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What every computer science major should know (2011)

matt.might.net

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Re: What every computer science major should know (2011)

#11

Post by asark »

lyctc wrote: post #10
black6 wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The best advice I ever received re: PowerPoint was: "Don't present with PowerPoint. Use it to create a PDF from which to present."

I use PDF for high-level conversations. It appears more polished. I use PPT for low-level conversations. You can double click on graphs to see the numbers.

Not that you're necessarily emailing these, but on the "appears more polished" thing, you may be surprised how many C-level (and somewhat under) folks don't read email attachments unless they are .ppt(x) files.

Re: What every computer science major should know (2011)

#12

Post by NikolaNovak »

invalidOrTaken wrote: post #5
black6 wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The best advice I ever received re: PowerPoint was: "Don't present with PowerPoint. Use it to create a PDF from which to present."

I'm not sure I fully understand. Would you mind expanding on that?

I'm curious too, but from related personal experience:

1. One of the best communicators I've met strongly suggested never to present from powerpoint on screen, but rather create a brochure to print and hand off to participants. His claim was less that it impresses, but rather that it changes dynamics of "presenter vs audience" and makes it more of a "discussion group / workshop", which tends to be a more productive dynamic, especially in sales/persuasive setting.

2. Alternatively and more prosaically, dear gawd, 99% of people using PowerPoint don't know how to use it. They don't know how the slide show view interacts with a Webex presentation, so they end up sending a small thumbnail to projector, presenter view to remote audience, but hey things look ok on their screen so they keep going. PDF would alleviate some of those issues :P

Re: What every computer science major should know (2011)

#14

Post by bdamm »

asark wrote: post #11
lyctc wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I use PDF for high-level conversations. It appears more polished. I use PPT for low-level conversations. You can double click on graphs to see the numbers.

Not that you're necessarily emailing these, but on the "appears more polished" thing, you may be surprised how many C-level (and somewhat under) folks don't read email attachments unless they are .ppt(x) files.

Well, knowing your audience is a thing too. If your C-level eyeballs only read pptx, then do that. But honestly I wouldn’t count on C-level at any company to understand what I’m saying unless I say it directly to them and answer their questions in person.

Re: What every computer science major should know (2011)

#15

Post by rossdavidh »

commandlinefan wrote: post #2

> must practice persuasively and clearly communicating their ideas to non-programmers If you’re a CS major, panicking over this sort of “technical skills aren’t enough, you have to be a persuasive public speaker and effectively do management’s job for them”, people have been saying this since at least I started coding 30 years ago, and I don’t see any evidence that it’s actually true any more than it was back then -…

I would say there's plenty wrong with this list, but this one is, ironically, mostly true but malphrased. A better way to put it would be: "don't be content with being so bad at communication that it gets in the way of your ability to make your (technical) point". If you know something about how _not_ to communicate (badly), you can allow your technical expertise to be more influential when technical decisions are made (by people higher ranking than you).

It's not becoming a salesman. It's avoiding the situation of being so bad at communicating, that your technical expertise is ignored. Non-technical people usually _want_ to hear your point, in regards a technical decision. If you are unable to help them know what you're trying to say, they may not understand what you're trying to say, and then you'll wonder afterwards why they hired the technical person and then ignored their technical advice. They're not ignoring your advice, in many cases they simply cannot perceive clearly what you are trying to say.

I hope that I have made my point understandable here. But, you know, I may not have. :)

Re: What every computer science major should know (2011)

#16

Post by ergothus »

commandlinefan wrote: post #2

> must practice persuasively and clearly communicating their ideas to non-programmers If you’re a CS major, panicking over this sort of “technical skills aren’t enough, you have to be a persuasive public speaker and effectively do management’s job for them”, people have been saying this since at least I started coding 30 years ago, and I don’t see any evidence that it’s actually true any more than it was back then -…

> focus on technical ability, that’s a hell of a lot harder to come by than “powerpoint skills”.

