RE: When they shouldn't be experimenting (was RE: Encouraging learning---g by experimentation?

["Earl Cooley" <shiva -at- io -dot- com>]

JB Foster wrote:
>
> Last night, on the 10 o'clock news, there was a interview-clip with the
> Canadian CEO (or maybe a Senior V.P.) of British Petroleum, regarding the
> Kyoto protocol. He was interviewed sitting at his desk, while the whole
> time, fiddling with some sort of printed PowerPoint document (you know the
> type - consisting entirely of one-sentence bullets within 'cute' frames).
> This type of document,  because of the limited information they often
> contain, changed my opinion of the seriousness, and depth, to
> what he had to say. I mean ...could you imagine President Bush's speeches
> consisting of reading no-more than a simple Power-Point presentation.
>
> Why I mention the above, is because of the observations Mike Bradley made
> regarding limiting tasks to 'seven words.' Maybe that's why I've noticed
> increased use of the 'PowerPoint' style within user-manuals. I can't wait
> for the day when novels are written in Power-Point style; or could this
> already be the future of technical documentation? ...If so, maybe
> all I ever needed to learn was: the Five-Point essay, simple sentence
> structure, MS word, and Power-Point  ...kind of scary! ;-)

The solution to the Seven Word Attention Span problem is to place the
following seven words at the top of each page, in large bold type:

READ THIS OR YOU WILL BE KILLED

Bury all the critical instructions that prevent death and maiming
due to misuse of the documented product or process past the seven
word boundary. Then if the user base doesn't comply, the problem
will eventually go away due to Evolution In Action. Cruel, but fair....

--
      3
 e=sc^  (shiva -at- io -dot- com) Earl Cooley III



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