If you’ve never read this 2001 New Yorker story on Powerpoint, you really should. This is the lede:
Before there were presentations, there were conversations, which were a little like presentations but used fewer bullet points, and no one had to dim the lights. A woman we can call Sarah Wyndham, a defense-industry consultant living in Alexandria, Virginia, recently began to feel that her two daughters weren’t listening when she asked them to clean their bedrooms and do their chores. So, one morning, she sat down at her computer, opened Microsoft’s PowerPoint program, and typed:FAMILY MATTERS
An approach for positive change to the Wyndham family teamOn a new page, she wrote:
·Lack of organization leads to confusion and frustration among all family members.
·Disorganization is detrimental to grades and to your social life.
·Disorganization leads to inefficiencies that impact the entire family.Instead of pleading for domestic harmony, Sarah Wyndham was pitching for it. Soon she had eighteen pages of large type, supplemented by a color photograph of a generic happy family riding bicycles, and, on the final page, a drawing of a key—the key to success. The briefing was given only once, last fall. The experience was so upsetting to her children that the threat of a second showing was enough to make one of the Wyndham girls burst into tears.
One thing I like about journalism is that, by and large, journalists are not Powerpoint people. Our writing skills are good enough that we don’t need bullet points to explain our thoughts and plans to one another. Unless a politician or advocacy group busts one out, we live Powerpoint-free lives.
