I don&#x27;t really agree with this.  There are certainly some really bad ways to give live code demos, but I find that when its done well it can be very effective.  I feel like the small delays and the slower buildup of code can give me in the audience time to understand and follow along.<p>It makes me think of my college math classes, I always preferred the professors who would work through the problems by hand on the board during lecture because you could easily follow along through the whole process.  I had some professors who used examples prepared ahead of time either on powerpoint or overhead projection, even though the same steps were there, it was harder to follow. I found it more difficult to learn from the prepared demos because it was easier to get overwhelmed, you went from 0 to a lot of content instead of slowly building over time, additionally the professor tended to move a little more quickly than they would have otherwise.<p>I also think live-demos can be potentially more interactive.  Obviously it depends on the situation, but I&#x27;ve seen demos where the audience starts asking questions and its very effective when the presenter can respond with, &quot;let&#x27;s try that&quot;.