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How to Lie with Charts: Fourth Edition
Don't blame the computers. People are running the show.
This is the new edition of the definitive textbook on data visualization. There's added material on fake news and social media disinformation, misinterpretation of metadata, and the uses and abuses of Big Data. If you're using a computer to generate charts for meetings and reports, you don't have to be taught how to lie - you're already doing it. You probably don't know your charts are unreliable, and neither does your audience. So you're getting away with it - until a manager or a sales prospect or an investor makes a bad decision based on the information that you were so helpful to provide. The main focus of How to Lie with Charts is on the principles of persuasive - and undistorted - visual communication. It's about careful thinking and clear expression.
This is the new edition of the definitive textbook on data visualization. There's added material on fake news and social media disinformation, misinterpretation of metadata, and the uses and abuses of Big Data. If you're using a computer to generate charts for meetings and reports, you don't have to be taught how to lie - you're already doing it. You probably don't know your charts are unreliable, and neither does your audience. So you're getting away with it - until a manager or a sales prospect or an investor makes a bad decision based on the information that you were so helpful to provide. The main focus of How to Lie with Charts is on the principles of persuasive - and undistorted - visual communication. It's about careful thinking and clear expression.
402 pages, Paperback
Published October 7, 2018
22 people want to read
About the author
Gerald Everett Jones
62 books489 followersGerald says, "I write mystery-thrillers and literary fiction for adult readers who seek insight, fascination, and delight in the adventures of their own lives."
Gerald Everett Jones is a freelance writer who lives in Santa Monica, California. Harry Harambee's Kenyan Sundowner is his eleventh and most recent novel. From 2020-21 he won ten book awards - one in business, four in literary fiction, and five in mystery-thriller. He is a member of the Writers Guild of America, the Dramatists Guild, Women's National Book Association, and Film Independent (FIND), as well as a director of the Independent Writers of Southern California (IWOSC). He holds a Bachelor of Arts with Honors from the College of Letters, Wesleyan University, where he studied under novelists Peter Boynton (Stone Island), F.D. Reeve (The Red Machines), and Jerzy Kosinski (The Painted Bird, Being There). Learn more at geraldeverettjones.com.
Gerald Everett Jones is a freelance writer who lives in Santa Monica, California. Harry Harambee's Kenyan Sundowner is his eleventh and most recent novel. From 2020-21 he won ten book awards - one in business, four in literary fiction, and five in mystery-thriller. He is a member of the Writers Guild of America, the Dramatists Guild, Women's National Book Association, and Film Independent (FIND), as well as a director of the Independent Writers of Southern California (IWOSC). He holds a Bachelor of Arts with Honors from the College of Letters, Wesleyan University, where he studied under novelists Peter Boynton (Stone Island), F.D. Reeve (The Red Machines), and Jerzy Kosinski (The Painted Bird, Being There). Learn more at geraldeverettjones.com.
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
March 19, 2019
I’d won a PDF.file copy of this book from the author through a giveaway he had on LibraryThing; but chose to read it via an Amazon KINDLE Unlimited [KU] download because I prefer reading the KU format.
There’s hardly anyone who hasn’t heard the phrase, ‘Figures don’t lie, but liars figure’; a phrase which had been originated by Samuel Clemens otherwise known as Mark Twain. With this said, what the author, Gerald Everett Jones, has done here in the Fourth Edition of his book, is to show readers how this gets accomplished.
One should look at this book as being the quintessential place to go to in learning how this statistical deception gets accomplished through the visual tools which we know as charts. Regardless of the design of the chart, and there are several, the ultimate goal of charts is to show a particular set of data which has been extrapolated from a massive complete database. However, at times creating the chart from this limited dataset can cause data being to be unintentionally/intentionally corrupted which might lead to bad decisions being made by the chart’s users.
There is a dichotomy of the lie regarding charts in this book. While on one hand it offers ways in which data can be manipulated to create a lie, on the other hand it gives insights to the readers of this book in discovery the lies which a chart might contain. Charts are meant to offer clear visualizations of data without being encumbered with soporiferous information. Knowing the innerworkings of charts can prevent individuals from being hoodwinked and at the same time help individuals in making their desired arguments effectively.
And with figures never lying, and liars figuring, it’s always an advantage in knowing what the deal is regarding any chart, which is what this book tries to accomplish for its readers, and why I’ve given Mr. Jones for this current, updated version of his book, “How to Lie with Charts – 4th Edition.
There’s hardly anyone who hasn’t heard the phrase, ‘Figures don’t lie, but liars figure’; a phrase which had been originated by Samuel Clemens otherwise known as Mark Twain. With this said, what the author, Gerald Everett Jones, has done here in the Fourth Edition of his book, is to show readers how this gets accomplished.
One should look at this book as being the quintessential place to go to in learning how this statistical deception gets accomplished through the visual tools which we know as charts. Regardless of the design of the chart, and there are several, the ultimate goal of charts is to show a particular set of data which has been extrapolated from a massive complete database. However, at times creating the chart from this limited dataset can cause data being to be unintentionally/intentionally corrupted which might lead to bad decisions being made by the chart’s users.
There is a dichotomy of the lie regarding charts in this book. While on one hand it offers ways in which data can be manipulated to create a lie, on the other hand it gives insights to the readers of this book in discovery the lies which a chart might contain. Charts are meant to offer clear visualizations of data without being encumbered with soporiferous information. Knowing the innerworkings of charts can prevent individuals from being hoodwinked and at the same time help individuals in making their desired arguments effectively.
And with figures never lying, and liars figuring, it’s always an advantage in knowing what the deal is regarding any chart, which is what this book tries to accomplish for its readers, and why I’ve given Mr. Jones for this current, updated version of his book, “How to Lie with Charts – 4th Edition.
Displaying 1 of 1 review