If Obsession (with a new idea, book, author...) is a crime, let me be guilty

It seems to me that finding a new favorite author, artist, musical group or even idea follows the same stages as falling in and out of love. (not the stages of grief, but similar).

The example I would use is my recent dalliance with the information presentation and design ideas of Edward Tufte.

Stage one: Falling in Love.

I never knew that anyone thought this way about data presentation. Tufte's ideas are terrific and visionary. Every pearl of presentation wisdom that comes from his mouth is exactly the right answer and perfectly fixes everything.


Stage two: I Am Not Worthy of This Love.

I'll never do anything even a tenth as well as Tufte. His figures produce epiphanies of insight and mine cause the viewer to suffer headaches and nausea and some to go irrevocably insane. I should just stop presenting any data to anyone in any form ever.


Stage Three: The Blinders Come Off.

I can't stop doing any presenting. Tufte seems a little rigid in his outlook on things. I may not be Mozart but Salieri had some good tunes also. My figures are good enough to get the point across. These other presentation design guys over here don't think Tufte is the final answer on data presentation.


Stage Four: The Breakup

Yeah I used to think Tufte had some good presentation idea, but he was too rigid in his standards. My friends say they never really liked him in the first place. I am so glad I am over that and can get back to work. Stephen Few has some good ideas on data presentation, I just might check that out.


And so the cycle continues.

I think you could apply the same formula to a favorite author that you just discovered, a new political philosophy, management fad, computer program, TV show, new girlfriend, or any other subject of fascination. My goal in life is to get through the cycles as fast as possible to preserve a healthy skepticism and keep a measured perspective. Skepticism is the best philosophy, I love it the most. (... here we go again.)

Read More

Time Travel and love

This Saturday Morning Breakfast cereal comic reminded me of the classic time travel novel The Man who Folded Himself by David Gerrold. If you haven't read it go read it now(Amazon) to avoid the spoilers below.

In the comic above the man crassly uses his time machine to go to a time when the girl is in the mood, not realizing that if he in the present has a time machine and has this idea, he in the future might do the same thing and thus a crowd of eager men converge on the one time his love interest was in the mood. Extra humor comes from the fact that it appears to be only a single day from the evidence of all the guys at every age who appear.

David Gerrold's novel follows the life of a man whose mysterious uncle leaves him a time machine which he then uses to travel through history altering it to suit himself even as the newly created history becomes more and more bizarre. He even meets up with himself. David Gerrold is unafraid of exploring all of the implications of this and the man even has sex with himself. In the novel there is a never ending party at a house outside of time where various versions of himself are always there. In several incidents in the novel older versions of the man keep propositioning younger versions of the man for sex, much as in the story in the comic above.

The time travel device has ended up creating many alternate versions of history and thus create many different versions of himself. At one point he even meets an opposite sex version of himself.

Gerrold's novel is complex and bizarre and very interesting. I invite you to read the novel and count how many characters are in it.

Read More