Gates, Jobs, & the Zen aesthetic

As a follow up to yesterday's post on Bill Gates' presentation style, I thought it would be useful to examine briefly the two contrasting visual approaches employed by Gates and Jobs in their presentations while keeping key aesthetic concepts found in Zen in mind. I believe we can use many of the concepts in Zen and Zen aesthetics to help us compare their presentation visuals as well as help us improve our own visuals. My point in comparing Jobs and Gates is not to poke fun but to learn.

Simplicity
A key tenet of the Zen aesthetic is kanso or simplicity. In the kanso concept beauty, grace, and visual elegance are achieved by elimination and omission. Says artist, designer and architect, Dr. Koichi Kawana, "Simplicity means the achievement of maximum effect with minimum means." When you examine your visuals, then, can you say that you are getting the maximum impact with a minimum of graphic elements, for example? When you take a look at Jobs' slides and Gates' slides, how do they compare for kanso?

"Simplicity means the achievement of maximum effect with minimum means."
                                 — Dr. Koichi Kawana

Naturalness
The aesthetic concept of naturalness or shizen "prohibits the use of elaborate designs and over refinement" according to Kawana. Restraint, then, is a beautiful thing. Talented jazz musicians, for example, know never to overplay but instead to be forever mindful of the other musicians and find their own space within the music and within the moment they are sharing. Graphic designers show restraint by including only what is necessary to communicate the particular message for the particular audience. Restraint is hard. Complication and elaboration are easy...and are common.

The suggestive mode of expression is a key Zen aesthetic. Dr. Kawana, commenting on the design of traditional Japanese gardens says:

"The designer must adhere to the concept of miegakure since Japanese believe that in expressing the whole the interest of the viewer is lost."
                                  — Dr. Koichi Kawana

In the world of PowerPoint presentations, then, you do not always need to visually spell everything out. You do not need to (nor can you) pound every detail into the head of each member of your audience either visually or verbally. Instead, the combination of your words, along with the visual images you project, should motivate the viewer and arouse his imagination helping him to empathize with your idea and visualize your idea far beyond what is visible in the ephemeral PowerPoint slide before him. The Zen aesthetic values include (but are not limited to):

• Simplicity
• Subtlety
• Elegance
• Suggestive rather than the descriptive or obvious
• Naturalness (i.e., nothing artificial or forced),
• Empty space (or negative space)
• Stillness, Tranquility
• Eliminating the non-essential

Gates and Jobs: lessons in contrasts
Take a look at some of the typical visuals used by Steve Jobs and those used by Bill Gates. As you look at them and compare them, try doing so while being mindful of the key concepts behind the traditional Zen aesthetic.

      
Above. Does it get more "Zen" than this? "Visual-Zen Master," Steve Jobs, allows the screen to fade completely empty at appropriate, short moments while he tells his story. In a great jazz performance much of the real power of the music comes from the spaces in between the notes. The silence gives more substance and meaning to the notes. A blank screen from time to time also makes images stronger when they do appear.

Also, it takes a confident person to design for the placement of empty slides. This is truly "going naked" visually. For most presenters a crowded slide is a crutch, or at least a security blanket. The thought of allowing the screen to become completely empty is scary. Now all eyes are on you.

      

Above. Gates here explaining the Live strategy. A lot of images and a lot of text. Usually Mr. Gates' slides have titles rather than more effective short declarative statements (this slide has neither). Good graphic design guides the viewer and has a clear hierarchy or order so that she knows where to look first, second, and so on. What is the communication priority of this visual? It must be the circle of clip art, but that does not help me much.

Dr. Kawana says that "to reach the essence of things, all non-essential elements must be eliminated." So what is the essence of the point being made with the help of this visual? Are any elements in this slide non-essential? At its core, what is the real point? These are always good questions to ask ourselves, too, when critiquing our own slides.

      
Above. Here Jobs is talking to developers at the WWDC'05 about the transition from the Power PC RISC chips to Intel. Sounds daunting, but as he said (and shows above) Apple has made daunting major shifts successfully before. (He also said sheepishly earlier in the the presentation, that every version of OSX secretly had an Intel version too...so this is not a new thing. The crowd laughed.).

A note on having an "open style"
One thing that would help Mr. Gates is an executive presentations coach and a video camera. One unfortunate habit he has is constantly bringing his finger tips together high across his chest while speaking. Often this leads to his hands being locked together somewhere across his chest. This gesture makes him seem uncomfortable and is a gesture reminiscent of The Simpsons' Mr. Burns. By contrast, Steve Jobs has a more open style and at least seems comfortable and natural with his gestures.    

      
Above. Mr. Gates needs to read Cliff Atkinson's Beyond Bullet Points, ironically published by Microsoft Press. Atkinson says that "...bullet points create obstacles between presenters and audiences." He correctly claims that bullets tend to make our presentations formal and stiff, serve to "dumb down" our points, and lead to audiences being confused...and bored. Rather than running through points on a slide, Atkinson recommends presenters embrace the art of storytelling, and that visuals (slides) be used smoothly and simply to enhance the speaker's points as he tells his story. This can be done even in technical presentations, and it can certainly be done in high-tech business presentations.

