Death by .ppt!

[BACONATOR]

Also, Fortune 500 companies frown upon T&A pictures in PowerPoint briefs. I found that out the hard way.

Not just them. It's a kinder, gentler Navy. I'm sure there are plenty of squadron members, front offices etc who would oppose them.... shame.

 

[MasterBates]

PPT is the devil.

I made the King Kat without a single PPT.

Nuff said.

 

[helolumpy]

Powerpoint is not the devil; Irresponsible briefers are the devil.
Loading up your slide deck with useless slides in the off chance that someone may ask the question is the devil.
Having so many words on a slide that it requires 5 minutes of reading to get through it all is the devil.
Spending countless hours producing slides for HHQ to make sure someone else's brief addresses any particular question is the devil.
Foosball and Vicki Valencourt is the devil. (Thank you Mrs. Boucher!)
Briefers reading the slide to the audience is the devil.
Briefers who can not convey a situation in simple terms so all can understand, thus requiring 32 backup slides is the devil.


As Walt Kelly once said "we have met the enemy and he is us"; that sums it up.

Other than being easier to create, Powerpoint is the same as acetate slides or butcherblock paper. The problem is the personnel giving the briefs or training who have no concept of how to develop a brief/presentation and thus we have 'Death by Powerpoint'.

 

[The Phiz]

I dare you to make sense of this mess...

I hate these color vision tests.. Is it a 76? I see a 76.

 

[FlyinSpy]

We're cycling back around again - this is from the Wall Street Journal, 10 years ago (almost to the day!)

"What's Your Point, Lieutenant? Please, Just Cut To The Pie Charts"

http://www.eecs.umich.edu/~imarkov/slides.txt

 

[scoolbubba]

I hate these color vision tests.. Is it a 76? I see a 76.

Wrong. It's the depth perception test. Which bullet pops out at you?

 

[phrogdriver]

Other than being easier to create, Powerpoint is the same as acetate slides or butcherblock paper. The problem is the personnel giving the briefs or training who have no concept of how to develop a brief/presentation and thus we have 'Death by Powerpoint'.

But acetate and butcher block require some effort to make 100 slides. Your copy machine would break reproducing 100 slides on transparencies. You can't physically write 100 big sheets of paper. It's a barrier to entry.

Powerpoint makes it SO EASY to make 100 slides. It doesn't force you to have any discipline in your thought process. With transparencies, you knew the S-4 would only give you 10 sheets or so, so they'd better count. With .ppt, the sky's the limit.

At the beginning of my career, less than 15 years ago, our briefs were on transparencies, with the basics written in--e.g. the OSMEAC, and we literally filled in the blanks with a marker. Lately, I have spent hours putting into slides a plan that took 15 min to make.

The other pitfall is the level of perfection e-briefs are expected to have. Especially in mission planning scenarios, like R2P2--perfection in the plan should be the priority, not perfection in font and spelling.

 

[fc2spyguy]

Wrong. It's the depth perception test. Which bullet pops out at you?

No, I believe that NAMI has come up with a way to combine the tests. Due to the overage of students, and the requirement to slim the herd, you have to be able to pick out the colored number that sticks out the most. It has shown to produce an %80 failure rate, and will be in use for the next three API classes.

 

[The Phiz]

No, I believe that NAMI has come up with a way to combine the tests. Due to the overage of students, and the requirement to slim the herd, you have to be able to pick out the colored number that sticks out the most. It has shown to produce an %80 failure rate, and will be in use for the next three API classes.

OH NOES! Is there any gouge to help people study for it??!?! What does it do to NSS????!? LoL

It would still beat that ****ing air in the eye test. Some sadistic asshole is laughing in his grave over inventing that one.

And now to atleast contribute something to the real topic: My biggest pet peeve on .ppt presentations is when the presenter turns around and faces away from the audience to read that damn slide... verbatim. Oh well, just another way to separate the prepared from the not.

 

[Lucy]

I vote that it is showing an 8. Or perhaps it is the infinity sign for the never ending slides?

Question: Do those who read verbatim seem unprepared in their other activities? Would you say there is a correlation between their public speaking skills and the ability the person has to be "part" of the team in other areas?

Thanks,
Lucy

 

[BigIron]

I see a consulting group made the Afghanistan Stability slide. It probably cost $2.4 M to produce.

 

[NozeMan]

I remember doing Air Wing Fallon with acetate and overhead projectors. 90% of the planning time was spent actually planning, not making all the fonts the same, and we actually had time to have a beer after work since planning took about half the time.

Sounds like the opposite of my Fallon experiences

 

[BACONATOR]

I see a consulting group made the Afghanistan Stability slide. It probably cost $2.4 M to produce.

God that pisses me off. I remember watching the stupid CAI's in primary of a T-34 flying the ELP thinking "Some fucking company made 3 million dollars to produce this piece of shit".

 

[CommodoreMid]

You actually watched them? My class figured out that if you click through them at an obscenely fast speed you could even skip the questions at the end and still get credit for completion. Considering the material in the CAIs was out of our books VERBATIM and I could study those at home, I don't feel like I was missing out on anything.

 

[scoolbubba]

yep. the advanced CAIs had the same glitch. figuring that little gem out was a godsend.