Edward Tufte Course - My Impressions
Yesterday, I had the pleasure and honor of attending a session by Edward Tufte, "an American statistician and professor emeritus of political science, statistics, and computer science at Yale University.[1] He is noted for his writings on information design and as a pioneer in the field of data visualization."
I admit it - I had a vague idea about who this guy was, did no research on his course, and approached things with an open mind. The course was delivered at an San Jose Garden hotel and the room was packed with a few hundred fanboys and fangirls. I didn't realize what a cult event this was until it started - at 8:45 AM sharp. The (apparently) charming old gent came to life and in true professorial style and began walking around, picking people at random and autographing books. That's right, we were all given 4 of his best selling books as courseware. This was also prep time, where we were all asked to read specific portions of his books and get ready for the lecture. During this time, he conducted office hours where folks queued up for some quality 1:1 time and get their books autographed.
The lecture started at 10:00 am sharp. The lights were dimmed and the giant screens came to life. Ed dived right in and began talking about the subject at hand - presenting information. Having taken the reading exercise seriously, I was able to follow him quite easily. A lot of what he said was incredibly useful but not earth shattering. The classroom environment felt good - I took copious notes as Ed kept referring us back to his books and to real world examples - he almost never used slides. Instead, he just had his assistant bring up example after example on a superb AV system - giant screens complimented by a Bose system. We had a late"ish" lunch break at 1:30 and then wrapped up at 4:00 PM sharp.
I'm probably going to blog about the things I learnt some other time. This one is just for folks who are considering attending the course.
Overall, I think this was a good experience - good content and timing. The books were a great takeaway. Remember, however, that this is a 71-year old guy who is one of the best in his field. He has a big ego and tends to ramble at times. There's a ton of substance in his course, but a lot of it is academic. So if you can take a nice old-fashioned lecture, go for it!
Yup, that's him - foot on the table, back to the audience extemporizing on Charles Joseph Minard's Nepoleon's March.
I admit it - I had a vague idea about who this guy was, did no research on his course, and approached things with an open mind. The course was delivered at an San Jose Garden hotel and the room was packed with a few hundred fanboys and fangirls. I didn't realize what a cult event this was until it started - at 8:45 AM sharp. The (apparently) charming old gent came to life and in true professorial style and began walking around, picking people at random and autographing books. That's right, we were all given 4 of his best selling books as courseware. This was also prep time, where we were all asked to read specific portions of his books and get ready for the lecture. During this time, he conducted office hours where folks queued up for some quality 1:1 time and get their books autographed.
The lecture started at 10:00 am sharp. The lights were dimmed and the giant screens came to life. Ed dived right in and began talking about the subject at hand - presenting information. Having taken the reading exercise seriously, I was able to follow him quite easily. A lot of what he said was incredibly useful but not earth shattering. The classroom environment felt good - I took copious notes as Ed kept referring us back to his books and to real world examples - he almost never used slides. Instead, he just had his assistant bring up example after example on a superb AV system - giant screens complimented by a Bose system. We had a late"ish" lunch break at 1:30 and then wrapped up at 4:00 PM sharp.
I'm probably going to blog about the things I learnt some other time. This one is just for folks who are considering attending the course.
Overall, I think this was a good experience - good content and timing. The books were a great takeaway. Remember, however, that this is a 71-year old guy who is one of the best in his field. He has a big ego and tends to ramble at times. There's a ton of substance in his course, but a lot of it is academic. So if you can take a nice old-fashioned lecture, go for it!
which books did he gift you?
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