I urge everyone reading this to improve their public speaking and presentation skills. If you think your presentations have even a small chance of reducing existential risk, whether directly or indirectly, it is worth it to spend some time thinking about how to engage and retain the marginal audience member.
In economics, the price of a good is set by the marginal buyer. The marginal buyer is the buyer who would, if the transaction was even slightly costlier, walk away from the deal.
When you present to an audience with the goal of spreading ideas or raising awareness, you would like the audience members to return to future talks and events, or even join your organization. You are growing a following. You are a salesman of ideas.
The targets of your sales pitch should be the marginal buyer of your ideas. The person who, if you deliver a good presentation, will stick around, and if you deliver a mediocre presentation, won't return. This is the marginal audience member. Ensuring the marginal audience member returns to future events is how you fill rooms.
I have a day job as a data scientist in the private sector. I am moderately concerned about personal and existential AI risk. I go to AI safety events after work on occasion, even though I'm often tired after work. Usually, it is because the topic exceeds a threshold of interest, and there is nothing better to do, as it happens to be a rare day in which I have no volunteer, hobby, social, or personal commitments, of which I have many.
There is a competitive market for my time and attention. This means I am sensitive and responsive to presentation quality. A good presentation raises the score of AI safety events compared to other activities and has a direct effect on my turnout and my probability of deepening my involvement in AI safety. A bad presentation lowers the score. I am the marginal audience member. Here are sins I've observed while attending these events:
Slides are full of text. Slides are read from as if they were scripts. Fonts are small and hard to read.
Speakers use filler words. Um, uh, like, yeah, so. Speakers stray from the topic and go on tangents. Speakers forget to engage or motivate their audience. Speakers are tense, anxious, and give off an unprepared or unprofessional impression. Speakers may even be disheveled or unhygienic.
Presentations go overtime. Presentations lack structure. Presentations are confused. Presentations may not be as advertised. Presentations are monotonous, giving equal emphasis to unequally important information, or even priority-inverted, with more emphasis on less important details. Presentations lose the interest of the audience even if the topic was of high interest initially.
The most recent presentation I went to was one I would rate as very high interest. Twice the number of people attended compared to the previous event of the same series. This was a triple-digit attendance. The topic was practical and topical: Claude Mythos. It even made it to trending on the Luma page for the city.
And yet, once it finished, a much greater relative proportion of attendees left immediately when compared to the previous event. Less than halfway through, people were browsing their phones, and I had lost all of my initial interest and enthusiasm.
Almost all of the sins described above had been committed. The presentation went longer than scheduled. It was monotone and focused on unimportant information at some points. Every third word was filler. Physical tics and mouth contact with the microphone distracted from the content. Slides were hard to read walls of text. Attempts to engage or motivate the audience on the subject beyond the choice of topic and retain audience attention were lacking.
It doesn't matter if your presentation could save the world, if it is not a pleasant experience, you will not be retaining the marginal audience member who is the only attendee that matters if you want to expand your reach. You'll only be preaching to the choir of people who are already as interested as you are, the old guard who may go to every event already or are members of your organization.
Some believe that the content should speak for itself. Substance over style, and message over messenger. I used to believe this before entering the private sector, and old photos and bad memories from my time in academia confirm that. But this is a moment for pragmatism over idealism. One should operate based on how the world is, not how it ought to be. This is a point I feel the private sector grasps innately as a matter of survival, but seems to be lost in academia and the non-profit space. We live in a world where signals and presentation matter.
Your ideological enemies, the silver-tongued, shoe-polished, clean-shaven, and business-suited Sam Altmans, understand this well, and do a better job selling to their marginal buyers.
No matter who you are or your experience, you could always improve your public speaking and presentation skills. I urge you to spend some time doing so. Watch recordings of your past presentations. Can you sit through your own talks? Research ways to engage and retain audiences. Break up sections with questions or audience participation. Practice these techniques, as they atrophy with disuse like any other skill. Keep slides minimal and clear. Rehearse talks before the real event. Before departing for the event, treat yourself and wear something slightly nicer than your usual outfit and give yourself a once-over in the mirror. And when it is time to present, unclench your arms from your chest, move the microphone off your lips and chin, stand solidly, and just relax, because you've done all you can to prepare.
