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Presentation Zen: Can (and should) scientists become great presenters?
“”People can only learn something new if they can relate it to something they already know. That’s the only way.”
“When people like you [scientists & PhD students] talk about their research, half of the time even your peers don’t understand what the hell you are talking about, and when they do understand they find it boring. That’s the sad truth.”
“Scientists cannot communicate very well with non-scientists, but in fact they cannot communicate well with other scientists either.”
“If you are a PhD student, a post-Doc, or even a professor, where have you been all your life? In School! And school is the worst place where you could possibly learn communication.”
“You see the problem here. We are learning to communicate by explaining things to people [professors] who all ready know [the material]. What kind of learning experience is that? It’s the wrong approach…..on top of that the purpose is being graded, which means we have to prove to those people grading us how clever we are.”
“Find a simple way to explain something complex.””