Post #3165554

2026-03-13 12:35 UTC

@steveroyle@biologists.social @MCDuncanLab@mstdn.social recently I started doing the first slide of my talk titled "TL;DR" where I try to tell the essential points of the whole talk in one slide, and telling the audience that they're welcome to go to sleep after this one slide if they want to. Quite a few people have told me they really like it, both those who did subsequently go to sleep, and those who found it useful for framing the rest of the talk. Doing social media threads has actually been really helpful for me, it's shown me that you can usually get the essential message over in very few words.

Replies (2)

@steveroyle@biologists.social 2026-03-13 13:05

@neuralreckoning@neuromatch.social I’ve tried it in the past but I didn't like doing the exposé at the start. I prefer Inspector Morse to Columbo for the same reason! I like telling a story and trying to hold the attention of the audience through the talk. I found after I'd given the punchline away early, I lost interest, let alone the audience. Having said all that, we consume papers this way (with the abstract upfront) so maybe I should try it again. Agree for v short talks tl;dr works well. @MCDuncanLab@mstdn.social

Open ##3165555
@Tattie@eldritch.cafe 2026-03-13 18:36

@neuralreckoning@neuromatch.social ah, this reminds me of the advice: "tell them what you're going to tell them, tell them, then tell them what you told them" @steveroyle@biologists.social @MCDuncanLab@mstdn.social

Open ##3165563