Alignment docs should be rich with context.

You’re a knowledge worker. Your job is to make sense of data. Conversations, spreadsheets, notes. And then turn it into something useful.

Part of your job involves communicating about your work. And for some reason, we have agreed that the best way to do that is via slide decks.

Slide decks suck for alignment. Why? Let me explain using Powerpoint bullets:

➣ Slides force complex ideas into bullet points and oversimplified visuals that barely scratch the surface, which means people don't fully grasp your message.

➣ Slides freeze dynamic data into static snapshots, forcing you to repeatedly update them.

➣ Most slide decks are badly designed.

But there’s a better way.

“Please don’t say AI.”

AI.

AI can make sense of any type of data thrown at it: spreadsheets, code, emails, images. It’s not perfect, but it’s getting better every day.

What if the burden of summarization were automated? You could focus on crafting better stories and less time preparing slide decks.

Slide decks have their place: visioning, building credibility etc. Using slides for alignment is inefficient.

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P.S. I bet data visualization is going to make a massive comeback. Manus.im has brilliant examples of interactive charts that are generated specifically for your use cases.

P.P.S. Amazon uses written narratives instead of slide decks, because “as analysis becomes more causal, multivariate, comparative, evidence based, and resolution-intense, the more damaging the bullet list becomes.” - Edward Tufte

P.P.S. Dynamic summarization could make it harder to “juke the stats,” since raw data is always connected. But that opens up a possibility where lower level data is manipulated. “When a measure becomes a target it ceases to be a good measure.” — Goodhart’s Law