The Subtle Ways Your Charts Can Lie With Alberto Cairo

The Present Beyond Measure Show: Data Storytelling, Presentation & Visualization

Alberto Cairo is not only a highly revered mind in the data visualization world, he brings a fresh perspective on keeping your charts honest in his brand new book, How Charts Lie..

If you're looking for a way to create and interpret charts accurately and in integrity, this interview is for you.

Alberto is a celebrated visualization educator, designer, and consultant. He is the Knight Chair in Visual Journalism at the School of Communications of the University of Miami and he is also the director of visualization program at UM's Center for Computational Science.

He is also the author of two other data viz Bibles The Truthful Art, and The Functional Art.

In this episode, Alberto Cairo provides his unmatched wisdom on chart creation and interpretation. He debunks the myth of "a picture speaks a thousand words" when it comes to visualization and shares how to create charts that are as close to the truth as possible.

In This Episode, You'll Learn…

• What Alberto's new book explores the different positive and negative influences that charts have on our perception of truth.
• What he believes was at the root of #SharpieGate and many other media-fueled debacles over data viz
• His thoughts about the myths of charts and how to think about them differently.
• How no statement we make is absolutely true and what we can do to try and move toward the truth end of the spectrum.
• The importance of expressing your level of confidence in facts you are presenting, but to also understand there may be other interpretations.
• The "Me" Factor and how you can use it to make your visualizations more engaging to your audience.
• Ecological fallacy and amalgamation paradoxes that should become part of a general knowledge.

People, Resources, & Links Mentioned

• How Charts Lie: Getting Smarter about Visual Information by Alberto Cairo
• The Truthful Art: Data, Charts, and Maps for Communication by Alberto Cairo
• Good Charts: The HBR Guide to Making Smarter, More Persuasive Data Visualizations by Scott Berinato
• The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck: A Counterintuitive Approach to Living a Good Lifeby Mark Manson
• Spurious Correlations by Tyler Vigen
• Mistakes Were Made (but Not by Me): Why We Justify Foolish Beliefs, Bad Decisions, and Hurtful Acts by Carol Tavris
• Thinking Fast and Slowby Daniel Kahneman
• INZight
• Settlers of Catan Board Game

How to Keep Up with Alberto: