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Every time I sit down to work on a presentation, I intentionally recall Cristian's retort [0]: "We used a helium neon laser, captured its phase shift with a ph

Every time I sit down to work on a presentation, I intentionally recall Cristian's retort [0]: "We used a helium neon laser, captured its phase shift with a photo sensor, and manually corrected by 30 percent to account for the index of refraction," Cristian answered rapidly, keyed up on adrenaline. Cameron had peppered them with questions on the drive to Santa Barbara, and Cristian was ready. Swean raised a bushy, graying eyebrow. He asked about motor speed, and Lorenzo sketched out their combination of controllers and spike relays. Oscar answered the question about signal interference in the tether by describing how they'd experimented with a 15-meter cable before jumping up to one that was 33 meters. "You're very comfortable with the metric system," Swean observed. "I grew up in Mexico, sir," Oscar said. Swean nodded. He eyed their rudimentary flip chart. "Why don't you have a PowerPoint display?" he asked. "PowerPoint is a distraction," Cristian replied. "People use it when they don't know what to say." "And you know what to say?" "Yes, sir." [0] https://www.wired.com/2014/12/4-mexican-immigrant-kids-cheap-robot-beat-mit/ https://www.wired.com/2014/12/4-mexican-immigrant-kids-cheap...

jjjensen90 9y ago
That's such a great quote! Before I came on board at my current job the teams would occasionally create 350mb (embedded videos, etc), multi-hour PowerPoint presentations used for showing business users what their team had been doing and what was on their road map. Needless to say, attendance to these presentations was abysmal and people would play mobile games and catch up on email for the duration. When I came on we switched to a new system where each lead engineer got 5 index cards and could prepare main points and notes on there, and could otherwise only do live demos of the products for showing things off. I found that with the PowerPoints they would spend hours on designing the slides, read directly off of them, and often include way, way too much detail for business users. The new system is going great, and I wish I had done that in my college career. And slightly off-topic: the Carl Hayden story is just so damn awesome. I think the whole story shares some lessons about building a product. I'm looking forward to the movie.
- Cthulhu_ 9y ago
  Those things need to be strictly timeboxed. Assume your audience has a 15 minute attention span, maybe per subject / team. If you can summarize it in 15 minutes then you're good. Shorter is even better. Longer might work if you have a really interesting subject, but usually, product demos etc aren't, especially if they're a recurring thing.
sanderjd 9y ago
I guess I don't really get it... How are powerpoint slides any different than flip chart sheets? It seems to me that either thing can be used illustratively by people who do know what to say, or as a crutch by people who don't.
- guardian5x 9y ago
  I guess when everyone uses it, its not cool anymore. The quote "People use it when they don't know what to say." sounds a bit arrogant.
- EliRivers 9y ago
  The cost of editing flip chart sheets is huge in time and inconvenience. It forces me to actually think about them in advance and do them right, rather than the typical powerpoint method of creation; copy some text from a completely unsuitable document, add bullets points and then start removing words.
  - JumpCrisscross 9y ago
    > typical powerpoint method of creation; copy some text from a completely unsuitable document, add bullets points and then start removing words A lot of terrible PowerPoint presentations just made sense.
  - altstar 9y ago
    The problem here is you, not the tool.
    - masklinn 9y ago
      I quite doubt EliRivers is responsible for all powerpoint presentations across the world. Their point is that flip chart edition acted as a filter on garbage production, as editing a flip chart is time and labor intensive more time goes into planning and whittling down the amount of stuff to show, as well as into preparing the presentation itself. Powerpoint does the opposite and facilitates the production of huge streams of garbage quickly, resulting in exactly what we can see. And sure you can still state that it's the user's fault, but here's the thing: the user has been a moron all along, it took your tool for the user's stupidity to become damaging. When your tool empowers stupidity and you refuse to acknowledge basic reality, your tool is at fault.
aaron695 9y ago
Although missing this scene their movie is one of the most underrated movies I have ever seen. It has such a low view count and I think it is such a inspirational movie for young adults along with quite a sly humor. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3233418/ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3233418/
edraferi 9y ago
NY Times published an update about these kids in 2015 [0]. Basically the US immigration system prevented them from pursuing engineering within the United States. This was before DACA, and they were undocumented. Thus: > Lorenzo Santillan considered becoming a mechanical engineer, but instead earned a cheaper associate degree in cooking. Today he works as a line cook. > Luis Aranda studied cooking as well but did not complete a degree and now works as a janitor. > Cristian Arcega [...] made it to Arizona State University on a scholarship. But [..] Arizona voters passed Proposition 300, an anti-immigrant measure that prohibits undocumented students from receiving any state financial aid or qualifying for in-state tuition — more than tripling his tuition. He dropped out and is now unemployed. > Oscar Vazquez [got] a scholarship to A.S.U. [...] He graduated with a degree in mechanical engineering in 2009 and applied for legal residency [...] but he was also summarily banned from the United States for 10 years for living here without a visa. [...] After a year, his ban was reversed when Senator Richard J. Durbin, Democrat of Illinois, interceded on his behalf. Mr. Vazquez returned, enlisted in the Army, and served a tour of combat duty in Afghanistan. He is finally a citizen, and repairs trains in Montana for the railroad company BNSF. [0] https://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/16/opinion/the-cruel-waste-of-americas-tech-talent.html https://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/16/opinion/the-cruel-waste-o...

