Top all-time · #176
Edward Tufte
Personal blog · edwardtufte.comdesignscience
Edward Tufte's personal blog at edwardtufte.com covers design and science. Since 2007, 241 different Hacker News readers have linked it 351 times, most often “PowerPoint Does Rocket Science--and Better Techniques for Technical Reports”. No feed was found, so read it on the site itself.
Sometimes recommended · 12 of 40 sampled comments recommend it?
Why HN links it
Linked for his books and forum posts on data graphics, PowerPoint, sparklines and information density, and often pointed to as worth reading. One commenter calls his books dated, since they address the low-resolution displays of their time.
- Recommended for · 12 comments
- Called eye-opening, worth a look, must-read and highly recommended; one says start with his books.
Summarised by Claude from a sample of 40 HN comments that link here. Each comment is marked recommending, critical or neutral (citing without judging); how this works.
Explore the books, courses and original artworks created by renowned data visualization expert Edward Tufte and Graphics Press.
Most-linked posts?
- PowerPoint Does Rocket Science--and Better Techniques for Technical Reports13 people · 19 mentions · first linked 2009-03-25
- /tufte/books_vdqi12 people · 12 mentions · first linked 2009-01-24
- Edward Tufte's 1-day course in NY $140 March 4, 6, 7, students & faculty only11 people · 11 mentions · first linked 2008-09-05
- The Work of Edward Tufte10 people · 11 mentions · first linked 2017-11-06
- /tufte/books_vdqi9 people · 9 mentions · first linked 2013-05-06
- Edward Tufte: Sparklines: theory and practice8 people · 9 mentions · first linked 2009-11-19
- The PowerPoint slide that brought down Space Shuttle Columbia8 people · 8 mentions · first linked 2015-05-07
- /tufte/powerpoint8 people · 8 mentions · first linked 2008-05-10
- Edward Tufte: Sparkline theory and practice8 people · 8 mentions · first linked 2015-08-05
- Poster: Napoleon's March7 people · 7 mentions · first linked 2010-12-21
What Hacker News says?
Just to throw in some praise for Sedgewick's books: the diagrams are so gorgeous that even Edward Tufte cites them for their beauty and utility. https://www.edwardtufte.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=... Ctrl-f "Sedgewick".
Comment linking /bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=0001OR
on “Knuth's Art of Computer Programming, V 4B, has gone into print”Submitted Edward Tufte appointed by Obama to help track, and explain stimulus funds as a story · 236 points
HN discussionhttps://www.edwardtufte.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=...
Comment linking /bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=0001Au
on “An experiment in UI density created with Svelte”Submitted Unusual Maps as a story · 173 points
HN discussionI find Edward Tuftes reflections on powerpoint vs. engineer-prose very eye-opening. https://www.edwardtufte.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=... Prose takes time, contemplation and thought. Leslie Lamport says similar. Helps with understanding however not so much with selling.
Comment linking /bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=0001yB&topic_id=1
on “Write plain text files”Submitted The Median Isn't the Message, by Stephen Jay Gould as a story · 102 points
HN discussionA champion of data density who has a lot of thought provoking words on design is Edward Tufte: https://www.edwardtufte.com Worth a look if you aren't familiar.
Comment linking /
on “Whitespace killed an enterprise app”Submitted Microsoft makes patent claim for sparklines as a story · 102 points
HN discussionI’d actually start with Tufte: https://www.edwardtufte.com/tufte/books_vdqi There are standards like UML, but I’ve never found those to be as useful to start with. It’s best to treat this as a “design problem”: first, answer the question: “what am I communicating”. Then, maybe look into conventions - but often you’ll find less need for one “master UML diagram” and instead use many, smaller diagrams embedded within r…
Comment linking /tufte/books_vdqi
on “Create diagrams with code using Graphviz”Submitted Edward Tufte's impression of Windows Phone 7 as a story · 85 points
HN discussionEdward Tufte seems to both specialize in data visualization and be obsessed by Fenynman diagrams as art... http://www.edwardtufte.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=0...
