The True Enemy of Military Efficiency: PowerPoint

Someone recently asked what fighter pilots do when they’re not flying.  Here’s a pretty good answer, and it’s mostly serious.

The New York Times takes an interesting look at the US military’s reliance on Microsoft’s PowerPoint, to the point that Army officers in combat freely admit they spend more time creating slides than they do fighting the enemy.  They aren’t the only ones; the military has entire rooms of staff personnel whose entire purpose in life is to generate PowerPoint slides.

If it can’t be said in three, one-line bullets, (14 point font, black on white background, of course) it appears it shouldn’t be said.

2 comments

  • I believe in the 10-10-30 rule: No more than ten slides, no more than ten minutes, font no smaller than 30pt.

  • I believe in making it ‘pilot proof’ and by that i mean lots of pictures, few words.