The Data Loom: Weaving Understanding by Thinking Critically and Scientifically with Data Paperback – 15 May 2019

It is very disappointing to see 1-star reviews on this page. Someone bought a book about critical thinking (!!!) and left 1 star review just because it is not a book about weaving techniques (!!!). Someone just does not think it is useful, therefore 1 star with no detailed explanation. Is it critical thinking? Not at all. It is a negative thinking, but not critical. People are looking for simple answers. An instruction to use some software to convert data into a dashboard in 3 clicks will be extremely popular. Even if the dashboard will be based on erroneous data. Even if the dashboard will be useful only to get misleading 'insights'. Even if what you do makes no sense at all. People do not care about senses. People are in hurry. They have no time to read philosophy books, they have no time to think, they have no time to sleep. They are looking for an instruction to do their job faster to get a bonus. Good thing - not all people who work with data are looking for quick and simple answers to simple questions. And Stephen Few is asking great questions in this book. Questions with no simple answers.Do these data make sense? Do our questions about the data make sense? Does our work make sense? Working with data without asking questions about data origin, data quality, context, cause, usefulness makes no sense. Preparing a report in hurry makes no sense. We need time to sleep well, to ask questions, to explore data, to understand context, to ask questions again.Do not compare this book with other books by Stephen Few. Do not think “it’s a small book about thinking and I can think well without a book, I’ll better buy one of his bigger and more practical books about data visualization”. Just stop for a day, get into a comfortable armchair (in my case it was a hammock I hung in a park), and read this short, but particularly important book. Then start asking questions that have no simple answers. And I will be packing my backpack. The best place to sleep well for me is a hammock in the middle of a forest. And it is important. Because I work with data.

Extremely disappointed. Have never returned a book, this was a first.

Es ist OK...

I work with data so I’m also constantly learning about it, and what makes it so interesting to me - how humans find meaning in it. He uses this quote:“Upon this gifted age, in its darkest hour, rains from the sky a meteoric shower of facts...they lie, unquestioned, uncombined.Wisdom enough to leach us of our ill is daily spun, but there exists no loom to weave it into fabric.”Edna St. Vincent Millay1939It’s not a political book at all - rather about the value of storytelling and truths, and the difficulty of finding both in data.As we approach 2020, it should be required reading for Americans to combat the fear mongering and other acts being used to incite emotions that work to prevent us from making reflective choices.Of this list of thinking skills, Few only discusses two - critical and scientific - but systems thinking is also worth learning about.Even if you don’t work with data or already studied this - it is worth your time as a reminder because it’s about being human.Domain knowledgeCritical thinkingScientific thinkingStatistical thinkingSystem thinkingVisual thinkingEthical thinking

Excellent.Stephen still has plenty to offer.

Stephen Few and his new book do the heroic. I doubt that Mr. Few would be interested in being hailed a hero and it is that ethos that makes this book so valuable. There is not one ounce of coddle or popular laziness in one paragraph. What is in this book is a life-time of knowledge gleaned by lifting one stone at a time and coming to "sense" through rigorous, inch-by-inch learning for the sake of arriving at clarity.What you will gain is a powerful ally as any great book is in your own quest to make sense of the tremendous challenges of finding non-biased, non-conflicted, highly ethical and deeply rigorous knowledge. This knowledge, when combined with that inch-by-inch commitment to do your own work, make your own mistakes and thus experience true growth, does indeed lift the fog of habit and the rain of native advertising.This book is the only book I have ever "reviewed" and I am proud to do so if just one other person takes the journey Mr. Few humbly, but urgently, offers in this short, powerful work.