::KEYNOTEWORTHY::
During his keynote speech to the Informal Science Educators Association of Texas, Tommy Darwin mentioned that he was not going to use PowerPoint for his presentation. This ruffled the feathers of many an informal science educator: "Why not?"
"Well, it's more interesting for you if I talk, drawing on the board every once in a while."
"But... PowerPoint is so
useful!"
By this point in the dialogue, thoughts of Edward Tufte's railings against MacroHard had percolated on my cortex into a frothy, delicious head. The next words out of Dr. Darwin's mouth were:
"Have any of you heard of Edward Tufte?"
I yell, "Woo!" (Indeed I have:
Here,
here, and
here.)
"He's been known to say that power corrupts, and PowerPoint corrupts absolutely. As an advocate for good design and communication, I steer away from it because I think - I hope - you would rather see me deliver this keynote to you than simply email it to you as an attachment."
Sometimes, I feel so ahead of the game that the Pop-O-Matic die-roller is just a blip on the horizon.