Career Advice '08

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Still Wanna Open You Tube?

Here is a quickie.


1. Open: www.google.com/translate

2. In the "Translate a Web Page" box type: http://www.youtube.com

3. Then, hit the "translate" button

4. Voila. You're in You Tube.

Fitna, You Tube and 'Premanisme'

I am one of those ordinary people who sometimes (not always) update themselves with the latest news. Usually it takes up to one or two days for me to hear "the hip and happening" news.

Fitna

Apply also when some Dutch man of no important make an ill provocative yet one-sided documenter film about Islam. I curse the person who made the film. t bothers me that this sicko degrade my belief. But I have my faith, and I am sure you have yours. We all - including many of his fellow Dutchmen - curse the filmmaker. This sicko, I am sure, has earn the impact of his stupid and poor action and will continue to pay in a very long time. Considering, he will have some very unpleasant activity to do, prep himself for the upcoming lawsuits.

You Tube

As commercial as it, You Tube of course gain some perspective (and cash) from a lot of people (by publishing the shitty and crappy documentary on its page). As liberal as I may sound, who can prevent this to occur in this so-called modern world? And as stupid as I may sound, preventing You Tube from posting the piece of shit is not going to make us any smarter either. Preventing You Tube from posting it only increase profitability to the maker. So... I guess we will not be that stupid right?

Premanisme

Premanisme is an Indonesian slank for a hostile attitude toward differences. Premanisme, if not prevented, can lead toward offensiveness. Often, principal difference can lead to 'premanisme', which if we leave it, can lead to violence. If we can grow a culture that can share and appreciate differences (even in worst kind) toward a more constructive manner, than all differences will be actioned in a more civilized way.

The banning of You Tube by the government is neither civilized nor constructive. It is not civilized in a way that the site is run by a capitalist, who wouldn't understand the-ban-first-think-later attitude from our government. It is not constructive in a way that You Tube is the fastest growing video stie that post varieties of them. From education to entertainment, from religion to obscene materials like porn. We gain some useful information from the site, no need to explain more on this, as we all agree I am sure.

No other word can perfectly describe the action than 'premanisme'. They ban just because they can. It is not You Tube that was banned. It is us, Indonesian. The main background of that action is simply a trust issue. The government do not trust its own people. Period. You Tube has no business in obeying the voice of from the third world nation (yeah, that's what they call us). They don't care. Oh.. what was that expression they use to ignore a person? Bite me! Or in this case, BAN ME!

Gates, Jobs, & the Zen aesthetic

This article is a comparison of 2 extreme presentation styles of Bill Gates and Steve Jobs (this is one charismatic guy)

Simplicity

A key tenet of the Zen aesthetic is kanso or simplicity. In the kanso concept beauty, grace, and visual elegance are achieved by elimination and omission. Says artist, designer and architect, Dr. Koichi Kawana, "Simplicity means the achievement of maximum effect with minimum means." When you examine your visuals, then, can you say that you are getting the maximum impact with a minimum of graphic elements, for example? When you take a look at Jobs' slides and Gates' slides, how do they compare for kanso?

"Simplicity means the achievement of maximum effect with minimum means."

— Dr. Koichi Kawana

Naturalness

The aesthetic concept of naturalness or shizen "prohibits the use of elaborate designs and over refinement" according to Kawana. Restraint, then, is a beautiful thing. Talented jazz musicians, for example, know never to overplay but instead to be forever mindful of the other musicians and find their own space within the music and within the moment they are sharing. Graphic designers show restraint by including only what is necessary to communicate the particular message for the particular audience. Restraint is hard. Complication and elaboration are easy...and are common.

The suggestive mode of expression is a key Zen aesthetic. Dr. Kawana, commenting on the design of traditional Japanese gardens says:

"The designer must adhere to the concept of miegakure since Japanese believe that in expressing the whole the interest of the viewer is lost."

- Dr. Koichi Kawana

In the world of PowerPoint presentations, then, you do not always need to visually spell everything out. You do not need to (nor can you) pound every detail into the head of each member of your audience either visually or verbally. Instead, the combination of your words, along with the visual images you project, should motivate the viewer and arouse his imagination helping him to empathize with your idea and visualize your idea far beyond what is visible in the ephemeral PowerPoint slide before him. The Zen aesthetic values include (but are not limited to):

• Simplicity
• Subtlety
• Elegance
• Suggestive rather than the descriptive or obvious
• Naturalness (i.e., nothing artificial or forced)
• Empty space (or negative space)
• Stillness, Tranquility
• Eliminating the non-essential

Gates and Jobs

Lessons in contrastsTake a look at some of the typical visuals used by Steve Jobs and those used by Bill Gates. As you look at them and compare them, try doing so while being mindful of the key concepts behind the traditional Zen aesthetic.

