Radjaïdjah Blog

A few references to help you with storytelling and slide design should you have a presentation to make.

Not extremely new but still good books: Presenting to Win: The Art of Telling Your Story (2003), by Jerry Weissman, and its sequel Winning strategies for power presentations : Jerry Weissman delivers lessons from the world's best presenters (2013) introduce among other ideas the concept of WIIFY (What's In It For You).

TED talk: 10 tips for better slide decks, aka "10 tips on how to make slides that communicate your idea":

Big picture:

1. Think about your slides last. - Too often, I see slide decks that feel more like presenter notes, but I think it’s far more effective when the slides are for the audience to give them a visual experience that adds to the words.
2. Create a consistent look and feel.
3. Think about topic transitions.
4. With text, less is almost always more.
5. Use photos that enhance meaning.

And now some tactical tips…

1. Go easy on the effects and transitions. .
2. Use masking to direct attention in images.
3. Try panning large images.
4. For video, don’t use autoplay.'
5. Reproduce simple charts and graphs.

and the end: a couple book recommendations. The first is Resonate, by Nancy Duarte. It’s not so much about slides, but about public speaking in general – which is the foundation for any presentation, regardless of how great your slides are. In it, she breaks down the anatomy of what makes a great presentation, how to establish a central message and structure your talk, and more. (One of her case studies comes from Benjamin Zander’s charming TED Talk about classical music, a talk that captivated the audience from start to finish.) Think of this as prerequisite reading for [a] second recommendation, also by Duarte: Slide:ology. This is more focused on presentation visuals and slides.

Slideshare presentation: 8 tips for an awesome powerpoint presentation

1. F-ck normality, don't use templates, create your own design, let your creativity flow..
2. Colors are nice, play with colors, fond your like, contrast is your friend.
3. Use good fonts.
4. Text is evil, let your slides breathe.
5. Images say more than a thousand words.
6. BIg is beautiful, think Big, think Bold, think Bam. View every slide as an ad.
7. Infographics are amazing.
8. Get inspired.

Sometimes it's good to do a little bit of introspection or extraspection. In the former case, you see yourself from an internal point of view. In the latter, you see yourself from an external point of view, like in a video game. After all, isn't life role playing?

Seeing yourself as a character of a videogame that you control remotely offers some insights for personal development, as the video game programmer Steve Pavlina noticed in his podcast on reality.

Now it took me over a year to figure this out, but I think I finally understand it in a way that makes sense, and that seems internally congruent. So here's how I currently see the nature of reality.

I see that physical reality is the program, consciousness is the programmer, and the Law of Attraction is the interface between them. Or physical reality is a simulation, or a projection, of consciousness. There's only one consciousness, and that's what my identity is centered on, this one consciousness. Now, the consciousness is not my physical body, my physical body is part of my consciousness, just as equally as everything else experience, I experience.

So while, the physical body I control gives me perspective, it gives me a way of interacting and communicating with the simulation. But it's no more me, it's no more my real identity, than if I were, say, playing a video game? And I'm controlling a character on the screen. See, my physical body is just the character I control on the screen. But really, when I'm playing the video game, the game is the entire simulation. And my real being is outside that simulation.

Well, in this case, I'm saying that my real being is consciousness itself, and that the entire simulation of reality is taking place within that consciousness. I am that consciousness, but I have control over a part of the simulation, direct control, over my physical body. That's the part I can control the best. However, through the Law of Attraction, I also have control over every other part of the simulation as well. But there are some limitations on that.

See, the thoughts are the instructions, to the simulation. My thoughts. The thoughts of consciousness itself. But _every_ thought is an instruction. Or, in the language of the Law of Attraction, you would say, every thought is an intention. And physical reality is the sum total of every instruction or of every intention.

Now let's talk about some of the limitations on this, and some of the mechanisms by which this works. First of all, perception is also thought, which means it's also intention, which means it's also creative. See, there's no perception without creation. This answers the question, why does reality seem persistent? Why can't you just think of a thought that's totally incongruent with the reality you're experiencing, and have an immediate shift? And the reason is that you're always perceiving the reality you're getting. And so you can't have that immediate shift because your observations are also your thoughts, your observations are new instructions that are feeding back into the simulation. So the simulation has this persistence to it because the very act of perceiving it perpetuates it. Does that make sense?

So by observing the simulation, you're actually instructing it. Your observations about the simulations are in fact instructions to continue perpetuating what you're getting. This is why your life tends to be somewhat consistent from day to day to day - because your thoughts are persistent, because you keep observing the same things, you live in the same place, you keep observing the same location. If you changed your observations about reality, however, in a massive way, then reality itself, the simulation would be reprogrammed, and would shift in a massive way as well. And in fact, this is exactly what happens, but it happens in such a way that you don't even think about it.

