This reminds me of Paul Graham's comment about Powerpoint, "the stated purpose of Powerpoint is to present ideas. Its real role is to overcome people's fear of

This reminds me of Paul Graham's comment about Powerpoint, "the stated purpose of Powerpoint is to present ideas. Its real role is to overcome people's fear of public speaking. It allows you to give an impressive-looking talk about nothing, and it causes the audience to sit in a dark room looking at slides, instead of a bright one looking at you." (from http://paulgraham.com/hiring.html) http://paulgraham.com/hiring.html) I for one would be happy to see it go by the wayside. In most cases, it makes for boring, formulaic presentations. When used properly, it can serve a good purpose, but most people use it for the purposes that pg stated. I preferred the time where people would instead focus on the speech itself, memorizing much of it. That made talks seem much more dynamic and interesting, in my opinion.