Comment linking /bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=0003oo
on “What Problems to Solve”Submitted Feynman diagrams by Edward Tufte as a story · 73 points
HN discussionThis also doesn't meet the high resolution part of Tufte's definition ("a small intense, simple, word-sized graphic with typographic resolution"[1]). [1]: http://www.edwardtufte.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=0...
Comment linking /bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=0001OR&
on “Spark”Submitted Touchscreens have no hand as a story · 60 points
HN discussionIt's the Columbia disaster for which Tufte blames PowerPoint: https://www.edwardtufte.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=...
Comment linking /bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=0001yB&topic_id=1
on “Remembering Roger Boisjoly: He Tried to Stop Shuttle Challenger Launch”Submitted Tufte on Windows Phone 7 Series interface design as a story · 58 points
HN discussionSo many times i have seen coders "promoted" to managing roles. It actually seems to be normal practice to do this because: the coder is intelligent, the coder knows whats going on technically, plus the idea that general experience is somehow related to management skill. However the truth is if your not regularly training as a manager and consciously applying well known good management techniques then your probably n…
Comment linking /tufte/posters
on “Interviews with developers who became managers”Submitted Edward Tufte's "Data Analysis for Politics and Policy" as a story · 56 points
HN discussionIt's not about "attractive" slides, it's about slides that are to the point and don't obfuscate information (unintentionally). Being an analyst and being able to understand the processing of data into visual display is not an orthogonal skill set. Often, PowerPoint slides are ugly and worthless because whoever designed them thought "Oh shit, I don't understand how to best convey this...time for some clip art" and/or…
Comment linking /bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=0001yB
on “Dear NSA, let me take care of your slides.”Submitted Edward Tufte: Sparklines: theory and practice as a story · 54 points
HN discussionEdward Tufte has a good thread of collected moderation advice and policies from over the years here: http://www.edwardtufte.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=0... Here is the short essay he provides to anyone who cares to comment, at the top of the comment form: ----------------------- This board is only about evidence presentations and analytical design. For all business matters (book orders, courses, shipping, p…
Comment linking /bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=0000fT
on “New users: Welcome. Please read the site guidelines.”Submitted Lists: design and construction (2007) as a story · 49 points
HN discussionI guess it was inevitable given his age. You still get all his books included in the price of taking the course: https://www.edwardtufte.com/online-course/
Comment linking /online-course/
on “Ask HN: What are good high-information density UIs (screenshots, apps, sites)?”Submitted Poster: Napoleon's March as a story · 43 points
HN discussionEdward Tufte had a good series of books on how to create high density infographics: https://www.edwardtufte.com/books/ However, the books are old and specifically call out the low resolution computer displays at the time. Does anyone have an updated list of references for high density visual information? Bret Victor's https://worrydream.com/MagicInk/ was a good starting point for me.
Comment linking /books/
on “Ask HN: What are good high-information density UIs (screenshots, apps, sites)?”Submitted PowerPoint Does Rocket Science (2006) as a story · 39 points
HN discussionhttps://www.edwardtufte.com/
Comment linking /
on “Ask HN: What are good high-information density UIs (screenshots, apps, sites)?”Submitted Edward Tufte on iPhone Visual Design as a story · 30 points
HN discussionanother thing you may find inspiration from are algorithm visualizations referenced or created by Edward Tufte [1] "Excellent sparkline-like graphics from Robert Sedgewick, Algorithms in C (1998) Sparklines and sparkline-like graphs can also move within complex multivariate spaces, as in these 9-step sequential results (reading down the columns) in merge-sorting 5 different types of input files. Four variables and 1…
Comment linking /bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=0001OR
on “Show HN: A coloring book of data structures and algorithms”Submitted Ask Edward Tufte: Moderating internet forums: What's smart, not what's new as a story · 28 points
HN discussion
