The Daily Background

So, the New York Times yesterday had an interesting article about how Microsoft PowerPoint, the slideshow program, is now ingrained into the military’s day to day activities.

According to a bunch of people cited in the article there’s been a substantial backlash against this, because commanders are realizing that a snappy PowerPoint presentation can lull the viewer into a false sense of understanding about what is in reality a very complicated topic (say, tribal alliances in Afghanistan). So military folks are slowly realizing that they spend too much time creating PowerPoint presentations on subjects that aren’t easily bullet-point-able and too much time watching them. Essentially, they’re realizing that it’s just not a great tool for imparting complex information.

All very interesting, but the real reason I bring this article up is how the article ends. Check it out:

Senior officers say the program does come in handy when the goal is not imparting information, as in briefings for reporters.

The news media sessions often last 25 minutes, with 5 minutes left at the end for questions from anyone still awake. Those types of PowerPoint presentations, Dr. Hammes said, are known as “hypnotizing chickens.”

Emphasis mine. I’m glad they’re being so blunt.

So, bottom line: when it comes to important stuff, like internal briefings, the military is now concluding that PowerPoint isn’t a good tool because it doesn’t convey information well. However, when it comes to telling the public what you’re up to (by way of the press), when information conveyance isn’t the real goal (presumably conveying emotions is), PowerPoint is just super! Wonderful. Glad we cleared that up. Carry on.

Filed under: Z-TDB Blog