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Dennis Austin, developer of PowerPoint, has died

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Re: Dennis Austin, developer of PowerPoint, has died

#51

Post by blululu »

WanderPanda wrote: post #46
Maro wrote: post #39

I work in a Corporate where we have lots of "strategy" teams and PPTs flying around. What I learned is that PPT are more than a presentation format in this culture, they are a signaling tool: • something that is "just" an email, or "just" something somebody said in a meeting doesn't carry much weight in Corporates • .. but if you put it in a PPT with some graphics, it signals you've thought about it, and probably had…

As a tech weirdo I still think PPTs are the best way to convey concepts. You can mix bullet points with images and video and have everything be progressively revealed exactly when you explain it. I can‘t even think of an alternative to this other than adhoc whiteboard drawings which can‘t match PPTs on any axis except if you‘re just (collaboratively) developing an idea/concept

Video is usually more effective for asynchronous presentations. Powerpoint is great for spoken presentations where everyone is in the same room. But they generally suck as summary reports. For thinking and analysis word docs are superior. For asynchronous presentation video is superior. Video allows you to control the timing and framing in a way that a slide deck cannot. The main downside to videos is that they are harder to make. But there is a reason people prefer science documentaries over recorded lectures or lecture slides.

Re: Dennis Austin, developer of PowerPoint, has died

#52

Post by ssscool »

scarface_74 wrote: post #31
galoisscobi wrote: post #28

A strange legacy. Most of the management in my company cannot digest even simple information if it’s not on PowerPoint slides. Even when it is on preparing PowerPoint slides, text heavy slides are a big no no. Some days, more time is spent on PowerPoint slides than writing code, or actually engineering. We jokingly call presentation prep work as getting ready to push the PowerPoint to prod.

I don’t see an issue with this. I had a very technical CTO at my n-2 job who was in his 50s and would often write POCs himself in C# or Python as research. When he wanted to see if data that we got had the information we needed he would upload it to S3 and run some Athena queries. But I still know when he asks me some questions he just wants a very high level overview and doesn’t want the details. I’m working with hi…

[dead]

Re: Dennis Austin, developer of PowerPoint, has died

#53

Post by Maro »

WanderPanda wrote: post #46
Maro wrote: post #39

I work in a Corporate where we have lots of "strategy" teams and PPTs flying around. What I learned is that PPT are more than a presentation format in this culture, they are a signaling tool: • something that is "just" an email, or "just" something somebody said in a meeting doesn't carry much weight in Corporates • .. but if you put it in a PPT with some graphics, it signals you've thought about it, and probably had…

As a tech weirdo I still think PPTs are the best way to convey concepts. You can mix bullet points with images and video and have everything be progressively revealed exactly when you explain it. I can‘t even think of an alternative to this other than adhoc whiteboard drawings which can‘t match PPTs on any axis except if you‘re just (collaboratively) developing an idea/concept

At least in Corporates, the point is not the content usually, or at least not 95% of the content. Usually there are 1-2 key slides per PPT that the audience actually cares about, something like the "Roadmap" slide, where you commit to a timeline on the project (even though nobody understands what the project actually is), or the "Costs" slide, where you commit to a budget (even though it's way too early to say).

This is the point, supported by the signaling of the PPT itself.

The remaining 95% are slides that the audience doesn't care about and/or doesn't understand anyway.

Re: Dennis Austin, developer of PowerPoint, has died

#54

Post by davidw »

Dennis Austin dies at 76.

* Born in Pittsburgh, studied engineering at the University of Virginia

* Collaborated with Robert Gaskins at Forethought to create PowerPoint

* Forethought acquired by Microsoft

* By 1993, PowerPoint generating more than $100 million in sales

* Product is widely used, but controversial and target of jokes

> Mr. Austin and Gaskins acknowledged the complaints, but thought they were unfairly aimed at the software and not the people who were using it to make lazy, poor presentations.

> “It’s just like the printing press,” Mr. Austin told the Wall Street Journal in 2007. “It enabled all sorts of garbage to be printed.”

Re: Dennis Austin, developer of PowerPoint, has died

#55

Post by safety1st »

scarface_74 wrote: post #31
galoisscobi wrote: post #28

A strange legacy. Most of the management in my company cannot digest even simple information if it’s not on PowerPoint slides. Even when it is on preparing PowerPoint slides, text heavy slides are a big no no. Some days, more time is spent on PowerPoint slides than writing code, or actually engineering. We jokingly call presentation prep work as getting ready to push the PowerPoint to prod.

I don’t see an issue with this. I had a very technical CTO at my n-2 job who was in his 50s and would often write POCs himself in C# or Python as research. When he wanted to see if data that we got had the information we needed he would upload it to S3 and run some Athena queries. But I still know when he asks me some questions he just wants a very high level overview and doesn’t want the details. I’m working with hi…

Sounds like an amazing guy to work with.

