Powerpoint: the hidden enemy of world peace

Sam Tuke mail at samtuke.com
Wed Apr 28 14:55:03 UTC 2010


'"It’s dangerous because it can create the illusion of understanding and the illusion of control," General McMaster said in a telephone interview' Free Software flowcharting for world peace! Yeah!

'In General McMaster’s view, PowerPoint’s worst offense is not a chart like the spaghetti graphic...but rigid lists of bullet points (in, say, a presentation on a conflict’s causes) that take no account of interconnected political, economic and ethnic forces'

'The program...is deeply embedded in a military culture that has come to rely on PowerPoint’s hierarchical ordering of a confused world'

'Lt. Gen. David D. McKiernan, who led the allied ground forces in the 2003 invasion of Iraq, grew frustrated when he could not get Gen. Tommy R. Franks, the commander at the time of American forces in the Persian Gulf region, to issue orders that stated explicitly how he wanted the invasion conducted, and why. Instead, General Franks just passed on to General McKiernan the vague PowerPoint slides that he had already shown to Donald H. Rumsfeld, the defense secretary at the time.'

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/27/world/27powerpoint.html

Free Software presentations for world peace! Yeah!



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