http://sooper.org/misc/ppt/ A list of articles discussing the impact of a reliance on PowerPoint® and bullet-point based communication. Fri, 11 Aug 2006 08:00:00 EST Fri, 11 Aug 2006 08:00:00 EST en-us “The Anti-Design Tool — For designers, though, there’s nothing quite as offensive as PowerPoint.” http://sooper.org/misc/ppt/#p200611sub http://sooper.org/misc/ppt/#p200611sub Sun, 19 Nov 2006 08:00:00 EST http://sooper.org/misc/ppt/#p200611dai http://sooper.org/misc/ppt/#p200611dai Sun, 19 Nov 2006 08:00:00 EST “So a battle is underway: PowerPoint vs. BlackBerry. This is the Iran-Iraq war of passive aggression — whom to root for?” http://sooper.org/misc/ppt/#p200611bos http://sooper.org/misc/ppt/#p200611bos Sun, 19 Nov 2006 08:00:00 EST Originally appeared in the Wall Street Journal – Cubicle Culture – Jared Sandberg: Tips for PowerPoint: -Go Easy on the Text -Please, Spare Us. Rebuttal at Blogging Stocks: PowerPoint: it’s not that bad!Another PowerPoint truism inflating its popularity: Your own PowerPoints don’t smell. http://sooper.org/misc/ppt/#p200611mon http://sooper.org/misc/ppt/#p200611mon Sun, 19 Nov 2006 08:00:00 EST “PLAGIARISM and cheating by today’s cut-and-paste generation of university students will never be stamped out unless lecturers stop spoon-feeding them a diet of handouts and PowerPoint presentations, a leading academic said yesterday.” http://sooper.org/misc/ppt/#p200610tim http://sooper.org/misc/ppt/#p200610tim Sun, 19 Nov 2006 08:00:00 EST http://sooper.org/misc/ppt/#p200610sci http://sooper.org/misc/ppt/#p200610sci Sun, 19 Nov 2006 08:00:00 EST “There is a culture of expectation among today’s students. They just take whatever is put in their hands, be it a handout or a PowerPoint presentation. That way you end up boiling down complex things to three bullet points.” http://sooper.org/misc/ppt/#p200610ars http://sooper.org/misc/ppt/#p200610ars Sun, 19 Nov 2006 08:00:00 EST “…I generally believe that PowerPoint is the spawn of Satan. It breeds passivity in the students and it disconnects the speaker from the audience. (It also encourages professors to reduce their deepest, most private thoughts on teaching to a few bullet points.)” http://sooper.org/misc/ppt/#p200610wes http://sooper.org/misc/ppt/#p200610wes Sun, 19 Nov 2006 08:00:00 EST “That kind of loss of productivity is usually associated with stress, absenteeism and disease. In fact, at least one CEO thinks PowerPoint is a disease.” http://sooper.org/misc/ppt/#p200609bus http://sooper.org/misc/ppt/#p200609bus Sun, 19 Nov 2006 08:00:00 EST “When pitching to CEOs, the key to success is to not get too technical and to keep slide shows brief, two CIOs say.” http://sooper.org/misc/ppt/#p200609com http://sooper.org/misc/ppt/#p200609com Sun, 19 Nov 2006 08:00:00 EST Interesting article that implies that HP executives routinely ignored or forgot specific PowerPoint presentations prepared for them in the recent board room spying scandal. http://sooper.org/misc/ppt/#p200609zdn http://sooper.org/misc/ppt/#p200609zdn Sun, 19 Nov 2006 08:00:00 EST “Bullets are one of the most powerful persuaders in a letter. The same philosophy applies to a presentation. Too often, I evaluate presentations that have miles of PowerPoint visuals filled with paragraphs of information. The audience becomes numb from data.” http://sooper.org/misc/ppt/#p200609wom http://sooper.org/misc/ppt/#p200609wom Sun, 19 Nov 2006 08:00:00 EST Embedded YouTube video (8 minutes 45 seconds) where Russell provides PowerPoint tips from the point of view