The "Microsoft Method" of presentation?
The approach we've seen in Microsoft's last public presentation we can label the "Microsoft Method." This method is not different than the norm, in fact it is a perfect example of what Seth Godin and others call "Really Bad PowerPoint." Here's the rub: A great many professionals see the absurdity of this approach, even a great many professionals on the campus of Microsoft in Redmond. But change will continue to be slow, especially when the executives of the company which produces the most popular slideware program in the world use the program in the most uninspiring, albeit typical way.
   
       
Above. Chief technology Officer, Ray Ozzie follows the "Microsoft Method" too. (Left) Bullet No.3: "...interfaces through...interfaces"? (Right) Fundamental presentation rule: Do not stick your hands in your pockets. Informality is fine, but this is inappropriate even in the USA (and especially in cultures outside the U.S.). 

Refrain: It all matters!
We've talked about many presentation methods here at Presentation Zen, methods that are different than the "normal" or the "expected" but also simple, clear, and effective. Who wants to be "average," "typical," or "normal"? Ridderstrale & Nordstorm say it best in Funky Business: "Normality is the route to nowhere." I'm not suggesting you "present different" for the sake of being different. I am saying that if you move far beyond what is typical and normal in the context of presentation design, you will be more effective and different and memorable. Maybe Microsoft can afford lousy PowerPoint presentations, but you and I can't. For "the rest of us," it all matters.
Can we learn from a Japanese garden?
Looking for inspiration in different places? Find a book on Japanese gardens (like this one from my friend, designer Markuz Wernli Saito) or visit one in your area (if you are lucky enough to have one). You can learn a bit here about the Zen aesthetic and Japanese gardens in this article by Dr. Kawana. Living here in Japan I have many chances to experience the Zen aesthetic, either while visiting a garden, practicing zazen in a Kyoto temple, or even while having a traditional Japanese meal out with friends. I am convinced that a visual approach which embraces the aesthetic concepts of simplicity and the removal of the nonessential can have practical applications in our professional lives and can lead ultimately to more enlightened design.

Comments

[Joe Buhler]

Excellent comparison. The same difference is evident in the two products / services Windows and Mac OS.....

[Erik Schmidt]

"However, the conclusions are hard to swallow given the amount of success Microsoft/Gates has had compared with Apple/Jobs."

I'm not sure that's really the point. Of course, of the two companies, Microsoft is dominant. Gates has vast mountains of money. But that doesn't diminish the fact that if you were to emulate Jobs or Gates in your presentation style, you might not want to go with Gates.

If Gates could improve his presentations, perhaps the technology press would have a clearer idea of where Microsoft is trying to go right now. The public in general might have a better idea as well. This doesn't always translate into hard dollars and cents, but Jobs has used his ability to wow them with presentation to good advantage for Apple.

I thought the article was respectful of Gates and not at all fawning of Jobs.

[Mike Strem]

Thanks, as a recent Zen student (Japanese Buddhist) I find this particularly interesting and look forward to applying these principles to myself and meshing them with Feng Shui at home.

[Hans Karlsson]

Your points are perfectly valid. At the same time, it is quite interesting that most of the Japanese themselves, although being very visually oriented (Japanese comics, their writing system, kabuki theatre being some of the examples) don't get it.

This might partly have to do with the high cost of space in Japan. Apartments are crammed and poorly layed out. Advertisements are crammed to the brim with detail. Empty space is a luxuary.

Maybe Gates was a Japanese advertisment bureau officer in his previous life? ;-)

Someone here asks who'd you're rather be, Jobs or Gates. Jobs is rich enough for me, and Apple successful enough, and I'd rather leave the vision of Jobs behind when I go, than the businessmanship of Gates.

It's rather obvious which one will last.

Hans Shimizu Karlsson
Japanologist

[vikash kumar vyas]

all three man are great personality

[Conocimientos]

For my Gates desire.

[PJ Brunet]

Nothing is simple and nothing is random and everything is simple and everything is random.

Beauty can be what it wants to be, when it wants to be beautiful.

[Matt Drought]

A fascinating article. Glad to see the big boys get it wrong at times too. More of the same please!

[Jeff LaMarche]

"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"

What are you talking about? The examples here are not from a MacWorld expo, they are from Jobs' WWDC keynote where he was informing a highly technical audience of software developers about the planned shift from PowerPC-based to an Intel-based architecture. For nuts and bolt technical guys, that's as big of a paradigm shift as it gets - the chips are radically different - one's little endian, the other big endian, one RISC, the other CISC. He's not selling this audience anything except ideas - the necessity of this "paradigm" shift, which makes the two presentations comparable except that one is more technically oriented.

Relatively few analysts not on Microsoft's payroll would call copying Apple's several year old "Digital Hub" idea and re-branding it as anything remotely like a paradigm shift, by the way. Besides that, presentations to analysts ARE salesmanships; to think otherwise is just foolhardy; most analysts who exclusively watch Microsoft are apologist of the worst sort, no better than the rabid Mac zealots you'll find at some of Steve's presentations.

