Saturday September 25, 2021; 9:17 PM EDT
- I don't expect to surprise someone else here, but I enjoyed surprising myself writing yesterday's post about outliners vs. PowerPoint. It's not hard to find criticisms of PowerPoint, but I enjoyed the contrast that came freshly to my mind.#
- The contrast that interested me was the idea that a PowerPoint presentation was most likely going to be used in a static way even as events unfold in the room, conversations move forward, ideas develop. The text loses contact with the social reality of the group. It's frozen. #
- That's why Plato said that written texts were stupid, as I recall. By which he meant that they were unable to answer questions. They couldn't adapt. #
- But the story told in yesterday's meeting about projecting a live outline during a working session, taking notes, revising the notes together--that's a text that stays in process as life unfolds in the group. That is a huge difference, seems to me.#
- We know of texts that change--like a constitution might change. But we tend not to focus on that kind of text. Maybe we should, since the alternatives seem to be frozen texts losing contact with the living society, or no texts at all.#
- Maybe there's another route: having a social practice that returns to a text, on purpose, to reinterpret it and reenergize it. A good production of a fine old pay does that, or at least aims in that direction.#