20020703

PowerPoint is the Embodiment of Evil
Other writers more talented and experienced than me have observed that Microsoft PowerPoint has been used for evil purposes. After having used it, on active duty, on both career AF people as well as Guardsmen and Reservists, I'm ambivalent. It has been used to make a very clean, internally hotlinked decision guide, and it has been used to ramble on incoherently with mind-numbing information that no imaginative audience could retain. Conclusion: PowerPoint enables the presenter to blur the distinction between dazzling an audience with brilliance, and baffling them with bullshit, even to a
reasonably astute audience. Whether that is good or evil depends entirely upon the motives of the presenter. The Devil can quote Scripture for his own ends.
Even the presenter himself can be seduced by this tool, losing the ability to distinguish between dazzling and baffling.

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