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>So really his problem isn’t with PowerPoint then is it? It’s with how the enterprise uses PowerPoint. What he’s really criticizing is not PowerPoint as a tool, but rather the default use of PowerPoint by an old guard.

Well, thank you Captain Obvious. Since he uses slides himself, it's obvious he is NOT criticizing it as a tool.

That said, it's not "the default use by an old guard", but the "default use by almost everybody, period".

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Your snark is unwarranted and unfair. Few people have been to a Tufte conference, but many more are (at least vaguely) aware of his distaste for PowerPoint. Making the tool/use distinction explicit will help more people think critically about what is good and bad about PowerPoint specifically and presenting data generally.

It may be obvious, but throughout Tufte's work he ignores that distinction and conflates the two. So it must not be obvious to Tufte.

I don't think he conflates anything in his mind.

He merely uses the name of the tool as a shorthand to how it's used 99% of the time -- which is a very common language practice.

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