I can’t remember where I read it, but I have a recollection of someone observing that well over half of drivers think they’re above average. I know I do. (I also have to admit, through gritted teeth, that my sister-in-law is better.) May eldest daughter isn’t bad for her age – all she lacks is a bit of experience.
It was a bit of a nerve-inducing idea to insure her, temporarily, on our ‘big’ car for the family holiday. It’s a great car to drive (forwards) but a very(!) hard one to maneouvre: it’s a tricky car. Come to that, any car is tricky to drive the first time.
It’s particularly tricky to take on a new car when you’re driving in strange territory – you’ve got more to think about.
Add overhead bunting to that mix and you’ve got a heck of a lot to take in all at once. A day or so later I did the same drive as she did: the video is here. I was luckier than she was – no one lept out onto the road without looking first! :)
[media width=”400″ link=”http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i8JytYVCPck&feature=g-upl”]
The video doesn’t perhaps do it justice but the bunting is very annoying in real life, believe me. It pulls your attention away from what you need to be concentrating on – pedestrians and other cars on the street.
What on earth has this got to do with presenting? A simple analogy.
How many times have you watched a presentation with animated bulletpoints. Yeah, me too.
Bunting flapping in the wind, anyone?
Cars and pedestrians on the road? The content of your presentation, perhaps!
Presentations are about the message – and anything that gets in the way of that message is at best a distraction.
Don’t forget, of course, that just like my daughter trying out a new (to her) car in a strange (to her) environment, your audience doesn’t know what you’re telling them in your presentation. (If they do, why are you telling them it in the first place?) Anything that makes it harder to concentrate on the cars and pedestrians should go.
So far so good – but I’ll try taking things a bit further… :)
At the risk of straining my presentation/driving analogy too far, think about the design of the car – huge amounts of effort go into examining the ergonomic layout of the car. After all, the gear lever (shift stick, I think for American readers) isn’t in the back of the car – it’s where you can most easily reach it from the driver’s seat. It’s designed like that – for minimum effort so that the driver can concentrate on the process of getting to somewhere, not of having to concentrate on the effort of controlling the car.
The same goes for your presentation – particularly the slides – if the audience (the driver) has to has to work too hard on the mechanics they’ve got nothing left to concentrate on the content…
