I didn't have the patience required to view the whole thing so I may have missed where he described how he metered energy in and energy out.
Did he even bother? On Sun, Jul 27, 2014 at 12:05 PM, Jed Rothwell <jedrothw...@gmail.com> wrote: > I wrote: > > >> The timeline for these video 1 is: >> >> 0:00 - 0:37 Mills theory blather. >> 0:37 - 1:11 Demonstrations. Much more background noise. >> 1:12 - 1:20 Mills business blather. Kind of ridiculous, in my opinion. . >> . . >> > > I sound judgemental here. Let me say that I have no objection to theory > blather. I do not understand it, so I skipped over most of it. However, > while I do not object to theory, I think there is a time and place for it, > and this ain't it. David French said you should not include theory in a > patent. I say you should not include it in a demo. No theory, no business > strategy -- just do the demo. I say this because audience has a limited > amount of time and attention. Sitting in chairs while you listen to physics > lectures and observed experiments is *exhausting*. I have done it enough > times. After the first hour you lose focus. > > Here are some pointers for demo. This is also good advice for teaching a > technical course or showing customers how to use a product. This is the > kind of advice you read in textbooks on teaching: > > Keep the message short, and focused. It should fit into a 1-paragraph > abstract. > > Tell them what you are going to say, then tell them what you have to say, > and then tell them again again what you just said. > > Do not wander off the topic or ad lib. Do not make many wisecracks. A few > witticisms may help lighten the mood. Do not say anything controversial > about some subject unrelated to the topic, such as politics. This will > distract the audience. > > Start on time and stick to your schedule. If you are given 20 minutes, > then make sure ahead of time that your entire demo will fit into 20 > minutes. One of the amateur mistakes Defkalion made at ICCF18 was to spend > all of their allotted time getting ready and blathering. > > Practice ahead of time, for crying out loud! > > Pay attention to production values. By that I mean, make sure your slides > are large enough that everyone can read them. Use enough lighting so that > everyone can see the equipment, including people seeing the video. Speak > loudly and slowly. In a noisy environment (such as this one), used a > noise-cancelling microphone, and have it connect directly to the audio > track when you make a video. Consider adding some voice-over to the video > later on, and perhaps some slides directly to video. A brilliant demo that > no one can see or hear will do no good. > > I think Mills ignored several of these suggestions, so the demo did not > work for me. If I had been him I would have: > > 1. Spent 10 minutes introducing the demo. Explain the instruments and what > they will show. (What you hope they will show if it works.) Explain the > expected results; i.e., there will be an explosion. The bomb calorimeter > will show output energy. It will exceed input energy, and we know this is > not from a chemical reaction for thus and such reasons. Show some slides of > the equipment configuration. > > 2. Do the demo. Get right to it and keep the pace moving rapidly. Repeat > the points made in step 1 as you perform steps. "This is the bomb > calorimeter shown in Slide 3." You say as you display the slide and point > to to the equipment. Zoom in the camera and point to the components. > > 3. After you finish, display the data from this test, and point to the > interesting parts that indicate excess energy. Repeat the gist of the > explanation. > > If you have lots more time that day, take a long coffee break, give the > audience time to pee (always important!) and then reconvene for a session > of theory blather, which you can relate back to the data they just saw > collected. Do not keep people in their chairs for two hours. > > - Jed > >
