Personally I really dislike it when concepts are used that you’re only supposed to understand later (the most common example is a textbook which gives an equation with several new variables and explains below what those variables mean). It makes me backtrack through my notes the moment I run into the equation, and by the time we get to the explanation my study flow is completely interrupted.
In my experience as lecturer/while giving presentations this can be easily avoided by giving short summaries before making complicated claims. Something along the lines of ‘I am now going to tell you X, which requires concept Y that you haven’t heard of yet. We need this to ultimately do Z. So bear with me.’ I’ve had a lot of positive feedback on this (and it has the additional benefit of slowing the presentation down and forcing you to make the structure of the talk explicit).
I also get a bit annoyed by it. I imagine I’d be far less annoyed if I trusted that the source to ensure I had all the relevant info to make whatever inferntial leap I was on.
I agree on “short summary” + “bear with me”. The core seems to involve being explicit that you’re introducing a new blackbox and giving the essential input/output, along with a promise to circle back and unpack it.
Personally I really dislike it when concepts are used that you’re only supposed to understand later (the most common example is a textbook which gives an equation with several new variables and explains below what those variables mean). It makes me backtrack through my notes the moment I run into the equation, and by the time we get to the explanation my study flow is completely interrupted.
In my experience as lecturer/while giving presentations this can be easily avoided by giving short summaries before making complicated claims. Something along the lines of ‘I am now going to tell you X, which requires concept Y that you haven’t heard of yet. We need this to ultimately do Z. So bear with me.’ I’ve had a lot of positive feedback on this (and it has the additional benefit of slowing the presentation down and forcing you to make the structure of the talk explicit).
I also get a bit annoyed by it. I imagine I’d be far less annoyed if I trusted that the source to ensure I had all the relevant info to make whatever inferntial leap I was on.
I agree on “short summary” + “bear with me”. The core seems to involve being explicit that you’re introducing a new blackbox and giving the essential input/output, along with a promise to circle back and unpack it.