Telling a good story is cool

This week’s work has been truly fascinating.

Today I’m due to present a work report at our weekly group meeting, and I’ve decided to formally introduce the tool I’ve spent months developing. I gave myself a day to prepare from scratch. Having recently drafted an article about this tool, the timing proved ideal for preparing my presentation. But both tasks were new challenges—I’ve never written such concise academic text nor presented a tool before.

While browsing and reading brief articles introducing tool development, I discovered that concision demands exceptional precision and coherence. Each sentence must earn its place. This challenge has sharpened my thinking, creating a natural filter for what truly matters.

Additionally, the presentation preparation allowed me to step back and view my work from the audience’s perspective. The mental shift helped me reconsider how best to frame the tool’s development story. Weaving the article’s logic into my presentation felt like orchestrating an internal debate.

Before starting on my slides, I reflected on presentations from seminars and symposia. The most impressive speakers shared a common trait: they presented selected background information that directly supported their central ideas. Their narratives flowed naturally without drowning in unnecessary details. Excellence in presentation isn’t about displaying comprehensive knowledge, but carefully selecting information that guides your audience through your thinking.

With this insight, I selected the research very carefully, considering not only its importance in the field but also extracting the most relevant information to support the story of ‘my considerations’. This took considerably more time than simply listing breakthrough background research, and even more than constructing the results slides. But it was thoroughly worthy. When I finished presenting my introduction, my adviser paused me momentarily and praised how I had structured the background knowledge alongside my own thoughts. He also suggested I could write the article following the structure of my slides (in fact, I had already completed my writing, with similar logic). I was pleased someone appreciated the narrative I’d constructed.

Interestingly, this narrative wasn’t my initial vision. The clarity emerged gradually through the development process itself. The story I told wasn’t a blueprint I’d followed but a pattern I discovered in retrospect. This storytelling process was challenging yet fulfilling—I created meaning through my work even when the destination wasn’t initially clear.

Telling a good story is really cool—I thought of it while listening to other remarkable speakers and still thought so after I finished my presentation. There’s something powerful about it. It’s not about deceiving others, but about finding genuine coherence in my work. Perhaps it’s even a form of self-persuasion, but one that feels authentic and rewarding.