The Power of the unsaid: What the EPR paradox teaches us about Presentations
Have you ever wanted to explain everything, afraid your audience wouldn’t understand?
Maybe you’ve been in front of a presentation packed with slides full of dense text, complex charts, and endless data. Convinced that the more information you put in, the clearer and more convincing it will be. And yet, as you rehearse or present it, you notice eyes drifting, attention fading, and the very message you wanted to make “safe” becoming confused and distant.
That’s when you learn a powerful lesson: adding doesn’t always clarify. Sometimes, subtracting amplifies.
The EPR Paradox: a “non-local” reality
In 1935, Einstein, Podolsky and Rosen proposed a thought experiment (later known as the EPR paradox) to challenge the completeness of quantum mechanics. They argued that two “entangled” particles could influence each other instantly across distance, a phenomenon Einstein dismissed as spooky action at a distance.
The surprising part? Decades later, experiments confirmed it: measuring one particle instantly changes the state of the other, even miles apart.
The key isn’t so much what we observe, but what we don’t observe: what remains suspended, undefined, full of potential until the moment we choose to “look” or “measure.” In the EPR paradox (and in quantum mechanics in general), before measurement, a particle’s state isn’t definite: all possibilities coexist. Only when we observe does it “choose” a state.
It sounds abstract, but for communicators, it’s gold:
In a presentation, what you don’t say isn’t passive absence, but it’s active potential.
The unsaid leaves space for imagination, sparks curiosity, and involves the audience in a personal way.
Just like in quantum physics, where reality takes shape only when observed, our message fully comes alive only when the audience “measures” it, interprets it and makes it their own.
When we learn to use the power of the unsaid, we transform our communication from a one-way flow into a shared experience.
Subtract to suggest
When we speak on stage (or in a meeting room), we often feel the urge to fill every second, explain everything. But just as in quantum mechanics, in communication, the “unsaid” creates a space of possibility. A held gesture, a well-placed pause, a slide with a single word: these don’t remove clarity; they enhance it and activate the audience’s mind.
Neuroscience tells us the human brain hates gaps; it instinctively fills them. In presentations, leaving part of the story untold is an invitation to co-create mentally: a subtle, powerful move.
Storytelling by subtraction
Think of a movie, a book, or a talk that stayed with you. Often, we don’t remember every detail, but an image, a feeling, a suspended phrase. The real impact doesn’t come from what we say, but from what we allow the audience to imagine.
When designing slides and a narrative, this approach requires courage. It means choosing with care what to show, what to hint at, and what to remove entirely. In practice: less is truly more, but only if that “less” is intentional. As architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe said, “Less is more.” But the “less” has to be a deliberate choice, designed to guide and ignite the audience’s mind.
The same goes for white space in slides: empty space is not absence; it’s visual breathing. White space gives weight to what remains, letting a concept or a single word emerge like a flash of insight. It’s often thanks to white space that a message gains both strength and lightness.
A practical exercise: the 3-Why Compass
Choose one slide or a key message from your next presentation.
1️⃣ Ask yourself: Why am I saying this?
2️⃣ Then: Why does this matter to the audience?
3️⃣ Finally: Why now?
If you can’t answer all three simply and directly, that part may need rethinking or trimming. Training with this “compass” helps you strip away the excess and amplify what remains.
This article is part of Quantum Presentations: a series exploring how ideas from quantum physics can elevate storytelling, communication, and presentation design.
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