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November 05, 2005

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Listed below are links to weblogs that reference Gates, Jobs, & the Zen aesthetic:

» Presentation Zen and the Art of Leadership from Business Innovator
Leaders must communicate effectively. The link below provides a very insightful comparison between Steve Jobs naked style and Bill Gates most recent presentation of the Microsoft Live strategy. Im a fan of t... [Read More]

» Presentazioni: Steve contro Bill from melablog
Presentation Zen mette a confronto due modi di preparare una presentazione. Da una parte lo stile semplice ed efficace di Steve Jobs, dallaltra le pompose presentazioni di Bill Gates. Inutile dire che il carismatico Steve Jobs ne esce nettament... [Read More]

» Presentatevi bene from Paolo's Weblog.
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» Jobs vs. Gates! Keynote vs. Powerpoint! Zen vs. um not Zen! from Vicarous MBA
Presentation Zen hosts a through-provoking comparison of the slideware/presentation styles of Bill Gates and Steve Jobs. Many credit Apples Keynote for Jobs simple presentation style, but the fact is, it isnt the sof... [Read More]

» Gates vs. Jobs from TomorrowConnecting.biz
Bad PowerPoint vs. Great PowerPoint. Crappy presenter vs. Awe-inspiring presenter. Complex vs. Simple. See Presentation Zen, an outstanding resource for anyone who has anything to do with PowerPoint. Garr Reynolds examines the vastly juxtaposed pres... [Read More]

» Presentation Zen from Search Engine Positioning and Web Marketing Views
A slightly off topic matter, but certainly worth a careful read: A fabulous comparison of teh Gates vs Jobs presentation styles in seeking the ultimate presentation Zen. Read and read again. ... [Read More]

» Gates, Jobs, Paolo e i bullet point from Fed's Bolsoblog
In questi giorni [Read More]

» esitlusest from Tehnokratt!
Üks link eilsest ja teine tänasest, mõlemad käivad juhtumisi sama ürituse pihta: Gates, Jobs, [Read More]

» esitlusest from Tehnokratt!
Üks link eilsest ja teine tänasest, mõlemad käivad juhtumisi sama ürituse pihta: Gates, Jobs, [Read More]

» Presentation Zen from Smarter Stuff
If you do public presentations, and you aren't reading this blog, you are missing out: Presentation Zen As an example, check out this Gates vs. Jobs presentation smackdown!I'm not suggesting you present different for the sake of being different. I [Read More]

» Who has Style? Gates or Jobs? from Grounded By Design
Gerry Reynolds, an former Apple employee, runs a blog called Presentation Zen, and has two great posts contrasting presentation styles of Bill Gates and Steve Jobs. The first post, Bill Gates and visual complexity, explains the reasons why last weeks... [Read More]

» Who has Style? Gates or Jobs? from Grounded By Design
Garr Reynolds, an former Apple employee, runs a blog called Presentation Zen, and has two great posts contrasting presentation styles of Bill Gates and Steve Jobs. The first post, Bill Gates and visual complexity, explains the reasons why last weeks... [Read More]

» Zen Steve and Complicated Bill from A.J. Kandy | King Marketing
Compare and contrast: PresentationZen's article Gates, Jobs and the Zen Aesthetic compares the presentation styles of the two tech leaders by way of adhering to Zen practices. It's generally agreed that Jobs is an excellent presenter, and Gates only so... [Read More]

» Zen Steve and Complicated Bill from A.J. Kandy | King Marketing
Compare and contrast: PresentationZen's article Gates, Jobs and the Zen Aesthetic compares the presentation styles of the two tech leaders by way of adhering to Zen practices. It's generally agreed that Jobs is an excellent presenter, and Gates only so... [Read More]

» Presentations and the Zen Aesthetic from Rhonabwy
Presentations and the Zen Aesthetic is a great writeup about how presentations can be made to the essence of simplicity.... [Read More]

» Gates, Jobs, Paolo e i bullet point from Fed's Bolsoblog
In questi giorni [Read More]

» Presentation Zen from crackunit.com - more ramblings from iain tait
Bill has bullets, Steve has space. Presentation Zen: Gates, Jobs, the Zen aesthetic - a blog posting about presentation styles that made me laugh out loud. Incredibly insightful and worth a read. ... [Read More]

