Comments on: Is it bad to increase cognitive load? http://firestarterlabs.com/2009/10/22/is-it-bad-to-increase-cognitive-load/ Ignite your presentations Fri, 23 Apr 2010 13:32:21 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0 By: Kathy Sierra http://firestarterlabs.com/2009/10/22/is-it-bad-to-increase-cognitive-load/comment-page-1/#comment-2 Kathy Sierra Thu, 22 Oct 2009 21:42:21 +0000 http://firestarterlabs.com/?p=43#comment-2 Hey TJ, I actually agreed with you on Scott's blog... my previous comment said, "Doubt it matters for a video of this size". My issue is that this is not just ANY promo video, but a promo *about* the topic of presentations, so I'm holding it to a different standard for setting an example. Having been in this situation myself -- presenting *on* presenting -- we don't have the luxury of giving disclaimers around the context of the techniques we use. So, I completely agree that while *in this case* the technique is not really a problem, as a general principle, it IS. The other reason this matters to me is because cognitive load is probably the single biggest problem in technical books published by others including O'Reilly, and I never miss a chance to call it out, even--in this case--when it's probably doing no harm. I do urge us all to find better ways to up the excitement *without* increasing cognitive load. This technique does not scale. So happy you commented and posted, though -- it gave me a chance to modify my earlier drama ;) Hey TJ,
I actually agreed with you on Scott’s blog… my previous comment said, “Doubt it matters for a video of this size”. My issue is that this is not just ANY promo video, but a promo *about* the topic of presentations, so I’m holding it to a different standard for setting an example.

Having been in this situation myself — presenting *on* presenting — we don’t have the luxury of giving disclaimers around the context of the techniques we use. So, I completely agree that while *in this case* the technique is not really a problem, as a general principle, it IS. The other reason this matters to me is because cognitive load is probably the single biggest problem in technical books published by others including O’Reilly, and I never miss a chance to call it out, even–in this case–when it’s probably doing no harm.

I do urge us all to find better ways to up the excitement *without* increasing cognitive load. This technique does not scale.

So happy you commented and posted, though — it gave me a chance to modify my earlier drama ;)

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