem? How
many people here have experienced "Death by
PowerPoint?" Anyone, here? So, you know the
pain, and I'd like to hear, these are actual
slides, from actual presentations, from actual
very, very smart people, it has nothing to
do with intelligence. Have you ever been in
this sort of situation? One slide after another,
you're daydreaming, I wonder what free food
I can get today, right? So this is the chance
when I ask you, if we have more time we could
break up into groups and all of that. But
just shout out your experience, think about
like, the worst presentation you've ever seen,
and that might be more than one, right? But,
why? And you can just shout it out; I don't
know if we have to send the mic around, but…
>> If you repeat it.
>> REYNOLDS: I'll repeat what you said. So,
think about the bad ones, can you give an
example? And it could be like, the slides,
the text; the length, whatever, whatever.
>> I was going to say a dense slide where
the presenter really just reads line by line,
exactly.
>> REYNOLDS: Just reading slide, have you
seen that? Is that common? It's still common,
reading slides? People are saying yes. Thank
you, sir. Anyone else?
>> This is more of an overall bad problem,
the person had a set of slides, decided the
night before it to completely change though,
and then here he's walking through the presentation,
decided to go back to his original presentation
without changing the slides.
>> REYNOLDS: Okay, so that just had the wrong
slides up there, right?
>> Yes.
>> REYNOLDS: That's not a very elegant solution
is it? Okay, thank you, what else? We're talking
about bad ones you've seen.
>> Sort of two presentations, the one is on
a slide and the other one is in the voice
and they sort of don't connect, so you're
not sure which one to follow.
>> REYNOLDS: Oh, so the slides don't jive
to what he's talking about, if he's talking…
I see, yeah, that's a good point. You, what
else?
>> Does he enough Ross Perot’s running mate
in ‘96.
>> REYNOLDS: Wait, who was that? Ross Perot’s
running mate in 90...?
>> Edward Stockdale.
>> It was so bad, he just mumbled and....
>> REYNOLDS: Right, gridlock, is that the
gridlock guy?
>> What am I doing here?
>> REYNOLDS: Okay, that’s right. So being
coherent is important in a presentation is
what you're saying. A given, but thank you,
yeah, thanks. What else? Bad ones you've seen
and the bad ones that you think are not just
a special case but rather a sort of endemic,
anything else?
>> Poor pacing.
>> REYNOLDS: Poor pacing, too fast, too slow,
right? Okay. How about the good ones you've
seen? Have you seen some really great presentations?
Complete silence
>> Edward Tufte
>> REYNOLDS: Edward Tufte.
>> Probably interactive and engaging.
>> REYNOLDS: Right, interactive and engaging.
Right, yeah, I've seen Tufte, I really love--I'm
a big fan of Edward Tufte.
>> 
Guy Kawasaki. Every time I heard him, he's
so funny.
>> REYNOLDS: Guy Kawasaki, so, he you know,
in his case, he's funny. He doesn't appeal
to everyone perhaps, but that's a thing about
humor, I think he's funny, but he gets--he's
not boring, no matter what you think, right?
He gets people involved, he gets people engaged.
>> He's also very conversational.
>> REYNOLDS: Conversational, right.
>> It's a bit mellow but Peter Norvig's PowerPoint
version of the Gettysburg Address.
>> REYNOLDS: Oh yeah, the Gettysburg Address
PowerPoint. You can see that, just Google
it. You can find it.
>> He works here.
>> REYNOLDS: Oh, he does. Okay, yeah, that's
a great one. Right.
>> You're doing all right. You got humor.
>> REYNOLDS: Humor is good, I mean, if people
are laughing, they're listening. You can learn
a lot actually from comedians. Anyone here
like stand-up comedians, standup comedy? It
is so hard, I mean, I could never do that.
Can you imagine trying to have to make people
laugh? Try to evoke emotions, but that's what
we're trying to do, if you're a CEO on stage,
you still--it's the content of course, but
you also can't forget the emotional side of
it well, as well. So we want clarity when
we go to a presentation and we want meaning
and we want great content, we want those things.
But what we usually get as some of you alluded
to, we get boredom and confusion and some
of you said, you feel like you waste time
sometimes, in meetings or presentations. So
I felt, I want like sort of go on a mission,
to stop bad PowerPoint and it's not the tool,
I mean, PowerPoint. PowerPoint is like Kleenex,
it's just a name, it just means, presentation
with some sort of multimedia. So, what could
I do? So, I still go out and give a lot of
free presentations, wherever I can and lot
of business people and technical people as
well that try to get them to think differently
about presentations. There are no panaceas,
there are--each case is very, very different.
As we say in Japanese, [SPEAKS IN FOREIGN
LANGUAGE] case by case, right? Each case is
a very, very different. But if we think differently
about it, I think it can improve things. So,
why me? So I should tell you a little bit
about the Genesis of the presentation Zen,
sort of idea. Not this Genesis by the way,
but different Genesis, it is related to music
though, because I'm a jazz guy, those [INDISTINCT]
over here, right there on the drums, so I
still play in a band, but just sort of--just
fun. I started playing in night clubs when
I was 17, so this is me at 17, and I did something
else at 17. I made my first multimedia presentation
with some--do you remember these things? Some
of you probably kind of what the heck is that?
Some sort of UFO contraption, and these are
called slides. Thirty-five millimeters slides
and you could really make great presentations.
There's--you have two carousels, beautiful
transitions, very high resolution, you have
a cassette tape with audio, and a silent pulse,
so it's just, beautiful stuff. It just took
a long time to do it, but the end result was
great and that was my first experience. This
is before computers, that you know, this is
how old I am, right? This is back in high
school days. So that was my first experience
of doing sort of what we do today, of having
visuals and then story telling with your voice,
maybe with some sound, and of course, strong
visuals. Not lots of words, we never thought
to put bullet points in the slide, at least
when I was a kid, back then. So, those are
35 millimeters slides. But, what I found since
then is what you found too is that a lot of
presentations sort of go like this, right?
Even though, the inventors of PowerPoint really
never designed it to be used this way. How
many of you know Seth Godin? A few of you
know? Yeah, he has got a lot of great books
out there, this is his latest book which I
highly recommend, but there's a slide he did
many, many years ago, and he talks about spreading
ideas and that's what we're trying to do or
I'm trying to do with presenting this sort
of differently. And he says, the more people
that know your idea the more powerful it becomes,
right? So, that's why you--we just give it
away and try to spread the virus and that’s
sort of what I'm trying to do. So I made a
Website about four years ago, and put a lot
of information about presenting differently,
but the thing is about Websites, is they're
pretty static, I found. Yeah, you go to a
lot of work to make one and then, you know,
people come, they come two or three times,
but they never come back, neither way to do
a conversation. So, I was kind of late to
the game, but about three and a half years
ago, I started the blog and then it just turned
into this big thing and allowed me to have
a conversation with people. This is the Presentation
Zen blog; then it became a book. But you might
be saying, what is Presentation Zen? What
is Zen, you know; got to do with it, right?