of an Ad Planner. http://sooper.org/misc/ppt/#p200609rus http://sooper.org/misc/ppt/#p200609rus Sun, 19 Nov 2006 08:00:00 EST Flash animation that captures the despair of death by PowerPoint. http://sooper.org/misc/ppt/#p200609low http://sooper.org/misc/ppt/#p200609low Sun, 19 Nov 2006 08:00:00 EST “But the cool graphics, easy bullet points, and animated headings that are so appealing can mask an absence of in-depth reflection on complex material.” http://sooper.org/misc/ppt/#p200609phi http://sooper.org/misc/ppt/#p200609phi Sun, 19 Nov 2006 08:00:00 EST http://sooper.org/misc/ppt/#p200608pcw http://sooper.org/misc/ppt/#p200608pcw Sun, 19 Nov 2006 08:00:00 EST http://sooper.org/misc/ppt/#p200608itw http://sooper.org/misc/ppt/#p200608itw Sun, 19 Nov 2006 08:00:00 EST http://sooper.org/misc/ppt/#p200608law http://sooper.org/misc/ppt/#p200608law Sun, 19 Nov 2006 08:00:00 EST Several articles reviewing Tufte’s latest book and include reference to his views on PowerPoint — Santa Cruz Sentinal: Chris Watson, Bookends: How good design deepens our understanding of the world, International Herald Tribune: Heralding clarity in a cluttered world of information, National Public Radio: Edward Tufte, Offering 'Beautiful Evidence', Slashdot: Edward Tufte Talks information Design and Presenation Zen: Is it broken? http://sooper.org/misc/ppt/#p200608ard http://sooper.org/misc/ppt/#p200608ard Sun, 19 Nov 2006 08:00:00 EST “The fault of PP users?” http://sooper.org/misc/ppt/#p200608edw http://sooper.org/misc/ppt/#p200608edw Sun, 19 Nov 2006 08:00:00 EST “So, as tedious as the alignment of bullet points is, it still matters. A lot. No matter if you’re talking crap; they’ll remember a sparkling presentation with bells and whistles far more readily than anything resembling genuine innovation.” http://sooper.org/misc/ppt/#p200608sta http://sooper.org/misc/ppt/#p200608sta Sun, 19 Nov 2006 08:00:00 EST Thomas E. Ricks, the author of Fiasco interviewed by Jon Stewart. http://sooper.org/misc/ppt/#p200608dai http://sooper.org/misc/ppt/#p200608dai Sun, 19 Nov 2006 08:00:00 EST Further detail and analysis on the book Fiasco by Thomas E. Ricks whose WNYC podcast is referred to in an earlier powerpointless? entry. http://sooper.org/misc/ppt/#p200608arm http://sooper.org/misc/ppt/#p200608arm Fri, 11 Aug 2006 08:00:00 EST Review of Edward Tufte’s new book Beautiful Evidence including the chapter “The Cognitive Style of PowerPoint: Pitching Out Corrupts Within”. http://sooper.org/misc/ppt/#p200608bus http://sooper.org/misc/ppt/#p200608bus Thu, 10 Aug 2006 08:00:00 EST “Rock the Podium: Writer / blogger Cory Doctorow’s pointers for speaking in public – without making a fool of yourself.3. Don’t read from PowerPoint slides like they’re cue cards. If you must use them, keep the text short (two words and a picture).” http://sooper.org/misc/ppt/#p200608wir http://sooper.org/misc/ppt/#p200608wir Fri, 28 Jul 2006 08:00:00 EST At the 30:11 point in the podcast there is a short discussion on the ‘PowerPoint-ification of military briefings and why it has had real consequences’. http://sooper.org/misc/ppt/#p200607len http://sooper.org/misc/ppt/#p200607len Fri, 28 Jul 2006 08:00:00 EST “The average PowerPoint slide contains 40 words, which take less 10 seconds to read. Call that 1000 bits per second, which comes to 1/10,000 of the routine human retina-brain data capacity.” http://sooper.org/misc/ppt/#p200607ask http://sooper.org/misc/ppt/#p200607ask Fri, 28 Jul 2006 08:00:00 EST “As our society assumes an even greater technocratic