NTY: PowerPoint Makes You Dumb (reference to Powell @ the UN)

[BlueEyedSon]

Why post this at DU, you ask?

Microsoft officials, of course, beg to differ. Simon Marks, the product manager for PowerPoint, counters that Tufte is a fan of ''information density,'' shoving tons of data at an audience. You could do that with PowerPoint, he says, but it's a matter of choice. ''If people were told they were going to have to sit through an incredibly dense presentation,'' he adds, ''they wouldn't want it.'' And PowerPoint still has fans in the highest corridors of power: Colin Powell used a slideware presentation in February when he made his case to the United Nations that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction.

Of course, given that the weapons still haven't been found, maybe Tufte is onto something. Perhaps PowerPoint is uniquely suited to our modern age of obfuscation -- where manipulating facts is as important as presenting them clearly. If you have nothing to say, maybe you need just the right tool to help you not say it.

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/12/14/magazine/14POWER.html?ex=1071982800&en=799ad449b398c2d7&ei=5062&partner=GOOGLE

[ZenLefty]

1. An alternate theory

Those who use PowerPoint to present data like that are not too bright in the first place.

[Pale_Rider]

2. Most of the times you are required ...

... to give a Powerpoint presentation at my place of work. And yep I have sat through several days worth during design reviews.


(And Dilbert has plenty more on this subject ...)

[NashVegas]

3. They've Got a (no pun intended) Point

It's ridiculous that we expect anyone spend as much time putting a report together, via electronic programs, as they do researching the data.

I've seen colleges offer classes in Power Point for credits. Ri-di-cu-lous.