Zen means different thing. You know, in Japan,
we don't even talk about Zen, Zen is really
very Japanese, it's at the heart of Japanese
cultures in many ways, but we don't verbalize
it, that’s sort of a more Western thing
to talk about it. But it means many things
to different people, but to me, I'm talking
about Zen in terms of simplicity, right? But
simplicity ain't easy. Actually, simplicity
is very hard. Google is extremely simple for
me to use, it's unbelievably great and simple.
But of course, it's a very, very complex to
get to that level of simplicity for people
like me to use, right? And of course, Da Vinci
said it many years ago. So my idea of Zen,
what I talk about Zen in the book, is Restraint,
Simplicity and Naturalness, right? So restraint
in preparation, you can't do everything. You
have an hour, you have 20 minutes, whatever
it is, you can't do everything, so you have
to cut some parts and let that go and focus
on what's important. And then simplicity in
design, simplicity means many things, it means,
subtraction often more than addition, but
it means many different kinds of things when
it comes to design and then, naturalness in
delivery. Conversationally, you mentioned
Guy Kawasaki, and others, Steve Job is great
at that. I've seen Dr. Smith present, only
a few times, but what I've seen, he seems
great, very, very natural. I think I have
a picture of him coming up later. But how
would you finish this sentence. This is Dr.
Kawana, who passed away about 15 years ago,
but he's an architect of Zen gardens or tea
gardens. And how would you finish this sentence,
what does it mean to you? Simplicity means
what to you?
>> I wouldn't finish the sentence, that’s
simplicity.
>> REYNOLDS: That's good, simplicity means
beautiful. Perfect, what else? If you are
to finish the sentence.
>> Effortless.
>> REYNOLDS: Effortless.
>> Clear.
>> REYNOLDS: Clear, clarity, what else?
>> Minimal.
>> REYNOLDS: Minimal.
>> Core.
>> REYNOLDS: Core, good one. That's in the
book a little bit too as well. Yes.
>> Real.
>> REYNOLDS: Real.
>> Easy to grasp and understand.
>> REYNOLDS: Easy to grasp, real, yeah. This
is how he finished the sentence, right? Maximum
effect with minimum means, I mean, that sort
of a good--sort of a good mantra. How can
I get maximum effect with a minimum of effort,
that doesn't mean, laziness. But I mean, you
know, minimum of means, sometimes that means,
a minimum of money, you know, whatever it
is, right? So a little bit about my influences,
because the kind of things I talked about
my influences, because the kind of things
that I talked about don't necessarily save
time and not conventional perhaps, but I come
sort of from a different place for the past
20 years or so, except when I worked at Apple
and when I was in Hawaii for awhile in Grad
School. You know, I've been in Asia, right?
So, I live in Japan, this is where I live,
this is my environment. It's a very, very
urban environment, I live in an urban environment
but also the countryside, where there's a
lot of simplicity and a lot of beauty of the
Shinto or Fudo, anyone been on a Japanese
bath, right? You can just see design everywhere,
right? In a tea ceremony or Sado, Ikebana,
Sumi-e, of course, the Zen gardens; there's
all sort of place you can see design. Living
in such a crazy urban center like this, this
is in Tokyo, but look at the design, everywhere,
right? Even here, you can learn how a full
bleed photo bleeding off makes things and
since they're trying to make it look big,
it's big; dynamic text contrast. You can see
design concepts everywhere, if you open your
eyes. So, when I'm waiting for the train,
even, I see slides everywhere. And I noticed,
"Well, that might be a good slide. Well, that
might be a good slide." And I just--I'm always
thinking in these terms, right, or this is
just a poster in the window of a department
store. Hmm, might be a good slide, right,
if I'm talking about this meal. You can see
really crazy kind of things too. Do you know
this product, they don't call it this in the
States, you know, this one. Say that--say
that three times fast, McWrap, McWrap, McWrap,
right, not a good choice for a name. Fortunately,
this is in Japan, so it doesn't carry over.
And then graphically, if you just remove the
M and the W, which is sort of mere images
of each other. Anyway, I hope McDonalds doesn't
sue me. But you can see it, you can see it
everywhere. A Nike sign across from the Apple
store, very simple, a few words, and the graphic.
And again, this is just a one way, especially;
this lens has helped the marketing, for example.
But whatever you are doing, you can keep things
simpler. Just walking in an--this is near
Obama, seriously, this is a place called Obama,
Japan. This place--and I'm going to see Obama
next week, not the presidential candidate
but the town. This is near there. And even
just walking around here with my wife; it's
cold, and so, we had some tea, two glasses
or two cups of Ocha and just the way the cakes
are presented, and the flower, and it's not
big deal. This is not a fancy place. It's
just a regular kind of tea shop on the street.
And you can kind of see symmetry of balance
and all this kind of stuff. So, if you open
your eyes, it's everywhere. Having dinner
for example, some raw fish on the ice because
there's snow all around us, right? This--this
right here is going to be boiled, so--that's
water, right? It has a little like candle
thing underneath it. But, so the function
is, if you put water in, it would be hard
for the waitress who is on kimono to carry.
So, as a solid, it's really good, so it has
a function but it's also beautiful because
this beautiful sphere, which is like a snowball,
right? And I'm explaining all of these to
my wife who is a professional designer, and
she thinks I'm nuts, right. If you have ever
been married you know what I'm talking about,
so, okay. But the point is--the point is the
lessons are all around us, if we open our
eyes. And the first chapter of the book, I
talk about Obento. How many people eat Obentos.
Sometimes Obentos are popular, very healthy.
And I sort of use that as an analogy. Obento,
beautifully, simply packaged, right, all the
content is delicious and nutritious and it's
just enough. How much? Not too much. Not too
little. And it's designed beautifully but
nothing goes to waste, right? It's just all
right there, and I thought, "Why can't presentations
be like that?" Right, nothing superfluous,
everything has a reason and beauty matters
but it's also the content, especially the
content that matters. So, design is all around.
But remember, you don't have to use slides,
of course. But if you do use slides, you want
to avoid something like this, actual presentation
in Tokyo. Have you ever seen something like
this? No? Really? This is the actual thing,
and so you have to be wondering, "Why not
jus send an attachment? Why not--if we're
just going to read, send the document, cancel
the meeting."
>> Is there a meeting from the slide?
>> REYNOLDS: Yes, yeah, I know. So, you see,
it seems unbelievable. God bless them. And
a very, very smart guy, I'm sure. This guy,
you know, so we'll move on. So we know the
current approach to presenting isn't working.
So, what's the solution? I mean, you have
many ideas and each case is different. There
are no panaceas as I said. But we often don't
think of creativity when it comes to presenting
like our really important presentations often
because we don't have time. But if we're talking
about simplicity, simplicity sort of needs
creativity to get to that. And again, quoting
the great, the great Charles Mingus, the late
Charles Mingus, as he says, making the simple
complicated is commonplace, but making the
complicated awesomely simple, man, that takes
creativity. That's hard to do. Anyone can
be complicated, and noisy, and messy, it's
hard to make things simple and clear. So some
of you, it seems most of you didn't know about
it this, as popular as this. So, most of the
world doesn't know about Ted, but Katrina,
would you say this is pretty cool?
>> KATRINA: Oh, yeah.