Besides that, I fail to see how the makeup of the audience excuses poor presentation style. I would think Steve with his "fanboy" audience would be the one who could afford to give a poor presentation. This article (excellent, by the way) was not about content, but about presentation style, and if you can't see the points being made, I suggest you might be able to find a drooling fanboy even closer then you realize... just by looking in the mirror.

[ex2bot]

I'm going to have to second Jeff above on this one.

Set aside emotion for a moment, if that's possible. If you have a lot invested in Windows and / or other Microsoft products and wouldn't DREAM of considering Apple, then fine. IMHO, nobody should brow beat you or try to get you to change your mind.

Set that aside for a moment. Consider only presentation styles.

Look what happens when something crashes or goes wrong in Gates' presentations. He doesn't always recover gracefully.

Look at the awful slides of Windows Live presentations. If you don't see anything wrong with all that clutter then God Bless You (so to speak).

Now, look at Jobs' presentation (throwing malfunctioning device at employee incident notwithstanding). He's a compelling speaker. He usually recovers from software glitches gracefully. And he generally conducts a very smooth, aesthetically pleasing and informative presentation.

Only the essentials. That is the essence of KISS.

Gates is SUPER SUCCESSFUL, the richest man in the world (he still is, right?). He has an amazing philanthropic foundation. He's obviously doing **something** right.

But his presentations are mediocre (and sometimes worse than that).

So . . . do you aspire to greatness or mediocrity?

Now, if you've never seen a Jobs presentation because it makes you see daggers, well then that's life.

ex2bot
Mac Fanboybot
Former Windows User since Win 2.0.

[tartle]

The visual of Bill Gates' presentation yesterday seem less cluttered, but....

[anonymous]

...but he still was fiddling with his hands as if he was eager to get off the stage as soon as possible.

[Karel Gillissen]

Robert: "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."

I think that is the problem. Too many people want to hand out their slides (encouraged by the software possibilities). But text-to-read-and-understand has a completely different function than slides to emphasis your presentation. So my practice is to make completely different handouts (with some graphical reference to the slides) that you might understand without having seen the presentation.

[Makki]

I find Steve Job's approach to be simplistic and informative in a somewhat relaxed atmosphere. I find from my dark age days with Microsoft i got tired of the in your face approach presented in almost every aspect of a presentation i attended. I reached my limit when several presentations were given by a guy dressed in pink running around the room flaunting the fact that he is gay. Turned me right off. Heaven forbid a event with this guy and ballmer together. Oy vey!

[Sage]

And this 2006 Macword... a total crapola. Job blew it BIG TIME!

[Ian Johns]

This 2006 keynote by Jobs (Macworld) was not good. Jobs or the show went on 2 long and was oh so slow - doing too many demos. And he was using a paper script to do his compute work? In fact I am a Mac Buff - But! - Nothing new in the keynote just some more addons. The presentation was average, no below that. All that moving and he kept coughing????

What happened to the 10/20/30 rule???

The Apple add was more about INTEL, Apple seemed to be a second arm to the chip???

Gates keynote was better... it was full of hope and adventure - He flowed from set to set... quick and detailed, lots of things we need, I was very impressed. This year Bill has a vision and it worked!

[Kiyoshi]

I think the Zen philosophy, which includes the Zen aesthetic (and all are the same, actually), do not intend to lead people getting out of normal.
That concept of normal being "a road to nowhere", is a concept from Western cultures, the same criticated here, but in the design and visual aspects.

Visual, musical, intellectual, emotional, all goes in the same flow. So, is a mistake separating one thing from other and use it to criticize other's concepts.
You can't simply see designs "as Zen" and then go to McDonalds eat your fastfood breakfeast and becoming obese, get a fight with your kid because he/she cry desperately of not earning his/her cel phone, and then turn back on your Zen mode of view.

Or you are something, or you aren't.

[kol]

abc...

[luke]

Excellent comparison.

[3mp3]

nice to hear u again dude :)

[Kal]

The bullet point is a tool that seems to be misused all too often in slideshow presentations.

As I see it, any tool that can be misused too often should be completely removed.

So... I'm toying with the idea of dropping the bullet point feature from all slideshow software applications.

I wonder what would happen.

[Rob Bredle]

BILL GATES GOT MARRIED,
THE NEXT MORNING HIS WIFE WAS ASKED BY SOMEONE THAT " HOW WAS MR. BILL GATES LAST NIGHT?"
SHE REPLIED "MICRO AND SOFT!!!".

[Chris]

Although I'm personally a fan of the Zen aesthetic when it comes to presentations, I'm wondering to what extent we can assume that this is a need given a particular product or service on the web. Take Amazon - definitely does not adhere to a Zen aesthetic. However, its ability to present relevant and interesting products to browse keeps it the most used website for online shopping. Any thoughts?

[Ewa]

First impression influences the presentation and in order to make the presentation smooth and "impressive" having a well practiced intro always helps.

[Ollanta Humala]

Spot on Garr!
I always wonder who where the guys designing those presentations.