|
|
 - The Ups and Downs of Tufte's BookIt definitely was interesting and educational to read and see Tufte's presentation on Visual Dispaly of Quantitative Information. He illustrates the good, the bad, and the ugly of graphic displays over the centuries. However, I was hoping to see more examples of current computer graphics that should be emulated in this edition instead of terse comments and skeletal constructs in this area. Rating:  - DisappointingA picture is worth a thousand words, but Tufte would rather right it all down. It would be funny if it wasn't so sad. This is a somewhat interesting book for the catalogue of historical visual presentations, but has little to offer someone working today. The most amazing thing about this book is its incessant use of verbiage instead of visual display. If Tufte intended his book as irony, then bravo. If you're looking for actual help in visual display using the tools most of us have at our disposal (not the extremely expensive software that Tufte suggests) then look elsewhere for help. I recommend: Presentation Zen: Simple Ideas on Presentation Design and Delivery by Garr Reynolds or The Back of the Napkin: Solving Problems and Selling Ideas with Pictures by Dan Roam Indexed by Jessica Hagy If you want to see great (and fun) visual displays on the web, then hit graphjam.com, zfacts.com and indexed.blogspot.com. I would also suggest a trip to the dentist over paying for one of Tufte's seminars. Getting your teeth drilled is more pleasant than a slide show of Tufte's sculpture garden accompanied by his pedantic narcissism. Rating:  - Just the facts, ma'am (and how to present them)Mr. Tufte's book is like nothing I ever read before. At first I was put off by his uber self-confidence, but as I read the book further, I realized that the self-confidence was not out of place. In an entertaining way, with splendid examples and splendid anti-examples, this book gets to the core of presenting honest and dense data and eliminating all pretense. Wait 'til you grasp the concept of "Small Multiples" and just as importantly, when not to use a graph. Before I was finished the book, I revamped a couple of my charts and upgraded one to showing multiple variables across multiple years using "Small Multiples". Rating: - The Landmark Book on Conveying Information GraphicallyI own all of Edward Tufte's books, and regularly order his booklets for my MBA students. The reason is simple: to make good decisions, and to help others make good decisions, one must convey data as information and not simply as numbers, words, or even pictures. Business periodicals regularly violate the admonitions we learned in our introductory statistics courses, including failing to use zero as the bottom of any scale (these periodicals don't use zero in order to exaggerate changes). The reason that intelligent people convey data inappropriately is either to deliberately distort it, or because they've failed to read Tufte's books. Once you've purchased this first book by Tufte, you will never look at charts or other graphical displays without a jaundiced eye. You will also will begin to be more honest in how you convey information to others. You will make better decisions, and you will raise the standard for other communicators and decision makers. Life and death decisions do get made on the basis of data, and not just in the sciences and medicine. Buy this book and you will have a very tough time putting it down. Aneil Mishra [...] Rating: - BUY THISThis is Tufte's best book in my opinion, maybe because this was his first book I bought. I use this book weekly. I learned many good lessons from Tufte.
|
