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Not dead yet
Jan. 8th, 2009 10:17 pmHaven't been posting much lately (tired and stuff), but I'm still here... have been enjoying one of my Christmas presents, Edward Tufte's Beautiful Evidence. Along with his Visual Display of Quantitative Information and others, strongly recommended for anybody who creates graphs or visual presentations. And this bit really hit a nerve, for reasons some of you might remember...
Making a presentation is a moral act as well as an intellectual activity... To maintain standards of quality, relevance, and integrity for evidence, consumers of presentations should insist that presenters be held intellectually and ethically responsible for what they show and tell. Thus consuming a presentation is also an intellectual and moral activity.
...a presenter engaging in corrupt maneuvers might be reporting what eventually turn out to be accurate and truthful conclusions. A particular danger, then, of corrupt maneuvers is not only that they enable lying but also that they place the truth in disrepute. From scientific reports to political speeches, few things are more appalling than listening to inept and specious arguments made by one's allies.
Speaking of such things, I see Keith Windschuttle has upheld Quadrant's tradition of quality publishing. Heh.
Making a presentation is a moral act as well as an intellectual activity... To maintain standards of quality, relevance, and integrity for evidence, consumers of presentations should insist that presenters be held intellectually and ethically responsible for what they show and tell. Thus consuming a presentation is also an intellectual and moral activity.
...a presenter engaging in corrupt maneuvers might be reporting what eventually turn out to be accurate and truthful conclusions. A particular danger, then, of corrupt maneuvers is not only that they enable lying but also that they place the truth in disrepute. From scientific reports to political speeches, few things are more appalling than listening to inept and specious arguments made by one's allies.
Speaking of such things, I see Keith Windschuttle has upheld Quadrant's tradition of quality publishing. Heh.