Re: Dennis Austin, developer of PowerPoint, has died

#56

Post by bobbylarrybobby »

WanderPanda wrote: post #46
Maro wrote: post #39

I work in a Corporate where we have lots of "strategy" teams and PPTs flying around. What I learned is that PPT are more than a presentation format in this culture, they are a signaling tool: • something that is "just" an email, or "just" something somebody said in a meeting doesn't carry much weight in Corporates • .. but if you put it in a PPT with some graphics, it signals you've thought about it, and probably had…

As a tech weirdo I still think PPTs are the best way to convey concepts. You can mix bullet points with images and video and have everything be progressively revealed exactly when you explain it. I can‘t even think of an alternative to this other than adhoc whiteboard drawings which can‘t match PPTs on any axis except if you‘re just (collaboratively) developing an idea/concept

On the other hand, there's a good reason that bullet points aren't how formal communication is actually done, which is that they're terrible for actually doing the job of conveying information. For that, you need sentences in paragraphs, and PPT can't really do that.

The best option is probably just an html doc — mix text (real text, not bullet points) with whatever media you want. Can be viewed on every device in the world.

Re: Dennis Austin, developer of PowerPoint, has died

#57

Post by tmpX7dMeXU »

galoisscobi wrote: post #28

A strange legacy. Most of the management in my company cannot digest even simple information if it’s not on PowerPoint slides. Even when it is on preparing PowerPoint slides, text heavy slides are a big no no. Some days, more time is spent on PowerPoint slides than writing code, or actually engineering. We jokingly call presentation prep work as getting ready to push the PowerPoint to prod.

This is literally their job. Implying that they “cannot digest even simple information” is almost certainly a misrepresentation. ICs will naively paint ideal management as simply “master craftspeople that get usually paid more than me”, and when management doesn’t meet those expectations, they’re dunked on because they’re fish that can’t climb trees. Management are often there to contextualise and decide. It’s not that the information is in PowerPoint form, it’s that (aside from the weird “slides full of text” people) things in PowerPoint form are often well summarised in a way that they typically aren’t in an email or whatever else. Quite often their job is not to go deep on something. It’s often detrimental. Sometimes it’s detrimental to not go deep on something in particular, or to not have the right people in place to do that leg work for you. Overall though, management having PowerPoints is a good thing. Easily.

Re: Dennis Austin, developer of PowerPoint, has died

#59

Post by graypegg »

bobbylarrybobby wrote: post #56
WanderPanda wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a tech weirdo I still think PPTs are the best way to convey concepts. You can mix bullet points with images and video and have everything be progressively revealed exactly when you explain it. I can‘t even think of an alternative to this other than adhoc whiteboard drawings which can‘t match PPTs on any axis except if you‘re just (collaboratively) developing an idea/concept

On the other hand, there's a good reason that bullet points aren't how formal communication is actually done, which is that they're terrible for actually doing the job of conveying information. For that, you need sentences in paragraphs, and PPT can't really do that. The best option is probably just an html doc — mix text (real text, not bullet points) with whatever media you want. Can be viewed on every device in th…

I think what the GP comment is conveying is the cultural factor of a PPT. It’s not good for information communication when not paired with a human being giving the presentation that would say those sentences shown in bullet form. If you have the human, writing full sentences on a slide deck that they just read out is the worst.

But the cultural factor is you signalling “I want to PRESENT something to you”. It implies this is a pitch, and you’re only seeing the notes. It’s a way to say “come talk to me”.

The information density being so low is kind of a feature.

Re: Dennis Austin, developer of PowerPoint, has died

#60

Post by scarface_74 »

safety1st wrote: post #55
scarface_74 wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don’t see an issue with this. I had a very technical CTO at my n-2 job who was in his 50s and would often write POCs himself in C# or Python as research. When he wanted to see if data that we got had the information we needed he would upload it to S3 and run some Athena queries. But I still know when he asks me some questions he just wants a very high level overview and doesn’t want the details. I’m working with hi…

Sounds like an amazing guy to work with.

The rest of the story was that he was hired at a startup that was founded by two non technical brothers. The brothers got funding and hired a consulting company to build the MVP and find product market fit.

They brought him in to build out an internal team to remove their dependence on the consulting company. I was his second technical hire. He wanted to make everything “cloud native” for HA and scalability reasons. We sold access to micro services to large health care providers.

We just talked during the interview. No leetCode, no techno trivia and I came up with my proposals and even though he knew I had no practical experience with AWS, later on he told me he thought I was a smart guy and could figure it out.

Two years later when a little worldwide pandemic hit and people were hammering our services, they didn’t miss a beat.

After I basically “put myself out of a job” and had done everything I was initially hired to do, I got bored and got a job at AWS in the Professional Services Department.

Three years later, the company we worked for had had an exit, he moved on to another company and I got Amazoned. I called him up and we talked about some problem he was having with an Amazon Connect (call center) implementation. It was a service I knew well and he offered me a consulting contract on my last day at AWS.

FWIW: I also got another full time job two weeks later.

I don’t see anyone else giving me the opportunity that he originally gave me to lead his “transformation” vision. He knew I had never opened the AWS console when he hired me.

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