orientation — preferring PowerPoint to the mental exertion required of listening to a speech devoid of visual aids, or reading reports or essays not in the form of bullet points — the idea that leaders can inspire, not by appealing to ideals and non-scientific principles will increase.” http://sooper.org/misc/ppt/#p200607inq http://sooper.org/misc/ppt/#p200607inq Fri, 28 Jul 2006 08:00:00 EST “PowerPoint has become the first resort of slackers and lowbrows.” http://sooper.org/misc/ppt/#p200607ohm http://sooper.org/misc/ppt/#p200607ohm Fri, 14 Jul 2006 08:00:00 EST “It’s fine for committees, but plenary is sacrosanct and it shouldn’t have this sort of management-course showmanship.” http://sooper.org/misc/ppt/#p200607icw http://sooper.org/misc/ppt/#p200607icw Fri, 14 Jul 2006 08:00:00 EST “Like so many technological innovations — think of TV versus newsprint as a means of conveying accurate, or at least testable, information — PowerPoint in practice represents a regression rather than an advance.” http://sooper.org/misc/ppt/#p200607blo http://sooper.org/misc/ppt/#p200607blo Fri, 14 Jul 2006 08:00:00 EST “Parris said that Atkinson’s PowerPoint techniques, coupled with streamlined themes and language, had an “extraordinary effect” on closing arguments, enabling him to make a highly persuasive presentation about the suffering Marroquin endured and will continue to face.The closing presentation, which cost over $60,000 to put together, focused the jury’s attention by using just one word and picture per slide rather than a wordy summary of facts in bullet-form, Parris said. Rather than undercut jurors’ focus on objectively analyzing legal issues, the graphic media presentation did precisely the opposite, the lawyer explained.” http://sooper.org/misc/ppt/#p200606met http://sooper.org/misc/ppt/#p200606met Fri, 14 Jul 2006 08:00:00 EST “Long on PowerPoint slides and fluffy advice about what needs to happen (and nine tenths of this guidance consists of recycled flow charts restating the bleeding obvious) but short on evidence and detailed information on how to really do those things, which is of course the hard part.” http://sooper.org/misc/ppt/#p200606aus http://sooper.org/misc/ppt/#p200606aus Wed, 28 Jun 2006 08:00:00 EST “Instead of revolutionizing academic presentations, PowerPoint has — and this is a true miracle — dulled them further.” http://sooper.org/misc/ppt/#p200606chr http://sooper.org/misc/ppt/#p200606chr Wed, 28 Jun 2006 08:00:00 EST “…survey suggests that most business executives suffer from presentation fatigue, a direct result of the vast amounts of time they spend preparing for and giving presentations each month.” http://sooper.org/misc/ppt/#p200606dna http://sooper.org/misc/ppt/#p200606dna Sat, 24 Jun 2006 08:00:00 EST Interview with distinguished research astronomer Alyssa Goodman re: issues in the visual representation of science. http://sooper.org/misc/ppt/#p200606ame http://sooper.org/misc/ppt/#p200606ame Sat, 24 Jun 2006 08:00:00 EST “POWERPOINT POISONING. …I asked him to walk through the entire presentation. I wished I hadn’t. More than one hour and 72 slides later, I thought I was physically going to pass out, gripping the conference room desk to keep from doing so.” http://sooper.org/misc/ppt/#p200606bus http://sooper.org/misc/ppt/#p200606bus Sat, 24 Jun 2006 08:00:00 EST Follow-up articles The politics of presentation software and Web-based presentation software, continued. http://sooper.org/misc/ppt/#p200605inf http://sooper.org/misc/ppt/#p200605inf Mon, 