On Jan 28, 2008 3:06 PM, James Propp <jpropp@cs.uml.edu> wrote:

Does anyone have an opinion of Edward Tufte's one-day class on presenting data and information? http://www.edwardtufte.com/tufte/courses

The issue for me is whether it's worth the time of attending (as opposed to the issue of whether it's worth the money).

Hi Jim, If you have anyone to give the books to, it's worth the money (you get a complete set of the books, which you presumably already own ...) For the time? Well, I think it was a bit redundant with the books. If you get a lot out of hearing vs. reading, maybe worth hearing him. There were a few really novel bits but not much that I didn't already know from the books. Not that it was bad -- I enjoyed it for sure! -- but there wasn't enough new material there to make it a good use of time. But it was still worthwhile for me: one of the things that he brought to show was a FIRST EDITION of Galileo on Sunspots, along with of course some discussion of what made it such a masterful book. I hear he always brings some kind of treat like that for you to look at (held in the white-gloved hands of his assistant, but brought around so you can see it close up). So if that kind of thing excites you, then go for it! Otherwise ... you'd be better off spending the day with his books, perhaps, or browsing the "Ask ET" postings of his web site. --Joshua Zucker