Monday, January 8, 2007

Presentation Skills!

Wow.. thats a really huge topic to think about.
I am in a class that teaches about the power point (are you wondering a class on PPT? yes, it is a class about it. If you dont know people make money giving lectures about PPT, word, outlook etc. and you always wondered if it was difficult to quit your job and do something else! huh!). Ok! PPT is for presentation. And this lady here is freaking me out. Half the time she laughs for no reason. I should term it as guffaw. And every once in a while she guffaws and says I have been teaching this class for probably15 years.
If someone is teaching this for 15 years, I expect that they know a good deal about the PPT and more so, I would expect they have better presentation skills. Lets leave this lady aside. It is no fun postmorteming her.
But this beckons a question. What are good presentation skills? What are the things you should keep in mind while preparing a presentation? How should you have your animation in a presentation? How do you keep your audience captivated? How important are these fancy stuff available in ppt?
(oh! btw, she laughed again : ) )
What are the differences between a report and a presentation? Both provide information, but what are extra points to take care of while preparing a presentation?

Wednesday, January 3, 2007

What has names got to do with how you perform in future?

intriguing question:
1. Does your name reflect anything on your performance in school or in future?

This is the same question that Levitt asked in Freakonomics. Apparently you would think not. But there is an interesting reasoning behind why the names do affect how you would fair. No parent would knowingly name their kids like Temptress, Winner, Loser etc. I am not making up names, these are real names. So, if someone did name their kids like this, then they are either illiterate, they dont know the meaning or they thought it is cool to name like that. And who would think it is cool? The parents who name their kids like this are bound to be bad parents. Hence, it will show up while bringing up the kids. Seems like parents who named their kids like that are either black, single-parent, low-income, illiterate. That should tell you something about it. Of course you can read more about it in Freakonomics.

Now here is my question:
How does the names affect in India? Which name is the most successful name in India? What is the most popular name in India?