Why is the ability to do good science orthogonal to the ability to give a good presentation? I would think intelligence and creativity would be common attributes to both skills. 30 years of watching science seminars makes me think the two skills are independent of each other.
@Ferris_vball In your experience and thinking, what fraction of the burden of a "good presentation" is on audience? Paul Dirac and Lars Onsager come to mind when I ask that. Their audience struggled simply because their work was quite deep.
@mv @Ferris_vball the burden is close to none on the audience. It's the burden of the presenter to know the audience and cater their talk to the knowledge and expertise of the audience. You can't give a spexialized seminar talk to a department colloquium. Nor I would say you can use the same graphs or slides for that talk. *Knowing your audience* is literally the first step of scientific communication.
