Attention Span - Humans vs. The Goldfish

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You've probably heard someone being characterised as having "the attention span of a goldfish", meaning that he or she can only focus on something for a very short time. If you search for the actual attention span of a goldfish, you'll even come across a recent study that found that the average human attention span is now less than that of a goldfish (human: 8.25 seconds, goldfish: 9 seconds).

So what does that mean for presentations?

Getting Rid of Bullet Points - a Clarification

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When I'm arguing against the use of bullet points on slides, I often use a little bit of exaggeration to drive home my point. I also spend a lot of time explaining the benefits of visuals and how and why they work.

This sometimes leaves people with the impression that I want them to replace all of their slides with photos. Which, understandably, makes the more technically-minded members of my audience uncomfortable. So maybe I should point out two things:

On Breaking The Rules

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The last of a series of mostly mediocre talks at a recent event was about breaking the rules. So the speaker decided to drive home his point and broke some of the rules for presenting. Did it help?

Behind the Mask

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Members of the Anonymous collective are easily recognisable for the Guy Fawkes masks they are wearing in public. Their protest is not silent, though; sometimes, they also deliver speeches. This is probably not part of your usual speaking experience, but have you ever considered the challenges of speaking while wearing a mask?