As I mentioned a couple of posts ago, I have been spending a lot of time on Garr Reynold’s blog Presentation Zen. As a matter of fact, after reading a few inspiring posts I went all the way back to the first posts of January 2005 and just started going through the whole series chronologically.
If you have the time and inclination, it’s always interesting and instructive to read a favorite blog from beginning to end. The practice provides valuable insight into the ways blogs evolve and develop character over time. The hardest thing about writing a blog is maintaining the discipline and self-confidence to keep it going, so it’s useful to see how others have maintained their pace. And since you will usually find that blogs improve over time, it’s encouraging in the early stages as you develop your own pace. Like exercise, it’s important to maintain discipline, even doing just a little at a time and making gradual progress.
I thought Garr’s third post – PowerPoint
abuse in Japan: we can learn a lot from the Japanese bento – was particularly
compelling. It tells the story of the insight he had on a train
enjoying a simple
Japanese box lunch, then looking across the aisle at a salaryman reading through a bad PowerPoint presentation crammed with
text. The experience became the impetus for his book,
where he notes: “The Japanese bento contains appropriate content arranged in the
most efficient, graceful manner. The bento is presented in a simple, beautiful,
and balanced way. Nothing lacking. Nothing superfluous. Not decorated, but
wonderfully designed. … When was the last time you could say the same for a
presentation?”
I’ve been a big bento fan since first visiting Japan in 1989, and living in Tokyo for six years during the 90s. The idea that even at a 7-11, you can get a simple, tasty, nicely arranged, and nutritious meal for $3, always struck me as one of the things that set Japan apart. When I worked at the Japanese ad agency Dentsu, enjoying a box lunch was one of those “moments of Zen” that created an oasis of calm amidst the chaos and clutter of my office environment.
Garr goes into more depth in his book about the way bento are constructed and how the various elements create nutritional as well as aesthetic balance, and makes some observations of how the principles of “presentation” in a good bento can carry over into slide presentations. One of the things I admire about Garr is that he demonstrates a genuine appreciation and knowledge of Zen aesthetics and presents them in an instructive and unpretentious manner. So, I hope he doesn’t mind my frequent links to his blog as my own way of processing and sharing his insights.
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