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.
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Finance or consulting presentations follow different rules. They are full of text because they are meant to be read later. Notice they do not even go through much of the presentation.
Acknowledgments
- Grad school
- UCLA theory proseminar
- A particular professor of asset pricing