Above. Does it get more "Zen" than this? "Visual-Zen Master," Steve Jobs, allows the screen to fade completely empty at appropriate, short moments while he tells his story. In a great jazz performance much of the real power of the music comes from the spaces in between the notes. The silence gives more substance and meaning to the notes. A blank screen from time to time also makes images stronger when they do appear.Also, it takes a confident person to design for the placement of empty slides. This is truly "going naked" visually. For most presenters a crowded slide is a crutch, or at least a security blanket. The thought of allowing the screen to become completely empty is scary. Now all eyes are on you.

Above. Gates here explaining the Live strategy. A lot of images and a lot of text. Usually Mr. Gates' slides have titles rather than more effective short declarative statements (this slide has neither). Good graphic design guides the viewer and has a clear hierarchy or order so that she knows where to look first, second, and so on. What is the communication priority of this visual? It must be the circle of clip art, but that does not help me much.

Dr. Kawana says that "to reach the essence of things, all non-essential elements must be eliminated." So what is the essence of the point being made with the help of this visual? Are any elements in this slide non-essential? At its core, what is the real point? These are always good questions to ask ourselves, too, when critiquing our own slides.

Above. Here Jobs is talking to developers at the WWDC'05 about the transition from the Power PC RISC chips to Intel. Sounds daunting, but as he said (and shows above) Apple has made daunting major shifts successfully before. (He also said sheepishly earlier in the the presentation, that every version of OSX secretly had an Intel version too...so this is not a new thing. The crowd laughed)

A note on having an "open style"One thing that would help Mr. Gates is an executive presentations coach and a video camera. One unfortunate habit he has is constantly bringing his finger tips together high across his chest while speaking. Often this leads to his hands being locked together somewhere across his chest. This gesture makes him seem uncomfortable and is a gesture reminiscent of The Simpsons' Mr. Burns. By contrast, Steve Jobs has a more open style and at least seems comfortable and natural with his gestures.

Above. Mr. Gates needs to read Cliff Atkinson's Beyond Bullet Points, ironically published by Microsoft Press. Atkinson says that "...bullet points create obstacles between presenters and audiences." He correctly claims that bullets tend to make our presentations formal and stiff, serve to "dumb down" our points, and lead to audiences being confused...and bored. Rather than running through points on a slide, Atkinson recommends presenters embrace the art of storytelling, and that visuals (slides) be used smoothly and simply to enhance the speaker's points as he tells his story. This can be done even in technical presentations, and it can certainly be done in high-tech business presentations.

The "Microsoft Method" of presentation?

The approach we've seen in Microsoft's last public presentation we can label the "Microsoft Method." This method is not different than the norm, in fact it is a perfect example of what Seth Godin and others call "Really Bad PowerPoint." Here's the rub: A great many professionals see the absurdity of this approach, even a great many professionals on the campus of Microsoft in Redmond. But change will continue to be slow, especially when the executives of the company which produces the most popular slideware program in the world use the program in the most uninspiring, albeit typical way.

Actually this is not written by me. I paste it from a very interesting site. If you're interested, please follow the link: http://www.presentationzen.com/

Personal Note

Taking lesson from the two extremes? Which way of presenting you think is better? Jobs' way or Gates way?

I personally use very much eye candy visualisation in my "previous" presentations. Which means: I plan to adopt Jobs' method. But then again, to follow his method is to be very sure of myself. Meaning: I will have to let myself "go naked". Which for most presenters are sometimes very hard. As we would have no shield of ourselves. We would really really really have to nailed our material. I mean we have to practice over and over again to make sure we are willing to be shoot at by our audience, with no protection from our data-clad slides.

My personal analysis of the two extremes are:

1. Jobs is a very charismatic leader and salesman, he's very confident. His whole performance exudes his over the top confidence.

2. Gates on the other hand, is a very good business man. Luckily. Since he's not such a good presenter. The way he presents speak his nervousness. A True geeky guy, if I may say so. Don't get me wrong! I like the geeky type, usually. But, look at Jobs and tell me that you are able to find a better example of "zen" presenter than him?

3. Material of the presentations are not alike. Jobs was presenting his product features. Meanwhile, Gates presents a module/guideline, which probably needs more "power points" from the not-so-powerful Microsoft Powerpoint, hehehe....

From a presenter point of view, I want myself to be more like Jobs instead of Gates. But then again I am still stunned by the colorful graphics and I am a huge fan of data. Besides, my management would prefer that I present with excess data than lack of data. So more is more for me, depends on the audience and what would they expect of me.

From an audience point of view, I myself prefer to look at Jobs' presentation than Gates. Meaning: If I do meet someone like Gates or Jobs I wouldn't want to waste my time looking at the colorful slides, I would want to get to know this VIP by listening to him. Duh! From an audience point of view: Jobs wins. Hands down!!! Maybe because Jobs is very charismatic and because Gates lack the "c" factor. C = Cool.