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Books

Say It With Figures

Hans Zeisel

Recommended by 1 person on the record.

The bar next to each date shows how long ago it was said: 7d is days, 4yr is years.

Edward Tufte recommends it
The classic book is Hans Zeisel, Say It With Figures, which went through many editions. It may not be in print now, but used copies abound.

on edwardtufte.com · 1 Dec 2003

This book on rcmnd →

That little bar

It says how long ago something was said, so you can tell last month from 2014 without doing the arithmetic. Full and green is recent; it drains and cools as the date gets older, and empties completely at about 6 years.

A striped bar means the date itself is an estimate — the source did not carry an exact one. An entry with no date at all gets no bar.