"What gets left out is the narrative between the bullets, which would tell us who's going to do what and how we're going to achieve the generic goals on the list"
About this Quote
Tufte is taking aim at the corporate habit of confusing formatting with thinking. The “bullets” here aren’t just punctuation marks; they’re a cultural technology that lets institutions perform clarity while avoiding it. A list can make anything look actionable, because the shape of the slide implies order, priority, and completion. What’s “left out” is where accountability lives: the connective tissue of sequence, causality, tradeoffs, and ownership. In other words, the messy parts that can’t be faked with indentation.
His phrase “narrative between the bullets” is deceptively pointed. Narrative means time, agency, and consequence. It forces you to answer unglamorous questions: Who decides? What happens first? What resources get moved? What’s the dependency chain? Bullets erase those details by flattening complex systems into parallel statements, all presented as equally true and equally achievable. That’s why Tufte calls the goals “generic”: lists are especially hospitable to ambition without commitment, the kind of language that survives meetings precisely because it can’t be audited later.
The context is Tufte’s broader critique of PowerPoint-ified communication, where visual packaging and managerial optimism displace analytical rigor. He’s not nostalgic for long-winded prose; he’s demanding evidence and logic. The subtext is harsher: when organizations default to bullets, they aren’t just choosing a style. They’re choosing deniability. The missing narrative isn’t a gap in presentation; it’s a gap in responsibility.
His phrase “narrative between the bullets” is deceptively pointed. Narrative means time, agency, and consequence. It forces you to answer unglamorous questions: Who decides? What happens first? What resources get moved? What’s the dependency chain? Bullets erase those details by flattening complex systems into parallel statements, all presented as equally true and equally achievable. That’s why Tufte calls the goals “generic”: lists are especially hospitable to ambition without commitment, the kind of language that survives meetings precisely because it can’t be audited later.
The context is Tufte’s broader critique of PowerPoint-ified communication, where visual packaging and managerial optimism displace analytical rigor. He’s not nostalgic for long-winded prose; he’s demanding evidence and logic. The subtext is harsher: when organizations default to bullets, they aren’t just choosing a style. They’re choosing deniability. The missing narrative isn’t a gap in presentation; it’s a gap in responsibility.
Quote Details
| Topic | Vision & Strategy |
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