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Here's a reponse to Tufte in defense of PowerPoint, which was on HN a few weeks ago: http://www.john-foreman.com/1/post/2014/01/defending-powerpoint-against-tu

• nswanberg 13y ago
  What is good about the response? What is new in it? The author has two main points: 1) that Tufte had information dense slides in his presentations, and because PowerPoint can be used to show information dense slides, Tufte is wrong, and 2) that since Steve Jobs had forceful product announcement presentations with simple slides, and since Tufte likes Apple products, Tufte is wrong. While I suppose the second point is novel, neither are good. Neither point addresses Tufte's central problem with PowerPoint, which is that the software, with its templates and bullet-point lists, encourages a certain style of ritualistic presentation, where the presenter's conclusions are the focus, not the backing evidence that leads to those conclusions. This sort of problem preceded PowerPoint (Tufte writes about similar problems with overhead projector presentations with transparencies filled with bullet points at IBM in his essay The Cognitive Style of PowerPoint), but PowerPoint inflamed the problem.
  • mariodiana 13y ago
    Citing Steve Jobs to defend slideshows only makes the case for what's wrong with slide shows. Jobs' slideshows were only ever a supplement to his presentation. If you removed the slideshows, the presentation would suffer somewhat (and only a little, if you ask me). However, if you removed Jobs, there would be no presentation. His slides were nothing you could review online later because you missed the live presentation.