
Harvard Just Discovered That PowerPoint Is Worse Than Useless - raiyu
https://www.inc.com/geoffrey-james/harvard-just-discovered-that-powerpoint-is-worse-than-useless.html
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ativzzz
Powerpoint is great for assisting presentations, and like other posters in the
thread have said, it's for assistance, and not the main source of information.
Think pictures and very concise bullet points.

I know the consulting industry likes to abuse powerpoint by making 200+ slide
decks that are clearly not meant to be presented but more used as
printouts/deliverables. I question that PPT is the best format for that but
nobody has come up with anything better that is as widely adopted.

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owlninja
This should be presentation 101, you don't just put the text on the screen
that is the same thing you are reading aloud. It should be for charts,
diagrams, or some other visual to support your presentation or to break up the
monotony. I was also taught to never use white backgrounds, I'm not sure if
that is proven but I've always followed that rule. That said, I avoid
presenting at all costs :)

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analog31
Unfortunately, the PowerPoint has other functions that require some written
text, namely, it may be the only record of your project that anybody receives
or has access to. It will be e-mailed to the people who didn't show up for
your meeting. Your boss might incorporate some of your slides into his own
PowerPoint. You might have written a lengthy report, but nobody reads any
more, and your report will end up in some forgotten place.

Many have been the times when I've asked: "Can anybody tell me what happened?"
and all I get back is a PowerPoint. That's it. Better make it count.

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dredmorbius
Talks and presos should be adjuncts to papers.

Not always the case, obv, but this shuld be the general goal.

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Isamu
I just discovered that breathless clickbait headlines are worse than useless.

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MrEldritch
Would you say they're considered harmful?

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achow
PowerPoint is best and easiest graphic editing tool that I have come across.

I routinely used to recommend that (before online tools like Canva) to design
challenged when they wanted to learn "Photoshop" for creating simple graphics.

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Dirlewanger
Thanks to taking a class in HCI, I also learned that it's a capable UI
prototyping tool.

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darkcha0s
I can't say I agree with this study. Yes PowerPoint is overused, and sometimes
miss used, but a properly held presentation with PowerPoint is definitely
better than useless.

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MarcusE1W
How does an audience follow a medium complex subject if not with some visual
aid to help to keep the big picture? No quote to back this up, but the
articles main point really does not reflect my experience.

Visual aid can be a lot, useful or useless but I don't think it is
PowerPoint's/Keyword's/your_tools fault if a presenter just reads the slides.

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lunias
PowerPoint is worse than useless or all presentation software is worse than
useless?

The argument seems to apply to the entire category of software; it appears
unnecessary to single out or even mention PowerPoint at all.

It's just a name drop to provoke sensationalism in people who ignorantly refer
to all sodas as Coke or all meat as chicken?

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daveslash
Is it "Powerpoint", per se, or presentation-slideshows in general? I suspect
the latter. I worry that if we use the name of the specific product we only
encourage a flood of "Powerpoint alternatives" without addressing the root
cause of the issue.

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michelinman
Well that was nearly coherent.

