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Edward Tufte (a non-COVID related thread)

T_R_Oglodyte

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Just curious how many TUGgers may have intersected with Edward Tufte, perhaps through his books or through having taken one of his seminars?

For myself, I first learned of Dr. Tufte about 1990, when I read an article about him in Forbes. It piqued my interest, and I bought and devoured his book "The Visual Display of Quantitative Information". Despite the ponderous title, it was a quite fun and informative read. After I was done, I put the copy I had purchased (on the company nickel) in the company library and began coaching my project staff using the book as a reference. To this day things I learned from that book still shape my technical reporting.

About five years ago I refreshed my memory of Dr. Tufte, via the internet. I learned that he was now doing one-day seminars around the country. Most of my kids are involved with analysis of numeric data, and I had the wonderful opportunity to attend one of his seminars with DS#2. DS#1 would have joined us, except he had a conflict. At the time DS#2 was a professor of engineering at a public university and has a passion for technical training in math and science, so it was quite interesting getting his perspectives and analysis after the seminar. My son is smarter than me; I can keep up with him, but I can't outpace him in most areas.

When DS#2 and I attended his seminar, I was quite intrigued with Tufte's assessment and critique of PowerPoint. That was new information for me, since PowerPoint didn't exist in my earlier intersection with him. I'm not as down on PowerPoint as he is, but his critique was quite helpful for me to get a better understanding of PowerPoint limitations, most notably how it can used to direct thinking instead of to illuminate thinking. His presentation of how PowerPoint was deployed to devastating effect on the pre-launch analysis of the Challenger Space Shuttle was sobering.
 

Cornell

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I have his books at my office. My company does survey research and one of our biggest challenges is presenting data to our client in a way that they can understand (they are not dummies by any means, but putting into a context that's relevant) and that tells a story, all while keeping the integrity of the data. We periodically look through the book to get ideas when we are stumped.

I'm curious what his beef is with Power Point.

We have graphic designers that can turn any chart / data visual that we can dream up into reality in Power Point.
 

vacationtime1

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Tufte made a poster of Charles Joseph Menard's chart showing Napoleon's march on Moscow, saying that "It may well be the best statistical graphic ever drawn."

I had Tufte's poster on my wall for fifteen years. An inspiration on how to present data.
 

T_R_Oglodyte

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I'm curious what his beef is with Power Point.
As I recall, his beefs were that
  • PowerPoint facilitates bullet pointing in lieu of presenting meaning graphical displays.​
  • Key information and qualifiers are pushed down to the fourth or fifth levels where no one is paying attention.​
He was involved in some the post-mortem on the Challenger explosion. The team found that the O-ring hazards had been identified pre-launch, but in in briefings the hazards were nested so deep that they were effectively buried. I understood his point, but I also considered that was not a problem unique to PowerPoint. That's why I was not as down on PowerPoint as he was. In fact, I have found PP to be quite helpful in summarizing and presenting information succinctly. As a user and a consumer, I think you just need to be aware of how the medium can be used to slant or skew information.
 

jacknsara

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I attended one of Tufte's one day presentations in Seattle many many years ago. Subsequently, I encouraged both daughters to attend (as college students) when the opportunities arose.
The one and only presentation I ever did at at professional society (2001) includes two charts of "small multiples"
If you search google and go several pages deep, you may find helpful summaries and notes such as https://sites.google.com/site/tufteondesign/home/six-fundamental-principles-of-design
 

bizaro86

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Thanks for this. I hadn't heard if him, but that book is on it's way to my home now. That seems potentially very helpful.
 

T_R_Oglodyte

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Tufte made a poster of Charles Joseph Menard's chart showing Napoleon's march on Moscow, saying that "It may well be the best statistical graphic ever drawn."

I had Tufte's poster on my wall for fifteen years. An inspiration on how to present data.
For those who aren't familiar with the chart ... The tan depicts the advancing army, the black is the return. The width of the line is proportional to the size of the army. So compare the width of the tan line at the start to the thickness of the black line at the return, and you get a sense of the magnitude of the disaster. So it's possible that more soldiers survived than are shown, if the chart only represents organized army. During the retreat there were mass desertions from the Army; if the data only represents the size of the army forces, then actual deaths may be overstated. Also on the retreat, note the loss of almost two-thirds of what was left of the army in the crossing of the Berezina River, shown in the right third of the chart.

The scale at the bottom shows the temperature (Celsius) during the retreat. When Napoleon began the campaign, he expected be back in Paris in early Fall, and the army was only issued summer uniforms.


1920px-Minard.png
 

normab

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Thanks so much for the non covid thread. What a relief...

I am going to look him up. Sounds interesting.
 

T_R_Oglodyte

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Related in many ways to our current events..... I think the cholera map is pretty cool

Another aspect of Broad Street well. There was a preacher who didn't believe at all that the well was the source of the outbreak. He began helping Snow, because he expected that by doing so he would help prove Snow wrong. In the process the preacher became convinced and was a key figure in mobilizing support to disable or destroy the well.
 

