Taken from the grumpier (and much better) economist, John Cochrane. (https://www.grumpy-economist.com)
“Every talk is a job talk”
- A job talk is a talk that can get you a job (or lose it).
- You never know who is listening or who they might tell.
- If you convene more than three people… it’s a job talk.
- It is selfish to slap it together. Your time saved becomes their time wasted.
“It’s about two minutes a slide”
- You don’t speak as fast as you think you do. (Or you shouldn’t.)
- Save a third of time for questions.
- At two minutes a slide, 20 minutes is 10 slides. Not much! This is good news.
“People can focus on one thing.”
- People are either listening to you or reading all that text. Not both.
- If you want them to listen, don’t distract them with text.
- If you want them to read… why give a presentation?
- So slides should be text-light.
- Bullets just tell people where you are in the talk. Consider single words.
Industry is different
- Finance or consulting presentations follow different rules.
- They are full of text because they are meant to be read later.
- If you sit for one of these, notice they do not even go through much of the presentation.
Acknowledgments
- Grad school
- UCLA theory proseminar
- A particular professor of asset pricing