Charts Are Cheap

A few weeks ago, I put together a funny little PowerPoint briefing titled "Charts Are Cheap." The basic idea was that cramming all your information into as few charts as possible is stupid, even though we treat it like it's a Best Practice(tm). You can download the charts at SlideShare (talking points are in the Notes View, where they belong).

Anyway, I just came across this Dilbert comic that perfectly illustrates the mindset I was trying to counter. And yes, I've been in situations where I've been asked to limit a presentation to one or two slides, as if the number of slides is the real limiting factor (as opposed to time). If I have 5 minutes of someone's time in a meeting, who cares whether I do 1 slide or 50?




As Ray Romano once said, "Laugh because it's funny, cry because it's true."

[NOTE: If you only see two panels of the Dilbert comic, click on it to see the third one... It looked right in my Blogger Preview, but after I actually posted it, I could only see 2 panels.]