Journal: News & Comment

The ultimate price of PowerPoint

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I've complained about PowerPoint many times before, and made silly comments, but this really takes the cake:

"It's quite frustrating the way this works, but the way we do things nowadays is combatant commanders brief their products in PowerPoint up in Washington to OSD and Secretary of Defense... In lieu of an order, or a frag [fragmentary order], or plan, you get a bunch of PowerPoint slides... [T]hat is frustrating, because nobody wants to plan against PowerPoint slides."

[...] It was like telling an automobile mechanic to use a manufacturer's glossy sales brochure to figure out how to repair an engine.

This sums it all up: "PowerPoint provides a thumbnail sketch of what you might say; written documents make you actually say it." When what you're saying are the plans for military action, you'd better say it. (Depressing link via Bill.)

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