» Presentation Zen: Gates vs Jobs, part 2 from bart's weblog
Voor de presentatie over mijn archeologienota, die ik morgen moet geven aan de collegas van ruimtelijke ordening bij de gemeente (oeioei :scared:), ben ik nog even wat zen sfeer gaan opsnuiven bij Presentation Zen. En hiep hiep, joy joy, er wa... [Read More]

» Zen Powerpoint from [°}
Presentation Zen has an interesting article about presentations and the art of simplicity. Even though Im not the type that creates presentations every day, it is nevertheless interesting to read about some of the more Zen aspects... [Read More]

» Gates Jobs the Zen aesthetic from ayn blog
Presentation Zen: Gates, Jobs, the Zen aesthetic Interesting comparison of presentation styles of Gates and that of Jobs. ... [Read More]

» Effective presentations and Zen from Navarik Windward: shipping software weblog
How do Bill Gates and Steve Jobs give presentations? What do you need to present well? Is PowerPoint included in that? [Read More]

» Bill Gates, Steve Jobs - Contrasting Presentation Styles from Leading Trump - Pradeep U.N. & his Blog about Nothing.
Garr Reynold's in his blog had a piece today about Steve Jobs, BillG and Zen style of presentation. The... [Read More]

» Presentation Styles from This is Skooter
A good, if somewhat straightforward, analysis of presentation styles contrasting Steve Jobs and Bill Gates.... [Read More]

» The Zen of Jobs from OverMatter
Presentation Zen: Gates, Jobs, [Read More]

» Zen of Presentation from The Daily Glyph
Compares the styles of Bill Gates and Steve Jobs, among others. Presentation Zen: Gates, Jobs, & the Zen aesthetic... [Read More]

» Worst Powerpoint ever from brilliantdays.com
Yes, I have commented on this before. But it just NEEDS it's own post. So here goes: Bill Gates managed to present the worst Powerpoint ever made. Photo by Niall Kennedy. It's so bad that I wonder if there are... [Read More]

» Worst Powerpoint ever from brilliantdays.com
Yes, I have commented on this before. But it just needs it's own post. So here goes: Bill Gates managed to present THE worst Powerpoint ever made. Photo by Niall Kennedy. It's so bad that I wonder if there are... [Read More]

» Microsoft Web 2.0 Years Too Late from Ryan's Blog
I just installed Google Local on my phone. It rocks. This really makes me want to travel and use a mobile... [Read More]

» Microsoft Web 2.0 Years Too Late from Ryan's Blog
I just installed Google Local on my phone. It rocks. This really makes me want to travel and use a mobile... [Read More]

» Gates, Jobs, Paolo e i bullet point from Fed's Bolsoblog
In questi giorni [Read More]

» While We're On the Topic from E-venting.net
Recommended Reading for all presenters: Here's a blog entry at Presentation Zen contrasting the presentation styles of Bill Gates and Steve Jobs. Before reading the entry, can you guess who is more Zen?Gates: Jobs: [Read More]

» Presentation Zen: Gates, Jobs, from Unified Studies
Presentation Zen: Gates, Jobs, [Read More]

» Ein paar Links from lkm.watashi.ch
Does Visual Studio Rot the Mind? Why Focus-Recompose Sucks Public Speakers from a Photographers View Management by Fiction Slashdot: Console Launches Good And Bad Presentation Zen: Gates, Jobs, the Zen aesthetic [Read More]

» Presentation Zen from Kam VedBrat
Presentation Zen has some interesting write-ups on presentation style, and how to make the best use of... [Read More]

» El arte de presentar: Jobs v/s Gates from El Fin Del Mundo
En el blog de Garr Reynolds sobre Zen y el diseño de presentaciones encontré esta comparación entre la manera de presentar de Bill Gates y la de su amigo Steve Jobs. Más imágenes y algunos artículos muy interesantes en el [Read More]

» http://218.182.64.44/blojsom/blog/default/opinion/?permalink=7635015CE49924FE93CCE90A5F4D370D.html from Hamazy Webspace
以前にも紹介した、Garr さんの blogですが、大変興味深い記事がありました。Steve Jobs のプレゼンと、Bill Gatesのプレゼンを比較して論じたものです: Gates, Jobs, the Zen aesthetic 二人のプレゼンの違いから、Mac と Windows の違いを思い起こしてしまうのは、ボクがイタいマカーだからでしょうか。 ... [Read More]

