Death by PowerPoint

I knew execubots and managers who would be out of jobs if it weren’t for power point.

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Where do I sign up?

It’s worse than Cats.

I have said it many times in this space – if I come to power, my first act will be the summary execution of all MS employees involved in the creation of PowerPoint. No trial, no last meal, no cigarette, no blindfold. No mercy.

@blogenfreude: I’d suggest just one modification to your Executive Order.

A screen, with a single slide showing the word: Questions?

I once did an entire 45 minutes with that as my only PP slide. Conference organizer was not happy because she wasn’t sure if it could be included in the pre-conference participant handouts. It wasn’t.

@Nabisco:
Ha.

No, I’m guilty of this myself. I hate PP, but I’m pretty good with it, too.

I made the mistake of just reading the points I used during my first presentations. Dumb. I later just used them as back up as I went on my presentation without looking at the slide.

@ManchuCandidate: I use mostly pictures, and I riff on them. Visual memory is way better than verbal.

@Dodgerblue:
That’s a pretty good idea. I’m going to steal that.

Assuming I ever get a chance to do another presentation.

We need official PowerPoint Presenter Snipers, people will licenses to take out people who can’t tell fucking stories.

@FlyingChainSaw:
A lot of engineers will die in the process (but not me–I think–I’m pretty good at presenting.)

@ManchuCandidate: Right, you can just appear and present in bop poetry format with bass and bongos.

@FlyingChainSaw:
Hard to make a presentation on processes and SW tools interesting even with bass and bongos, but I try.

I did get chastised for injecting humor into my presentation.

@ManchuCandidate: @FlyingChainSaw: Try telling a uniformed officer that he can’t use PP to brief a civilian superior if you want to see the effects of non combat stress on our military.

@Nabisco:
Isn’t PP considered standard issue now like the M-4 Carbine?

I’m not as violent as bloggy, but I hate a lousy PP presentation as much as the next guy. I find PP is a crutch used by those who are uncomfortable and/or terrible speaking in public.

I don’t know why folks like that don’t deal with it. I don’t like public speaking as much as the next guy, but I got stuck doing a lot of it as a kid when no one else wanted to read stuff like in the Easter Service when I went to church so I was volunteered (a lot.)

Presentations are part of the job especially the higher up you go.

I prepared some PP slides for a presentation to a very traditional tribal council a few weeks ago. Bullet points only. Anyway, use of a computer and a projector requires electricity, which would require the tribal administration to bring in a generator to power them. Instead of having them go through all that hassle, I printed and blew up my slides, taped them to an easel and went through them as I gave my talk.

@Dodgerblue: @ManchuCandidate: I’m all about the visuals. Lots of pictures and no words. I can’t tell you how many times I’m told after a presentation that it’s the best Power Point the person ever saw. This was all thanks to a great book I read called “Why Bad Presentations Happen to Good Causes” – highly recommend it to anyone forced to do these things.

What is Power Point? I’m on board with hating Microsoft but I like to have reasons. I’m a words man, myself. I always say a word is worth a thousand pictures. But that’s just me.

What’s not to like about public speaking? Everyone looks at you, no doubt admiring the cut of your jib. Me, I have to be dragged from the stage.

Speaking of the Swiss, while leafing through a tabloid someone had left on a bus over there I came across an article proclaiming San Diego “die beste Stadt von Amerika” (the best city in America). Nojo, do you concur?