When I presented "Back to the Drawing Board" at Penguicon 2010 this last weekend, I did so without using slides. Why? Because I got really good at PowerPoint-ese when I worked at Novell, but I've recently learned that there's been research showing what I long suspected: PowerPoint-ese is the language of force-feeding, pre-digestion, and bad decisions. Also, even if you add pictures, making the audience stare at your outline while you talk is just plain dull. One thing PowerPoint-ese almost never encourages is a return to the source material so that the victim of the presentation can draw his or her own conclusions. I wanted to avoid that here, because one of the ancillary elements of my presentation was that when we try to tell ourselves stories to explain the world around us it's best to have undigested source material as a starting point. I'm not giving you my whole presentation here -- just the primary source material, less the undocumented personal anecdotes and the occasional pithy quote. Why? Two reasons: 1) I'm lazy. 2) I'm in a hurry. 3) I'm also giving the presentation at Balticon in a month and don't want to spoil the fun for them. Oh, and 4) I can't count. So: here's the bibliography. “ How Not To Talk To Your Kids: The Inverse Power of Praise,” Po Bronson & Ashley Merryman, New York , Feb 12, 2007: “ Subtle Linguistic Cues Impact Children’s Motivation,” Cimpian, A., Arce, H., Markman, E.M., & Dweck, C.S., Psychological Science, April 2007: (subscription required) “ Family planning: Football style, the relative age effect in football.” Barnsley RH, Thompson AH, Legault P (1992). International Review for the Sociology of Sport 27(1), 77-88 (note: This study gets excerpted a lot these days. Read the source like I did.) “ The Role of Deliberate Practice in the Acquisition of Expert Performance,” Ericsson, Krampe, & Tesch-Romer, Psychological Review, 1993 Vol 100 #3: The Black Swan, Nassim Nicholas Taleb Freakonomics, Stephen Dubner & Steven Levitt Superfreakonomics, Stephen Dubner & Steven Levitt Each and every one of these books and articles has the potential to blow your mind. Please don't try to read them all in one sitting. I cannot be held responsible for what might happen.
