Guy Kawasaki has a great year-old post I just stumbled onto [Ten Things to Learn this School Year]. Among my favorite morsels of advice:
How to survive a meeting that’s poorly run. Unfortunately, it could be a while before you run meetings. Until then, you’ll be a hapless victim of them, so adopt these three practices to survive. First, assume that most of what you’ll hear is pure, petty, ass-covering bull shiitake, and it’s part of the game. This will prevent you from going crazy. Second, focus on what you want to accomplish in the meeting and ignore everything else. Once you get what you want, take yourself “out of your body,†sit back, and enjoy the show. Third, vow to yourself that someday you’ll start a company, and your meetings won’t work like this.
How to use PowerPoint. I’ve seen the PowerPoint slides of professors—it’s no wonder that most people can’t use PowerPoint to sell hybrid cars when gas is $10/gallon. Maybe professors are thinking: “This is a one-hour class, I can cover one slide per minute, so I need sixty slides. Oh, and I’ve written all this text already in my textbook, so I’ll just copy and paste my twelve-point manuscript into the presentation.†Perhaps the tenure system causes this kind of problem. In the real world, this is no tenure so you need to limit yourself to ten slides, twenty minutes, and a thirty-point font—assuming that you want to get what you want.
Both things I fully intend to keep in mind as I start my new job in a week.
[via 43 Folders]
Interesting. I have survived my fair share of dull meetings. I have become almost anti-powerpoint due to the second point. Notice I said almost!
One thing you can do is… IF you have your computer with you, go to: http://www.ironicsans.com/state22.html and see how many states you can name in 10 minutes. Get your thinking caps on!
How is the world’s best stat teacher doing? Hello from another world, and another time. I am sure you have had approximately 25,000 students since the time I last roamed the halls of Pompano, but perhaps you remember a little. I can attest to professors using BS power points; my favorite was an anthropology instructor I had the (dis)pleasure of having three times during college. He would post all of the notes online prior to class. His lectures were 100% powerpoint and 100% identical to the notes he would post online. His test material came 100% from the notes, and he would cross out any material we didn’t need to study in class before the test. Did you have Long at UCF by any chance? Anyway, the big pain in the ass from Pompano (myself) is off to law school in the Fall. I hope all is well with you and yours (I remember when the kid was born…time flies)
David -
Thanks for the compliment. You’re going to give me a big head. Glad you stopped by and glad to hear you’re doing well and I hope you enjoyed UCF as much as I did!!
Law school?? I thought I taught you better than that…
Thanks for reading!!