Why I'm More Famous than Brad Pitt
An ironically little known fact is that the PowerPoint and Office Graphics teams are more famous than most movie stars.
It’s not because of our awesome physiques, or sexy smiles or even because our autographed pictures show up on eBay.
It’s because more people see and use PowerPoint than watch movies.
When is the last time you saw a movie with Brad Pitt? Or a movie at all?
Now when’s the last time you saw a PowerPoint presentation?
I’m betting your answers were “two weeks ago” and “twice in the last 2 hours”
We develop the stuff that shows up on the screen and that’s what every person sees. Every time you hit “F5”, yo.
It’s challenging because if we make a mistake, then everyone sees it. It’s thrilling because every day more and more people see the code that myself and coworkers wrote.
My Fame Incidents
Demo of my feature at the company meeting to 70,000 people.
Last week, on The Office, Steve Carrel “uses” PowerPoint. None the less, my code was shown on TV in front of all my friends. Booya
At a recruiting fair a few weeks ago. “Oh my God, I have to tell my Dad I met the PowerPoint guy!!”
Walking by the hotel which had a kiosk mode presentation running using the new themes.
Searching the internet for “Office themes” and seeing tons of screenshots of the themes gallery.
Anytime I mention I work at Microsoft or on PowerPoint, being surrounded by people with questions of either what it’s like to work here, how to do “feature X” or suggestions that we should do “super awesome feature Y”.
Flying back to RIT and getting to see people’s expressions when I say that life gets awesome post-college to the point that I know I’m more famous than their favorite movie star.
Further Proof
Type 7693776468 on your T9 cellphone.
