Presenting Data and Information

I just returned from this one day "course" by Edward Tufte, which I attended with Ben Tucker. I use quotation marks around the word course because it really wasn't a course. To me, a course is perhaps 10-50 people in a room, learning from and interacting with the instructor and each other. "Presenting Data and Information" would be more aptly titled a "lecture". There were approximately 500 people in attendance, to whom Tufte simply lectured for 5 hours. Questions and all other interactions were limited to private meetings during breaks.

Perhaps it's obvious: I was underwhelmed. I've been planning on attending one of Tufte's courses for a while now, ever since having read his excellent books a few years ago. So I had high hopes. Those hopes were dashed on arrival, as Ben and I entered the lecture hall to find the only open seats were in the back with a restricted view. Granted, we were 5 minutes late, but that was due to the venue having no available parking (forcing us to drive around searching for other parking). The room was just a bit too crowded, there was just a bit too much ambient noise, and the video projector was quite a bit too dim.

On a more positive note, he used excellent visual aids. Unfortunately those visual aids were his books. I already own the books and was able to read them just fine on my own, thank you. While not all of the content of the lecture is also in the books, enough of it is that I feel that my time today was largely wasted. Not to put too fine a point on it, Tufte is a much better author than he is a lecturer (this is what I've been telling Ben all day, hoping that this day doesn't turn him off of reading those books I've been recommending). Which brings me to my final advice for Tufte fans, or those of you who are simply interested in presenting data and information: buy the books, skip the course.