Writing Slides
Bold, minimal copy for speaking to, not reading from.
Headline patterns
Statement: bold declarations that take a position:
- "Speed is a feature"
- "AI has no memory"
- "Passive beats active"
Question: create tension, invite reflection:
- "What would we do differently if we started today?"
- "So does any of this actually work?"
Action: drive toward outcomes:
- "Building blocks over modules"
- "Always be gardening"
Framing: set context for what follows:
- "How we got here"
- "The real results"
Headlines: 4-12 words, sentence case, no trailing period.
Body text rules
- Bold lead-in + explanation:
**Retention is the real metric.** Acquisition gets attention, retention builds the business. - Key phrase emphasis: "We compete on speed and focus"
- Minimal bullets: 3-4 max on a presented deck, each earning its place (pitch decks use the denser rules in pitch-decks.md instead)
- Inline code:
backticksfor technical terms, file names, commands
Copy per slide type
What each type's headline and body carry. The types themselves, and what each is for, live in outline-structure.md.
| Type | Headline | Body |
|---|---|---|
| statement | Bold claim or insight | Optional 1-2 line explanation or stat |
| big-statement | Full-screen, maximum scale, centered | None |
| question | Provocative question | Optional context, 1 line max |
| section-divider | Section title | None |
| goals | "Goals for today" or outcome framing | 3-4 bullets, bold lead-in + brief explanation |
| data | What the data shows, never "Data" | 2-4 key numbers with labels |
| code | What this code does | 5-15 lines, syntax-highlighted, no comments |
| framework | The comparison being drawn | Matrix, do/don't, or side-by-side |
| quote | The quote itself, large | Attribution: name, role or source |
| recap | "Recap" or "Key takeaways" | One-liner per section, complete thoughts |
| resources | Grouped links | Links grouped by section |
| next-steps | Action framing | 3-4 bullets |
Transformation examples
Before: "The fundamental issue with AI coding assistants is that they don't retain any context between sessions, leading to repetitive outputs" After:
Headline: AI has no memory Subtitle: Every session starts from zero
Before: "Our product strategy will be based on building reusable components" After:
Headline: Building blocks over modules Supporting: A platform built on configurable building blocks.
Order of work per slide
- Write the headline first: bold statement or question. Everything else is optional.
- Add body only if it says something the headline does not.
- Cut anything the speaker will say aloud anyway; a slide that repeats the talk track makes one of them redundant.