29 May 2006 08:00:00 EST “Some research shows that many uses of PowerPoint reduce rather than enhance understanding…” http://sooper.org/misc/ppt/#p200605fed http://sooper.org/misc/ppt/#p200605fed Mon, 29 May 2006 08:00:00 EST Also at IndyStar.com: Kids click and create – Students have fun putting together PowerPoint projects and azcentral.com: Powerpoint replaces poster board in school presentations. More horror stories from the classroom where hooking kids early and ensuring that poor communication is expected as the norm. Photos of the little minds being corrupted particularly sad. http://sooper.org/misc/ppt/#p200605 http://sooper.org/misc/ppt/#p200605 Mon, 29 May 2006 08:00:00 EST “Stop paying so much attention to your slides that you don’t notice raised hands in the classroom.” http://sooper.org/misc/ppt/#p200604adv http://sooper.org/misc/ppt/#p200604adv Thu, 4 May 2006 15:00:00 EST O’Reilly Books: Fixing PowerPoint Annoyances. http://sooper.org/misc/ppt/#p200604pre http://sooper.org/misc/ppt/#p200604pre Thu, 4 May 2006 15:00:00 EST “People who make policy prefer a PowerPoint world.” http://sooper.org/misc/ppt/#p200604ind http://sooper.org/misc/ppt/#p200604ind Thu, 4 May 2006 15:00:00 EST “Yet PowerPoint is trendy way to say little at great length.” http://sooper.org/misc/ppt/#p200604tmc http://sooper.org/misc/ppt/#p200604tmc Thu, 4 May 2006 15:00:00 EST “For me, the most troubling application of technology on this campus is the widespread use of PowerPoint in teaching.” http://sooper.org/misc/ppt/#p200604tdp http://sooper.org/misc/ppt/#p200604tdp Mon, 24 Apr 2006 12:00:00 EST “No wonder the planet is in trouble. If, on average, each presentation lasts an hour, and each sends 10 people to sleep or stuns their minds with an overkill of multi-coloured pie charts and graphics that makes them think they have ridden a motorbike into a locust swarm, PowerPoint could be reducing world productivity by 300 million man-hours a day.” http://sooper.org/misc/ppt/#p200604smh http://sooper.org/misc/ppt/#p200604smh Mon, 24 Apr 2006 11:00:00 EST “Cliff Atkinson turns ordinary slides into a more engaging tool using a three-act storytelling structure.” http://sooper.org/misc/ppt/#p200604lat http://sooper.org/misc/ppt/#p200604lat Mon, 24 Apr 2006 10:00:00 EST “Think of this as a wholesome, good karma form of industrial sabotage” http://sooper.org/misc/ppt/#p200602gar http://sooper.org/misc/ppt/#p200602gar Sat, 18 Feb 2006 22:09:00 EST “It’s quite simple: a PowerPoint presentation should have ten slides, last no more than twenty minutes, and contain no font smaller than thirty points.” http://sooper.org/misc/ppt/#p200512guy http://sooper.org/misc/ppt/#p200512guy Mon, 13 Feb 2006 08:14:19 EST “There are many things I’ve been delighted and impressed by during the nearly five months I’ve now spent at Microsoft. However, there have also been a few things that I’ve found extraordinarily disheartening. One of the latter has been the organizatational dependence on “the deck“ (that is, Powerpoint files) as the standard mechanism for conveying nearly all information.” http://sooper.org/misc/ppt/#p200511mam http://sooper.org/misc/ppt/#p200511mam Sun, 27 Nov 2005 03:19:02 EST “There are at least 3 key functions to powerpoint presentations and they are often in conflict.” http://sooper.org/misc/ppt/#p200511abs http://sooper.org/misc/ppt/#p200511abs Sun, 27 Nov 2005 03:18:02 EST “The bullet-point architecture has become so dominant that we take it for granted. It is easy to forget that business books have