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CIP-0001: Establishing Talk Tenets

Summary

This CIP proposes establishing a set of tenets to guide the creation, structure, and delivery of machine learning talks across different audience types and technical levels.

Motivation

As the collection of talks grows, having consistent guiding principles will:

1. Ensure cohesive quality and style across talks
2. Make it easier to reuse and adapt content for different audiences
3. Provide clear direction for creating new talks
4. Help maintain appropriate slide density and narrative flow

Detailed Description

This CIP will establish a “talk tenets” directory with individual tenet files following the existing tenet system structure. Each tenet will define a guiding principle for talk creation, with examples, counter-examples, and consideration of conflicts with other tenets.

Initial proposed tenets include:

1. Audience-Centered Design: Talks are designed with the specific audience in mind
2. Narrative Coherence: Each talk tells a cohesive story with clear logical flow
3. Slide Simplicity: Slides contain at most three bullets or two formulae
4. Content Modularity: Content is organized to maximize reusability
5. Visual Reinforcement: Visual elements reinforce rather than replace the narrative
6. Balanced Perspective: Technical concepts are balanced with real-world implications
7. Accessibility: Complex ideas are made accessible without oversimplification

Implementation Plan

1. Create Tenet Directory Structure:
   • Create directory tenets/
   • Set up individual tenet files using the existing template
2. Develop Individual Tenets:
   • Draft each of the 7 proposed tenets with detailed examples
   • Create specific examples from existing successful talks
   • Document counter-examples of what to avoid
3. Generate Combined Documentation:
   • Use the existing combine_tenets.py script to generate combined markdown and YAML files
4. Integration with Talk Creation Process:
   • Update README.md to reference the talk tenets
   • Develop a simple checklist for verifying tenet alignment during talk creation

Backward Compatibility

These tenets codify existing best practices rather than imposing entirely new standards. Existing talks won’t need modification, but future edits should consider alignment with the tenets.

Testing Strategy

The tenets will be tested by:

1. Reviewing a sample of existing high-quality talks to ensure the tenets accurately capture their strengths
2. Creating a new talk using the tenets as guidance and evaluating the result
3. Having multiple content creators review the tenets for clarity and applicability

Implementation Status

• Create talks tenet directory structure
• Draft the first 2 tenets (Audience-Centered Design and Slide Simplicity)
• Draft the remaining 5 tenets
• Generate combined documentation
• Update repository README to reference tenets
• Create simple alignment checklist for talk creation
• Test tenets against existing and new talks

Progress Notes

2024-06-15

• Created initial tenets for “Audience-Centered Design” and “Slide Simplicity”
• Enhanced Audience-Centered Design tenet to include multi-layered approach, similar to how children’s films can entertain both adults and children simultaneously
• Using existing tenet structure rather than creating a separate talk-specific structure

2025-05-05

• Modified combine_tenets.py script to work with talk tenets
• Generated combined talk-tenets.md and talk-tenets.yaml files

References

• Existing tenet system in tenets/
• Current talk organization across topical directories
• Snippet reuse patterns in $HOME/lawrennd/snippets/

Author

Neil D. Lawrence

Date

2025-05-05