I urge everyone reading this to improve their public speaking and presentation skills. If you think your presentations have even a small chance of reducing existential risk, whether directly or indirectly, it is worth it to spend some time thinking about how to engage and retain the marginal audience member.
In economics, the price of a good is set by the marginal buyer. The marginal buyer is the buyer who would, if the transaction was even slightly costlier, walk away from the deal.
When you present to an audience with the goal of spreading ideas or raising awareness, you would like the audience members to return to future talks and events, or even join your organization. You are growing a following. You are a salesman of ideas.
The targets of your sales pitch should be the marginal buyer of your ideas. The person who, if you deliver a good presentation, will stick around, and if you deliver a mediocre presentation, won't return. This is the marginal audience member. Ensuring the marginal audience member returns to future events is how you fill rooms.
I have a day job as a data scientist in the private sector. I am moderately concerned about personal and existential AI risk. I go to AI safety events after work on occasion, even though I'm often tired after work. Usually, it is because the topic exceeds a threshold of interest, and there is nothing better to do, as it happens to be a rare day in which I have no volunteer, hobby, social, or personal commitments, of which I have many.
There is a competitive market for my time and attention. This means I am sensitive and responsive to presentation quality. A good presentation raises the score of AI safety events compared to other activities and has a direct effect on my turnout and my probability of deepening my involvement in AI safety. A bad presentation lowers the score. I am the marginal audience member. Here are sins I've observed while attending these events:
Slides are full of text. Slides are read from as if they were scripts. Fonts are small and hard to read.
Speakers use filler words. Um, uh, like, yeah, so. Speakers stray from the topic and go on tangents. Speakers forget to engage or motivate their audience. Speakers are tense, anxious, and give off an unprepared or unprofessional impression. Speakers may even be disheveled or unhygienic.
Presentations go overtime. Presentations lack structure. Presentations are confused. Presentations may not be as advertised. Presentations are monotonous, giving equal emphasis to unequally important information, or even priority-inverted, with more emphasis on less important details. Presentations lose the interest of the audience even if the topic was of high interest initially.
The most recent presentation I went to was one I would rate as very high interest. Twice the number of people attended compared to the previous event of the same series. This was a triple-digit attendance. The topic was practical and topical: Claude Mythos. It even made it to trending on the Luma page for the city.
And yet, once it finished, a much greater relative proportion of attendees left immediately when compared to the previous event. Less than halfway through, people were browsing their phones, and I had lost all of my initial interest and enthusiasm.
Almost all of the sins described above had been committed. The presentation went longer than scheduled. It was monotone and focused on unimportant information at some points. Every third word was filler. Physical tics and mouth contact with the microphone distracted from the content. Slides were hard to read walls of text. Attempts to engage or motivate the audience on the subject beyond the choice of topic and retain audience attention were lacking.
It doesn't matter if your presentation could save the world, if it is not a pleasant experience, you will not be retaining the marginal audience member who is the only attendee that matters if you want to expand your reach. You'll only be preaching to the choir of people who are already as interested as you are, the old guard who may go to every event already or are members of your organization.
Some believe that the content should speak for itself. Substance over style, and message over messenger. I used to believe this before entering the private sector, and old photos and bad memories from my time in academia confirm that. But this is a moment for pragmatism over idealism. One should operate based on how the world is, not how it ought to be. This is a point I feel the private sector grasps innately as a matter of survival, but seems to be lost in academia and the non-profit space. We live in a world where signals and presentation matter.
Your ideological enemies, the silver-tongued, shoe-polished, clean-shaven, and business-suited Sam Altmans, understand this well, and do a better job selling to their marginal buyers.
No matter who you are or your experience, you could always improve your public speaking and presentation skills. I urge you to spend some time doing so. Watch recordings of your past presentations. Can you sit through your own talks? Research ways to engage and retain audiences. Break up sections with questions or audience participation. Practice these techniques, as they atrophy with disuse like any other skill. Keep slides minimal and clear. Rehearse talks before the real event. Before departing for the event, treat yourself and wear something slightly nicer than your usual outfit and give yourself a once-over in the mirror. And when it is time to present, unclench your arms from your chest, move the microphone off your lips and chin, stand solidly, and just relax, because you've done all you can to prepare.