I don't really agree with this. There are certainly some really bad ways to give live code demos, but I find that when its done well it can be very effective.

I don't really agree with this. There are certainly some really bad ways to give live code demos, but I find that when its done well it can be very effective. I feel like the small delays and the slower buildup of code can give me in the audience time to understand and follow along. It makes me think of my college math classes, I always preferred the professors who would work through the problems by hand on the board during lecture because you could easily follow along through the whole process. I had some professors who used examples prepared ahead of time either on powerpoint or overhead projection, even though the same steps were there, it was harder to follow. I found it more difficult to learn from the prepared demos because it was easier to get overwhelmed, you went from 0 to a lot of content instead of slowly building over time, additionally the professor tended to move a little more quickly than they would have otherwise. I also think live-demos can be potentially more interactive. Obviously it depends on the situation, but I've seen demos where the audience starts asking questions and its very effective when the presenter can respond with, "let's try that".