Too much Powerpoint breaks us all
Even the people who love it the most (and fight our wars). When his less-than-glowing quote appeared in the Times this week, the NYer line jumped to mind. It had struck me at the time as progressive, an example of how to use an app well. But you attend enough briefings…
Petraeus is a professional briefer, and with a PowerPoint slide before him he will slip into a salesman's rapid-fire patter. He illustrates his remarks with a laser pointer; he will swirl a bright dot of emerald light around a particular sentence fragment until a listener risks succumbing to hypnosis. Petraeus and his staff will discuss at length the shading of colors on a slide, or the direction of arrows depicting causality. When I asked, in a skeptical tone, about this passionate use of PowerPoint, the General responded in the staccato of the medium: "It's how you communicate big ideas–to communicate them effectively."
Gen. David H. Petraeus, who oversees the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and says that sitting through some PowerPoint briefings is "just agony," nonetheless likes the program for the display of maps and statistics showing trends. He has also conducted more than a few PowerPoint presentations himself.
But is there pride involved? Outside the watch of the Times, he's still presenting enthusiastically, the 92nd Street Y shows this week.
I had to present a Powerpoint deck this week. I printed it out.
(Sorry, trees.)
