[thom]

Slides are cursed with multiple audiences and lifetimes. After an initial persuasive speech, perhaps some new initiative gains momentum, and the slides are often the first and only relic associated with The Project for quite some time. They are a cultural artifact onto which many beliefs, hopes and dreams are projected in ways that are not at all evident from their content. Minions are asked by their managers if this thing is actually possible or desirable. Vendors are asked to pitch in. If you’re very unlucky you’re asked to start estimating for the thing and you’re sat, puzzled, thinking “but this is just some bullet points?” Sometimes the detail only comes later once things are signed off and someone is made accountable, and it’s that poor soul’s job to go back and find out exactly what gaps everyone has filled in inside their heads.

I don’t actually think PowerPoint is responsible for all this, I think it’s just people are often too lazy to create more structure and depth at the right time, and transition to something else.