The most interesting ideas come about by questioning assumptions. In science, Copernicus questioned the assumption that the Earth was fixed in the center of the universe. Newton questioned the assumption that an apply falling and the moon orbiting were related. In government, Madison, Jefferson, Franklin, and friends questioned whether a government needed a king. In business, Henry Ford...
Practice makes better. The Ignite format looks simple, 20 slides, auto-forwarding every 15 seconds, making for an exactly 5 minute talk. Hitting the timing of the slide transitions comes down to two strategies. Either practice, practice, and practice, not skipping or adding any words to the script, or don’t even try, making the slides pure images that don’t need to be in sync with...
One of the great benefits of the Web is the ease at which we can share ideas. A decade ago, talks at a conference would be seen by a few dozen to a few thousand people, then never seen again. Now we can watch and share great ideas from TED and elsewhere, from the comfort of our own homes. One consequence of all this great content is the raising of the bar of quality in the presentations. The...
I spent the first twenty years of my career as a software entrepreneur. I started my first software company at age 22, way back in 1992. That was a few years before the “tech” bubble began brewing, back when the only significant software company in Seattle was Microsoft, and it was still small enough to fit into its first 10 buildings, all on one campus. A lot has changed in the 24 years since...