not always resembled PowerPoint presentations.” http://sooper.org/misc/ppt/#p200511fin http://sooper.org/misc/ppt/#p200511fin Fri, 18 Nov 2005 08:33:23 EST “Lessig is a PowerPoint impressionist. He doesn’t hammer his audience with bullet points. He uses single words, or perhaps half a dozen, to illustrate or emphasise a point. The effect is almost like animation, and keeps the audience trained on the continuing exposition rather than getting lost in all those bullet points.” http://sooper.org/misc/ppt/#p200510syd http://sooper.org/misc/ppt/#p200510syd Fri, 21 Oct 2005 11:31:31 EST “Since writing that column, I’ve been told that this teacher also requires PowerPoint for some assignments, melding (if true) bad ethics with worse pedagogy: in lieu of actual thinking, students are perhaps being taught to reduce nuanced ideas to three bullet points.” http://sooper.org/misc/ppt/#p200510 http://sooper.org/misc/ppt/#p200510 Mon, 10 Oct 2005 06:29:37 EST A scientific treatment of the subject in a detailed thesis from Till – Thanks Till! http://sooper.org/misc/ppt/#p200509til http://sooper.org/misc/ppt/#p200509til Sat, 01 Oct 2005 02:22:33 EST “Powerpoint flattens everything to the same emotional level. The thunderings of Sinai, the crossing of the Red Sea, the raising of Lazarus, the cursed anathema and darkness of Golgotha, the furnace of hell, the beseechings of the gospel are all reduced to three bullet points and a bar chart. How will a pulpit that thinks in no more than three bullet points ever move a congregation by the incredible news of the incarnation of God the Son?” http://sooper.org/misc/ppt/#p200509ban http://sooper.org/misc/ppt/#p200509ban Sat, 01 Oct 2005 01:45:07 EST Talks about the productivity issue of content vs. fluff. http://sooper.org/misc/ppt/#p200509tec http://sooper.org/misc/ppt/#p200509tec Tue, 27 Sep 2005 09:53:42 EST Overview on the use of PowerPoint in the classroom. http://sooper.org/misc/ppt/#p200509okl http://sooper.org/misc/ppt/#p200509okl Tue, 27 Sep 2005 09:53:41 EST Standard top ten rules. http://sooper.org/misc/ppt/#p200509bab http://sooper.org/misc/ppt/#p200509bab Tue, 27 Sep 2005 09:53:40 EST An excerpt from upcoming Edward Tufte book, chapter title “PowerPoint Does Rocket Science: Assessing the Quality and Credibility of Technical Reports” http://sooper.org/misc/ppt/#p200509edw http://sooper.org/misc/ppt/#p200509edw Tue, 13 Sep 2005 06:51:11 EST “He sent me a deck - a PowerPoint file, each slide within it groaning with information, fonts squeezed tiny so it would all fit. How anyone could ever take anything from this while watching this guy make a presentation was beyond me.” http://sooper.org/misc/ppt/#p200509gil http://sooper.org/misc/ppt/#p200509gil Tue, 13 Sep 2005 06:51:10 EST “Powerpoint has crept into the very heart of academia as well” http://sooper.org/misc/ppt/#p200509app http://sooper.org/misc/ppt/#p200509app Tue, 13 Sep 2005 06:51:09 EST “The deeper problem with the PowerPointing of America — the PowerPointing of the planet, actually — is that the program tends to flatten the most complex, subtle, even beautiful, ideas into tedious, bullet-pointed bureaucratese.” http://sooper.org/misc/ppt/#p200508was http://sooper.org/misc/ppt/#p200508was Thu, 25 Aug 2005 04:50:43 EST “This means that 150 million bullet points fly in from the left on a blue background every day. It’s not very effective. We’re not the only ones who don’t like bullet points.” http://sooper.org/misc/ppt/#p200508ita http://sooper.org/misc/ppt/#p200508ita Thu, 25 Aug 2005 