Great Minds Think Alike

To All Presenters:

In an article from "Wired" magazine Edward R. Tufte, professor emeritus of political science, computer science and statistics, and graphic design at Yale states:

"At a minimum, a presentation format should do no harm. Yet the PowerPoint style routinely disrupts, dominates, and trivializes content. Thus PowerPoint presentations too often resemble a school play -very loud, very slow, and very simple.

The practical conclusions are clear. PowerPoint is a competent slide manager and projector. But rather than supplementing a presentation, it has become a substitute for it. Such misuse ignores the most important rule of speaking: Respect your audience."

So . . . I must be smart, because smart people agree with me. That's good for the old ego.

Here is the link to the rest of the article:

http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/11.09/ppt2.html

And here is a link to an educational, inspiring and entertaining presentation by Sir Ken Robinson on the topic of creativity which doesn't use props or PowerPoint, and doesn't need them. Watch and repeat.

http://www.ted.com/talks/ken_robinson_says_schools_kill_creativity.html

THE POINT: PowerPoint is a crutch.