>> REYNOLDS: There's so many great lessons
to learn here for free. You can download it,
put it on your iPod or whatever. There's some
great presentations. I'll show you a clip
of one. Ted.com and you'll see some amazing
talks. To go to the conference, it's sort
of an invitation only, really hard to get
to, $6,000 to a $10,000 for three days is
so. But what's great about them is they record
everything, with three cameras. They do a
really good job, and then they just put it
on online. Throughout the year, you'll get
to see the presentations. So this is what
their Website looks like in the past. Sir
Ken Robinson is one of the people who has
a great presentation. I highly recommend you
go see this one. But he was talking about
creativity and saying that, you know, he's
talking about children and how, you know,
with children, they're not afraid to make
mistakes. And he's not saying that making
a mistake is the same thing as being creative,
but as he says that if you're not willing
to be wrong, if you're not willing to make
mistakes, you can never, never be creative.
And, of course, you guys get that, you guys
get that at Google. But this is a lesson that
we sort of have to remind people of. We have
to remind them of the child's mind or the
beginner's mind. You know, in Japan, in the
elementary schools, if you were teaching and
you ask the student or ask the class, "Who
knows the answer?" All the hands would go
up, right. So, you choose one. "Kenji, what's
the answer?" "I don't know." See. "Why did
you raise your hand?" "I'm involved." But
then, if you've been to Japan, you know what
I'm talking about. But then junior high and
high school and exam pressure and it's all
about the exam, then we're afraid to make
mistakes. We don't reward mistakes, we punish
mistakes. That's why you haven't seen a lot
of entrepreneurism in Japan until recently.
Recently, there's a lot more, since the bubble,
you know, broke 10 years ago, you see more.
But being an entrepreneur is risky. You have
to take a chance. So, you know, this is a
sort of a good mantra and maybe you’ve heard
this quote before the--in the beginner's mind,
there are many possibilities, but in the expert's
mind there are few. So we are all experts.
You are an expert. But what this means is
to, although, you are an expert, to think
sometimes like a child, the creativity of
a child that to look for a different angles
and not be afraid to make mistakes. This is
a picture I keep on my desk. She's a friend's
daughter, just reminds me. A live bird, she
walks around with--that's inspiring to me.
You know, you're not supposed to do that.
Why not? All right, children aren't afraid
to make mistakes. So with the time that we
have left, I have some tips. I mean we could
talk all day about different tips but I want
to hear, you know, from you as well. So I
have just a few things, broke it down in terms
of three. So a little bit about how to prepare
and then some--talk about design a little
bit and delivery. So when it comes to preparation,
when I say and what I say in the book is it
at first you have to step back and find some
alone time. And you might, there might be
other people around but somehow you've got
to give yourself in a different space so that
you can focus on what's important and what's
not, rather than jumping right into the software.
Because when you do this, then you can ask
yourself, you know, the "so what" or as we
say in Japanese [SPEAKS FOREIGN LANGUAGE].
Well, what does this mean? It isn't just a
what, the content is important. Obviously,
that's what it's about. But it's also the
so what. What does this mean? What are we
going to do with this information or knowledge,
right? And this is the time when you really
focus on this idea of inclusion and exclusion.
What do we keep? What do we remove for now?
And that's a very sort of Zen idea too. This
is a great book I recommend, "The Zen of Creativity."
All right, make a choice about what's important
and then let go of the rest. You have to let
go, for now, right, in a presentation. Or
sometimes just when you're building software
of whatever it is. You have to let go of that
so that you can focus on what's important.
And it’s related to jazz too, as Dizzy says,
right, "It's taken me all my life to learn
what not to play." Sometimes it's not just
the notes, it's the notes that you avoid,
right? And that's what story is about as well,
right. I mean, stories cannot be so long and
it can't be so complicated that people don't
get the heart of it, they don't get the meaning.
So there are two books I recommend. This is
the first one. How many people have this book,
"Made to Stick" by the Heath brothers. You
also get this, so buy a 100 of them and give
them away or have these guys in, get the Heath
brothers or one of them in here, Chip or Dan
which one is in Stanford. Great book. Just
amazing stuff about how to tell sticky stories
or sticky messages, right, it could be advertising.
It could be presentation. It could be leadership.
It could be anything. And they have six key
principles that they go through, so I'll share
them with you now, maybe you can save money
on the book. But the six key principles, the
essence of the book is that all key messages
have simplicity; unexpectedness; concreteness,
not just abstraction but also something very,
very concrete; credibility, you guys have
that instantly, right, if you're presenting
outside. I mean, Google, one of the greatest
companies on the planet. So that's a lot of
credibility right there. Emotion; and you
talked about that with Guy and some others,
you got to have emotion in it, right. Emotion
isn't everything but it's a necessary thing.
We're presenting to human beings after all.
Story, again, right. So simplicity, unexpectedness,
concreteness, credibility--which you have
loads of--emotion, and story. So I have an
example here, this is a presentation. It's
18 minutes, best one I've seen in years. This
is the best presentation at Ted this year,
people are saying, Ben Sanders is the other
one. She's a--Dr. Taylor is brain scientist
who had a stroke many years ago. Now, it took
her eight years to recover. A pretty, you
know, a very bad stroke. And as a brain scientist
she learned a lot from that. But this is just
something. I won't show you the whole thing,
but just this clip. She had slides, not too
many, but the visuals are very simple, about
the brain and all that. The slides helped.
She was very engaging, very emotional, and
this is something very visual. Let's watch
this.
>> TAYLOR: If you've ever seen a human brain,
it's obvious that the two hemispheres are
completely separate from one another. And
I have brought for you a real human brain.
>> REYNOLDS: Listen to the crowd.
>> TAYLOR: Thank you.
>> Okay.
>> TAYLOR: So this is a real human brain.
This is the front of the brain, the back of
the brain with the spinal cord hanging down,
and this is how it would be positioned inside
of my head. And when you look at the brain,
it's obvious that the two cerebral cortices
are completely separate from one another.
For those of you who understand computers,
our right hemisphere functions like a parallel
processor, while our left hemisphere functions
like a serial processor.
>> REYNOLDS: Okay. You get the idea. And then
so she has that as a powerful visual. She
also has slides, and then she has the visuals
that she creates through her narrative. So
out of these, these elements--her presentation
has all of these. It's very, very sticky and
people are talking about it. I'm talking about
it. And certainly having a real brain, pulling
that--I thought it was going to be a plastic
one because I've seen Dan Pink do that with
the brain and it's a plastic one and he dropped
it, and ooh, but that's okay because it's
sort of comedy at that point. But when it’s
a real brain, so you saw the audience go,
"Yeah, a plastic brain," real brain. That's
unexpected, right? And that's just one example
of sticky. This is the other one. How many
people have read "A Whole New Mind?" Okay,
so order a hundreds of these and just spread
them out. Great, great book about how the
world's changed and creativity, Dan Pink is
the author of two best-sellers. This is his
second one. But as he says too, six key things
he talks about, six key aptitudes that we
all need to be successful moving forward.
It is the--one of them is the ability to tell
a story, to understand design, to do design,
but story. Again, it's right there, right.
We are storytellers. But when you're preparing
you presentation and we talked a little bit
about this, don't start at the computer. I
know there are many books and Microsoft will
tell you, it's sort of just common start.
