Narratives of Space and Time

During this Chapter, Tufte tells different stories of how past scientists, historians, researchers, etc. have attempted to depict both space and time. He goes further to explain their thought process in the design and ways in which it could have been simplified to tell a clearer narrative. My two favorite examples he gives are: Transportation Timetables and Dance. Tufte gives an example of a railroad timetable that was very cluttered and did not appropriately make good use of the space the page allocated. Tufte, then gave an example of a better organized version of the same timetable that allowed for clarity of reading and disallowed for a serpentine reading path. My biggest takeaway from that was that there is almost always a better way to reorganize common timetables. Instead of forcing the reader to expend more effort deciphering dense information that relies on accuracy of understanding.