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Want a better pitch? Watch Elon Musk’s presentation for the Tesla Powerwall

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Re: Want a better pitch? Watch Elon Musk’s presentation for the Tesla Powerwall

#11

Post by vtsrh »

mashmac2 wrote: post #6

Want to really dive into this? Read Duarte's Resonate (available free from the author here: http://resonate.duarte.com/ ) Same concepts, just much more in depth, with great examples.

I was genuinely interested in the topic and clicked on the link. I was met with an interface that was alien to me, as if someone went out of their way to make it unusable and semi-broken. Browsers have an established UI with a scroll bar, yet people constantly find new ways to break it.

Check this page out: http://resonate.duarte.com/#!page226

Using a scroll bar to fix the decision to not use the scroll bar as the main navigation tool. ( And the page is torn unless the window has the correct width. )

Re: Want a better pitch? Watch Elon Musk’s presentation for the Tesla Powerwall

#12

Post by Osmium »

Fede_V wrote: post #8

This is a bit of a pet-peeve of mine, but I really dislike it when people focus on the aesthetic or the presentation style of Musk or Jobs. Musk gives great presentations, but the reason he is widely respected is because he was actually able to deliver what he presented. In the most recent Musk biography, they discuss how he spent time at parties reading obscure russian textbooks on rocket physics while everyone else…

I don't think it's glamour though, is it? I mean, Musk is not the best public speaker, and yet his presentations are amazing in spite of this. And they're amazing because they're real: backed by logical thinking, real engineering, and an appeal to first principles. Anyone can make a flashy presentation, but I don't think that's what we're celebrating here.

Re: Want a better pitch? Watch Elon Musk’s presentation for the Tesla Powerwall

#13

Post by Osmium »

Jugurtha wrote: post #10
Hermel wrote: post #4

While the presentation succeeds at conveying an appealing vision, it dramatically lacks substance. What is "one pixel" supposed to mean? I'm not a child. Give me square kilometers. Or how does the price compare to competitors? Maybe I'm different than most, but I actually care more about the numbers and cold facts than nicely prepared hot air.

I understand, but here's why you can't do that.. Let's look at about a 30 seconds excerpt from his intervention in Norway[0]. From 8m7 to 8m38. Now, he starts explaining the numbers at 8m7s. At 8m38, he's made his point and at that stage, you would be 'convinced'. The interviewer said "Uhuh" (you can hear the audience laugh when she says that). She didn't understand that he has already made his point. (1 kilometre² =…

> You tell a lambda citizen that the iPod has 2GB of storage capcity, it doesn't "speak" to him.

I don't really agree with this 'us vs. them' thinking. I'm a technical person, but 2GB doesn't really mean much to me. What bitrate are my songs encoded at on average? Do I use VBR? What bitrates can I get away with? etc. I'd have to do a rough sum in my head, and the only answer I'd get is 'in the 1000s' anyway, so it doesn't give me any extra information. The fact is, even for technical people, approximations and hand waving are great as starting points. They set expectations.

I feel like anything more complicated than that (hard numbers) only have the potential to be misleading anyway, because they let us think we have more information than we actually do. It's only when you actually start working things out that those numbers (so how many GW does a city need? a typical house? what's the variance in these numbers?) become more relevant, but that's not the sort of thing you can do in your head anyway.

Re: Want a better pitch? Watch Elon Musk’s presentation for the Tesla Powerwall

#14

Post by madeofpalk »

I've always been incredibly confused as to why everyone clamours over Elon Musk's presentations. IMO, he's actually pretty terrible at presenting.

But he delivers great products in a very straightforward kind of way, and he seems to have such a forward-thinking ambition. That's why people idolise him so much.

Re: Want a better pitch? Watch Elon Musk’s presentation for the Tesla Powerwall

#15

Post by Retric »

Osmium wrote: post #13
Jugurtha wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I understand, but here's why you can't do that.. Let's look at about a 30 seconds excerpt from his intervention in Norway[0]. From 8m7 to 8m38. Now, he starts explaining the numbers at 8m7s. At 8m38, he's made his point and at that stage, you would be 'convinced'. The interviewer said "Uhuh" (you can hear the audience laugh when she says that). She didn't understand that he has already made his point. (1 kilometre² =…

> You tell a lambda citizen that the iPod has 2GB of storage capcity, it doesn't "speak" to him. I don't really agree with this 'us vs. them' thinking. I'm a technical person, but 2GB doesn't really mean much to me. What bitrate are my songs encoded at on average? Do I use VBR? What bitrates can I get away with? etc. I'd have to do a rough sum in my head, and the only answer I'd get is 'in the 1000s' anyway, so it do…

The fact is, even for technical people, approximations and hand waving are great as starting points. They set expectations.

Good approximations do this. If you say a proposed wind farm is going to produce enough energy to power 100,000 homes that means something even if I don't know how much energy the average home uses you can still think ~small city worth of power. You can also say electric bill is ~100$ / month so that's 120million / year worth of electricity even if your units are off it's going to be in the right ballpark.

However, if you say it's enough to power 1,000,000 light bulbs that's both ambiguous and not really useful. Because you both wonder if it's 60w or 100w, is that 24/7 or a few hours a day, and you probably don't really know how many light bulbs are in your house or how much energy they use. (TV's and other devices are even more ambiguous.) So, you can't get how much energy that is directly or indirectly.

PS: I still want hard numbers, somewhere even if there not a major part of the presentation.

