In prepration for coordinating our CSci senior seminar course here at UMM<\/a>, I’m reading the second edition of Edward R. Tufte’s excellent<\/em> pamphlet The cognitive style of PowerPoint: Pitching out currupts within<\/a>. I’d used the first edition a few years ago and really liked it, and the second is just has brilliant.<\/p>\n

Tufte’s work is massively quotable, so it’s hard to choose, but I think this bit pretty much sums up the deal:<\/p>\n

\nBoth the Columbia Accident Investigation Board and the Return to Flight Task Group were filled with smart experienced people with spectacular credentials. These review boards examined what is probably the best evidence available on PP [PowerPoint] for technical work: hundreds of PP decks from a high-IQ government agency thoroughly practiced in PP. Both review boards concluded that (1) PowerPoint is an inappropriate tool for engineering reports, presentations, documentation and (2) the technical report is superior to PP. Matched up against alternative tools, PowerPoint lost.\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The short version is that PowerPoint frankly sucks as a medium for conveying complex and information rich material. For example,<\/p>\n

\nCompared with the worldwide publications shown here, the PP [PowerPoint] statistical graphics are the thinnest of all, except for those in Pravda<\/em> in 1982, back when that newspaper operated as the major propaganda instrument of the Soviet communist party and a totalitarian government. Doing a bit better than Pravda<\/em> is not good enough…\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It’s a brilliant pamphlet and only costs $7, so there’s really no excuse for rushing out and getting one if you haven’t done so yet.<\/p>\n

I’m particularly struck by this because a few days ago we had two classic mis-uses of PowerPoint at our opening faculty\/staff convocation of the school year. One used a retina destroying color scheme motivated (I think) by a desire to work with our school colors, which almost certainly weren’t chosen for their typographic suitability, and another presenter suffered from the all<\/em> too familiar problem of constantly jumping to the wrong slide and struggling to navigate to the desired location. These were bright, skilled people who regularly (and rightly) represent our institution out in the world, and their choice and use of PowerPoint made them look, well, silly.<\/p>\n

Sigh.<\/p>\n

Much like Peter Norvig’s excellent re-casting of the Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address as a PowerPoint presentation<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\nGood morning. Just a second while I get this connection to work. Do I press this button here? Function-F7? No, that’s not right. Hmmm. Maybe I’ll have to reboot. Hold on a minute. Um, my name is Abe Lincoln and I’m your president. While we’re waiting, I want to thank Judge David Wills, chairman of the committee supervising the dedication of the Gettysburg cemetery. It’s great to be here, Dave, and you and the committee are doing a great job. Gee, sometimes this new technology does have glitches, but we couldn’t live without it, could we? Oh – is it ready? OK, here we go\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

If you’ve never read it, drop everything and go there now!<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In prepration for coordinating our CSci senior seminar course here at UMM, I’m reading the second edition of Edward R. Tufte’s excellent pamphlet The cognitive style of PowerPoint: Pitching out currupts within. I’d used the first edition a few years ago and really liked it, and the second is just has brilliant. Tufte’s work is … Continue reading “A wonderfully damning indictment of PowerPoint”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,1,15,7],"tags":[73],"class_list":["post-371","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-computing","category-general","category-science","category-writing","tag-technology"],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p90sy-5Z","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":372,"url":"https:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/archives\/2006\/08\/19\/more-fun-powerpoint-thwacking\/","url_meta":{"origin":371,"position":0},"title":"More fun PowerPoint thwacking","author":"Nic McPhee","date":"19 Aug 06","format":false,"excerpt":"I just finished my re-read of Tufte's excellent thumping of PowerPoint and there were two more quotes I couldn't resist sharing: At a minimum, we should choose presentation tools that do no harm to content. Yet PowerPoint promotes a cognitive style that disrupts and trivializes evidence. PP presentations too often\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Computing"","block_context":{"text":"Computing","link":"https:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/archives\/category\/computing\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Cover of Cognitive Style of PowerPoint by Edward R. Tufte","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.edwardtufte.com\/tufte\/graphics\/book_pp_cover.gif?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":373,"url":"https:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/archives\/2006\/08\/19\/death-by-powerpointliterally\/","url_meta":{"origin":371,"position":1},"title":"Death by PowerPoint…literally…","author":"Nic McPhee","date":"19 Aug 06","format":false,"excerpt":"OK, I promise to stop with the PowerPoint bashing Real Soon Now, but the situation is just so terrible that it's hard to walk away. In reading this thread from Tufte's Q&A thing (sort of like his blog), he points to this post from the Arms and Influence blog, which\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Computing"","block_context":{"text":"Computing","link":"https:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/archives\/category\/computing\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"PowerPoint Phluff explaining how the occupation phase of the current Iraq war was going to work.","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/armsandinfluence.typepad.com\/photos\/arms_and_influence_refere\/ppt1s.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":557,"url":"https:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/archives\/2007\/05\/11\/jocp-one-of-the-best-powerpoints-ever\/","url_meta":{"origin":371,"position":2},"title":"JOCP!! – One of the best PowerPoints ever!","author":"Nic McPhee","date":"11 May 07","format":false,"excerpt":"Stumbled across this gem via Naughton. I just about wet myself laughing during the presentation, and I thought I'd rupture something when he got to the bell sound effect during the graph presentation. I also had to go find the actual PowerPoint file so I could see the small print\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Computing"","block_context":{"text":"Computing","link":"https:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/archives\/category\/computing\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":787,"url":"https:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/archives\/2008\/01\/31\/and-tomorrow-i-head-home\/","url_meta":{"origin":371,"position":3},"title":"And tomorrow I head home","author":"Nic McPhee","date":"31 Jan 08","format":false,"excerpt":"All good things must come to an end, and our week at Dagstuhl ends tomorrow after lunch. Above is yesterday's group picture (I'm in yellow near the front) just before the traditional Wednesday hike (below), which was wet and misty but still an enjoyable few hours out in the world.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Computing"","block_context":{"text":"Computing","link":"https:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/archives\/category\/computing\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":839,"url":"https:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/archives\/2008\/05\/22\/can-we-please-remember-that-m-hasnt-completely-taken-over-the-world\/","url_meta":{"origin":371,"position":4},"title":"Can we please remember that M$ hasn’t completely taken over the world?","author":"Nic McPhee","date":"22 May 08","format":false,"excerpt":"I just had to take four on-line safety courses here at Essex in order to get money from our research grant. I'll spare you the horrors, although I did twitter on about of some of them as I went as a sanity saving device, and will share a couple: \"Keeping\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Computing"","block_context":{"text":"Computing","link":"https:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/archives\/category\/computing\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":478,"url":"https:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/archives\/2007\/02\/19\/its-hard-for-us-old-folks-to-get-it-or-teach-it\/","url_meta":{"origin":371,"position":5},"title":"It’s hard for us old folks to get it (or teach it)","author":"Nic McPhee","date":"19 Feb 07","format":false,"excerpt":"John Naughton had a nice column in The Observer last month about the chronic problems with IT courses for kids. There had been a plan for a new required exam in information and communication technology (ICT) for 14 year olds in the UK, but enthusiasm for the requirement has waned\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Computing"","block_context":{"text":"Computing","link":"https:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/archives\/category\/computing\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Four heads are better than one","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/farm1.static.flickr.com\/100\/279625345_412cdf3ef2_m.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/371","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=371"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/371\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=371"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=371"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=371"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}