PowerPoint Makes You Dumb

NASA, the board argued, had become too reliant on presenting complex information via PowerPoint, instead of by means of traditional ink-and-paper technical reports. When NASA engineers assessed possible wing damage during the mission, they presented the findings in a confusing PowerPoint slide — so crammed with nested bullet points and irregular short forms that it was nearly impossible to untangle. ‘‘It is easy to understand how a senior manager might read this PowerPoint slide and not realize that it addresses a life-threatening situation,’‘ the board sternly noted.

No kidding? You mean providing life-and-death information in a summary format for stupid people (executives/managers/anyone not you) could mean some information isn’t conveyed as well as it should be? Anyone working in a corporation should see that as obvious … and done daily nationwide. Welcome to corporate America. You just killed seven people and we’re all heavily in debt because the left hand is unaware of the concept of a right hand. Ya think we can blame it all on PowerPoint?

I’m all for trying.

Afterthought: Tell me this was a joke, please: “But what if PowerPoint is actually making us stupider?”