The Cognitive Style of PowerPoint: Pitching Out Corrupts Within, Second…

Wow, Tufte is really pissed off at PowerPoint. I agree with his assessment that powerpoint is the wrong tool for conveying technical analysis. And I can see where PowerPoint leads you into traps, but I still think PowerPoint can be utilized by a competent speaker, and those are all the points he didn't try to make.

aside: I like how when he is talking about the average powerpoint slide only having 12 numbers per table, he lists a table comparing powerpoint to other mediums, and the table only has 12 numbers.

This booklet is excepted from one of Tufte's other books, and is at times a spectacularly intemperate rant against PowerPoint. My view is that software packages are a tool and should used as such. Tufte makes good points as usual, but PowerPoint isn't the villain, i think. ( )

With all respect to other works of Tufte, this booklet is not convincing. Blaming the tool for its misuse is like saying that hammers are in general weapons... ( )

An Audience Advocate

Finally, an advocate for the audience. In this 28-page essay Edward R. Tufte concludes the convenience of PowerPoint comes at a cost to content and the audience.

Presentations succeed or fail based on their quality relevance and integrity of their content. At a minimum, the presentation format should not harm the content. Yet Tufte, a retired professor of design at Yale University, notes audiences absorb information at higher rates than those presented in the typical PowerPoint Presentation.

For serious presentations, he says, it is useful to replace PowerPoint sides with paper handouts showing words, numbers, data, graphics and images. Presentations should reflect good teaching. Communicate core ideas with explanation, content and credible authority.

There is no question that PowerPoint is an aide to those presenters who are inept or extremely disorganized. These people should learn that if they cannot summarize their point in a single sentence. If not, they should do themselves and their audiences a favor by declining the invitation to speak.

For the rest, reliance on this software crutch gives the speaker a false sense of doing well and for audiences to pretend they are listening.

As Tufte concludes, this little dance punctuates the question, “Why are we having this meeting?” ( )