In practice, it is possible to feel this body-mind dualism! Outer Body Labs, a "technologically induced out-of-body-experience game studio" who was present at Lift14, and whose pitch is see yourself seeing your self, offers such an experience. Imagine wearing a helmet or goggles (think Google Glass ou Oculus Rift) inside which you see what an external bluetooth camera pointed to you broadcasts. Or, imagine yourself wearing these electronic glasses, and carrying some big antenna with a camera mounted at the top directed downwards and feeding the glasses, in such a way that you would see yourself from an external eye.

See and control yourself from a third person perspective as you compete or collaborate in various physical tasks, games, activities and puzzles.

This is not virtual reality! At OuterBody Labs we move your eyesight, and your sense of self, into a video camera that is aimed at your body. This mind-hack has unique and wonderful dissociative effects. Will you be able to put your subjectivity into perspective?

So, what you see in the glasses is yourself, from the point of view of the camera (which can be fixed or mobile). On the screen, it appears as a character in a video game, that you can act upon remotely using your body as the controller, like real-life Sims. It offers a new perspective to your life!

The Machine to be Another project also goes in this direction. It "is an Open Source Art investigation on the relation of Identity and Empathy that has been developed on a basis of low budget experiments of Embodiment and Virtual Body Extension".

This interactive performance-installation is built in 2 identical spaces: one for the user and another for the performer.

Through immersive goggles (head mounted displays), the user sees a video with the eyes’ perspective of a different person (the performer), who follows the former’s movements. So, it all happens in a way in which the user kind of ‘controls’ the performer‘s movements.

The user can move and interact with objects inside a room, while listening to the performer‘s thoughts through a set of headphones. That generates the perception of someone speaking inside their mind.

The video transmitted to the user’s goggles is generated by a camera attached to the perfomer, that records his/her point of view in real time. The performer also wears a microphone used to tell a short story about his/her existence. This non lineal narrative is connected to the objects in the room (a photo of someone, a childhood toy, a pack of cigarettes, a mirror, etc), making them interactive: when the user interact with one object, the performer starts to speak about his experience and memories related to this object.

In general terms, the system merges technology with other variables: the performance, an interactive narrative (related to objects disposed at the same position in two identical spaces), the experiment’s assistants (with whom they can explore the touch sense), as well as sensorial/motor/physical stimuli disposed in the space, with which the user can interact. As for the objects, we always make use of mirrors and other different things that the user can either throw or feel (like a glass of water or a bunch of flowers).

Beyond augmented or virtual reality, it has to be kept in mind that such perspective can also be attained with spiritual practices like meditation or mind-altering subtances such as kratom or blue lotus. The movie Enter the void evocates dimethyltryptamine (DMT) as a chemical path to see yourself from the outside.

It can lead to larger, metaphysical considerations such as the universe being a simulation or our brains being a vat.

Much ado about nothing, or new perspectives for life?

Les musée des arts et métiers organisait cet hiver une exposition sur les robots.

Certaines considérations morales autour des robots et de leurs prérogatives avaient été envisagées il y a bien longtemps par les auteurs de science-fiction, comme l'illustrent les trois lois de la robotique d'Isaac Asimov :

1. Un robot ne peut porter atteinte à un être humain, ni, restant passif, permettre qu'un être humain soit exposé au danger.
2. Un robot doit obéir aux ordres que lui donne un être humain, sauf si de tels ordres entrent en conflit avec la Première loi.
3. Un robot doit protéger son existence tant que cette protection n'entre pas en conflit avec la Première ou la Deuxième loi.

Avec la présence de Nao (présenté dans l'article sur la neutralité du net) et autres consorts, l'histoire des robots se déclinait selon :

1. Introduction (à la veille d'une révolution ?)
2. Robot, qui es-tu ?
3. Robot, d'où viens-tu ? (différence entre robots et automates)
   1. Introduction
   2. De l’Égypte des pharaons aux ingénieurs mécaniciens grecs
   3. La popularisation des automates et la naissance de l’horlogerie
   4. Lorsque l’androïde paraît...
   5. XIXe et XXe siècle : la consécration avant le déclin
   6. Des automates pour tous
4. Nom de code Robota
   1. La cybernétique, projet de l’après-guerre (oeuvre et leg de Norbert Wiener)
   2. Les robots dans l’industrie (tâches répétitives, pénibles, et dangereuses confiées aux machines, taylorisme, collaboration homme-robot)
   3. Robots et nucléaire : servir et protéger en milieu extrême (remplacer l'homme en milieu hostile en cas de catastrophe nucléaire)
   4. Les robots des abysses (robots téléopérés et sous-marins autonomes dans la pression et l'opacité des milieux sous-marins)
   5. Les robots au coeur de la conquête spatiale (Lunokhod 1, Spirit, Opportunity, Curiosity)
   6. Robots et défense : préserver des vies et des territoires ? (zones de conflit : robots biomimétiques, robots-soldats, robots multifonctions autonomes (ex : drones))
5. Robots Domesticus
   1. Usables et corvéables (surveillance, nettoyage)
   2. Des robots au foyer (domotique)
6. Le robot est-il l'avenir de l'homme ? (robots-chirurgiens, prothèses bioniques, exosquelettes, greffes et implants mécatroniques)
7. Robots entre science et fiction (androïdes, imitations mécaniques d’un homme parfait)

Comme l'art aléatoire, les robots soulèvent de nombreuses questions d'éthique, depuis le golem du maharal de Prague : intelligence artificielle, conscience robotique, droit des robots, etc.

