Tufte recap

What a great day yesterday. I was able to get a later start than usual, because the Tufte seminar didn't start until 9. Michael got to gradually wake up instead of being jostled awake by my dressing him for the day. I walked downtown toward the Westin, dropping off library books on the way and stopping by Cafe Ladro for a morning cuppa. Then to a huge ballroom filled to capacity (and about a 70/30 male/female split, if I had to say--there may have been more women number-wise, but it felt like a very male crowd). Tufte's books were included in the price of admission, and he referred to them quite a bit throughout the day. The package was very well thought out in terms of Tufte-stuff, but I would have liked a pad of paper. Some brought their own notepads, but I had not.

The highlights that stand out for me were, in more or less detail:
1) the importance of not letting production mechanisms get in the way of communicating the content, whether in tables, graphs, or texts (like the books that he designs himself to get the details right)
2) the fact that he owns all of these great books, and must spend a good portion of his proceeds at book auctions: Ben Jonson's copy of Euclid's Geometry, an early Newton edition, etc. These were carried around the room after Tufte had referred to them by a youngish guy in white gloves.
3) Tufte's PowerPoint harangue, and tips for good presentations (taken from advice on good teaching). I may just skip the PP for my next presentation and go with paper only. He discussed in detail the low resolution of a PowerPoint compared to what the human eye and mind can handle, and how many things are dumbed down when converted to PP mode (with salient examples, including Peter Norvig's Gettysburg Address PP.
4) All of the examples used during the day provided food for thought: Napoleon's march to Russia, the Challenger explosion and investigation, a London cholera epidemic, etc.

Oh, yeah, and another highlight was having lunch with my apartment managers, both medical illustrators, and a surprise/non-surprise at the seminar. We enjoyed all-you-can-eat sushi at Nikko. We probably could have eaten more, but didn't have time.

Today is back at work, slogging through inbox, email and paper, plus wearing the hats of two other staff members who are out today. The Libraries Staff Association is hosting an ice cream social today, so there's something to redeem the slogginess.