» Zen and the art of Powerpoint presentations from kcmarshall - The Big Picture
Learn something about zen and how (not) to use Powerpoint zenfully... Sam at afongen would dig this the most! [Read More]

» Across the Sound Podcast 10 from Across the Sound
Length: 50:48 (Download the mp3 ) 00:33 - Podbits Joe buys an iDog, Steve's iDog is dead (IceRocket trend search) Question from Mike Maxwell on traffic to a podcast blog and whether a podcast blog is necessary Audio snippet from [Read More]

» Presentaciones Zen, PowerPoint y 9 Enlaces from nuhuati
Ultimamente me he visto persuadido por nuevos métodos para crear mis presentaciones, la característica principal es... La Sencillez. Algunos lo llaman Presentaciones Zen, y sería bueno que conozcas algo de ello. limpio y claro, saturado y [Read More]

» Präsentationstechnik from Wolle's Notizblog
Ich habe bisher nur wenige Apple Events per Stream verfolgt. Einer der Gründe dafür ist, dass mein Schutzfeld gegenüber des Jobschen Reality Distortion Fields intakt war. Was zur Folge hatte, dass ich nur das Produkt und die dahinter stehende Technik sah [Read More]

» The Zen of PowerPoint? from The Hip and Zen Pen
One of the beauty parts of blogging (and in my case, writing 9 blogs) is finding the unexpected. Like when you read a post you think will apply to one part of your life (the techie, webby, bloggy side) and [Read More]

» Presentations from stone
Awesome post on Gates, Jobs, & the Zen aesthetic in presentations. Coming out of LBO finance, I was definitely a... [Read More]

» http://www.abstractdynamics.org/linkage/archives/006894.html from linkage
Presentation Zen: Gates, Jobs, & the Zen aesthetic and Peter Merholz's response.... [Read More]

» Link Flood from Stefan Tilkov's Random Stuff
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» Focusing on What People Need to Hear from South Carolina Trial Law Blog
PowerPoint gets a lot of bad press. Theres nothing wrong with the software, but theres a ton of bad PowerPoint presentations out there. I think PowerPoint allows a bad presenter to give bad presentations more easily. Cliff Atkinson... [Read More]

» Focusing on What People Need to Hear from South Carolina Trial Law Blog
PowerPoint gets a lot of bad press. Theres nothing wrong with the software, but theres a ton of bad PowerPoint presentations out there. I think PowerPoint allows a bad presenter to give bad presentations more easily. Cliff Atkinson... [Read More]

» The Zen of JobsNotes from Resigned to the Bittersweet Truth
PresentationZen has an article on using Simplicity to enhance your projected presentations. To illustrate, they compare slides typical of Steve Jobs and Bill Gates. Around here we'd call it a "Shaker-style" presentation. Whacky left-coasters. [... [Read More]

» links for 2005-12-01 from Quicklinks
Gates, Jobs, the Zen aesthetic (tags: Apple business marketing Microsoft) Webmasters who didn't think when they registered their domain (tags: humor web)... [Read More]

» Making Good Presentations from Procrastination, delivered!
Almost all of us make presentations day-in and day-out, but have you paused and thought if the last presentation you made really made an impact? Here are a bunch of links to good articles/resource pages that I came across. Some of them focus on the mos... [Read More]

Comments

stephan

mr. burns as "real self" shadow of bill is a nice hint too, but for the sake of credibility, you should consider to comment it.
really like to follow up your ideas and hope to adapt some of them.
but there is always one big question: how to answer the "oh how boring and empty, we thought you are a creative designer.." comments on more reduced designs, from people who are completely convinced that MS design is great (because everybody uses it, hence expect something similar) ? in other words how to move the attention from the plain number of features, products and domination to something like overall customer experience which comes usually with reduction and openness?

Evan Erwin

Really fantastic post. I've forwarded this to my boss in hopes that he looks, reads, and learns.

Thanks again.

Paul (from Idea Sandbox)

A great illustration.

