Tufte soundbites

Tom B. alerted me to an interview with Ed Tufte, by Ad Age (link). It's a good read. The journalist attended one of Tufte's courses but then the interview was conducted via email. So it reads like a condensed version of Tufte's writing, stuffed with his many colorful coinages.

I like this comment related to Big Data:

First: "overwhelming data" is a bit of a hoax. Many of the time measurements have enormous serial correlation (just because you can measure to the millisecond doesn't mean you've learned anything about a process that moves to a monthly rhythm) and extreme high collinearities in the things measured (as in the endless web metrics, many of which are measuring the same thing over and over). Finally, most website data bizarrely and deliberately overstates the extent and intensity of website activity.