I have a presentation tomorrow. Open the computer,
let me jot down some ideas. But as you know,
that, you know, the development of the iPod
or software or anything at first, you don't
develop it right at the computer. You come
to a meeting; you have whiteboards or paper,
sticky notes, whatever. It's really, really
useful to get a way and plan analog. Even
my book--I planned analog in Hawaii. Sorry
about the shorts that's kind of--but I was
on the beach in that. But even the book, which
is, you know, I designed it, an in design,
it written word tram. It’s a very digital
sort of experience, of course. But the plan,
you know, was very messy and very analog at
first. And then that helps clarify everything
and with presentations too, right? I do it
this way. You may have your own method. This
is after the brainstorming when you identify
the core. Someone said the core. So I have
a core of what's important. If people can
remember only one thing and you're lucky if
they do, if it's a long presentation. And
then usually three's; three is a good number.
Three or four, my drama is often three. But
what is it that you really want to say. You
can't say everything. And sometimes you don't
have to go to this link but some people prefer
to actually at least have some with the slides
down as their sort of brainstorming. Printing
out the slides and writing them down here,
at least the beginning parts. And you could
see how--well, then we can make slides from
this quite easily. Once we have it down in
an analog world. And when you do a sort of
analog, then if the computer breaks, or blows
up, or whatever, it doesn't matter. You can
just go on. You know your story. And if you're
pitching for it, you know, venture capital
and you have 20 minutes and your computer
freezes, you can't say, "Excuse me. Let me
reboot this." It'd be all over, so you just--it'd
be your reaction though, it could really win
you points. Computers freeze, we know that.
It could happen. So you just say, "It doesn't
matter. Here's my story, here's what I want
to tell you." And if you did that in the analog
phase, then you would really know your story,
right? But you might be saying that this guy
is nuts. This takes a lot of time, what he’s
talking about. I'm just saying you have to
find the time. Somehow, you got to find the
time. Probably, we could find more time by
canceling a lot of presentations, right, and
just have a discussion or a meeting or a talk,
whatever, or send an attachment, read this,
check the box, whatever. Then, we'd have more
time to focus on the presentations that are
important in front of the customers or whatever
it is, right. So that's a little bit about
the prep. So to take away is just experiment
with the idea of closing the computer and
going some place else with some paper and
a pen. So when it comes to visual simplicity,
we're talking about it easy slides. If I say
Zen aesthetic which we never talk about in
the context of slides, but why not, we often
talk about it. And now in the context of web
design, why not? We can learn from many different
places. So what comes to mind when you hear
Zen aesthetic? These are the--like, and relating
this to something like slides or Websites.
>> It would be like natural materials.
>> REYNOLDS: Natural--right, very natural.
Like the wappy-sappy stuff, imperfection.
>> White space.
>> REYNOLDS: White space or empty space, yes,
hallelujah. Empty space; and Google is great
at that, isn't it? I won't say--there are
other search engines, but I--of course, I
love Google. I just love the empty space,
you know, that's refreshing and, of course,
everyone talks about that. What else?
>> Exact placement of developments.
>> REYNOLDS: Exact placement or careful, purposeful,
placement, that’s not accidental or random
but there's a reason. Yeah, like a Zen garden
or ikebana. To the untrained guy, it's just,
done. But it takes years and years of training
to do that. Thank you. What else? What comes
to mind?
>> Presence.
>> REYNOLDS: Presence and being in the moment,
yeah. But all of these things you thought
about before, right? Simplicity, clarity,
unclutteredness; certainly that relates to
Web design, it's hard to do. It's very easy
to add on more things. So, design is important
but I don't think this is design. This is
great. I love birthday cakes and Christmas
trees, but I tend to think a bit more as sort
of decoration which is also good, but that
sort of on top. Design is more soul deep.
You really fill a lot of thought into it and,
you know, and a long effort into what it's
going to look like. But you might say, "I'm
not a designer," as a business person. But
people like Tom Peters say, tough, you are
a designer. We're all designers in a sense,
maybe small deal. We need to be more design
mindful. Learn about design so that we can
better work with actual designers, right,
and it's all design. So we know design matters,
but a lot of presentations look something
like this, this is fake latent. But have you
ever seen a presentation like this, coming
in? Seriously, still today, right? And it's
very therapeutic. If you can't sleep, just
put this on. Ya-da-da put a footer for some
reason which no one can possibly read and
a Website and page number although it's not
a book, and some clip art if you order something
that you can--because, you know what, there's
empty space and you want to fill that, because
we can. So, you know the rule; the rule is,
of course, the 1-7-7 rule that all the books--most
of the books talk about. One concept, one
idea per slide, seven lines of text, and seven
words per line. But the problem is that's
what this is. This follows that rule. So could
you imagine today, you're may be sleepy now,
but could you imagine if all my slides look
like this, it repeated basically what I was
saying. Design is important, Google is great
at design. Could you imagine? You would all
be asleep, right? So never read your slides.
I had a great video from Guy Kawasaki, but
I cut it out, where he says, "If you read
slides, the audience is going to quickly figure
out that you're a bozo." All right? So--but
that's Guy. But what he means is, if you don't--if
you're reading your slides it’s because
you don't know your material, you don't need
lots of stuff up there and he’s seen more
presentations, more bad presentations than
about anyone, right? He's--I mean, people
are pitching to him all the time. So don't
read your slide. This is something from a
year and a half ago, I guess, the last Macworld
in '07. And so I--this is something I compiled
and put on my blog talking about this guy.
I don't like to say bad things about people,
so I won't mention names. But the top three
guys did a really good, the middle two only
had, like, three minutes on stage. So we don't
need a long history of anything, just come
up very energetic, really great. And the third
or the fourth person down here was reading
cards. And, you know, he was reading cards.
And it's just--you could see people--actually,
a lot of people were live blogging at the
time and they were saying, "Who is this guy?
Total snooze fest," all the stuff. You just
can't read notes. You don't need that. If
you know your story, you shouldn't need that.
And of course, two guys in the middle did
a great job with that. Only three minutes,
they knew what they wanted to say. That guy
on top also knew what he wanted to say. He
had props but he didn't have bullet points
to remind them. He knew the history, right?
So, don't do this. We know that, right? We
can't do something like that. So here's an
idea. Go back to your office this afternoon,
find an old presentation. Maybe it looks like
this, you have the notes view, a bunch of
bullet points up there. Remove those, put
them down in notes view where no one can see
them and maybe you make six slides now because
there were six key points. And then you can
put one key thing up there and maybe one visual
that--it's not decoration but that somehow
supports the point. Then the audience sees
something very simple, all right? And then
you have your notes if you want them. You
can print them out for practicing, but you
can keep it very, very simple. Well, the audience
see it's simple because they're listening
to you and you're talking to them, right?
So what about images? Where do you get them?
How many people know iStockphoto? iStockphoto.com.
