Like many corporate cultures, The U.S. Army lives by PowerPoint. And if you don’t think that’s threatening, have a look at this slide, which communicates the complexities of the American military strategy. Good luck trying to understand it.

In this NY Times article Gen. James Mattis says “PowerPoint makes us stupid.” It forces us to simplify complexities into hierarchical bullet points and creates the illusion of control. Not everything can or should be simplified this way.

On the other hand, some things are simple and follow a logical, linear line. Still, most PowerPoint presentations are painful to read. They are mostly written as close caption speaking notes for the presenter with as much packed onto a screen as possible. I’ve seen PowerPoint slides so dense that even when they’re spread onto four slides they’re still too dense.

Presenters, like writers, need to consider the needs of their audience. No one wants to follow your speech word for word on a screen. Instead, write two presentations. One that is a handout with all the details, and one stripped down to just the key words.

This means presenters need to know their content well enough to speak off-the-cuff. It also means there’s a better chance the audience will stay awake.