Re: PGCon 2008 RFP

On Mon, Dec 29, 2008 at 03:32:39PM -0500, Bruce Momjian wrote:

> > exclusively in the details.  I encourage those who doubt that claim to
> > read "The Cognitive Style of Powerpoint", which you can order from
> > http://www.edwardtufte.com/tufte/books_pp.  Indeed, I have been

> How does a template make the overall messages similar?

You'll have to read Tufte's argument yourself to gather whether I'm
doing him justice ;-)  But his point in general is that the format of
presentation of something shapes the content.  In the case of slide
templates, for instance, it forces you to structure what you put on a
slide in the way that best fits the _slide_, rather than how it best
fits the _message_.  If everyone starts using the same slide
templates, then everyone starts to tailor their messages to those
slide formats.  Since the template is shaping the message, the result
is that every message ends up shaped the same.

The most dramatic example I ever personally saw of this was watching
two people argue diametrically opposed positions on a topic.  For the
"sake of expediency", the chair of the session convinced them to use
the same slide deck and take turns talking at each slide.  More than
half the people I heard discussing it after thought the two people
were saying _the same thing_, because the only thing they could put on
the slides were bits of data that could be used in favour of either
position.

A

--
Andrew Sullivan
ajs@crankycanuck.ca