Creating Shallow Entertainment: Less Intelligence, More Emotion

I have a mixed opinion of the book “Presentation Zen: Simple Ideas on Presentation Design and Delivery” and therefore give it only 3 stars.

On one hand, I can benefit from the book because it identifies many common mistakes in creating presentations and offers tips for better ones. Even if many of these tips are very general, such as on p. 86 “Listening and making notes.”

On the other hand, the author constructs a kind of ‘religion’ out of the ingredients of New-Age, progressivism, ecology, and presentation craft, which he views very uncritically.

I fear that through this ‘religion,’ the intellectual standard of presentations will decrease.

It is the same with presentations as it is with television, theater, and music. “Thinking hurts,” and therefore people prefer shallow entertainment. Humans prefer leisure and pleasure over work. Consequently, instead of “bullet points,” rationality, and knowledge, the author recommends focusing more on emotions and images to better connect with the audience.

How to handle complex and difficult subject matter in presentations is therefore not discussed. The author’s solution is: keep the presentation simple, reduce it to the core content, and distribute a separate written article during the presentation. The education of the listener is thus delegated back to the listener themselves.

The examples provided in the book also only partially convinced me. Why, for example, are there slides on pages 170-171 that only contain individual words like “But,” “vision,” or “process”? In my opinion, the example on pages 166-167 shows how to spice up “blah-blah-blah” with images (“smoke and mirrors”).

Further points:

The author is not a “digital native” and believes that one can work more creatively without a computer. However, this varies from person to person and depends on how one uses computers.
The author also speaks out against handouts (p. 66, p. 69). Why, then, has the website Slideshare been so successful?
You will not learn the correct use of citations from this book (p. 141). The author forgets to mention that the context of a quote is important.
On p. 133, a slide is shown that the author considers to be a great slide. It features a large shark in the water and the text “Blogs are like sharks.” My first thought was, “Why do blogs have no natural enemies?” but that wasn’t the point at all. So, in my opinion, it’s not a successful slide.
Zen is a religion, and therefore one should consider it (at least once in the book) from a critical standpoint.

Conclusion: Partially useful.

Garr Reynolds
Presentation Zen: Simple Ideas on Presentation Design and Delivery
New Riders
2008