Andy Cotgreave
@acotgreave.bsky.social
Tableau evangelist + data communicator. Newsletter: http://tabsoft.co/sweetspot Book: http://bigbookofdashboards.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/acotgreave/
One of the most important issues of our time is that the future of humanity is presently being authored by people who have nothing but total contempt for humanity and seek the erasure of everything that gives being a human meaning. It’s not just annoying. It doesn’t just suck. It’s existential.
Does anyone actually read long walls of text? In just about every AI Analytics demo I see, a prompt returns a chart and a wall of text. When I'm exploring data, I find that I rarely read the text. When I do, I skim it.
How do you visualise excess deaths? That was a question last asked in detail in the UK during Covid. And yet, here we are, in the midst of exceptional heatwaves and what these charts (and this report) show is that the UK is not adapting to the changing climate. www.gov.uk/government/p...
My favourite vibe-coded app so far is my tribute to BBC Radio 4's Add To Playlist. What were the ups and downs of using Claude to write it? Find out in Chart Chat 72: Show And Tell. Live on July 23, 11am ET. Register here: dtdbook.com/CCAndyRef
Books for the data analyst #3: "Nobody's Girl" by Virginia Roberts Guiffre. Yes, it's not about data. It's here because we all should bear witness to the suffering she and all the other victims endured. It's a tough read. More recommendations here: dtdbook.com/3booksJul2026
Books for the data analyst #2: "Magnifica Humanitas" by The Pope. Youv'e probably read others' takes on this (which I guess they generated by putting it in ChatGPT). Read it instead! At 47k words, it's not too long. It's well worth your time. More recommendations here: dtdbook.com/3booksJul2026
Books for the data analyst #1: "All That We See Or Seem" by Ken Liu. The plot is clunky, but the sci-fi is great. AI is everywhere. Surveillance is everywhere. I loved it becase it's set in a near future that feels very real. More books on Substack: dtdbook.com/3booksJul2026
The biggest story in the world right now is that the president of the United States is a demented old man who takes pleasure in torturing and killing people and is committing crimes with impunity. And yet most legacy media outlets are too cowardly to tell it like it is.
What were your favourite Olympics charts? We'll share ours in Chart Chat this week. Animations, medal counts, bump charts and more: all dissected by a bunch of experts (me, Amanda, Steve and Jeff!). 👇Live on Thu 12, 11am ET👇 dtdbook.com/CCAndyRef
Chart Chat 69 -- An Olympic Lightning Round
Celebrating medal-worthy charts from the Olympic games and the design touches that make them great.
dtdbook.com
How do you *prepare* to present data? ⚙️Morphs, labels, Logitech Spotlight: they're the tools. 👁️👁️The purpose? To make your eyes look where I want you to look at any given moment. I'll share more tips in Chart Chat 68 with Steve, Jeff and Amanda on Wed Feb 25th, 11am EST. dtdbook.com/CCAndyRef
Chart Chat 68 -- Some Deep Dives
Jeff will conduct a deep dive into box plots and Steve will ask Amanda, Andy, and Jeff to share how they go about giving talks about data
dtdbook.com
Could Kingpin, Spiderman's nemesis, be the greatest data leader of all time? Allow me to make my case: youtu.be/RaFiip1TsZM #dataanalysis #movies
The Secret Data Culture of Marvel's Super Villains
Does Kingpin have the BEST data culture of all super villains? 🕷️📊 In this episode of "Real Time Data," we’re diving into the stunning world of Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse to see if Wilson…
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🤯Am reading "Around The World in 80 Games" by @marcusdusautoy.bsky.social. In it, he described the "triangle game" (good for actors, interesting maths). In the past, I'd be left to imagine how that looked. But now, with just one prompt, I can build it. It's astonishing. (cc @ebertini.bsky.social)
🤯Am reading "Around The World in 80 Games" by @marcusdusautoy.bsky.social. In it, he described the "triangle game" (good for actors, interesting maths). In the past, I'd be left to imagine how that looked. But now, with just one prompt, I can build it. It's astonishing. (cc @ebertini.bsky.social)
Misinformation comes at us in waves, big and small. It might be "just" a truncated y-axis, but it is an indication of the contempt the Trump administration has for us. Lesson: 1️⃣Don't truncate y-axes with bars 2️⃣Don't be selective with your data #datagraphics #data
Visited the Robert Crumb show at Zwirner Gallery in London today. Fascinating.
Task Complete: 3100 press ups ("push ups" to you all in America) in January. This was really hard. If you have anything to spare and are able to donate, please visit my fundraising page dtdbook.com/100cruk #cancerresearch
Dot-density pie chart or bar chart? Jake Steinberg from the Minnesota Tribune created a great chart that focuses on the gist ("Far too many ICE/CBP officers") of the data. A bar chart would allow for easier decoding of the values, but that's not always the point. #ICE #Minnesota
Opinion | How Much Can One Man Make From Being President? Superb data storytelling, choosing emotion over accuracy. www.nytimes.com/interactive/...
A guide to bringing Europe's seas back to life europeancorrespondent.com/en/r/a-guide...
A guide to bringing Europe's seas back to life
As a child, I used to run through the shallow parts of the Mediterranean Sea, terrified that crabs might nip at my toes. Now, less than thirty years l
europeancorrespondent.com
Exquisite data storytelling in Tron Legacy and Tron. A genuinely great dashboard in the first, and, um, Pac-Man in the second. #datastorytelling #datagraphics
Tron Legacy's kick-ass dashboard (part 1). And Pac-Man.
What happens when a data geek rewatches the first two Tron films?
acotgreave.substack.com
In the newsletter: 'Why Dashboards That Deliver' by @datarevelations.com @abmakulec.bsky.social and @acotgreave.bsky.social by should be your next read openvisualizationacademy.beehiiv.com/p/why-dashbo... #dataViz #infographics #dataJournalism #dataVisualization
Why Dashboards That Deliver Should Be Your Next Read
openvisualizationacademy.beehiiv.com
Worm 2. I really didn't know if I should stop or keep going with this one. I might add to it later and see if I like it better. Any thoughts? Good like this, or keep adding? #abstractart #fineline
A tribute to the marvellous BBC Radio 4 show Add To Playlist. 500 tunes, expertly dissected. And just ONE heavy metal track - that was all I needed! #abstractart #dataart
I watched Tron (1982) before seeing Tron Ares and... wow. This movie literally predicted MCP, AI super intelligence concerns, and even brain rot. In this video, I break down how a 1982 CGI groundbreaker became a prophetic #AI film. 🤖⚡
How a 1982 Movie Predicted Modern AI... Including MCP
Just watched Tron (1982) before seeing Tron Ares and... wow. This movie literally predicted Model Context Protocol (MCP), AI super intelligence concerns, and even brain rot from automation. From…
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Back to a full page circle draw. I like how the moire effect makes these somewhat disconcerting. So why not pushing that further by using red and blue to make it clash even ore. #fineline #abstractart
