There is an effect, which I will call “quantitative numbing,” that results in greater quantities of things that concern us producing less rather than more concern. This is an expression of “psychic numbing,” which is well documented. This phenomenon is chillingly described in a quote that is probably misattributed to Joseph Stalin, “A single death […]

I couldn’t understand it when Tableau Software introduced its packed bubble chart in version 8. It’s a useless form of display, assuming you care about the data. Today, however, I discovered what Tableau must have had in mind when they added this chart. The following example appears in an article that was published today about […]