To get my attention in a prepared lecture: - Tell stories that touch on the facts in passing. It doesn't matter whether they're stories about the founders in a

To get my attention in a prepared lecture: - Tell stories that touch on the facts in passing. It doesn't matter whether they're stories about the founders in a field, about your personal experiences, about a fictional startup building a database, etc... As long as it's wrapped in a story I will probably find it interesting. - Start with why. Before explaining solutions, explain the problem those solutions solve. - Gradual build-up of a system, instead of a serial description of its parts. The chapter in DDIA about LSM databases is one of the most engaging technical chapters I've ever read because it starts with a 2 line shell script and evolves it until it is Google's Bigtable.