Powerpoint, the death of office productivity...and maybe the reason we are losing the war

So I recently read this article on wired: Colonel kicked out of Afghanistan for Anti-Powerpoint rant

Reminded me of this article from the NY Times.

I know McChrystal ws relieved of duty and sent the door, just like the Colonel in the first article, but it made me think about the amount of time I have spent on powerpoint presentations over the past few year. I have come to the conclusion that powerpoint is overused to the point of abuse these days. Do we really have no better way to present our ideas that slides?

Seriously, powerpoint is a tool, but like any tool, use it too much and you begin to rely on it to do things it was not created to do.

For example, I have an awesome set of pliers. I can use them to pull nails out, tighten/loosen stubborn bolts/screws, pretty much anything...almost.
The other day I had to pound a nail into the wall, and I had my pliers in my pocket, so I whipped them out, and using the flat side started pounding away. I ended up missing and hitting my wall and putting a plier shaped indentation in the wall. I also left some nasty little marks on the side of the pliers.

Now take that metaphor and apply it to Powerpoint. I can use it to show people a slideshow. I am trying to sell a piece of software, I put its 10 best points on a few slides with some images and charts and voila, a sales presentation. The customer will still want to see the product. No matter how good the presentation, it is, in the end, just a snapshot (even with animations,) not the real thing.

Now imagine generals using powerpoint to run a war, I can throw 10 points of the war on a powerpoint, and give a concise briefing, but there are a few clear shortcomings:

1. Inevitably the ideas presented are limited to those that can be reduced to bullet points.

2. If presenting to a figure of authority, the incentive is usually to present the positive aspects

3. Combine #1 with #2 and you get a couple of things, a mess in the toilet (lol @ toilet humor) and a bunch of decision makers, making decisions based on bullet points rather than substantive reports. When the decision makers don’t have all the information, they make bad decisions.

Power point has a time and place, but war time briefings should use powerpoint only as short supplements to the real information.

Now lets return to the office world and do a quick revenue calculation. My company (that shall remain unnamed) does an earnings call every quarter and a longer one at the end of the year. Each earnings call is accompanied by several internal and external meetings to go over the numbers/accomplishments etc... There are usually separate presentations by the CEO, CFO and COO , the three highest paid guys in the company and each presentation is about 30 minutes long and has 15 powerpoint slides.

Lets estimate the cost to the company to generate those powerpoint slides. Let's say that these guys are pretty good powerpointers and spend 10 minutes on each slide. I know that they may spend more on some and only a few seconds on the title slide, but lets just say 10 minutes a slide. That means that each presentation took 150 minutes to prepare, 2 1/2 hours for each presentation.

I would estimate our CEO's total compensation (including stock options etc.) to be around $1m. Lets break down the hourly cost of those powerpoints. At $1m a year, our CEO gets paid $544 an hour for working 40 hours a week minus 20 vacation days and 10 holidays.) two and half hours at $544 an hour works out to $1360 for each powerpoint. Multiply that by 3 and you get the $4080 for 1.5 hours of presentation. This happens 4 times a year, so figure in $16,320 for powerpoint presentations a year for our executives.

In the corporate world that doesn't seem that bad, its a micro-percentage of the total revenue. Now expand it to every employee.

Assume that they do more than the exec's, 2 a quarter. Thats 8 a year, only 8 powerpoint presentations, and suddenly we are looking at 1.1% of work time for the average employee being dedicated to creating powerpoints. At $42m a year for payroll expenses, that works out to $455,000 a year spent on powerpoint presentations.

I got the penis image from gapingvoid.com, see licensing agreement here.

TV - you dont actually need one these days. Yes I intend on getting one, but to be honest, I have now been without a TV for a month now, and I dont miss it at all.

I used to come home from work, get some juice/water/beer/milk and go watch TV. I watched two and half men and family guy, must of seen every episode. I remember being dissapointed when they ended at 8:00, and nothing I wanted to watch was on. I would say, this is the time when having cable would be nice. I'd say I watched an average of 2 hours of TV a day, that means 1/12 of every day of my life was spent sitting in front of TV watching the same thing.

If I live to be 80 (fat chance if I watch that much TV every day) I will have watched TV for almost 7 years (6.67 actually) of my life. That is ridiculous. 7 years . In financial terms, say I earn the US median income of $52,000, 7 years means $347,000 over the course of my lifetime, watching TV.

In the Ukraine, the GDP per capita (not the median income) is $6,900 a year. That means that the time I spend watching TV would be the equivalent of 50 years of labor for a Ukrainian.

Let me say that again in a different way.

First some statistics:

Ukraine

Per Capita GDP - $6900

Life expectancy (male) - 62.7

A Ukrainian (not some poor backwards developing nation in south east Asia or Africa) may start working at age 13 and work until they are 63, when they drop dead and only earn as much (in their entire lifetime) as I have squandered away watching reruns of two and a half men.

So...is that TV show really worth the same amount to you as an entire Ukrainian life of labor?

I just moved, bought a place, and since I am lazy, everything is still in boxes, so there is no room for a TV. I have spent a few hrs here and there watching tv shows on Hulu, but I spent far more reading. If I hadn't dropped a radiator on my foot, I probably would of gone for more runs. I have cooked more, cleaned more and generally felt better, so take that TV.