On slides

I've given dozens of talks and I've noticed a definite trend: when I use slides, people like my talks. When I do live coding, they love them.

I've noticed this as an audience member as well. I've seen far too many talks that could easily have been a long-ish blog post; something I could read in about 10 minutes. This begs the question: what have I gained by watching you recite it more slowly? Great delivery can add quite a bit, but by definition, most speakers are fairly average at it.

The problem with static content is that it's static. It's faster to simply read it.

This isn't so with live coding or demos. You're more likely to understand a refactoring if I show you how to do it. You're more likely to grasp how a tool works when I work through some examples in a REPL. In this case, a narrative description would be harder to parse.

Consider this: when discussing theoretical code ideas with co-workers a great way to bring clarity to the discussion is to say "just show me what you're talking about". Once both parties are around the same screen looking at real code, clarity is quickly achieved.

Another reason to prefer live demos is that they've more information-dense. Whenever I do live coding, people tell me they learned a new vim trick, or a novel way of accomplishing something in the shell. Watching someone at work teaches you far more than simply gazing at the frozen final product.

Finally, you should prefer doing things live because it keeps peoples' attention better. Everyone knows live-coding carries some risk, so they're a bit on edge waiting to see if you can handle it. You earn immediate respect by showing you're gutsy enough to try it, and huge kudos if you can pull it off.

The risk of live coding scares many speakers off, but you shouldn't let it intimidate you. Yes, these talks take more time to prepare, and carry a bit more risk of failure, but the payoff is tremendous. Start small, with a lightning talk, perhaps. Figure out the level of preparation you need to feel confident. Then go for it in longer talk slots.