Edward Tufte and the Thinking Eye

Night Science

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Edward Tufte (ET) is widely-considered as the guru of data visualisation. He has taught the world about how data is to be communicated. He is best known for his 5 books on data visualisation, which have had an immeasurable influence on how to reveal the story told by data, combining layers of information into clear visual representations. In this episode, Itai and Martin talk with ET about his most recent book ‘Seeing with fresh eyes - meaning space data truth’, where he introduces the concept of the thinking eye, which reveals meaning from data. ET describes going into a new field as having ‘vacation eyes’; the term he uses for being able to notice things that the experts no longer can, when seeing something for the first time. He also talks about stepping into a field with the mindset of a ‘looter’ as opposed to ‘getting a license’, looking for good ideas to take rather than aiming to become an expert. This mindset has allowed ET to gain access to many fields, making him an impressive Renaissance mind!

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