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A review by georginabrooke
Everything I Know about Life I Learned from PowerPoint by Russell Davies
3.0
TL;DR version of the book
Style over substance
Although I think it may make my ppts a bit better
Which may be a reflection on the shallower medium ppt is compared to a book.
I liked some bits about this book. Russell Davies is strong and interesting at telling his personal story on PowerPoint, how he rode the wave from acetate projectors into the actual development of PowerPoint. I knew nothing about Gaskins, the creator of PowerPoint and Russell's hints at the liberal, multi-disciplinary team he created to shape PowerPoint were interesting.
The book falls down as it spends a long time luxuriating in bad PowerPoint (military PowerPoint, conceptual art related to PowerPoint) but there's 0 examples of Russell's own PowerPoints. In fact the only 'good example' he cites is from Ella Fitzsimmons, who seems to have contributed the more interesting insights in the book.
Another problem I have is that RD seems to be debating within himself how much of a problem being a white cis straight man is. On the one hand he talks about Ella's conversation with him about how his techniques only really work for him in his position of prviliidge. But then he still goes on to give you an example opening of a presentation (stolen from someone else) of a 20th cenutry fox intro and then a pause and then a little hello. Sure that works if you can do that faux-modesty bit because your a straight white cis male. It doesn't work if you need to convince people you belong in the room. He seems to play the underdog at times (I'm less privilidged than some of the people who don't like PowerPoint!) but then still give you examples of presenting PowerPoints which only work if you are a straight white cis male.
The other thing I got from this book, which grates me with a lot of ad books, is it feels essentially a bit shallow. His ending is a case in point, he's made this big (and unoriginal) point about lists of threes, and ending early (I also think it's much harder to end early if you're not a rich, established white male, who can get away with it, if you're a young woman, people may just assume you didn't have enough material). So his last list of three is actually a list of two and the third item is haha there's nothing here - always finish early (Ha!). This sums up a broader issue I have with some ad books, it's a lot of style over substance, I think it's intended to come across as self referential, knowing and witty but I actually find it glib, lacking in actual material and entitled. Also not driven by the desire to impart knowledge and accessibility, but by the desire to come across clever.
That having been said, I did really like Ella Fitzsimmons example deck from GDS, in general I think all the GDS work is really strong and I did enjoy the anecdote about the first PPT presentation they delivered at No 10 Downing Street and one case study when I did effectively buy that he wasn't the most privileged person in the room and was helping to deliver real, meaningful change (although it also riled me that he mentioned Sarah Richards just once, who was the brains behind this work, by her maiden name - she now goes by Sarah Winters - and on the next page says "I am an irritating pedant". Maybe on the things that affect him.
I liked the idea of starting a ppt with a story and ending with an ask, I got the point about repeating key phrases throughout. I love the idea of storyboarding slides using small squares of paper and big pens (to stop you writing too much). The presentation ideas could improve my slide design.
Flawed, a little gratingly entitled / unconsciously ironic, but has some points.
Style over substance
Although I think it may make my ppts a bit better
Which may be a reflection on the shallower medium ppt is compared to a book.
I liked some bits about this book. Russell Davies is strong and interesting at telling his personal story on PowerPoint, how he rode the wave from acetate projectors into the actual development of PowerPoint. I knew nothing about Gaskins, the creator of PowerPoint and Russell's hints at the liberal, multi-disciplinary team he created to shape PowerPoint were interesting.
The book falls down as it spends a long time luxuriating in bad PowerPoint (military PowerPoint, conceptual art related to PowerPoint) but there's 0 examples of Russell's own PowerPoints. In fact the only 'good example' he cites is from Ella Fitzsimmons, who seems to have contributed the more interesting insights in the book.
Another problem I have is that RD seems to be debating within himself how much of a problem being a white cis straight man is. On the one hand he talks about Ella's conversation with him about how his techniques only really work for him in his position of prviliidge. But then he still goes on to give you an example opening of a presentation (stolen from someone else) of a 20th cenutry fox intro and then a pause and then a little hello. Sure that works if you can do that faux-modesty bit because your a straight white cis male. It doesn't work if you need to convince people you belong in the room. He seems to play the underdog at times (I'm less privilidged than some of the people who don't like PowerPoint!) but then still give you examples of presenting PowerPoints which only work if you are a straight white cis male.
The other thing I got from this book, which grates me with a lot of ad books, is it feels essentially a bit shallow. His ending is a case in point, he's made this big (and unoriginal) point about lists of threes, and ending early (I also think it's much harder to end early if you're not a rich, established white male, who can get away with it, if you're a young woman, people may just assume you didn't have enough material). So his last list of three is actually a list of two and the third item is haha there's nothing here - always finish early (Ha!). This sums up a broader issue I have with some ad books, it's a lot of style over substance, I think it's intended to come across as self referential, knowing and witty but I actually find it glib, lacking in actual material and entitled. Also not driven by the desire to impart knowledge and accessibility, but by the desire to come across clever.
That having been said, I did really like Ella Fitzsimmons example deck from GDS, in general I think all the GDS work is really strong and I did enjoy the anecdote about the first PPT presentation they delivered at No 10 Downing Street and one case study when I did effectively buy that he wasn't the most privileged person in the room and was helping to deliver real, meaningful change (although it also riled me that he mentioned Sarah Richards just once, who was the brains behind this work, by her maiden name - she now goes by Sarah Winters - and on the next page says "I am an irritating pedant". Maybe on the things that affect him.
I liked the idea of starting a ppt with a story and ending with an ask, I got the point about repeating key phrases throughout. I love the idea of storyboarding slides using small squares of paper and big pens (to stop you writing too much). The presentation ideas could improve my slide design.
Flawed, a little gratingly entitled / unconsciously ironic, but has some points.