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 If a message is not received by the intended target, it is a failure of the sender. A speaker needs to take into account the audience they are communicating with. I would say 100% of the burden is on the speaker for the intended audience. That does not mean everyone attending a talk is in the intended target of the speaker though. Some percentage of the audience may not understand without fault of the speaker if the speaker had a different audience as target.