But executives aren't typically the REAL target audience... it is the executive assistance and admin that need the PowerPoint class. They're the ones, however, 'below the radar' who are NOT getting training.

I'll bet for each of the presentations above there are notes on a yellow legal pad submitted to an assistant to transform into a presentation.

wayan

Ah, I see Death By PowerPoint starts at the top. That's a shame for you'd think Bill would be good at presentations by now. The contrast shows in the product too - Apple does vibrant cutting edge work, Microsoft does bloatware. I wonder what a Linus Torvalds presentation looks like?

Jens Meiert

Impressive. Thanks for sharing.

The cult of Apple?

Oh hail the mighty Steve Jobs!

Down with the evil Microsoft!

Nice overview, except I couldn't read past the glowing praise for Mr. Apple and then the complete diversion to bagging Microsoft.

Paulo Eduardo Neves

How would you scape from bullet points and charts if you are presenting a technical subject? Your presentation posts are excellent, but I feel hard to apply it to technical presentations.

J234

To Paulo I would say view some of Apple's keynote streams--WWDC
have a many technical info in them. Just as an example of course.

Gabriel Salcido

Garr,
Mr. Gates DOES NOT need to read Cliff Atkinson's Beyond Bullet Points (...yet). He needs to read your blog first!
(then, he can read "Cliff's notes")
Thanks for sharing...

Garr

>>I couldn't read past the glowing praise for Mr. Apple and then the complete diversion to bagging Microsoft.

I do not mean to excessively praise Jobs or knock Gates. Gates is a smart man, and I respect him. If you can show me a better presenter than Jobs who uses slideware, I will be happy to publicly praise him/her. (I am sure better presenters exist, and I have shown some different types here in the past). This is not about Gates or Jobs or Apple or Microsoft — that war is long over. My only aim in comparing the two is that I think we can learn from their two very different approaches. The fact that they are high profile and public gets our attention.

As for technical presentations and bullet points, why do technical presentations require bullets more than other types of talks? If I had a truly difficult technical point to get across, some form of visual — a chart, a table, an x-ray, a CAT-scan, a formula, a photograph, a schematic, a map, 3-D models, etc. — would aid my talk much more effectively than a text version on screen of what was already coming out of my mouth. People are there to *listen* to you, not be guided through a series of bullets. People can read on their own time.

Take a look at this earlier post sent to me by an MD in the States talking about technical presentations.

http://presentationzen.blogs.com/presentationzen/2005/09/md_gives_advice.html

Papillon

Though I agree with the thrust of your arguments about the need for a clear simple message, I must say that the use of Gates and Jobs to illustrate the point smacks, pardon me, of sensationalism. They are not addressing the same type of audience or marketing the same issues: Gates is expounding on a platform for what some MSFT analysts have called a paradigm shifting launch- it's a statement of vision more than an act of salesmanship.

Jobs, on the other hand, is seeking to sell a product to end consumers and his audience, as usual consists of fawning Mac affecionados already won over by the man's charm. No need for bullet points to take home and ponder upon. He's appealing to the senses.

Different audience, different style. Don't fool, don't be fooled. KISS.

Garr

Are you saying that Bill Gates' example (or just bullet points in general) is an example of KISS? I, with all due respect, have to disagree then. It was *Jobs' approach* that I was saying is an example of KISS. "Easy" does not equal "simplicity" to me. Bullets may be easy, but they are also most always for the benefit of the speaker, not the audience.

Again, if you want to say Gates' approach is necessary for very technical presentations then I am confused because his "live" presentation was not a particularly technical one.

And the "kill-two-birds-with-one-stone" approach of having wordy slides for the presentation that also serve as handouts leads to confusion all around. Slides are one-to-many, handouts are one-to-one. In a handout you can go deep. A list of bullet points read two days later will seem rather encryptic, something to be decoded rather than read. Much better to leave documentation that is written in a way that expands and goes deep. Bullets do not go deep. Bullets were meant for lists (in written documents). They are sometime useful for lists in presentations too.

Robert Gremillion

I love Steve Jobs' presentation style and slides.

But there is a problem if you rely on PowerPoint Slides for Presentation Support AND Documentation.

If someone emailed you both presentations, you'd probably be more likely to make out Bill Gates' message.

