Category: Reading

An interesting examination as to how genetics can effect our mental disposition. Honestly, I did not like the book too much as the author tried to weave threads of personal drama into the text, after which I would look up and wonder why she had wasted my time with the personal interlude.

Interesting tidbit: Something happens in the brains of young people between 20 and 25 that significantly decreases the chances of them remaining religiously vigilant (beyond going to church because their parents tell them to).

Apparently, telling lies is a deeply rooted evolutionary trait instilled in our DNA for a very long time. The book covers a variety of ideas on why we are so good at telling lies, including a long section about self-deception and some ideas on why we are so good at hiding information from ourselves.

Interesting tidbit: The average person tells three lies every ten minutes, many of the lies the individual would not consciously recognize that they were telling a lie at the time.

Another essay. This one is geared towards making sure that data presentations address the correct questions and show the data in a way that allows for a quick and accurate analysis of the given data set. The essay features a combination of original data presentations (such as documents from the Challenger accident) and remakes of the presentations that allow for a better understanding of the data.

Interesting tidbit: Data does not bear out the famous conclusion of the 1854 London Cholera Epidemic. Namely, new cases cholera were already on the decline when Snow removed the infamous water-pump handle.

This is hardly a book at all, but is more of an essay. It is a wonderful summary of why one feels discontent and ill informed after sitting through a lengthy PowerPoint presentation. Tufte starts with a detailed accounting of the communication processes that led to the Challenger accident. He then proceeds into many common presentation flaws commonly made and he even includes some suggestions for compensating for those flaws.

Interesting tidbit: NASA engineers were required by policy to provide technical analysis (not just the conclusion) in PowerPoint.

I truly love Tufte (someday I will own his books and will no longer need to share them with the library). Where Visual Explanations was about using images to explain data, Envisioning Information focuses on conveying information in a way that allows views to quickly process data sets.

Interesting tidbit: Many techniques of data presentation have degraded tremendously as data presentation tools have entered the main stream. For example, think of how many times 3D bar charts are used in a way that makes it difficult actually compare difference of numbers.