Tufte Seminar

They give you a handy box for the four hardcover books you get with attending the seminar.

I recently attended Presenting Data and Information, a day-long seminar by Edward Tufte.

I suppose, for starters, that I’m rather surprised at how few people know who Tufte is. Of course, the ones that do recognize the name know him for his recent White House appointment, his distaste for PowerPoint, and his invention of Sparklines.

A common question I get from people after attending the seminar is “Was it worth it?” At $380 a pop, it’s definitely not cheap (add another $170 in train tickets for me on a sleep-deprived Friday), and judging from the number of attendees (estimating 400 at the NYC seminar), I wouldn’t be surprised if the pulled in a cozy six figures after expenses.

Sugarcoating aside, it’s a scheme to sell books (You receive four of Tufte’s books). Thing is, they’re four excellent books, and Tufte utilizes them as high-resolution graphics for his presentation. As soon as you sit down, you’re given a reading assignment–several pages and a few chapters–prior to the presentation beginning.

During the presentation, I found myself often looking up, expecting slide show images to accompany the topics, but often found that wasn’t the case. The epiphany for me, however, was the reminder that people do learn differently, and that a handout prior to any presentation allows students to absorb the material in a variety of ways. Tufte’s comment that people can read faster than you can speak somehow reminded me of my grad school days studying neurolinguistics.

I can't say I've ever had a bookcover autographed before.

I also collected a few new favorite quotes– “No matter how beautiful your interface is, it’d be more beautiful if there were less of it” and “Design is a resource problem, not a creative act“.

So, was it worth it? I’d say yes, though I must admit that I attended based on reputation and never picked up any of his books before. Of course, all of the material is pretty much in the books, anyway, So buying the books by themselves offers a much cheaper alternative.