Tech Mails

No powerpoint presentations from now on at steam

Jeff Bezos to S-team, June 9, 2004

Leaked
From
Jeff Bezos
Sent
Wednesday, June 9, 2004 6:02 PM
To
S-team
Subject
No powerpoint presentations from now on at steam
A little more to help with the reason "why." Well structured, narrative text is what we're after rather than just text. If someone builds a list of bullet points in word, that would be just as bad as powerpoint. The reason writing a 4 page memo is harder than "writing" a 20 page powerpoint is because the narrative structure of a good memo forces better thought and better understanding of what's more important than what, and how things are related. Powerpoint-style presentations somehow give permission to gloss over ideas, flatten out any sense of relative importance, and ignore the innerconnectedness of ideas.
JBX-000001

About this email

Business Insider printed this email, which a former Amazon employee had shared on a company blog. It followed an earlier message to the S-team that banned slide presentations at S-team meetings in favor of written memos.