Stephen Few > Quotes

“To find signals in data, we must learn to reduce the noise - not just the noise that resides in the data, but also the noise that resides in us. It is nearly impossible for noisy minds to perceive anything but noise in data.”
― Stephen Few, Signal: Understanding What Matters in a World of Noise

“The latest technologies are often sexy, but beware of solutions that vendors dress up like trollops, unless you're looking for a one-night stand.”
― Stephen Few, Signal: Understanding What Matters in a World of Noise

“Signals always point to something. In this sense, a signal is not a thing but a relationship. Data becomes useful knowledge of something that matters when it builds a bridge between a question and an answer. This connection is the signal.”
― Stephen Few, Signal: Understanding What Matters in a World of Noise

“Everything that informs us of something useful that we didn't already know is a potential signal. If it matters and deserves a response, its potential is actualized.”
― Stephen Few

“...I love to drive fast. It's a rush.”
― Stephen Few, Signal: Understanding What Matters in a World of Noise

“Complexity is neither good nor bad in and of itself. Necessary complexity — that which is meaningful and relevant to the task at hand — is useful and should therefore never be eliminated or even reduced. Instead, it should be managed. When presenting information, we manage complexity by finding the simplest possible way to display it, never crossing the threshold into over-simplification. This can often be done by breaking the information down into logical and meaningful parts and presenting each part separately at first. Once your audience is comfortable with the parts, then you can combine them, perhaps one at a time, to build up to the full level of complexity in a way that people can absorb without ever being overwhelmed.”
― Stephen Few