Actually, if you get the book, you can get
$150 worth of credits in a sense. In other
words, you can get ten free high risk photos
that appear in this book. So it's just a little
thing to add value. Well, I really love these
guys. And they've been a big supporter of
me for many years. So words and image, this
you--have you ever seen a slide like this,
this is something going through some very
simple data, actually, just on obesity rates
across about 30 countries or so. So this would
not be a very good slide. It wouldn't be a
very good handout either. But the data is
interesting, so instead of doing it this way,
I don't want to tell you all about this, and
so, I put that in a handout to compare other
countries. I just want to talk about Japan
and this would be the USA for example. So
I don't want to do the whole thing. I just
want to focus on what's important, or it might
be something like this, right? Or perhaps
something like this. Again, it’s the same
stuff I'm talking about. But it's a more visceral,
more visual way. But in the hand-out, I give
all the details and I may even pass the handout
during Q&A or maybe even now so that you can
refer to that later during the Q&A. This is--one
in Hara Hachi bu. Anyone know Hara Hachi bu?
If I was going to talk about it, if I had
a slide like this to introduce the idea, you're
already reading ahead so you're already getting
there, right? So what would I do with that
way? So this is not uncommon and then the
Website there which you could never possibly
write down. But this is my handout, right?
Except, this is not a very good handout, there's
not much information there. So, instead, I
might do something like this to introduce
the idea of Hara Hachi bu, what is it. It
just means to eat until you're 80% full and
then you--that's it. That's all you eat. You
actually can lose a lot of weight, stay very
healthy. It's wonderful and very easy to do
in Japan, actually. So these are just some
samples. I might do something like this. What
does it mean? It doesn't mean waste food,
by the way, only take 80% of what you need
and not waste. Anyway, that's just one idea,
one example. Again, Hara Hachi bu here, so
this is on the train, before, after. Before
after, it's a simple idea. But visually, boom,
you got it and I highly recommend it. You
can use it for meetings, use it for presentations.
If you get an hour, take 15 minutes. If the
meeting, you know, if you got 18 minutes,
take 17, never go over. So you can apply it
to many things. Of course, before, after is
very effective. This was an actual slide.
I won't say who. But someone use this recently
last year. It's hard to believe. We could
take this kind of thing. It looks much better
this way, very easy to understand, same data,
actually. Very easy to compare--instantly,
you don't have to use a pie chart for this
kind of data. If we--we don't need this, but
if you want--again, this is emotion now. But
if you want, they'll put emotion into that
narrative save the planet, you know, whatever
it is, that's fine. Here are some examples,
and these are all tongue in cheek. There are
no real methods. But on my Website over the
years, we've talked about different methods,
the golden method, Takahashi method, the whatever
method. And I don't have a method. The book
talks about an approach, which is more like
a philosophy or a general, you know, approach
to it. There are many different methods that
can work for you. I call this a Jobsian Method.
It isn't really--by the way, he's done it
for many years, of course. It's a very, very
simple visual, very conversational. There
is some data, but it's, you know, it's displayed
quite easily. But even his developer conferences
which is more technical audience, still visually,
it's quite simple, right? He uses quotes sometimes,
but no bullet points or very rarely would
there be a few bullet points. Microsoft method,
it's not a real method. And Bill is getting
better, I really like Bill and he's getting
the message, he's getting better with his
visuals. But not too long ago or something
more like this, right? Or like this. It doesn't--well,
he's a very smart guy, a remarkable guy. So
it would be great if he was a remarkable presenter
as well. This is an old Microsoft slide, actual
slide. But--and I wonder where they got their
inspiration. And then I remember my... Remember
that? Not too bad. Well, that's Google. I
love that stuff, by the way. It's great, 100%
sugar. So the Lessig Method, who knows Lawrence
Lessig? A few people, law professor down at
Stanford has a very unique, it’s his method.
I'm not saying it should your method, but
for him it works just the way he does it.
And if you--and most professors, by the way,
cannot present to save their life. And I am
one, so there, right? So I think that's where
a lot of us learn how to present badly is
because we all go to college and we see our
professors do it. But he has a different way,
Larry Lessig. So, very visual, he has a lot
of content in his story. But he tells his
story, right? And I want to show you something
here on Remix. I'm going to show you--I have
a video of a guy making a presentation with
a video in his presentation. It's kind of
weird. We might go back in time if I do this
real fast. But I, you know, so this is an
example. If you're talking about something,
I could do bullet points or try to explain
to an older audience what does Remix mean.
What does that mean for copyrights, all this
kind of stuff, right? It's a new world. It's
a remix world that we live in now. Well, I
could do that in bullet points, but why not
just show some examples. And so, that's what
Lawrence said. So let me just show you this
one. Maybe you haven't seen this one, maybe
you have. It's very short.
>> My love, there's only you in my life, the
only thing that's right.
>> My first love, you're every breath that
I take. You're every step I make.
>> And I...
>> I...
>> I want to share all my love with you, no
one else will do.
>> And your eyes...
>> Your eyes, your eyes...
>> They tell me how much you care. Oh.
>> So this is Remix, right? And it's important
to emphasize that what this is not is not
what we called piracy. I'm not talking about
justifying. People taking others people's
content in wholesale and distributing it without
the permission of the copyright owner. I'm
talk...
>> REYNOLDS: Okay. So that was very effective
and it, you know, engage the audience so that
at the end of his presentation, it gets people
awake. It's also a great example of what he's
talking about. It's visceral, it's emotional,
people laugh. But it's not for no reason.
It actually supported his point with his remix
and then he goes on. That's a free cultural
presentation. One of his last ones you can
get. Just Google it, you can find it. It's
totally worth your time to watch this. This
is kind of similar, the Takahashi Method in
Japan. This guy is a programmer. He specializes
in Ruby on Rails and some other things. But
Japanese is actually very visual and he's
not a very good presenter. A lot of, you know,
he's kind of a shy person. So he came up with
this method to--and he actually has a book
on the Takahashi method. This is [SPEAKS FOREIGN
LANGUAGE] just means big presentation. So
this would be the whole slide. It's actually
HTML. It doesn't use PowerPoint. But this
means the history. So when he's talking about
his method, here's the history, he's talking
about history. This word means history. Harry
says, "I didn't have PowerPoint," as he's
talking about it, right? Harry says, "Make
your letters really, really big. I mean, super
big, man." That's what it says. "I mean, really
big," this is another way of saying really
big, right? And when he has four points, he
go got four points. First, and just goes on
and on like this. Twenty minutes, about 300
slides. But for his audience, it works. They're
all programmers, it's very engaging, lots
of humor. But it's not just comedy. It supports
what he's talking about, right? Again, Harry
said it's very easy to see. It's also very
simple, practical, cheap to do, right? The
Darth Vader Method, I thought if Darth gave
a presentation with PowerPoint, what would
it look like? And I thought it might look
something like this, right? So you just go
through the points and probably not as convincing;
the force is with you, you can destroy the
emperor, that parenthetical, and then in sub-bullet,
it's your destiny. He repeats that, which
is good. Repeat that as your destiny. And
then there's a website down at the end if
you didn't get that. And I thought of the
juxtaposition, how would Yoda do it differently?
And I thought it would be much simpler, right?
Front and center, not in the dark, very naked
approach or [SPEAKS FOREIGN LANGUAGE] as we
say in Japanese. Naked communication, nothing
to hide, right, he's an old man, can't walk
very well. Right out there in front, empty
slate with endless possibilities, it could
be there. So that's quite juxtaposition, Yoda
and Darth, right? So where do you follow in
there? And that we should make a scale, right?
