How do I prepare my research talks? I usually just sit down with a pencil, some paper and a cup of something warm, and I just draw/map out the story. Each box is a beat of the narrative, and ends up corresponding to one or two slides (if I’m doing slides). Then I’m more or less done.
(The facility of this old school approach is that drawing it out keeps it visual, less heavy with equations. Too many (if any) slides or long periods laden with equations (at least in physics) just aren’t so great. Also, it allows me to move these thumbnails/pages/sketches around if I need to, to sculpt the narrative. I can sit back and see if it’s all there at the end.)
(For this Harvard/MIT seminar, scheduled for Wednesday, I don’t yet know if I am going to get to give it. Wisdom about travel and gatherings is a bit uncertain right now, and things are changing as I type. Decisions on Monday. Update:- we changed it to a remote talk.)
–cvj
