At a recent talk in Hobart, I had 90 slides.

Thirty minutes. Ninety slides.

If you’re doing the maths, that’s three slides a minute.

Which sounds… fast.

By most presentation advice, that’s a problem.

Too fast.
Too much.
Too many chances to lose the room.

Afterwards, no one mentioned it.

Not one comment about pace.
Not one raised eyebrow about slide count.

Because they hadn’t noticed.

💡 ONE IDEA WELL

The “one slide per minute” rule has been around for years.

It sounds sensible. Clean. Reassuring.

It also falls apart the moment you watch a great talk.

Some speakers spend three minutes on one slide.
Others move through ten in thirty seconds.

And then there’s PechaKucha.

20 slides. 20 seconds each. No control.

Rigid. Fast. Unforgiving.

It works beautifully…
because the format is the point.

But most talks aren’t PechaKucha.

So the question isn’t:

“How many slides should I have?”

It’s:

“What job are my slides doing?”

Because slide count is just a proxy for something else.

Clarity.
Pacing.
Cognitive load.

And when those are off, we blame the number.

🧰 LESS MESS, MORE MESSAGE

If slide count is a proxy…

then changing the number won’t fix the problem.

There was a time when slide count really mattered.

Physical slides. Carousels. Click. Click. Click.
You could run out.

Now we have effectively infinite slides.

And that changes the game.

Most people respond by cramming more onto each slide.

More bullets.
More text.
More “just in case.”

It looks efficient.

It isn’t.

Because the audience now has to read…
while listening…
while trying to keep up.

That’s cognitive load in action.

Too many demands on limited working memory.

And when that happens, something gives.

Usually… understanding.

Use slides to build, not store.

Instead of one crowded slide with five bullet points…
use five simple slides.

One idea at a time.

One image.
One line.
One shift.

No animations. No distractions.

Just progression.

You’re not adding slides.

You’re reducing load.

There’s a move I use a lot that most people miss.

If I need prompts…

I don’t add text to the slide.

I duplicate it.

Same visual.
Different speaker notes.

To the audience, nothing changes.

To me, everything is easier.

No dense slides.
No autocue reading.
No split attention.

Just a clean image… and a clear next line.

Because slides aren’t the script.

They’re scenery.

🧭 TRY THIS

Take one dense slide.

The one with five bullet points.

Break it into three… or five.

Then rehearse it.

Notice what happens to your pace.
Notice what happens to your breathing.
Notice what happens to the room.

If your audience never knew how many slides you used…

What would they actually remember?

The number…

Or how easy it was to follow?

Slide count is what speakers worry about.

Cognitive load is what audiences experience.

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Speak soon,

Andy