Okay, and just a few things about delivering
and then we'll wrap it up for some questions.
The thing about a presentation, the more formal
ones with slides is that it's not just the
content. I mean, it's not just the logic part
of the content. We need emotion too. Logic
is not enough. Of course, it's unnecessary
condition, but it usually isn't sufficient.
We need emotion too. And it’s nothing new.
Aristotle was talking about this long, long
time ago, right? We need the emotion and we
need the logical, and the passion, and the
enthusiasm. And when I think of enthusiasm
and passion, I think of this guy. So, obviously,
you guys knew all this. You've seen this a
million times.
>> Developers, developers, developers...
>> REYNOLDS: But you cannot fake that kind
of sweat.
>> Developers, developers, developers...
>> REYNOLDS: That's--and I'm not suggesting
you present this way. But for him, it works.
It's who is and you can't fake the sweat and
it's not boring. You know this man. I will
show the other one. You know that. Anyone
see that for the first time? Is that the first
time? I think you all know--first--well then,
go Google it. You can watch it some more.
There are some better ones than that. He's
consistent--but I like--maybe you saw this,
this next guy. This is really, really an odd
couple, for sure, to be on stage. But it worked
somehow. And Steve was Steve. So here's a
little example of him doing something a bit
different. Someone asked him if he do whatnot
just developers, but how about web developers
too? Okay. Somehow, we lost the audio from
that. That's too bad. Whatever he's shouting.
He's saying Web developers, Web developers,
Web developers. Well, that's too bad. Anyway,
he's not afraid. He's a very good sport. Just
get out there and let it hang out, right?
Why not? So I hope we get the audio back because
I wanted to end on something. I have a last--a
bit of audio. The other thing that Steve kind
of does [INDISTINCT] but certainly Steve Jobs
does as well is when he's presenting, he's
presenting. You have to be in the moment;
not some place else, just here. Be somewhere
else later, right? Have you ever been to a
presentation where maybe the person is pre-occupied
or it was very last minute kind of thing?
Have you ever have that happen? I never got
the audio back. So being here right now, in
the moment--and this is also related to jazz.
Think about the great Charlie Parker said
the same thing, right? "Master your instrument.
Master the music." You know, you got to practice
and practice, but then you forget all that
shitake and just play. When you play, you
just play, you don't think, "Is this a B flat,
is this--are they going to like it," you just
play. And that's what jazz is. Of course,
you put in a lot of practice, a lot of rehearsal
to get, you know, with your acts to get it
down. And then there are just little things
you can do. Keep the lights on, move away
from the podium, try to connect with people.
Use a remote control. And that's not the actual
size, but usually they're quite small. Use
the smallest one you can, right? I wish someone
would invent a kind of you just sort of slips
on your finger. You know, like a--you know,
just a piece of rubber and you could forward
back. Wouldn't that be cool? Why not? I don't
need this thing. Small as possible, you just
want to go forward, basically, right? A few
more examples from Ted. Ted is great. So I
highly recommend you go to the Ted site. Some
people present they just get a chair and sit
down, connect with the audience. These are
different ones. Majora Carter did one a couple
of years ago. She was a bit nervous but she
had such a great story. She'd done a wonderful
job in spite of her nerves, and it's understandable
that she would be nervous in that situation.
But it's a great job. Very visual, visual
with slide, but also visual in her story about
what the kind of work she does. And this is
the last one I'd like to end with, because
some people say, "Well, but about data, how
do you present data?" So this is simple data.
You know, Gatt Miter--thanks. In fact, I saw
it out here in front. And he--Hans Rosling,
co-developed it. And he here has a simple
data set, but just watch how he sort of interacts
with this simple data and then we'll end it
here. Hopefully...
>> ROSLING: And they said the world is still
we and them. And "we" is western world and
"them" is third world. And what do you mean
with western world? I said, "Well, that's
long life and small family. And the third
world, it's short life and large family."
So this is what I could display here. I put
fertility rate here, number of children per
woman--one, two, three, four, up to about
eight children per woman. We have very good
data since 1962, 1960 about, on the size of
families in the old country. The arrow margin
means narrow. Here, I put life expectancy
at birth. From 30 years in some countries
up to about 70 years. And in 1962, there was
really a group of conference here that was
industrialized countries and they had small
families and long lives. And these were the
developing countries. They have large families
and they have relatively short lives. Now,
what does happen since 1962? We want to see
the change. Are these students right? It's
still two types of countries or have this
developing countries got smaller families
and they live here or have they got longer
lives and live up there? Let's see. We stop
the world. And this is all new statistic that
has been available. Here we go. Can you see
that? It's shining and they're moving against
better healthcare. They're improving there.
Or the green Latin-American countries, they
are moving towards smaller families. The yellow
ones here are the Arabic countries and they
get larger families, but they--no, longer
life, but not larger families. The Africans
are the green down here, but still remain
here. This is India, Indonesia is moving on
pretty fast. And then in the 80s, here, you
have Bangladesh still among the African conference
there. But for Bangladesh, it's a miracle
that happens in the 80s. Imam starts to promote
family planning and then move up into that
corner. And in 90, we have the terrible HIV
epidemic that takes down the life expectancy
of the African countries and all the rest
of them all moves up into the corner where
we have long lives and small family and we
have a completely new world.
>> REYNOLDS: So that guy is a great presenter.
And very excited about the data. And you don't
forget it, so what his point? Again, he's
talking to students who sort of believe something
differently. But what is the point? The world
today is basically, right, longer life, smaller
families except--there is an exception, and,
you know, a good part of the African continent.
And to my student, my Japanese students, they're
surprised about that AIDS is still a problem
because we don't hear about this, it's not
in the news, so therefore it must be cured,
but visually, they get it. Wow, AIDS is still
a big problem, yet the rest of the world essentially
has moved forward at, you know, at a very
rapid phase, so that's just one example. We'll
end at there. So, we sort of touched on a
few aspects of presentation. But the point
to remember is that PowerPoint is just a tool.
Whether you use K Node or Flash or whatever
you use, these are just tools. You are the
presentation. You don't have to use slides,
but you if do, try to use it in a way that
augments you and think of these kinds of things.
It's all about the story, right, in a more
naked approach, right, that were just exposed
or out there, were humane, but it open visual,
natural, honest, right, creative, bring it
all that in, right? So, we have a few moments,
so we can take some questions and see if they
would like the microphone.
>> Yeah. First, I want to say thank you. I'm
definitely inspired. I don't, like--I don't
necessarily always want to give a presentation,
but that actually makes me want to get up
and talk, and so, yeah.
>> REYNOLDS: There you are. And you're doing
it.
>> So, okay, so, for questions, we have to
use the mic. And I'm just going to bring the
mic around so just raise your hands and…
>> REYNOLDS: You know, for the first-four
get books, but I'll stick around. I know,
you know, some of you have work to do. I mean,
it's Friday, but I'll stick around. I'm leaving
tomorrow, but until then I have to go, all
right. I really appreciate you're coming out.
You were first.
>> Oh.
>> REYNOLDS: Oh, that's okay. You'll get a
book too.
>> I have a really quick question. What tool
were you using? And if you were going to start
a presentation that's a week--a week before
the talk?