Gabriel Salcido

Garr,

Got some questions:

Based on your experience, are audiences (particularly business audiences) "used to" presentations full of bullets just like Mr. Gates' in the example above?
If they are, how do they react to simpler presentations like Mr. Jobs'? Do they miss the "crutches" that the bullets provide?

Regards

Gabriel S.

Jaisalmer

It fails me to realize how the mess that is the overcrowded Live presentation gives a statement of vision. If something can be said of Gates, it's that he's a very smart businessman, but completely lack vision. Vision is about imagining the future and knowing how to get there. Cramming things that are already here, yet unconnected, on a presentation slide is futurologism at best, rather than vision. As a member of the public, you really find yourself confused as to what's the message of the Digital Lyfestile/Digital Workstyle slide, say.

Eirik Solheim

Inspired by two of the comments here I have put together a short presentation guide with an example of how to present technical stuff without bullet points.

The example also includes the document you have to make for the people not attending to your presentation:
http://www.eirikso.com/2005/11/08/how-to-avoid-making-boring-presentations/

Garr: thank you for an excellent site!

Bartek

Good article! and comments too.
How about presentations given by Tom Peters? Any comments on them? Is he more into 'Zen' style or the opposite.

PowerPoint Newbie

eirikso

As an answer to a question on how to present software functionallity without using bullet points I have now made another post in this series:
http://www.eirikso.com/2005/11/09/presenting-software/

jack

It seems to me that the Job's presentation is all about the presenter vs. Gate's where he has a large amount of data (no comment on the value of that data).

Where I work we do a lot of presentations over the phone lines so no one can tell that you are putting your hands in your pockets and a blank screen means that your computer connection is down. In such an environment, body language means nothing.

It does not seem odd that different approaches would work better in different situations. It does seem odd that different situations are not taken into account in this critique. But I guess the best part of doing the presenting is that you get to choose what you leave out.

Shane Robinson

Followed a link from Seth's Blog and wanted to thank you for a very thoughtful and insightful entry.

What I find most interesting is that no one mentioned that Jobs uses Keynote (http://www.apple.com/iwork/keynote/) while Gates is stuck using PowerPoint.

It's difficult, but not impossible, to create a good looking presentation with PowerPoint. It's difficult, but not impossible, to create a bad looking presentation with Keynote.

What this really illustrates is the core difference between Apple and Microsoft. Apple really gets design, innovation, and communication. From beginning to end. And the public is starting to understand that.

Phil

Another point of difference between the two styles is the location of the presenter in relation to the slides.

In the photographs I've seen of the Microsoft presentation the presenter is standing in front of the slides, partially obscuring them.

In comparison, the Jobs slides are either projected above his head or he is standing to one side of them.

As far as I can tell this isn't related to the location of the person taking the photograph.

labbai

So funny...

Trevor Claiborne

I've seen both Gates and Jobs give talks before. They are both excellent speakers who get their message across.

I think that is the important question here. Is the message being delivered?

And, yes, despite different styles of communication, both men convey their message.

Joel

labbai comments that “Gates and Jobs .. are both excellent speakers who get their message across.” I think not. I fell asleep during Gates’ 2003 COMDEX keynote and it was quite possibly the most boring speech I have ever heard from a supposed technology icon.

I am not alone in this assessment. In Computerworld, December 8, 2003, Thornton A. May said Gates’ keynote “may well have been the worst piece of oratory ever inflicted upon the technology industry.” May goes on to say, “in my row, half the people were asleep. It wasn't just a matter of Gates' skills as a speaker, but also of the ideas he was presenting.”

http://www.computerworld.com/managementtopics/management/story/0,10801,87813,00.html

Will Southerland

The points made about the style differences are quite interesting and have plenty of merit. I respect the point of views and even agree that simplicity is king in presentations.

However, the conclusions are hard to swallow given the amount of success Microsoft/Gates has had compared with Apple/Jobs. Of course, corporate strategy and presentation style affect overall outcomes differently, but who would you really rather be?

Many might read this and think "Maybe being a poor presenter isn't such a bad thing after all." Compared with most of us, sure Jobs' success is overwhelming and is certainly someone to strive to be like. However, the weight of this arguement is very much deminished when comparing Jobs to Gates.

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