It recently struck me that I dedicate more time to PowerPoint than to almost anything else, even loved ones. There are periods when PowerPoint commands more of my attention than eating, phone calls, or team management. This isn’t just casual use; it’s deep immersion in crafting narratives and visuals within slides.
The Media Universe Map, a visual representation I’m known for, is fundamentally a PowerPoint slide. And it’s constantly evolving.
Just this past weekend, I invested three hours updating this single slide in PowerPoint. This is a bi-monthly ritual, consuming at least six hours every month. Beyond this, creating presentations for keynotes and even preparing content for newsletters like this one happens within the PowerPoint environment.
This week, you too are likely to engage with PowerPoint, whether reading or creating something significant.
PowerPoint, as pioneer Russell Davies aptly notes, is where “all human knowledge is now stored.” Indeed, a substantial portion of my career, with its highs and lows, is archived in presentations, within slides meticulously designed to convey critical points—points that may now seem distant.
My identity as a “Media Cartographer” stems directly from my proficiency in PowerPoint. The Map, my signature work, is simply one slide, albeit a complex and layered one.
This map slide is built with 205 layers and objects, utilizing twelve font sizes and four typefaces. It features 124 circles, each representing a company, scaled by market valuation derived from public data and formulas, then refined manually in PowerPoint. This detail extends to subscribers, market shares, and other data points.
The Media Universe Map is more than just a visual; it’s the bedrock of my personal and company brand. It’s the opening slide in almost every presentation I deliver, and it has become a recognized industry dashboard within my community.
Yet, it remains fundamentally just a PowerPoint slide.
Beyond its media industry relevance, the Map embodies broader lessons learned through mastering PowerPoint—lessons applicable beyond media, extending into life itself. Despite my extensive PowerPoint use, these broader insights have remained largely unarticulated until now.
Some crucial background is needed to understand this perspective.
Fifteen years ago, I had the privilege of moderating a SXSW panel featuring Jaron Lanier, a visionary who coined “virtual reality” and pioneered digital avatars. Lanier, author of the seminal anti-big tech manifesto “You Are Not a Gadget,” focuses on the pervasive “ambient manipulation in everything digital.” Despite his foundational role in the internet, Lanier critiques how major tech companies utilize seemingly convenient and free services to create digital “lock-ins,” shaping our digital selves to fit their oligopolistic models.
Lanier illustrates this with MIDI, a technology from the early 80s for electronic musical notes. Its rapid adoption as a sound interface across computers and instruments led to a critical issue. Updating MIDI became nearly impossible because its deep integration meant changes would disrupt countless existing technologies worldwide. MIDI became perpetually “locked in,” a standard we still use today due to this inertia.
Engaging with Lanier’s work, I recognized the rigid digital lock-ins structuring my own life – Facebook, Twitter, Word, Excel, and LinkedIn. Post-“Gadget,” these tools appeared differently. I saw the inherent constraints, the enforced sameness, and the lowered expectations of uniformity embedded within each platform.
PowerPoint became the epitome of this digital lock-in.
Opening PowerPoint immediately presents “THE” template. The “Layout” button reveals a limited array of nine templates, including “Blank.” Templated design choices permeate the software. But these “choices” are illusory, and “design” feels misused. Attempting to modify Master Slide formats often leads to frustration.
I had used PowerPoint for decades, since its early days, even priding myself on advanced skills. But Lanier’s book shifted my perspective. Beyond mere proficiency, I aimed to challenge these digital lock-ins, to bend them to my creative will.
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Recently, John McCarthy, CMO of Kantar Media, recommended “Everything I Know about Life I Learned from PowerPoint” by Russell Davies. Reading it felt like Davies was articulating thoughts I had long held. Davies defends PowerPoint against critics like Edward Tufte, a data visualization pioneer and vocal PowerPoint detractor.
However, Davies’ book transcends mere defense. It’s a celebration of PowerPoint’s potential and its “lifestyle,” offering invaluable lessons on effective PowerPoint utilization.
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