No more data soup

Ran across this book “Beginning Python Visualization: Crafting Visual Transformation Scripts” and liked the blurb:

We are visual animals. But before we can see the world in its true splendor, our brains, just like our computers, have to sort and organize raw data, and then transform that data to produce new images of the world. Beginning Python Visualization: Crafting Visual Transformation Scripts talks about turning many types of small data sources into useful visual data.

The about page adds some bullets, in particular this one: “Write ten lines of code and present visual information instead of data soup.”

Yes! We’ll never get rid of lists and columns of numbers but a simple visualization is often all you need. Sparklines? Little additions. Make Tufte proud.

I think this data soup problem is responsible for me wanting to spend more time with Mathematica. Mathematica makes it relatively easy to do visual data analysis. Check out the Flag Analysis with Mathematica post from the Wolfram blog for a good example.