8 presentation mistakes: how to avoid them and fix them

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

There is a useful post by Naba Ahmed at the Prezi Blog on October 15, 2025 mistitled

8 presentation mistake: how to avoid them and fix them. Those mistakes are:

 

1]  Don’t read directly from your slides.

2]  Avoid overwhelming slides with text.

3]  Create a clear visual flow.

4]  Give your presentation a solid structure.

5]  Pace your speaking.

6]  Use confident body language.

7]  Learn to read audience cues.

8]  Don’t underprepare.

 

Regarding her first point, back on June 10, 2015 I blogged about Don’t annoy us by reading your PowerPoint slides.

 

The article also has advice on How to design slides that connect:

 

Guide the eye with visual hierarchy.

Use color and contrast with purpose.

Choose your fonts wisely.

Select powerful, relevant images.

Balance your visuals and text.

 

I blogged about balancing visuals and text in a post on February 19, 2014 titled Assertion-Evidence PowerPoint slides are a visual alternative to bullet point lists.

 

And the article has sections on how to Master Audience Engagement and to Perfect Your Delivery.

 

A star with eight points was adapted from one at OpenClipArt.

 

The Idaho Freedom Foundation made a thoughtless proposal to completely eliminate the Idaho Commission for Libraries

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There is an article by Brett Farruggia at the Idaho Freedom Foundation on November 21, 2025 titled Ending Bureaucratic Excess in Idaho. It also was posted on November 22, 2025 at the Gem State Patriot News blog. It has a totally  thoughtless proposal – to completely eliminate the Idaho Commission for Libraries:

 

“Further savings can come from eliminating unconstitutional agencies that promote DEI ideology such as the Hispanic Commission ($557,283) and the Library Commission ($6,947,300).”

 

Back on September 1, 2025 the Idaho Freedom Foundation had an article titled Public Recommendations to Idaho’s DOGE Task Force to Increase Government Efficiency which listed the Idaho Commission for Libraries at #5 under recommended Agency Eliminations, but left off the DEI claim.

 

The Idaho Commission for Libraries is responsible for Libraries Linking Idaho (LiLI) which has databases with magazines and newspapers for public libraries in the state. It’s our public utility for information - a critical set of research tools for keeping the public informed. Back on February 23, 2020 I blogged about Finding speech topics and doing research. LiLI databases include, among others these 26 from EBSCOhost:

 

Academic Search Premier

Business Source Premier

Computer Source

Consumer Health Complete

ERIC – Educational Resource Information Center

GreenFILE

Health Source: Consumer Edition

Health Source: Nursing/Academic Edition

History Reference Source

Legal Collection

Literary Reference Source

MAS Ultra (for high school students)

MasterFILE Premier

MEDLINE

Middle Search Plus (for middle school students)

Military and Government Collection

Newspaper Source Plus

Primary Search (for elementary school students)

Professional Development Collection

Psychology and Behavioral Sciences Collection

Publication Finder

Religion and Philosophy Collection

Small Business Source

Teacher Reference Center

TOPICsearch

Vocational and Career Collection

 

Based on a state population of 2,032,120 that expenditure ($6,947,300) is only $3.42 per person – and a tiny part of the overall budget for Idaho.

 

Mr. Farruggia has the combination of arrogance and incompetence I have come to expect from the Idaho Freedom Foundation. I suspect he does not know much about what vital services the Commission for Libraries provides.

 

My cartoon was adapted from this one at OpenClipArt.  

 

 

If you only have a hammer, then everything looks like a nail

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Savage Chickens cartoon for November 18, 2025 by Doug Savage is titled The Amazing Hammer and is shown above. It illustrates a proverb Wikipedia terms the Law of the instrument. Some web sites attribute versions of it to Mark Twain:

 

Goodreads - “To a man with a hammer, everything looks like a nail”

 

AZ Quotes – “If your only tool is a hammer, everything starts to look like a nail.”

 

Quotefancy - “To someone with a hammer, everything looks like a nail.”

 

At Quote Investigator on May 8, 2014 Garson O’Toole discussed it in an article titled Quote Origin: If Your Only Tool Is A Hammer Then Every Problem Looks Like a Nail. He found no evidence for Mark Twain, and rather found a 1962 version by Abraham Kaplan:

 

“Give a boy a hammer and everything he meets has to be pounded.”

 

There also are a 1964 version by Abraham Maslow:

 

“Give a small boy a hammer, and he will find that everything he encounters needs pounding.”

 

and another 1966 version:

 

“I suppose it is tempting, if the only tool you have is a hammer, to treat everything as if it were a nail.”

 

Update November 23, 2025

 

Adam Savage’s 2019 memoir Every Tool’s a Hammer: Life is what you make it discusses the converse. In Chapter 12 Hammers, Blades, and Scissors, on pages 266 and 267 he writes about his friend, Mark Buck:

 

“He was a man with an aversion for fools and a love of tools. If he walked by your workbench and he saw you looking too long for something in your toolbox, he’d instruct you in an almost solemn tone, like a sifu, ‘Remember, in every tool, there is a hammer.’ What he meant was that every tool can be used for a purpose for which it wasn’t intended, including the most basic of operations, like hammering. He also meant that until you learn to see what tools can do beyond their stated purpose, you can’t quite be a maker. Truer words have rarely been spoken.”

