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Comment by slily | Hacker News Reader

As cool as these look, I can't think of a single instance where pretty slides made a talk more interesting or memorable to me. Buying (okay, pirating) Photoshop might be worth it if you're pitching to investors/businesspeople, but if you're presenting at a conference focus on the content and as long as the slides strike the right balance between information density and readability, it'll be fine.

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It’s hard for me to think of an example where thoughtfully-designed slides alone set a presentation apart, partly because good slides are often the result of someone clearly putting the time/thought into their presentation. But they can be the difference between a good presentation and a great one.

For example, Gary Bernhardt’s Birth and Death of JavaScript is one of my favorites and certainly benefits from having nicely-designed slides.

https://www.destroyallsoftware.com/talks/the-birth-and-death...

They are good slides that visually communicate effectively, but that’s not the same as “pretty” or “beautiful” (which are also much more subjective). Focusing on the latter doesn’t achieve the former.

There is a general feeling in STEM that when someone's presentation is a bit too slick looking they actually undermine their message and raise suspicions about their motives...like people start to feel like they are hiding something. I guess the moral is just say what you need to say and don't over think it. Or maybe the moral is that it all depends on your audience.

This is one of those instances where I wonder if there are different expectations in a more visually creative industry like Hollywood, fashion, or something where the appeal of your deck makes a meaningful difference.

Every year I spend as a developer I grow more fond of plain HTML websites like https://www.kleinbottle.com/ and slides like https://youtu.be/wGoM_wVrwng.

Maybe the more I learn how exhausting and competitive it is to be a PM or designer, the more I want to differentiate myself from them, so I can chill and work on engineering.

The reality is people go to conferences (a) to network or (b) to boost their ego. Not to actually listen to talks. Especially in CS-adjacent fields, Github repos with working code are 100x more valuable than conference talks. So yeah, nobody really cares about conference talks or the slides except the loud bearded dude whose moves between rooms questioning the rigor of every talk.

you’re right, people are in a talk because they hope to get access to someone in the room, or for data insight, you either have big visuals or you are a big deal : P

That is mhe right reason for a confrence. Watch the talks on youtube latter. While at the confrenceuse your time talking to people.

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