Powerpoint
It's well circulated thought in the tech community but many people haven't really considered how Powerpoint is rotting society. My wanker-o-meter just hit the ceiling here in this coffee shop because I can see the guy in the business suit (sales - see What the Bubble Got Right, #6) working on a presentation with the following:
1. Italicized, script (psuedo-cursive) fonts.
2. Hideously colored themes: green text on a red background, pink headers on a green background.
3. Fake percentages: e.g. "Having the right people is 99% of Success!"
I could go on describing it but I don't want to look anymore. I can see his presentation too: he'll read each bullet point verbatim since he won't be able to remember what he's trying to say between slides.
It's sad when I see stuff like this or when I see people put together a presentation by firing up powerpoint and starting with their bullet points. Or when I visit a church and the "sermon" is in its entirety Powerpoint slides and fill in the blanks with words or phrases missing from the bullet points.
This guy (oh yes - I'm well aware of who he is) at Google, Peter Norvig, did a little parody (the story behind it) of the Lincoln's Gettysburg address in Powerpoint. You'll laugh at first too if you're like me, but it's sadly a pervasive mentality.
The sad matter is that Powerpoint is actually quite useful when used appropriately. At a conference I recently attended, I took note of how all the presenters did an excellent job in crafting their Powerpoint slides. Too bad the tool's abuse overpowers its good uses.
Last thing: I give presentations from time to time and still use Powerpoint, although I do my best to let my content drive the presentation, not the slides. I try to use other visual aids as well as writing on a whiteboard. I avoid large blocks of text on the slides and if I do have handouts I put a little effort into them; they are usually not the slides as seen in the presentation. And there's a community of people online who do a lot of thinking about this topic - a really good starting point for that is Presentation Zen. For inspiration you can see the presenters from TED, especially Hans Rosling.
10:39:53 AM 
|