>> REYNOLDS: A week before, yeah.
>> Yeah. But, it could be reasonable because--I
mean, with PowerPoint you can't just slam
to get it fast, that's one of the things that
comes up. But, what tool are you using? And--I
mean, is it--is it coming on time--time that
it takes to do something like this?
>> REYNOLDS: Like, I said, it just, each case
is different and it depends on how much time
you have. A week isn't very much. If it's
extremely important presentation as Dr. Schmidt
said, "This is big, you got to prepare it
for me," well, I put all my time into that.
A week is enough time, by for that would be
how many hours, 50 hours of work. It takes
a long time. But the first thing is to get
off the grid, you know, and get away from
the computer and really get down the story.
What is the story? What is it that I want
to say? What's important? Then it becomes
quite easy, then to storyboard. You can storyboard
into PowerPoint if you want to do it that
way and skip this sort of more analog, the
longer analog approach, that's fine. The actual
tool is keynote, but it doesn't matter. I
mean, that's really my point. I don't care
what you use, and you don't need to lay this
PowerPoint either. How many by the way have
PowerPoint 2007 or Office 2007, is that most
people? Still some of you are using the older.
And there's some Apple people here and some
Mac users. So--but it really doesn't--it really
doesn't matter. Flash should be great. Actually,
I love to use Flash because for me since I'm
not really good at, you know, it would take
long time, but if I had someone who could
work with me, Flash is just--is wonderful.
But this is a very easy tool to use.
>> Sir, my question is based on an experience
I have when I tried to use an approach similar
to this a few years ago in a different company.
I want to emphasize different company. And
the feedback I got from management was that
the presentations have to contain all of the
words so that somebody else could repeat it
just by reading slides. And they were uncomfortable
even with having all the content and the notes,
how do you explain to that mindset?
>> REYNOLDS: You know, it's a very common
approach, right? And they do that at Apple,
I mean, in every company to give it to the
engineers in the field to make sure they do
those six points that you put in the slide,
you put in the notes, but to be sure, let's
put it up there. It doesn't mean it's effective.
It's just--it's culture. Not everything about
our culture is efficient or good. We need
to change parts of the culture too. So at
this--and it's hard. You're going to come
up--you're going to need resistance. But in
a lot of e-mail everyday from people where,
you know, it worked for, but it doesn't work
in every case. I tend to hear the positive
reports. But, you know, I say, we got to strive
forward and try to change things 30 years
ago on how do people present. I mean, there
were OHP sheets, you know, the overheads.
But mostly, you know, in my parent's generation,
they had meetings, and the might write something,
right, or they would talk and they didn't
need bullet points. How we do it for centuries
without bullet points? Why now we need bullet
points, which contained too little or too
much, right? So you can't read and listen
at the same time. So just "gambatte," as we
say in Japanese, "never give up." You need
a book. Thank you.
>> I have a question. What if you have something
very complex, say, an algorithm that you want
to present the fine details of it? Do you
have any advice if something or at least it
seems to me as it it’s very complex, and
at the same time you have a very limited time
to show it, how not to do that stuff and all
the details and just overwhelm the audience?
>> REYNOLDS: I wouldn’t use a slide. I mean,
slide are very low resolution, aren't they,
compared to paper. So if it's something like
that and people need to see the whole thing,
then, just hand out a paper. Even in a standard
presentation, it breaks things up too rather
than saying turn page to 10, you might actually
just have people now look at this document
and then we talk about it. So again, this
isn't for every case. It's very low resolution.
So if you actually need all of that data--I
mean, you need to have it, I'd say, you know,
it's a handout. And that top key would definitely
agree with that as well.
>> Have your other cases.
>> Yeah.
>> And as non-native speaker, I constantly
worry about my exams. So I tend to put some
bullets on my slides, do you think that's
a good idea? And in general, do you have any
advice for a non-native speaker? Thank you.
>> It's a good question. And it's--like, I
said, every case is different. And the thing
is about the slides, they are not for us as
presented, they are for the audience, right,
and it's suppose to help us, but help our
message. So, I understand--believe me, I understand
the pain. If I was doing one in Japanese,
what I have to do is I don't put it there,
but I put it in the notes view. You know how
you can in PowerPoint or keynote. I can actually
have notes, you see different image here.
It's still not ideal, but at least it's better.
Since my Japanese is not good enough, I have
to read Japanese sometimes. So I would be--I'll
be doing more of this traditional thing. But
I don't recommend that because--and you're
glued to the PC, right, or you want to try
to get away from it. All I can say is I do
work with young Japanese students whose English
is not so developed yet. And they're shocked
that they can do it this way. First, they
are very nervous about doing it, but they
find it, you know, going to analog, getting
their story down is actually easier because
they don't have to memories things. It's sort
of liberating in a way because now they really
know their story, this visual sort of instantly
reminds them, "Oh, yeah, this is the point
I want to say." The grammar doesn't have to
be perfect. Once they let that go, just tell
the story and what does it mean. And actually
their confidence goes up, it's sort of liberating,
seriously. So I know it look like it's crazy
but try it, and I think you'll be happy with
the results. You can keep the notes. I mean,
just print them out just in case, all right,
in case you have a total, you know, blow out,
it could happen. Probably you would never
use the notes, but just because they're there,
it gives you a little sort of security in
it. But thank you very much. You get the book.
Could you pass it? Would you mind passing
the book back? Thank you. That's the last
book, I'm sorry, which I have more--I have
a bottle of water that hasn't been open yet
so that you get everything free, so--it doesn't
matter. But it doesn't have much about how
you does it, but if you're thirsty, you can
get this bottle of water.
>> I'll pass on the bottle of water.
>> REYNOLDS: Okay.
>> Well, thanks. You told a lot of about of
stories and, you know, a lot of good presenters--a
lot of good presenters I've seen, you know,
have a story and a message as part of their
presentation. But in addition to that, they
have, you know, chain of stories or sub-stories
that support some point that they're making.
And I was wondering in a preparation for a
presentation, are you coming up? Are you thinking
about the stories then? Or you’ve kind of
trained yourself to, you know, in life when
something happens and, you know, that would
be a great story to tell that would make this
point in a presentation I might give at some
point.
>> REYNOLDS: It's a good point. And I think
it gets easier the older I get where you get
more experienced. And just opening your eyes,
and that's why it's great to go, you know,
go to seminars, try new things. If you've
never done martial arts, do martial arts,
become a designer, you know, whatever. You
just--the more you get out, the more sort
of stories that you'd learn and that you get.
So, I mean, that's basically how it happens.
During the brainstorming that was when I--you
get the ideas and, "Oh, this is would really
be good to support that, and see, I might
jot something down." It's quite messy in those
stages, but being able to brainstorm like
that, it brings those stories out for sure.
Thank you. I'm sorry I don't have a present
for you. There you are.
>> No book, too late. I've seen Larry Lessig
as well, and I'm curious. I have very mixed
reaction to this approach. And I think the,
sort of the mix part comes from the potential
for propaganda, to hide the ball and to not
be transparent because the standard clunky
PowerPoint is I say something and you see
it. It's there.
>> REYNOLDS: Right.