T_R_Oglodyte

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I have his books at my office. My company does survey research and one of our biggest challenges is presenting data to our client in a way that they can understand (they are not dummies by any means, but putting into a context that's relevant) and that tells a story, all while keeping the integrity of the data. We periodically look through the book to get ideas when we are stumped.

I'm curious what his beef is with Power Point.

We have graphic designers that can turn any chart / data visual that we can dream up into reality in Power Point.
As I recall, his beefs were that
  • PowerPoint facilitates bullet pointing in lieu of presenting meaning graphical displays.​
  • Key information and qualifiers are pushed down to the fourth or fifth levels where no one is paying attention.​
He was involved in some the post-mortem on the Challenger explosion. The team found that the O-ring hazards had been identified pre-launch, but in in briefings the hazards were nested so deep that they were effectively buried. I understood his point, but I also considered that was not a problem unique to PowerPoint. That's why I was not as down on PowerPoint as he was. In fact, I have found PP to be quite helpful in summarizing and presenting information succinctly. As a user and a consumer, I think you just need to be aware of how the medium can be used to slant or skew information.
There's also some discussion of this on his wikipedia page

 

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The Ghost Map: The Story of London's Most Terrifying Epidemic--and How It Changed Science, Cities, and the Modern World by Steven Johnson -- excellent read about the Cholera epidemic.

Kind of like a medical thriller. Now that I'm typing this, I'm going to consider re-reading. Seems really timely right now.
 

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The Ghost Map: The Story of London's Most Terrifying Epidemic--and How It Changed Science, Cities, and the Modern World by Steven Johnson -- excellent read about the Cholera epidemic.

Kind of like a medical thriller. Now that I'm typing this, I'm going to consider re-reading. Seems really timely right now.

I have it in my permanent ebook library :)
 

Cornell

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@Brett -- I knew we could find some common ground.

I love non-fiction books so if you have any good ones to recommend, send them my way.
 

T_R_Oglodyte

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@Brett -- I knew we could find some common ground.

I love non-fiction books so if you have any good ones to recommend, send them my way.
"The Fourth Horseman: The Tragedy of Anton Dilger and the Birth of Biological Terrorism" by Robert Koenig

The story of Anton Dilger brings to life a missing chapter in U.S. history and shows, dramatically, that the Great European War was in fact being fought on the home front years before we formally joined it. The doctor who grew anthrax and other bacteria in that rented house was an American—the son of a Medal of Honor winner who fought at Gettysburg—on a secret mission, for the German Army in 1915. The Fourth Horseman tells the startling story of that mission led by a brilliant but conflicted surgeon who became one of Germany's most daring spies and saboteurs during World War I and who not only pioneered biowarfare in his native land but also lead a last-ditch German effort to goad Mexico into invading the United States. It is a story of mysterious missions, divided loyalties, and a new and terrible kind of warfare that emerged as America—in spite of fierce dissention at home—was making the decision to send its Doughboys to the Great War in Europe. This story has never been told before in full. And Dilger is a fascinating analog for our own troubled times. Having thrown off the tethers of obligation to family and country, he became a very dangerous man indeed: A spy, a saboteur, and a zealot to a degree that may have so embarrassed the German High Command that, after the war, they ordered his death rather than admit that he worked for them.

Note - the author is an old college roommate and we remain personal friends to this day.
 

Brett

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@Brett -- I knew we could find some common ground.

I love non-fiction books so if you have any good ones to recommend, send them my way.

I read 000's of nonfiction ! - mostly science and nature
this week

Hidden Valley Road - Robert Kolker
The Falcon Thief -- A True Tale of Adventure, Treachery, and the Hunt for the Perfect Bird - Joshua Hammer
 

CalGalTraveler

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The ability to present data as a visual story is a talent that not many people possess. I work with a lot of people who are really good at collecting "dots" but cannot connect them together into a story which decision-makers can understand and act upon.
 

MULTIZ321

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"The Fourth Horseman: The Tragedy of Anton Dilger and the Birth of Biological Terrorism" by Robert Koenig



Note - the author is an old college roommate and we remain personal friends to this day.
+1 for "The Fourth Horseman: The Tragedy of Anton Dilger and the Birth of Biological Terrorism" by
Robert Koening

Great Book!

Richard
 

MULTIZ321

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I read 000's of nonfiction ! - mostly science and nature
this week

Hidden Valley Road - Robert Kolker
The Falcon Thief -- A True Tale of Adventure, Treachery, and the Hunt for the Perfect Bird - Joshua Hammer
Gold and Iron: Bismark, Bleichroder, and the Building of the German Empire: By Fritz Stern,

ABOUT GOLD AND IRON
Winner of the Lionel Trilling Award
Nominated for the National Book Award


Richard
 
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