[Sigia-l] Smackdown: Edward Tufte vs. Don Norman

[Karl Fast]

> I'll go back to your original problem with the CEO regarding a PPT
> version as an indication that you thought through the problem. On
> that, he's absolutely right because, here, THE FORMAT IS THE
> MESSAGE.

Perhaps you are correct.

As evidence, I present this thread. After all, my arguments against
the use of bullets, written in what I thought were clear and cogent
sentences (at least for a mailing list), have been consistently
repudiated (at least by a few).

If I had used bullets, then obviously I would have made my points
more clearly. In addition, bullets would have provided visually
incontrovertible evidence that I had thought the matter through. For
what matters is not the ideas, nor the clarity and specificity of
their expression--only the form used to express the ideas. Sentences
and paragraphs are too complicated. They hide the idea in a morass
of grammar and punctuation. But the bulleted list cuts through all
that. Bullets are uncomplicated, transparent, and elegant. They free
ideas from the bondage of linguistic syntax.

Clearly, SIGIA-L should abandon sentences, paragraphs, and other
fully-formed grammatical structures in favor of bullets. Such a move
would, undoubtebly, allow us (finally) to clearly communicate the
essential ideas in each post and, by extension, both increase the
degree of information exchange and raise the level of discourse.

Too bad this suggestion will not be implemented. I used sentences.




-- 
Karl Fast
http://www.livingskies.com/