En sport comme dans d'autres domaines de la vie, la fixation d'objectifs s’est avérée l’un des mécanismes de motivation les plus simples et les plus efficaces pour progresser et parvenir à ses fins.

La page 30 du guide des entraîneurs de Special Olympics, un organisme développant la pratique sportive chez les handicapés, explique pourquoi il est important d'avoir des objectifs étant :

• mesurables et spécifiques
• difficiles mais réalistes
• à court et à long terme
• positifs et négatifs
• etc.

Christophe Carrio ne dit pas autre chose :

Les objectifs ont une action puissante et directe sur la motivation et l’énergie. Ils agissent également sur l’état émotionnel (baisse de l’anxiété) et la confiance en soi (renforcée). Mal construits ou mal définis, les objectifs peuvent déstabiliser la personne et avoir les effets opposés – la confiance et la motivation peuvent être anéanties.

Les objectifs doivent être précis, datés et mesurables pour maintenir la motivation. Ces trois qualités sont indissociables quel que soit l’objectif, à court, moyen ou long terme. Les baisses de motivation sont souvent liées à des objectifs flous. « Je veux avoir un beau corps » « Je veux être fine » « Je veux me sentir moins molle » ... sont des objectifs trop vagues. En revanche « je veux perdre un tour de taille d’ici 3 mois », « je veux courir plus vite sur tel parcours et me sentir plus tonique sur chacune de mes foulées en 3 mois », « je veux effectuer 10 muscle up, ou 100 pompes dans 3 mois » sont des objectifs beaucoup plus précis.

Vos objectifs doivent être ambitieux, difficiles à atteindre mais raisonnables. Un objectif, pour être efficace, ne doit pas être déstabilisant et doit se situer au bon niveau. Trop bas, il provoque l’ennui, voire la régression et donc une perte de motivation. Trop important, il entraîne déception, frustration, perte de confiance en soi et stress face à l’échec. Il faut donc se méfier des objectifs trop rigides, sans marge d’échec.

Un objectif à long terme se décline d’abord à court et moyen terme. On peut multiplier les objectifs dans tous les secteurs de sa vie, sachant que rien n’est jamais étanche, une joie ou une déconvenue dans un secteur rejaillit sur tous les autres. Plus les objectifs sont bien déclinés à court et moyen terme et plus vous serez concentrés, focalisés et vous aurez l’énergie nécessaire pour les mener à bien en dépit des tracas et de tous les impondérables du quotidien.

Écrire ses objectifs sur papier -où sur octets-, c'est bien, et c'est un euphémisme. Toutefois la psychologie contemporaine vient nous dire que la motivation pour les accomplir peut être démultipliée lorsque ceux-ci prennent une tournure contractuelle.

Le site stickK propose ainsi d'établir des contrats d'engagement (commitment contracts) allant dans cette optique^[1]. Le principe sous-tendant l'efficacité des objectifs contractuels est, selon la FAQ (traduction assez libre) :

Nous commençons tous par vouloir atteindre nos objectifs, mais la plupart du temps il n'y a simplement rien qui nous force à nous conformer à notre parole. En signant un contrat d'engagement, ne pas tenir sa promesse devient beaucoup plus difficile.

Sans trop rentrer dans les détails, trois exemples fictifs de tels contrats d'engagements :

• Si je n'obtiens pas ma ceinture jaune de judo, je devrai donner 100 euros à l'UNICEF.
• Si je ne cours pas le prochain marathon de Paris en moins de quatre heures, alors tous mes amis seront informés de cet échec et se moqueront de moi.
• Si je ne perds pas dix kilos d'ici trois mois, je devrai verser un mois de mon précieux salaire au front national (lose it or lose it).

Autrement dit, la méthode consiste à augmenter artificiellement la priorité d'un objectif en corrélant son non-accomplissement à des conséquences bien plus négatives que celles de l'échec seul. Un objectif mineur ou insuffisamment motivant est ainsi transformé en objectif majeur via sa contractualisation^[2]. Dès lors que le « pourquoi » devient si important, le « comment » suit.

En résumé, internet et psychologie au service du sport, et de la vie.

Hat man sein warum? des Lebens, so verträgt man sich fast mit jedem wie?^[3]

Friedrich Nietzsche, Götzen-Dämmerung