Overly long presentations


In 440BC, the Athenians intervened in a conflict between Samos and Miletus. The Samians sought the assistance of the Spartans. 

The Spartans were unwilling to help the Samians as the were bound by a 30 year treaty with the Athenians. They were however willing to listen.

And so the Samians spoke at length, and as with many of the ancient Greeks, the Samians really did speak at length.

After listening patiently Spartans replied succinctly in a typical laconic Spartan manner:

"We have forgotten the first part, and the latter part we did not understand because we forgot the first part."

The Spartans words are a lesson for those who have to give presentations and lessons. Keep them simple, brief and to the point!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Lifting above the shoulders

Image
Exercises which involve lifting weights above your shoulders present a risk to your shoulder joint. Injuries can be acute, such as a tear or dislocation or chronic such as a rotator cuff injury or frozen shoulder. But lifting objects above your shoulders is requirement of daily living. We need shoulder strength and mobility to stay functional and active. Strong muscles supporting the shoulder joint can also protect the ligaments and bones of the upper body. Exercise selection and progression are important. For seniors, unsupervised use of overhead pressing with barbells may present a higher risk. Alternatives are dumbbells, shoulder press machines, medicine balls, sandbags and kettlebells. All of these exercise tools help keep your shoulder joint aligned in the neutral position to reduce the risk of injury due to repetitive overloaded inflammation of your shoulder joint. I prefer kettlebell presses as the lift starts from the centre line and the movement is vertical. This is a safer op
Read more

Workout: Swings, snatches and double long cycles

Image
Once again, I only had 30 minutes to exercise (plus 15 minutes to warm up). After that it was back to work. So I had to make the workout count. Here is the workout (using 16 kg kettlebells): Round Alternating swings Right hand snatches Left hand snatches Double long cycles 1 30 20 20 5 clean presses 2 30 20 20 6 clean push presses 3 30 20 20 7 clean jerks Note how I changed both the number and style of the overhead press. Such variations can reduce the tedium of exercising. I intended to increase the number of long cycle repeats to 10, but unfortunately ran out of time. 
Read more

(Tabata) timers and note taking apps to enhance resistance training

Image
  Strength/resistance training is essential for good health and longevity. A loss of skeletal muscle mass leads to immobility and loss of independence and is linked to a decline in our immuno-resiliance, increased susceptibility to infections and chronic inflammatory diseases such as type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease and cancers. Two key concepts in strength training are intensity and recovery. One consequence of an intense workout is delirium. Delirium is a disturbance in our mental abilities.  Intensity Intensity is a measure of how hard we work during an exercise. Intensity is a function of the load, the number of repetitions and the length of the workout. As we age, we may have difficulty increasing the load, but we can still continue to maintain and develop strength by increasing the number of repetitions and the length of the workout. Recovery Recovery is the period that our muscles are give to rest in between each set or in between each workout. For this discussion, we foc
Read more