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speaking

Outlines are outstanding

Outlines can enable creativity by leveraging structure

Mike Hardisty

• 2 min read
Outlines are outstanding
  1. Can you read this?
    1. Human brains love structure
    2. It’s a bit like those obnoxious T-shirts where the txet lokos lkie tihs
      1. The brain doesn’t read linearly like a computer.
      2. Readable because the brain looks for different inputs:
        1. The first letter
        2. The last letter
        3. The length of each word
    3. Spatial information is the basis for ideas like the memory palace
  2. When writing
    1. They let you group ideas without going through the trouble of explaining how they are grouped
    2. If writing is a journey, the outline is your map.
    3. It's the list of all the destinations you want to hit and the route you want to take.
  3. When speaking
    1. Scripts are limiting
      1. We script to rid ourselves of typical speaking-related challenges
        1. Examples
          1. Filler word reduction
          2. Blackouts
          3. Awkwardness when connecting ideas
        2. The same problems can be solved through outlines with practice
      2. If you go off, it’s hard to recover
    2. Think of outlines as the points you want to get across no matter what
      1. If you get pulled away, it’s easy to find where you were
      2. If the engagement takes an unexpected turn, the outline ideas can be reorganized mentally
  4. There are no rules
    1. I once had a teacher who said that you can’t do
      1. This (a section with only one sub-section)
    2. Can’t
      1. Stop
        1. Me
          1. Now
    3. Ordered (numbers) vs unordered (bullets)
      1. Depends on preference
      2. I’m all about the ordering.
        1. If the thoughts are unordered, I just ignore the numbers
  5. Transferrable
    1. File types
      1. Every editor supports indentation
        1. It’s good to learn keyboard shortcuts
          1. Tab for indent
          2. Shift + Tab for unindent
      2. Can be converted to HTML
    2. Easy to repurpose
      1. Between mediums
        1. A speech can become a book
        2. A cheeky blog post about outlines can become a tweet
      2. Between engagements
        1. A software demo for one audience can become
    3. Can be generated easily from a mind map
  6. Inspiration for this post
    1. Growing up, all through school, my dad encouraged me to use outlines
    2. I ignored him.
      1. It seemed like a pointless extra step.
    3. Dad always gets the last laugh.
  7. Some tips
    1. Aim for one sentence or idea per line
    2. Don’t be afraid to reorganize
    3. If publishing online as HTML, check out this site: https://wordtohtml.net/

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