PowerPoint Rant Costs Colonel His Job 194
twoallbeefpatties writes "Wired reports that a 61-year-old reservist in Afghanistan was fired from his job as a staff officer after writing a sardonic op-ed criticizing the daily briefings provided by his taskforce, portraying them as little more than a neverending stream of redundant PowerPoint slideshows. This came after attempts to reform the process by giving his superiors a presentation that, of course, included five PowerPoint slides." Maybe he should have presented it as an art project instead of a complaint.
Powerpoint in the military (Score:2, Informative)
Apparently he's not alone [nytimes.com] in his distaste for powerpoint.
Re:Powerpoint in the military (Score:5, Informative)
Just google, "Powerpoint makes you stupid"
The first that I had heard about this was from a NASA scientist following the Columbia accident. He said that there were too many variables and choices that had to be left out of slides because there was a limit to how much detail could be displayed given (readable) font size and screen resolution
This leads to multiple slides to cover a single topic, and the loss of fresh visual memory as the presentation moves from slide to slide.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/08/29/AR2005082901444.html [washingtonpost.com]
Re:see power point can cost you your job (Score:5, Informative)
I think you're missing the point (pun intended).
He's talking about just relying on powerpoint to give information. To actually have the slideshow mean something without giving it any real information to start with.
Crap in = crap out. (with pretty graphs and moving icons)
He complains that just having a powerpoint presentation every 12 hours is not the same as having an actual breifing and discussion of information. It's not that you couldn't use powerpoint to do it, but that you have to have, as a goal, the need to actually accomplish something besides presenting a slideshow. Presenting the slideshow not a goal in itself as he claims that it is treated. He mentions that the slides don't even change. Now that would be a hell I would try and avoid.
Re:He should be happy (Score:5, Informative)
Replying to myself to clarify: I'm not arguing with Colonel Sellin's point at all; he's absolutely right, and the service could use a lot more officers like him. I was replying only to Simonetta's comment that "If he isn't ... actively engaged in killing people ... then he has no business being there," which shows complete ignorance of how the military functions.
Re:Power Corrupts... (Score:3, Informative)
Had to click through a few things to actually see it:
http://www.techflash.com/seattle/2010/04/us_marine_corps_general_powerpoint_makes_us_stupid.html [techflash.com]
and the original NYT piece:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/27/world/27powerpoint.html?_r=1 [nytimes.com]
both include some brilliant shit, and absolutely nail some of the things I've noticed about what PPT does to your information organization
Obligatory... (Score:3, Informative)
... Damian Conway Presentation Akido plug... if you've never caught one of his talks, you must. There isn't much info on the web, because he never releases the presentation slides (the slides should back up the speaker, not replace him/her) and only a few people have written reviews of his talk (here's one [canspice.org].
The one thing about Damian, he practices what he preaches. In his other talks about Perl, he follows his own rules. The slides are a tool, not the focal point. You really want to listen to what he says, and the presentation screen adds some spice, but doesn't distract the listener from *him*.