Steven Pinker Quotes

For some time it's been my habit to use images when preparing a speech: rather than write it down, I illustrate it.

I write really visually. In my head, I'm constantly picturing things as I'm writing, so for me, videos are such an expressive part of my job.

Bringing words to life, storyboards show you things that words can't.

We don't use PowerPoints.

PowerPoint is like being trapped in the style of early Egyptian flatland cartoons rather than using the more effective tools of Renaissance visual representation.

Your purpose is to make your audience see what you saw, hear what you heard, feel what you felt. Relevant detail, couched in concrete, colorful language, is the best way to recreate the incident as it happened and to picture it for the audience.

I feel like I can communicate much better using images than words.

Everything for me is visual. That's just how my head works.

The magic happens when you take facts and figures, features and benefits, decks and PowerPoints - relatively soulless information - and embed them in the telling of a purposeful story. Your 'tell' renders an experience to your audience, making the information inside the story memorable, resonant and actionable.

My best advice is to not start in PowerPoint. Presentation tools force you to think through information linearly, and you really need to start by thinking of the whole instead of the individual lines.

I wanted to communicate what I had seen, so that others could see it.

I don't think in words; I think in pictures, in images.

A picture is worth a thousand words. An interface is worth a thousand pictures.

Language for me narrates the pictures in my mind.

Creating a character is about what they look like. The look speaks volume to the audience.

I think that no one, or very few, are born as good presenters. It's a skill that you learn.

I write on a visual canvas, 'seeing' a scene in my thoughts before translating it into language, so I'm a visual junkie.

Anybody can tell you what they think. But if you can illustrate what you think, you have a better chance of persuading people.

If I really believe that visual representation and narrative are ways to convey important, complex ideas, and if the world is gravitating toward this form, then geez, I better do it myself. I want to do it myself.

I think that no one, or very few, are born as good presenters. It's a skill that you learn. The key is the 10/20/30 rule: 10 slides given in 20 minutes using no font smaller than 30 points. If people just adhered to this rule, they would double or triple the quality of their presentations.

If you want to convey a message, you must do so in an enjoyable format.

It's important to tell meaningful stories and to find new ways to communicate those stories to people.

Vision isn't a template in PowerPoint.

Everything I think is in pictures.

PowerPoint presentations too often resemble a school play - very loud, very slow, and very simple.