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Harvard Just Discovered That PowerPoint Is Worse Than Useless

4 points by ohjeez 7y ago

jdauriemma 7y ago
I think most slide decks are pretty useless but this quote was striking: > "PowerPoint's celebrated ease and efficiency actually mask a profoundly disturbing but little-understood transformation in human communication. The slides, bulleted lists, and flashy graphics we all now take for granted [have] promoted a new, slippery 'grammar,' where faulty causality, sloppy logic, decontextualized data, and seductive showmanship have replaced the traditional tools of persuasion and argument [resulting in] the corruption of language [and] the dumbing-down of society." Pulling this quote may not have been a strong choice. It requires the reader to accept the premises that language is being "corrupted" and that society is being "dumb[ed] down" in order to buy into the argument that PowerPoint is bad. Yes, PowerPoint is bad. No, I don't buy into the notion that society's changes today are without precedent - people have always blamed new technologies for corrupting language and making society dumber. > [Writing] will create forgetfulness in the learners’ souls, because they will not use their memories; they will trust to the external written characters and not remember of themselves. The specific which you have discovered is an aid not to memory, but to reminiscence, and you give your disciples not truth, but only the semblance of truth; they will be hearers of many things and will have learned nothing; they will appear to be omniscient and will generally know nothing; they will be tiresome company, having the show of wisdom without the reality. - Socrates, arguing against reading and writing
Aperocky 7y ago
Powerpoint is a godsend tool for the babies, lots of pictures, easy to grok, perfect for sliding through without thinking at all. Which apparently makes it very appealing to a certain set of corporate leadership, so they can then proceed to make whatever decision they already have in mind after scrolling through it. There's a million way to convey meaning better than powerpoint, markdown comes to my mind, instead of focusing on dazzling the audience, it focus on conveying information.
bediger4000 7y ago
Anybody who's sat through several corporate PowerPoint presentations knows this on a gut level. My kids have all had to use PowerPoint at school to present some work. The enthusiasm they had for including as many wipes, masks, and effects as possible was a real joy. It's just that I expect more from a software architect, or a sales engineer.

4 points by ohjeez 7y ago

I think most slide decks are pretty useless but this quote was striking: > "PowerPoint's celebrated ease and efficiency actually mask a profoundly disturbing but little-understood transformation in human communication. The slides, bulleted lists, and flashy graphics we all now take for granted [have] promoted a new, slippery 'grammar,' where faulty causality, sloppy logic, decontextualized data, and seductive showmanship have replaced the traditional tools of persuasion and argument [resulting in] the corruption of language [and] the dumbing-down of society." Pulling this quote may not have been a strong choice. It requires the reader to accept the premises that language is being "corrupted" and that society is being "dumb[ed] down" in order to buy into the argument that PowerPoint is bad. Yes, PowerPoint is bad. No, I don't buy into the notion that society's changes today are without precedent - people have always blamed new technologies for corrupting language and making society dumber. > [Writing] will create forgetfulness in the learners’ souls, because they will not use their memories; they will trust to the external written characters and not remember of themselves. The specific which you have discovered is an aid not to memory, but to reminiscence, and you give your disciples not truth, but only the semblance of truth; they will be hearers of many things and will have learned nothing; they will appear to be omniscient and will generally know nothing; they will be tiresome company, having the show of wisdom without the reality. - Socrates, arguing against reading and writing

Aperocky 7y ago

Powerpoint is a godsend tool for the babies, lots of pictures, easy to grok, perfect for sliding through without thinking at all. Which apparently makes it very appealing to a certain set of corporate leadership, so they can then proceed to make whatever decision they already have in mind after scrolling through it. There's a million way to convey meaning better than powerpoint, markdown comes to my mind, instead of focusing on dazzling the audience, it focus on conveying information.

bediger4000 7y ago

Anybody who's sat through several corporate PowerPoint presentations knows this on a gut level. My kids have all had to use PowerPoint at school to present some work. The enthusiasm they had for including as many wipes, masks, and effects as possible was a real joy. It's just that I expect more from a software architect, or a sales engineer.