I'll agree and disagree:

Yes, the target audience here SHOULD focus on technical ability. Not because it's "harder", but because that will be the primary decider in getting hired.

That said, I'd say my communication skills have been a central part of my success. Not "powerpoint", so much as being able to distill down ideas, translate abstractions, and of late, learning how to examine other people's ideas without coming across as I'm attacking them. My personal impression and the reaction my managers have given me is that these skills are both rare and valued in the field. But you do of course need technical ability or they are worthless.

I definitely think I've achieved more success than my technical ability alone would grant me. It could be Imposter Syndrome talking, but I'm not actually all that great at this. Just good enough, and my communication skills ensure that the "good enough" is applied where it's needed and to the degree it is needed.

Ultimately, coding is communication, and maintainable/extendable/flexible code is a lot of communication to other devs (including your future self). Even outside of the role of managers, and even outside of planning and architecting with your peers, communication is a valuable skill for a programmer to have.

Re: What every computer science major should know (2011)

#17

Post by vkou »

commandlinefan wrote: post #2

> must practice persuasively and clearly communicating their ideas to non-programmers If you’re a CS major, panicking over this sort of “technical skills aren’t enough, you have to be a persuasive public speaker and effectively do management’s job for them”, people have been saying this since at least I started coding 30 years ago, and I don’t see any evidence that it’s actually true any more than it was back then -…

PowerPoint is one of the worst way of persuasively and clearly communicating ideas, be it to programmers or non-programmers.

Re: What every computer science major should know (2011)

#18

Post by black6 »

invalidOrTaken wrote: post #5
black6 wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The best advice I ever received re: PowerPoint was: "Don't present with PowerPoint. Use it to create a PDF from which to present."

I'm not sure I fully understand. Would you mind expanding on that?

A PDF is more portable, smaller file size, and it brings along the fonts it requires to display as-you-created-tt on another computer, which may not have them installed.

Plus you don’t have to worry about the errant slide transition working its way in, and it tends to load faster.

I don’t, as a rule, include video or other fancy effects in presentations ( they’re still referred to as “slide decks” where I work ), so PDFs are perfect. YMMV

Re: What every computer science major should know (2011)

#19

Post by filoleg »

ergothus wrote: post #16
commandlinefan wrote: post #2

> must practice persuasively and clearly communicating their ideas to non-programmers If you’re a CS major, panicking over this sort of “technical skills aren’t enough, you have to be a persuasive public speaker and effectively do management’s job for them”, people have been saying this since at least I started coding 30 years ago, and I don’t see any evidence that it’s actually true any more than it was back then -…

> focus on technical ability, that’s a hell of a lot harder to come by than “powerpoint skills”. I'll agree and disagree: Yes, the target audience here SHOULD focus on technical ability. Not because it's "harder", but because that will be the primary decider in getting hired. That said, I'd say my communication skills have been a central part of my success. Not "powerpoint", so much as being able to distill down idea…

Fully agreed. Technical ability comes first, but having good communication skills is a hell of a force multiplier.

Re: What every computer science major should know (2011)

#20

Post by grimjack00 »

commandlinefan wrote: post #2

> must practice persuasively and clearly communicating their ideas to non-programmers If you’re a CS major, panicking over this sort of “technical skills aren’t enough, you have to be a persuasive public speaker and effectively do management’s job for them”, people have been saying this since at least I started coding 30 years ago, and I don’t see any evidence that it’s actually true any more than it was back then -…

I don't think that point is saying "you have to be a persuasive public speaker and effectively do management’s job for them".

I really dislike speaking to groups of more than 2 or 3, and I want to stay as far away from any management-like duties as I can.

That said, I'm on a smallish dev team in a very large company, and I regularly find myself having to explain technical things about our products and components to people without a current technical background. If I can't clearly communicate, things can go badly to varying degrees.

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