[dnautics]

What? No. Being good at presentations is IMO uncorrelated to extroversion, I have literally seen hundreds of them (science grad school, was in two labs with weekly group meetings and went to two journal clubs a week, plus lectures by visiting profs, etc) a rough estimate would be I've seen about 500 presentations, most presented by people whom I know and have a good feel of whether or not they are extroverted.

[ghaff]

Maybe not uncorrelated but I mostly agree. A presentation is a performance. And there are people who can be very good at performing who are not especially into introducing themselves to strangers one on one.

[dnautics]

The reason why I disagree is that presentation is a skill and introverts are more likely to be conscientious about their presentation, their mistakes, and put effort into patching them up over time. Even if it's their first go at it, they are likely to be conscientious about the content of their preso because they know they're going to suck at the live aspect (I'm an extrovert, btw). There might be a maturity aspect too, as in: when you're a high school or college student you are one-tracked to barf all of your knowledge onto the screen, probably due to insecurity, but that's uncorrelated to social temperament

[aeon97]

I agree. I think presentation skills can be learned by anyone, regardless of personality. Maybe some people will have to work harder to develop them, but it's possible. I'm pretty introverted, but I have worked as both a waitress and a DJ. Learning to interact confidently with the public is just a skill for those jobs. Extroverted people might just master it more quickly.