Tufte: The Cognative Style of Powerpoint

1) I'm curious as to why NASA used powerpoints during the Columbia Shuttle disaster. It seems counter to what a major scientific research organization would do. The problem here is with assumptions about what powerpoint was intended for. The idea of a powerpoint being sent in through email as a form of documentation defeats the purpose of any kind of a presentation intended to go along with it. What was NASA thinking?

2) Tufte's criticism of powerpoint in schools seemed harsh. As a recent high school graduate I feel that from my high school experience I was not taught that powerpoint and papers were comparable. Rather that they were merely a tool to be used with a strong presentation in order to convey a much more expansive issue, which in most cases should be documented anyway. Why does Tufte criticize powerpoint so much? It can be detrimental if used in the wrong situation, for example NASA, but used properly it can be an invaluable tool used to convey ideas to a large group cleanly an efficiently.

2 questions on cognitive style of powerpoint

1. When the article refers to the shuttle columbia, Tufte explains how NASA created a series of powerpoints in a life or death situation. I don't really understand why they created powerpoints. If someone was in a life or death situation shouldn't NASA get together and have a meeting about the factors they could do, beside send everyone a powerpoint email about the situation?


2. Tufte constantly refers to stupid people making powerpoints in serious cases. He stresses that powerpoints should be presented, rather than printed out or sent through an e-mail. NASA never created formal documentation about the shuttle Columbia; instead they made powerpoints. My question is: why didn't people make a formal document? Why did these people make a powerpoint slide when they could have easily written up a document? I don't understand why people would consider a powerpoint slide a documentation for a specific period, even though a powerpoint is meant to be presented rather than used for hard copy.