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Write a talk

Write a talk people can follow in the room — one takeaway, the result first, rehearsed against a timer — instead of reading a blog post aloud. Use when you have a slot, a conference, an all-hands, or a demo that has to land in twenty minutes.

---
name: write-a-talk
category: creative
description: >-
  Write a talk people can follow in the room — one takeaway, the result
  first, rehearsed against a timer — instead of reading a blog post aloud.
  Use when you have a slot, a conference, an all-hands, or a demo that has
  to land in twenty minutes.
---

# Write a Talk

A talk is not a blog post with slides. The audience cannot rewind, cannot
skim, and will not read your appendix. They get one pass, in real time,
while tired.

The method is: **one sentence they should leave with, the result in the
first minute, then a rehearsal that hurts.**

## Decide the takeaway before the outline

One sentence, written for a person who will repeat it at lunch:

> After this talk, they will be able to ______.

If you cannot finish it, you have a topic. "Our architecture" is not a
takeaway. "When to split a module, and when a long file is the right call"
is.

Everything that does not serve that sentence is a different talk. Put it
in backup slides or a post. Do not "also cover." Also-cover is how
twenty minutes becomes forty of apology.

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