...There's twenty-nine of these things? Seriously?
Ice cream is good in any season. Even when it's too cold. Also, double chocolate ice-cream on a warm brownie. Can you ask for more?
Three-minute thesis competitions pose an interesting challenge. The idea is to summarise one's own PhD thesis for a non-specialist audience in just three minutes, backed up by a single PowerPoint slide. This is hard enough as it is, but the competitive element means that one has to stand out against everyone else in some way.
Standing out is the key phrase. Most people approach the three-minute thesis by trying to describe as much of their data as possible in an articulate manner. Unfortunately, data on its own isn't particularly interesting, not to a lay audience to whom everyone's work would sound almost equally incomprehensible. What then has to become interesting is the speaker. The speaker must display their passion for their work as they describe it, and thus inspire the audience as well.
It isn't easy. In standard article or report-writing, the speaker has to become detached from their work. They must appear as a non-entity, objectively testing aspects of the world for the truth. However, for a talk, the speaker is as much a part of the presentation as the slides are. And for a competitive presentation, it is personality which makes one stand out.
So anyway, all this boils down to a three-minute talk I had to deliver earlier today. Designing it was an interesting experience, and people afterwards told me that they didn't expect that sort of thing from me. Hey, I can put on a show when I need to. And I did win.
It can be quite jarring when the sun shines into your room, warming it gently - but the minute you step outside, you are plunged into icy air. On the one hand, I suppose I should be grateful for my apartment's good insulation. On the other hand... As if it wasn't hard enough trying to dress according to Melbourne's temperamental weather!
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