jjjensen90 9y ago

That's such a great quote! Before I came on board at my current job the teams would occasionally create 350mb (embedded videos, etc), multi-hour PowerPoint presentations used for showing business users what their team had been doing and what was on their road map. Needless to say, attendance to these presentations was abysmal and people would play mobile games and catch up on email for the duration. When I came on we switched to a new system where each lead engineer got 5 index cards and could prepare main points and notes on there, and could otherwise only do live demos of the products for showing things off. I found that with the PowerPoints they would spend hours on designing the slides, read directly off of them, and often include way, way too much detail for business users. The new system is going great, and I wish I had done that in my college career. And slightly off-topic: the Carl Hayden story is just so damn awesome. I think the whole story shares some lessons about building a product. I'm looking forward to the movie.

Cthulhu_ 9y ago
Those things need to be strictly timeboxed. Assume your audience has a 15 minute attention span, maybe per subject / team. If you can summarize it in 15 minutes then you're good. Shorter is even better. Longer might work if you have a really interesting subject, but usually, product demos etc aren't, especially if they're a recurring thing.

sanderjd 9y ago

I guess I don't really get it... How are powerpoint slides any different than flip chart sheets? It seems to me that either thing can be used illustratively by people who do know what to say, or as a crutch by people who don't.

guardian5x 9y ago
I guess when everyone uses it, its not cool anymore. The quote "People use it when they don't know what to say." sounds a bit arrogant.
EliRivers 9y ago
The cost of editing flip chart sheets is huge in time and inconvenience. It forces me to actually think about them in advance and do them right, rather than the typical powerpoint method of creation; copy some text from a completely unsuitable document, add bullets points and then start removing words.
- JumpCrisscross 9y ago
  > typical powerpoint method of creation; copy some text from a completely unsuitable document, add bullets points and then start removing words A lot of terrible PowerPoint presentations just made sense.
- altstar 9y ago
  The problem here is you, not the tool.
  - masklinn 9y ago
    I quite doubt EliRivers is responsible for all powerpoint presentations across the world. Their point is that flip chart edition acted as a filter on garbage production, as editing a flip chart is time and labor intensive more time goes into planning and whittling down the amount of stuff to show, as well as into preparing the presentation itself. Powerpoint does the opposite and facilitates the production of huge streams of garbage quickly, resulting in exactly what we can see. And sure you can still state that it's the user's fault, but here's the thing: the user has been a moron all along, it took your tool for the user's stupidity to become damaging. When your tool empowers stupidity and you refuse to acknowledge basic reality, your tool is at fault.

aaron695 9y ago

Although missing this scene their movie is one of the most underrated movies I have ever seen. It has such a low view count and I think it is such a inspirational movie for young adults along with quite a sly humor. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3233418/ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3233418/

edraferi 9y ago

NY Times published an update about these kids in 2015 [0]. Basically the US immigration system prevented them from pursuing engineering within the United States. This was before DACA, and they were undocumented. Thus: > Lorenzo Santillan considered becoming a mechanical engineer, but instead earned a cheaper associate degree in cooking. Today he works as a line cook. > Luis Aranda studied cooking as well but did not complete a degree and now works as a janitor. > Cristian Arcega [...] made it to Arizona State University on a scholarship. But [..] Arizona voters passed Proposition 300, an anti-immigrant measure that prohibits undocumented students from receiving any state financial aid or qualifying for in-state tuition — more than tripling his tuition. He dropped out and is now unemployed. > Oscar Vazquez [got] a scholarship to A.S.U. [...] He graduated with a degree in mechanical engineering in 2009 and applied for legal residency [...] but he was also summarily banned from the United States for 10 years for living here without a visa. [...] After a year, his ban was reversed when Senator Richard J. Durbin, Democrat of Illinois, interceded on his behalf. Mr. Vazquez returned, enlisted in the Army, and served a tour of combat duty in Afghanistan. He is finally a citizen, and repairs trains in Montana for the railroad company BNSF. [0] https://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/16/opinion/the-cruel-waste-of-americas-tech-talent.html https://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/16/opinion/the-cruel-waste-o...