Fill the Head and Capture the Heart

An eye doctor, who is also a teacher at a university asks the question: Does a teacher want to  fill the head or capture the heart? In an article in the  Kyunghyang magazine he tries  to give an answer. He admits that when he explains what he plans to do to a patient, he wonders how much they understand. Patients,at times, do not answer truthfully,which leaves him bewildered when he finds out. In his lectures he finds even though the topics are 
strange and done with little humor there is much conveyed.

He finds the presentations of Steve Jobs, the creator of Apple, extraordinary. Although he has died, we can still find on the internet his presentations. The doctor wanting to improve his own presentation, borrowed a book from the library on Steve Jobs' way of making presentations. What surprised him was that it took a whole book to explain what Jobs did in a one hour presentation.

He quotes a poet who wrote: "Life is difficult but to write poetry on life is easy which is embarrassing." The book he read on Jobs' presentation changed his way of thinking on the subject but then again we have people telling you how to become rich on the internet, and with the printing of their books become rich, but those who read the books remain poor. 

In any event, says the doctor, to see something once is better than a thousand words. He introduces us to  Steve Jobs' Stanford Commencement Speech 2005, and recommends those reading these words go to the internet: found by putting Steve Jobs' Stanford Commencement 2005 in the search engine.  

A doctor is not a salesman but he feels there has to be a balance between filling the heads of his audience and moving their hearts. He has to give them knowledge that they didn't have and contribute to what they did know, and at the same time move their hearts to follow his instructions: a sign of a good presentation.

When he reflects on the time and effort required in preparing his presentations this leaves him with a  big load on his shoulders. 

We all have small or big 'presentations'  to make everyday. Not only what we say, but how we say it  will determine what is accepted. The truth we speak is often not accepted because of the way presented, but also the way a person looks upon the one speaking. Some of the elements are under our control others are not, but we need to keep all of them in mind.