PowerPoint.
As the article says "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."
(Apologies, but the New York Times URI will time out after a week or so, when they move old information into their unfriendly pay-for archive.)
...As the article says "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."
(Apologies, but the New York Times URI will time out after a week or so, when they move old information into their unfriendly pay-for archive.)
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Comments
Speaking as someone who both spent time in the Army and understands better than you'll know about the slick trap PP presents, and as a poor technical writer who found that his audience of MBAs and upper managers couldn't keep up with status reports unless they came with pretty animated pictures, I don't see it getting better any time soon. One thing's for certain: if I ever run a business, PowerPoint will only be allowed for use by those who actually know how to live without it.