There’s a bit of a gray area between counter-signaling and feigned
self-mockery—for example to counter some not so well though-out ideas “Could
you please explain in simple terms, I’m not smart enough for your Powerpoint
slides”. In that case, the main thing we’d like to signal is probably that the
presenter is unclear (or worse); but obviously it depends on some minimum of
status as an intelligent person to make this work.
I’ve seen this kind of veiled attack on a presenter happen a few times; in
some cases, only the audience seems to pick up the subtleties.
That attack signals that you don’t have enough status to be direct but have to use a indirect way.
Additionally you are wasting the time of your audience with playing status games instead of asking a specific question that demonstrates the problem with the idea of the presenter.
Being snarky to a presenter is mean, given the stress they’re likely under. On the other hand, giving a bad PowerPoint presentation is mean to the whole audience...
One thing I tend to do whenever I have to present something is make all my slides black-text-on-white-background with no decorations. I intend it as something of a countersignal, especially if the norm is to use a fancy company/school/organization-wide template.
One trivial thing that bugs me when people bring up the “KISS principle” is that they invariably say it like: “So just apply the KISS principle… you know… Keep It Simple, Stupid.” Seriously, who hasn’t heard of that by now?
I rolled my eyes a bit when you posted a link with it, but have to take it back now—I didn’t know the original phrase was “keep it simple and stupid.” So, in this case, explaining the acronym was actually useful!
Thanks, that was a interesting read.
There’s a bit of a gray area between counter-signaling and feigned self-mockery—for example to counter some not so well though-out ideas “Could you please explain in simple terms, I’m not smart enough for your Powerpoint slides”. In that case, the main thing we’d like to signal is probably that the presenter is unclear (or worse); but obviously it depends on some minimum of status as an intelligent person to make this work.
I’ve seen this kind of veiled attack on a presenter happen a few times; in some cases, only the audience seems to pick up the subtleties.
That attack signals that you don’t have enough status to be direct but have to use a indirect way. Additionally you are wasting the time of your audience with playing status games instead of asking a specific question that demonstrates the problem with the idea of the presenter.
Being snarky to a presenter is mean, given the stress they’re likely under. On the other hand, giving a bad PowerPoint presentation is mean to the whole audience...
One thing I tend to do whenever I have to present something is make all my slides black-text-on-white-background with no decorations. I intend it as something of a countersignal, especially if the norm is to use a fancy company/school/organization-wide template.
I do that because I’m terrible at layout and color schemes, so I KISS.
One trivial thing that bugs me when people bring up the “KISS principle” is that they invariably say it like: “So just apply the KISS principle… you know… Keep It Simple, Stupid.” Seriously, who hasn’t heard of that by now?
I rolled my eyes a bit when you posted a link with it, but have to take it back now—I didn’t know the original phrase was “keep it simple and stupid.” So, in this case, explaining the acronym was actually useful!
“Keep it short and simple” is a pretty common reading.
I agree, the presenter deserves the benefit of the doubt. There are limits to that of course...
I make my presentations with LaTeX/Beamer, which signals something as well I guess...
Depends on who your audience is…