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Whoa, I cannot disagree more with the premise and the conclusions of the author. Exploration is absolutely one of the key goals of data visualization. Tukey's
by soyiuz 9y ago
Whoa, I cannot disagree more with the premise and the conclusions of the author.
Exploration is absolutely one of the key goals of data visualization. Tukey's insight was two-fold: First, that statistics puts too much emphasis on confirmation but not enough on systematic exploration of a data set. Too often researchers do not understand their data. They bring their own biases and preconceived notions, where they should be listening to the data.
Second, too often is visualization mistaken for confirmation. A curious pattern or an outlier may just be an artifact of the layout algorithm. The "find" part of visualization should happen through mathematical insight. Graphics can at best describe the underlying mathematical reality but no more. One cannot strictly speaking "find" anything, only form intuitions or illustrate already proven insights.
Perhaps the author's difficulty in evaluating his students work lies not in the exploration part of their assignments, but in his own pedagogic emphasis on "tools," "frameworks," and "users." None of those things are relevant to data visualization as such. They might be goals for a business built around data visualization (to produce tools, or to identify user needs). A university should offer more than job training. Those interested in users and in "what one gets paid for" would do better in an internship or at a more narrowly technical trade school.
I don't know how "finding" is any more of a goal for data visualization than "exploring." Data visualizations tell stories. They often support the first and the last step in data analysis: the exploratory phase and the presentation of findings. They are inherently subjective, evocative, concise, artful.
- jlarocco 9y agoThe headline is misleading. Exploration isn't banned, but creating class projects solely for exploration is banned, because it's vague and subjective. What he's going for is to have the students explore the data and get insights into it, and then actually use those insights and data to create their projects. And I think that is a really good idea.
- anigbrowl 9y agoIt's not misleading and I don't think the GP is responding to the headline alone. The guy chose to present his idea this way and the headline is a fair summary of his attitude.
- shawnhermans 9y agoThis whole conversation is frustrating because it is boiling down to a stupid semantic debate. The author is claiming that people don't get paid to explore data, they get paid to find things. IMHO, this statement doesn't even make sense. When I explore data, I almost always find something. This something might not be useful to an "end user," but it is almost always useful and necessary. Sometimes, the only thing I find by doing exploration is that a particular dataset is absolute garbage and shouldn't be used for any purpose. The only way I find stuff like that out is if I explore the dataset.
- jononor 9y agoProbably you do find something, and then presumably go on to dig out the interesting bits and then present it. But it would not surprise me one second if students on an assignment stop when they have a tool for exploring with some dataset loaded. That would be problematic. Exploration is a means, a starting point. Not the final thing.
- coldtea 9y ago>The author is claiming that people don't get paid to explore data, they get paid to find things. IMHO, this statement doesn't even make sense. When I explore data, I almost always find something. People are not paid to find "something", they are paid to find specific things. Hence, the following makes even less sense that TFA: >This something might not be useful to an "end user," but it is almost always useful and necessary.
- bicubic 9y agoIn reasonably sized datasets, you'll typically find a lot of interesting information and relationships that are only loosely or not at all related to what the analyst is actually paid to do at the time. Analysts who only find the specific thing and end their work on that are a dime a dozen, and need to be micromanaged. Good analysts will find all the other interesting stuff on their own and inform the business about it. Those good analysts are the explorers, and banning those people form exploring during training seems like an effective way to take talented budding analysts and turn them into mediocre ones.
- theparanoid 9y agoHe banned "explore" because students were turning-in poor projects. He should get better students.
- eanzenberg 9y agoOr be a better teacher?
- coldtea 9y agoOr, you know, he should do exactly what he did, and use more precise terms instead of vague ones.
- joatmon-snoo 9y agoStrongly agree with the second point, that visualization is used not as a tool for understanding but for confirming, whereas it should be vice versa. It reminds me of a thread on MathOverflow (the StackExchange for professional mathematicians) asking for proofs without words (which tends to fall in the category of "visual" proofs: the second most-voted answer is "because I think proof by picture is potentially dangerous, I'll present a link to the standard proof that 32.5 = 31.5". Link: https://mathoverflow.net/a/17347 https://mathoverflow.net/a/17347
- denzil_correa 9y agoThe top rated comment reply to that the MathOverflow answer about "proof by picture" being dangerous. > think it is just as easy to introduce some kind of logical gap in a written proof as in a graphical one.
- Myrmornis 9y agoHave you taught undergraduates though? They can be very drawn to vague woolly thinking and it's really this guy's job to get them thinking precisely and directedly.
- Terr_ 9y agoI love bringing up Anscombe's Quartet as a simple, cubicle-postable example of why it's important to visualize and explore beyond the immediate metrics. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anscombe%27s_quartet https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anscombe%27s_quartet