 

 

What if a commencement speech told you to assume the worst?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There is a brief and humorous book from 2018 by Carl Hiassen titled Assume the Worst: The graduation speech you’ll never hear. Amazon has sample of first eight pages. It’s just 64 double-spaced pages, with hilarious cartoon illustrations by Roz Chast. Here’s a paraphrase from it:

 

 “This commencement address will never be given, because graduation speakers are supposed to offer encouragement and inspiration.

 

That’s not what you need. You need a warning.

 

After an uncommonly long career observing and writing about misbehavior, I have one piece of advice as you launch yourself from college: assume the worst.

 

Based on the last six thousand years of human history, it’s the only sensible way to proceed. Lowering your expectations will inoculate you against serial disappointments. It will also set you up for heart-lifting surprises on those occasions when someone you meet turns out to be unexpectedly honorable, generous and selfless.

 

…. 1. Live each day as if it’s your last.

      As wise and appealing as this might sound, it’s actually terrible advice. If you live every day as if it’s your last, you won’t accomplish a damn thing. You’ll soon run out of money, your car will get repossessed, you’ll be evicted from your apartment, and the person you’re living with will dump you for somebody with a mid-level management job at BrandsMart.

 

…. 2. If you set your mind to it, you can be anything you want to be.

     Total bullshit. Nobody can be absolutely anything they want to be – no matter how hard they wish, pray or try. I wanted to play major-league baseball like Willie Mays but unfortunately, I couldn’t run, catch or hit like Willie Mays. And I tried. Really hard. By eighth grade I’d bagged the whole fantasy and moved on.

 

…. 3. Try to find goodness in everyone you meet.

     Another waste of time. Relationships aren’t supposed to be reclamation projects. The humane qualities of any new acquaintance should be evident in the first five minutes of conversation – ten minutes, tops.

 

…. 4. Don’t be quick to judge others.

     Are you kidding? If you don’t learn how to judge others – and judge fast – you’ll get metaphorically trampled from now until the day you die.

 

…. To sum up.

     Figure out what you’re good at, and get better at it. Along the way, don’t waste your time on people whose decency isn’t apparent when you first meet for a cup of coffee. Be an astute judge of character, and learn to judge quickly.

 

Read the news. Pay attention. Always aspire to act in a way that cancels out someone else’s cruel or stupid behavior.

 

Never stop worrying. Live each day as if your rent is due tomorrow.

 

And always, always be the one who sleeps near the campfire – the one who would make Darwin proud.”

 

My version of the book cover cartoon was assembled by adapting an anvil from Wikimedia Commons and a silhouette from OpenClipArt. 

 

Celebrating a joyful milestone of 3000 blog posts

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I just passed a joyful milestone - 3000 blog posts. My first pair of posts were over eighteen years ago on May 26, 2008. There have been 3,144,713 page views or an overall average of 1,048 per post. The five posts with the highest number of page views are:

 

25,900: October 27, 2009 - The 14 Worst Human Fears in the1977 Book of Lists: where did this data come from?

 

22,300: July 5, 2009 – Two types of speech outlines:speaking and preparation

 

17,200: February 6, 2019 – Is flip-chart a racist term?

 

8,980: December 29, 2011 – How can you easily draw dotted chalk lines on a blackboard?

 

7,490: December 6, 2021 - Most Americans are not terrified of public speaking

 

On July 22, 2024 I had blogged about Celebrating 2,700 blog posts. The first four then were the same as the current ones.

 

The image of a crate came from OpenClipArt.

 

 

Small acts of joy bring big gains in happiness

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There is an interesting brief article by Darwin A. Guevarra, Xuhai ‘Orson” Xu, and Emiliana Simon-Thomas in the December 2025 issue of Scientific American titled Small, Easy Acts of Joy Mean Big Gains in Happiness. It describes how there is a free, globally available online resource called the Big Joy Project.

 

“People who sign up for this project receive a daily e-mail or text that includes a link to instructions for a five- to 10-minute micro act, defined as a short, simple activity for building joy. The opening micro act, for example, invites participants to listen to a 42-second audio clip of different people laughing, including the Dalai Lama and Tutu. It’s an uplifting moment designed to elicit a smile or chuckle. The rest of the activities are delivered each day for seven days and include making a gratitude list, doing something kind, reflecting on a core value, feeling loving-kindness (or a state of tenderness and consideration to others), reframing a difficult experience, celebrating another person’s joy and watching an awe-inspiring video….

 

By analyzing responses from 17,598 people from 169 countries and territories, we found that people reported higher emotional well-being, more positive emotions, lower stress, and even modest improvements in sleep quality and physical health.

 

It took surprisingly little time and effort for participants to feel better. Many well-being programs span eight weeks or more, but the Big Joy Project yielded meaningful changes after just one week. And the more micro acts people completed, the more their happiness improved.”

 

The image was modified from this one at OpenClipArt.

 

Two good recent articles about opening a speech

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There are two good, brief articles about opening a speech from earlier this year at the web site for the National Speakers Association. One is by Patricia Fripp on April 9, 2025 and titled Your First Thirty Seconds: Arouse Interest in Your Subject. She says:

 

“Transport the audience to a different time and place

 Stories are always a crowd pleaser

 Interesting statistics or little-known facts

 A powerful quotation

 A question”

 

Another is by Mark Sanborn on July 2, 2025 and titled Start Strong: How to Open a Speech the Right Way. He says to:

 

“ 1]  Promise a benefit

   2]  Pique interest

   3]  Relate a personal experience

   4]  Be a contrarian

   5]  Make a challenging statement

   6]  Use humor”

 

The cartoon was adapted from this one at OpenClipArt.