04:50:42 EST But Powerpoint is utterly arrogant. After a friend gave a Powerpoint presentation at his own wedding, tongue-in-cheek but not quite hilarious, I learnt to give speeches without slides. http://sooper.org/misc/ppt/#p200508tim http://sooper.org/misc/ppt/#p200508tim Thu, 25 Aug 2005 04:50:41 EST Overview of Tom Peters presentation tips including a link to his Presentation Excellence PPT. http://sooper.org/misc/ppt/#p200505inf http://sooper.org/misc/ppt/#p200505inf Sun, 24 Jul 2005 10:12:20 EST Interview with Garr Reynolds that is somewhat relevant. http://sooper.org/misc/ppt/#p200505mac http://sooper.org/misc/ppt/#p200505mac Sun, 24 Jul 2005 10:12:19 EST … don’t put your notes on screen, don’t overload people with text and then talk over it and “banish bullet points” – just don’t use them. Use images and graphics that back up your point. http://sooper.org/misc/ppt/#p200505stu http://sooper.org/misc/ppt/#p200505stu Sun, 24 Jul 2005 10:12:18 EST Derivative article drawing on Tufte and Norvig. http://sooper.org/misc/ppt/#p200505age http://sooper.org/misc/ppt/#p200505age Sun, 24 Jul 2005 10:12:17 EST PowerPoint has affected business, substituting real thought with animations and bullet points. http://sooper.org/misc/ppt/#p200504smh http://sooper.org/misc/ppt/#p200504smh Sun, 24 Jul 2005 10:12:16 EST http://sooper.org/misc/ppt/#p200503fiv http://sooper.org/misc/ppt/#p200503fiv Sun, 24 Jul 2005 10:12:15 EST Why you should learn to love PowerPoint and the 2x2 matrix. http://sooper.org/misc/ppt/#p200503pos http://sooper.org/misc/ppt/#p200503pos Sun, 24 Jul 2005 10:12:14 EST A rock star aims his creative powers at, of all things, PowerPoint. http://sooper.org/misc/ppt/#p200503oreg http://sooper.org/misc/ppt/#p200503oreg Sun, 24 Jul 2005 10:12:13 EST Humour. http://sooper.org/misc/ppt/#p200502oni http://sooper.org/misc/ppt/#p200502oni Sun, 24 Jul 2005 10:12:12 EST … I thought Norvig’s presentation was trivial, and did not do the software product justice. I casually thought I could make a better presentation of the Gettysburg Address, a PPT that would look a little more refined. I also felt a bit of academic curiosity. How can we use modern PC tools to present complicated information? A friend challenged me to try. http://sooper.org/misc/ppt/#p200502raff http://sooper.org/misc/ppt/#p200502raff Sun, 24 Jul 2005 10:12:11 EST References The PowerPoint Presentation and Its Corollaries: How Genres Shape Communicative Action in Organizations. http://sooper.org/misc/ppt/#p200411veen http://sooper.org/misc/ppt/#p200411veen Sun, 24 Jul 2005 10:12:10 EST What to do with a technology that trivializes content and bores people rigid? Make art! http://sooper.org/misc/ppt/#p200411ucbn http://sooper.org/misc/ppt/#p200411ucbn Sun, 24 Jul 2005 10:12:09 EST Thanks to K. Yost for helping out with this entry. http://sooper.org/misc/ppt/#p200410bbcr4 http://sooper.org/misc/ppt/#p200410bbcr4 Sun, 24 Jul 2005 10:12:08 EST A PowerPoint competition. http://sooper.org/misc/ppt/#p200410buptp http://sooper.org/misc/ppt/#p200410buptp Sun, 24 Jul 2005 10:12:07 EST http://sooper.org/misc/ppt/#p200409cio http://sooper.org/misc/ppt/#p200409cio Sun, 24 Jul 2005 10:12:06 EST A Response to Edward R. Tufte’s The Cognitive Style of PowerPoint. http://sooper.org/misc/ppt/#p200310com http://sooper.org/misc/ppt/#p200310com Sun, 24 Jul 2005 10:12:05 EST I’m reading Richard Feynman’s What… & From Feynman’s What Do You… http://sooper.org/misc/ppt/#p200311tesu http://sooper.org/misc/ppt/#p200311tesu Sun, 24 Jul 2005 10:12:04 EST