Re: Want a better pitch? Watch Elon Musk’s presentation for the Tesla Powerwall

#16

Post by thret »

Osmium wrote: post #12
Fede_V wrote: post #8

This is a bit of a pet-peeve of mine, but I really dislike it when people focus on the aesthetic or the presentation style of Musk or Jobs. Musk gives great presentations, but the reason he is widely respected is because he was actually able to deliver what he presented. In the most recent Musk biography, they discuss how he spent time at parties reading obscure russian textbooks on rocket physics while everyone else…

I don't think it's glamour though, is it? I mean, Musk is not the best public speaker, and yet his presentations are amazing in spite of this. And they're amazing because they're real: backed by logical thinking, real engineering, and an appeal to first principles. Anyone can make a flashy presentation, but I don't think that's what we're celebrating here.

I think he's just bad enough at public speaking that it adds to his charm - he comes off as sincere and eager rather than polished and professional.

Re: Want a better pitch? Watch Elon Musk’s presentation for the Tesla Powerwall

#17

Post by TeMPOraL »

Osmium wrote: post #13
Jugurtha wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I understand, but here's why you can't do that.. Let's look at about a 30 seconds excerpt from his intervention in Norway[0]. From 8m7 to 8m38. Now, he starts explaining the numbers at 8m7s. At 8m38, he's made his point and at that stage, you would be 'convinced'. The interviewer said "Uhuh" (you can hear the audience laugh when she says that). She didn't understand that he has already made his point. (1 kilometre² =…

> You tell a lambda citizen that the iPod has 2GB of storage capcity, it doesn't "speak" to him. I don't really agree with this 'us vs. them' thinking. I'm a technical person, but 2GB doesn't really mean much to me. What bitrate are my songs encoded at on average? Do I use VBR? What bitrates can I get away with? etc. I'd have to do a rough sum in my head, and the only answer I'd get is 'in the 1000s' anyway, so it do…

I don't know, 2GB seems much clearer than "1000 songs" to me. All the questions you ask are even more applicable to the "1000 songs" figure, but on top of that you also suspect that this amount was computed by marketing for some average-lenght low-quality music.

But then again, I'm a technical person, I have an overall feel of how much space my data takes, so I can do a quick estimate in my head.

Also, I believe that all this marketing for "technically clueless" tend to make them even more clueless. In this case, it promotes understanding of "mp3 player" as "a box to play music" instead of what it really is - a portable storage device that can also play music files. Yes, the less clueless people actually used their mp3 players to move files around, at least before pendrives were as disposable as ballpens.

Re: Want a better pitch? Watch Elon Musk’s presentation for the Tesla Powerwall

#18

Post by sanjeetsuhag »

madeofpalk wrote: post #14

I've always been incredibly confused as to why everyone clamours over Elon Musk's presentations. IMO, he's actually pretty terrible at presenting. But he delivers great products in a very straightforward kind of way, and he seems to have such a forward-thinking ambition. That's why people idolise him so much.

People are not enamored by his presentation skills; they are drawn in by the sincerity and the ingenuity in his manner/style.

Re: Want a better pitch? Watch Elon Musk’s presentation for the Tesla Powerwall

#19

Post by Osmium »

TeMPOraL wrote: post #17
Osmium wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> You tell a lambda citizen that the iPod has 2GB of storage capcity, it doesn't "speak" to him. I don't really agree with this 'us vs. them' thinking. I'm a technical person, but 2GB doesn't really mean much to me. What bitrate are my songs encoded at on average? Do I use VBR? What bitrates can I get away with? etc. I'd have to do a rough sum in my head, and the only answer I'd get is 'in the 1000s' anyway, so it do…

I don't know, 2GB seems much clearer than "1000 songs" to me. All the questions you ask are even more applicable to the "1000 songs" figure, but on top of that you also suspect that this amount was computed by marketing for some average-lenght low-quality music. But then again, I'm a technical person, I have an overall feel of how much space my data takes, so I can do a quick estimate in my head. Also, I believe that…

> Also, I believe that all this marketing for "technically clueless" tend to make them even more clueless. In this case, it promotes understanding of "mp3 player" as "a box to play music" instead of what it really is

I think that's a really interesting point. What is an MP3 player really? There are probably good arguments to be made for more abstraction ("box to play music") or less abstraction ("portable storage device"). I'd err towards more abstraction in the long run, because that's the only way technology can progress to the truly magical stuff (eventually no one will be able to understand a piece of technology in its entirety, we're already almost there, so why run from abstraction?).

> I don't know, 2GB seems much clearer than "1000 songs" to me.

This is what I meant by "[hard numbers] let us think we have more information than we actually do." Perhaps in this particular instance that's not the case, but I think that stating a precise number might make us feel more knowledgable (or comfortable), without actually adding much actual information, e.g. see people who are focused on what GHz their phone has, or whatever. I agree that these numbers should be available though, but I don't think marketers (or presenters) are being dishonest or misleading for leaving them out; I think they're often actually helping.

Re: Want a better pitch? Watch Elon Musk’s presentation for the Tesla Powerwall

#20

Post by hliyan »

madeofpalk wrote: post #14

I've always been incredibly confused as to why everyone clamours over Elon Musk's presentations. IMO, he's actually pretty terrible at presenting. But he delivers great products in a very straightforward kind of way, and he seems to have such a forward-thinking ambition. That's why people idolise him so much.

I like everything about Musk, and this is the first time I'm actually sitting down and listening to him present. But I was slightly put off by his habit of punctuating significant statements with that characteristic half-hearted chuckle.
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