Month 11-Week 2: Publish + give a talk¶

Week summary¶

Goal: Publish the capstone post broadly. Engage with comments. Schedule and prep a talk (internal at minimum; external as stretch).
Time: ~9 h over 3 sessions.
Output: Tenth public blog post live; talk slides; talk delivered or scheduled.

Why this week matters¶

Public talks compound. Even a 30-min internal talk with a recording is a portfolio piece. Conference talks open doors. The post + talk pairing is much stronger than post alone.

Prerequisites¶

M11-W01 complete (post drafted and reviewed).

Recommended cadence¶

Session A-Tue/Wed evening (~3 h): publish + initial engage
Session B-Sat morning (~3.5 h): talk outline + slides
Session C-Sun afternoon (~2.5 h): rehearse + deliver-or-schedule

Session A-Publish + engage¶

Goal: Post live in many channels. Engage with comments substantively.

Part 1-Publish (45 min)¶

Personal blog (canonical).
Cross-post to dev.to, Medium (canonical link to your blog).
Submit to HN (Show HN).
Post to r/MachineLearning (Project flair; readme + post link).
Post to r/LocalLLaMA (if applicable).
LinkedIn (paragraph teaser + link).
Twitter/X (thread of 3-4 tweets, each linking the post).
Email to: 5 specific practitioners (authors of tools you used, blog post authors you respect).

Part 2-Engage (75 min)¶

Watch HN, Reddit, X. Respond: - Thank substantive feedback. - Engage with technical critique. Concede where you're wrong; defend where you're right. - Don't engage with bad-faith criticism. Mute, don't respond.

Replies on Day 1 disproportionately drive engagement on Day 2-3. Stay engaged early.

Part 3-Track + iterate (60 min)¶

Note: - HN points / position / time on front page. - Reddit upvote ratio. - LinkedIn views. - DMs received.

For each substantive question raised in comments: add to "future post topics" list.

Output of Session A¶

Tenth public blog post live.
Engagement under way.
Future post topics seeded.

Session B-Talk outline + slides¶

Goal: A 25-minute talk + 5-minute Q&A. Slides built.

Part 1-Choose venue (30 min)¶

In rough order of difficulty: - Internal team talk (1 hour from now if you want it). - Internal company-wide tech talk. - Local meetup (search "PyData ", "AI Engineers "). - Conference (papercall.io, search current AI conferences).

For M11, internal-or-meetup is realistic. CFP submissions for big conferences happen now; talk delivers later.

Part 2-Outline (60 min)¶

25-minute talk = ~15-18 slides.

1. Title + you (1 slide).
2. The problem (2-3 slides). Specific, with images.
3. Existing tools-what's missing (2 slides).
4. Your approach (3-4 slides). Architecture diagram + key insight.
5. Results (3-4 slides). Numbers, charts.
6. Live demo (2-3 minutes-embed in slides or screen-share).
7. What I learned (1-2 slides).
8. What's next (1 slide).
9. Q&A (1 slide).

Part 3-Build slides (120 min)¶

Tools: Slidev, Keynote, Google Slides, reveal.js. Pick whatever you'll actually use.

Principles: - 1 idea per slide. - Minimal text. Pictures > words. - Code snippets formatted; not huge walls. - Test the live demo on a clean machine.

Output of Session B¶

15-18 slides for a 30-min talk.

Session C-Rehearse + deliver/schedule¶

Goal: Two end-to-end rehearsals. Either deliver this week or schedule for soon.

Part 1-First rehearsal (45 min)¶

Out loud. Time it. Note every "umm" or skipped slide.

Part 2-Second rehearsal + record (45 min)¶

Practice talk + Q&A. Record yourself (Zoom solo recording works).

Watch the recording. It's painful; do it anyway. Note where you ramble.

Part 3-Deliver or schedule (60 min)¶

If delivering this week: good. Confirm logistics.

If scheduling for later: - Send a meeting invite to your team / meetup organizer / venue. - Pick a date in the next 4 weeks. - Block prep time.

Even if delivery is later, your slides + recording are now portfolio pieces.

Output of Session C¶

Talk delivered or scheduled within 4 weeks.
Self-recording for review.

End-of-week artifact¶

Tenth public blog post published, ≥4 channels
Engagement ≥10 substantive replies handled
Talk slides built
Talk delivered or scheduled

End-of-week self-assessment¶

My post got at least some external traction (HN visibility, Reddit upvotes, DMs).
I responded substantively to critique.
I have slides I'd give again.

Common failure modes for this week¶

No engage. "I posted; if it's good people will find it"-wrong. Engagement drives reach.
Defensive replies. Concede where you're wrong; you'll be more credible.
No talk. Too much friction; just do internal.

What's next (preview of M11-W03)¶

Network outreach + public profile alignment + CFP submissions.