>> The dynamic in these a lot is this complex
fluidity of speech and image and the effect
of it can be very much to mislead because
you say one thing comforting image on there.
And I'm just curious, you're--and so, in other
words it's a very powerful and thus dangerous
tool.
>> REYNOLDS: Right, you got, absolutely.
>> I'm just curious sort of your thoughts
about that dimension to this.
>> REYNOLDS: No, it's an excellent point isn't
it? And that true, I mean, advertising, for
example, is very powerful isn't it? I mean,
just look at it, look what we buy, the crap
that we buy. I mean these are very powerful,
the image and narrative. But, like, anything
else, like the internets, the computers for
good are used for evil. So, you know, do no
evil is sort of my mantra, so you absolutely
can hide things. And I think a lot of--especially
a lot of marketing presentations do that.
And one way to be more transparent besides
to actually just really having that philosophy
of doing, you know, evil, is giving a hand-out
that has more of the details, that's it’s
all right there and not hiding anything. You
can see it, right? And in Lessig’s [INDISTINCT]
case, I know it doesn't work for everyone,
and it does kind of go fast--wait, I'm not
accustomed to that--but for him, it works.
I think if he didn't have that he would be
a less engaging speaker. They're kind of his
notes, although they don't seem like his notes
because he's developed his own style. But
your point is really, really good. And that's
the trouble. If you have someone who does
something like this and then they aren't transparent,
they're actually trying to be duplicitous,
they're trying to sort of hide something,
then, and that gives this kind of approach
a bad name, doesn't it? And people will blame
the method rather than it's actually the motivation
behind it. And I actually think that bullet
points can--yeah, it's written down, but it's
so confusing that it actually can be more.
It's easier to actually sometimes hide the
truth. I mean, look at the--well, I won't
get into it, maybe we’ll at least point
out but look at the slides on the Iraq war
for example, you know, you've seen all this,
right? I mean there are tons of them that
explain, they're trying, and, you know, what
does this mean, right? It's so complicated.
But, anyway, thank you. That's excellent point.
Last question, yes, sir.
>> I don't have a mic.
>> REYNOLDS: I'm sorry. That's Katrina’s
fault, its' not my fault. And then we'll do
this.
>> Okay.
>> Quick question. I used to do a lot of teaching,
so like I'm having a lot of source code on
slides. What is an effective way to teach
using this kind of technique especially for
computer source codes?
>> REYNOLDS: Right. So, it's common. And does
that work for you to build the code, sort
of animate and then build it to show it.
>> Yeah, it really helps the audience.
>> REYNOLDS: Yeah, and they also have a hand-out
of it, right. I send them the attachment.
I think it's at the same principle. I mean,
how much? Not too much. It's only as much
as you need. I remember my undergrad was in
Philosophy. And the class I think the weakest
thing was logic only because it was symbolic
logic, it was basically--because the equations
were so long. And I said, "I got it. I got
it. I got it. I don't got it," right? So,
if there's a way to somehow simplify not,
you know, make it dumb, like in politicians
do a lot of this where they dumb down things,
I don't mean that. But how much is necessary?
And then if building it helps rather than
the whole thing, blah, which is sometimes
overwhelming, can you build it in steps that
helps people get it more easily? That might
work. In that case, PowerPoint is very useful
I guess.
>> Do you mind if we squeeze in one more question
we had?
>> REYNOLDS: Yes, sure.
>> I notice you draw a lot of your inspiration
from the Japanese culture, and I was wondering
if you draw inspirations from other culture
whether it's necessary to actually move to
that location since you draw inspiration from
that culture, and if you plan to move again
in the future?
>> REYNOLDS: I highly recommend moving to
Japan if, you know, seriously, to anyone,
if you're a young college student and you
have a chance to do to study abroad, you got
to Japan. My other favorite which I haven't
been to, but I've always wanted to go, and
I put this on my blog and I'll be going in
August is India. And of all innocence, I am
been a student of Zen Buddhism and Mahayana
Buddhism, it still has a truths in India.
And I've always has been fascinated. I mean,
when you go to a place, it's so completely
different. That just sort of--it blows your
mind. And, you know, I never would have--to
tell you the truth, I love working for Apple,
but I wasn't sort of stimulated enough because
I'm from America. And when I live in Asia,
it's everything is different, and you notice
things. You would be a foreign national in
a foreign country, you notice things, and
then other people don't, right? I'm sure foreigners
come here--foreign nationals come here and
notice things, right? We don't usually talk
about individualism here. Isn't it a great
that we’re all individualistic? We don't
do that, right? Sorry. Apologies to John Stewart.
Yeah, yes--I'm sorry.
>> Okay. Finally, my question is sometimes
you're up there and you don't know where to
put your hands or kind of--how do you use
body to emphasize something. I've been seeing
you it's you using your hands quite often.
>> REYNOLDS: Right. You know, you would be
yourself. If you were something--again, if
you were Steve Ballmer, then be Steve Ballmer,
that's what works for him. So I think you
can't he mechanically, you can't fake it.
And, you know, you've seen boring presentations,
but most people are not boring, right? I mean,
they date, you know. They're getting along
with somebody, right? So it can't be 99% of
presentation suck according to Guy in the
forward, but 99% of the people are not boring
or, you know, unintelligent. It can't be.
So we get up here, we get nervous. It's very
unnatural to give a presentation, right, which
probably in our brain stem is to get into
the crowd, get in the middle and go with the
groups so that the lions can't attack us,
right? I mean, it's a very rare bread of person
that can stand up and do it well. I don't
think it comes naturally to anyone. Job is
great at it, but he practices a lot. And there's
a level--it's always a level of nerves. Even
I, you know, of course I have it now right
now, it's much, I'm much less sort of, you
know, intense if I'm just sitting down with
the few people. So just do what comes naturally.
I tend to do this a lot. Get your hands on
your pockets, you know, the old thing that
would help. But it can't be mechanical, right?
We have great market share increase, right?
Our problems are not small, they are large.
I mean, that becomes a little silly, so don't
worry about it. All right, that's what I'm
saying. Just be natural. Get a coach, you
have videos, do a presentation. Have someone
to take a video. You don't even need a coach.
Once you see it, "Oh, what I'm doing?" Right?
Seriously, I learned how to play tennis better
not by getting the coach but by videotaping
myself once. And then I saw it, "Why you bat
up in the air? Why you turned"--and I know
what to do. So just see yourself and then
you'll notice.
>> It's not that Bill Gates is criticized
for using his head, or he's like…
>> REYNOLDS: I know. You know, I do. I really
like Bill Gates especially when he's not so
much for the software he developed before,
what he's doing now with his foundation. I
think he's an amazing person obviously. And
I wish someone would work with him. His visuals
are getting better. I think they're getting
that message if you saw him at the--I forget
what it was, in January, whatever that one
was, the very simple visuals. But, yes, there's
that sort of Mr. Burn's (ph) thing, you know,
going there. Excellent, [INDISTINCT]. But--so
that, there are little things, and I'm sure
I have habits, we all have little habits with
a coach, you know, could help us with. That
is one little thing what you do your hands.
This is not good. You're cold, you're negative,
right, or mad. So hands in pocket, they say
not to do that. I say just relax, be yourself.
Thank you. So, thank you. Thanks.
