Would the Real Dr. Chart Please Stand Up?
by Jon Peltier
Peltier Technical Services, Inc., Copyright © 2009.
Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License.
The Chart Doctor Fiasco
I guess Chandoo and I touched off a major tempest in a teapot with our joint announcement last week of our New Feature: The Chart Doctor. Without realizing it, we had used the name of a similar feature on another blog.
As Kelly O’Day of ProcessTrends.com wrote in The Original Chart Doctor:
I started my Chart Doctor feature at ProcessTrends.com way back on 9/30/06….
On 6/12/09, 21 months [JP: he meant 33 months] after I introduced Excel Chart Doctor, Chandoo and Jon Peltier announce that they are adding a Chart Doctor feature to their blogs.
… All I ask … is a little respect and credit if someone uses my ideas or work.
The last line, implying that Chandoo and I had somehow taken Kelly’s ideas or work, was a little insulting at first. But perhaps Kelly felt insulted that Chandoo and I had stolen the name of his feature, so I decided to cut him some slack and figure out what was going on.
To identify something that is done poorly, and to suggest ways to improve it, is a common format. It’s common in how-to articles and tutorials, it’s common in blog posts, it’s common in classrooms. Kelly has used this format on the Chart Doctor page of his web site; Kaiser Fong of JunkCharts.com has used it; Chandoo has also used it. I have used this format on my web site and on my blog. Kelly has used this format on his blog, using some of my Excel tutorials as the “before” and his work using R as the “after”. Nobody here copied this format from anybody else; it’s been deeply ingrained in us.
Ironically, the first before-and-after post on my nascent blog, Clustered Bars as an Alternative to Stacked Bars or Bubbles, was posted on March 7, 2008, the same day as Showing Categorical Data on Trend Chart, the most recent example on Kelly’s Chart Doctor page. I must have forgotten about Kelly’s Chart Doctor page in the intervening 15 months. If I had remembered, I would have suggested a different name to Chandoo.
If Kelly had emailed us, Chandoo and I would have graciously accommodated his request. I imagine we will pick another name for our feature, and continue ahead with our renamed new feature. Anyone have any clever ideas? Anyone have this kind of feature that we should avoid?
Deja Vu All Over Again
At the end of his post, Kelly asks,
Should I chalk this up to another Excel Deja Vu All Over Again?
I had to go back to this post to guess what Kelly was talking about. It turns out that in May 2006, Kelly had posted a chart showing crude oil prices in adjusted 2004 dollars, which used error bar callouts for its event labels. The deja vu part of this was my two-part series, Replacement for an Oil Price Radial Chart and Callout Labels with Error Bars. I had done a “Chart Doctor” style post, in which I started with an unfortunate radial bar chart of crude oil prices (not inflation adjusted) and turned it into a time series (line chart), using error bar callouts to label events on the chart.
Kelly thought my chart looked familiar, and there may have been a hint that his chart had inspired my own. But it didn’t happen that way. I had downloaded data from DOE and linked to it in my post, so that I could show the same data as in the awful chart I was reconstructing. It’s a coincidence that Kelly and I were both plotting the price of crude, but not at all unlikely; Excel is used to plot all manner of economic data, and crude oil is a rather important commodity.
The error bar technique I used for creating label callouts also did not originate with Kelly’s earlier post. This is a well-known method for labeling charts. John Walkenbach wrote about it on page 274 of his first Excel Charts book, published in 2003 by Wiley, and I’d known about this labeling approach long before I edited John’s book.
So Kelly’s strange case of deja vu was just that: he was seeing something that was similar to something he had seen before.
Excel and R
Let’s put all of the controversy aside, and talk about R, the open source statistics and graphics package. R is a scripted language with a collection of libraries to automate certain tasks.
R is gaining traction in some specific areas of industry and especially academia. Kelly O’Day has done a lot of work to bring R into the hands of ordinary users. He has posted a lot of tutorials complete with R scripts, demonstrating how to use R. Very often, he’ll take one of my Excel tutorials and show the same approach in R. Because of Kelly’s many tutorials, I’ve come to recognize that R has some outstanding computational and graphical capabilities. One of these days, I’m going to learn to use R.
Despite its benefits, I think it will be some time until R becomes part of the average spreadsheet user’s graphics arsenal. In Excel, you often have to stand on your head, kicking and screaming to make Excel do what you want. But for all of its frustrations, it’s Excel. Everyone has it, and most users think they’re experts. People are used to the effort required to do what should be easy, and they are even somewhat proud of the workarounds they have developed.
R may be easier to use to accomplish various statistical and graphical tasks. But R is a separate application, requiring an interface to Excel, and requiring users to learn a new program. It is often difficult enough to get IT departments to install a simple Excel add-in, never mind a new application. The learning curve may not be too steep, but it still represents a barrier to implementation.
Possibly Related Posts:
- New Feature: The Chart Doctor
- Web Stats – June 2009
- Excel Utilities in the Works
- Book Review: Pro Excel 2007 VBA
- Blue Ribbon Interface
- More Web Stats Madness
- Error Bars in Excel 2007 Charts
- Simple Waterfall Chart with Up-Down Bars
- Links for September 12, 2008
- Unspecified but Painfully Frustrating Error
Posted: Tuesday, June 16th, 2009 under General.
Comments: 52
Comments
Comment from savithri.v
Time: Tuesday, June 16, 2009, 5:26 am
Dear Sir,
I am from India & I had sent you a looooong email a few hours ago & I reiterate what I had written there..
God must have created you in the best of his times & even He would have lost count of the innumerable lives that would have lightened up due to your wisdom & compassion.
I’m reminded of a small anecdote.. Swami Vivekananda (a spiritual giant of our country traveled to America to speak at the World’s Parliament of Religions (1893, Chicago). But he found that not only had he come too early but also that he lacked proper credentials to register as a delegate. As providence would have it, he met a Professor J.H. Wright, of the Greek Department at Harvard University. The professor was so impressed by our Vivekananda, that he insisted that Vivekananda should be the representative of Hinduism at the Parliament. On hearing that Vivekananda lacked proper credentials, the professor replied, “To ask you, Swami, for your credentials, is like asking the sun to state its right to shine.”
I feel that the above comment of that professor is appropriate to you!
Regards,
Savithri
Comment from Mike Woodhouse
Time: Tuesday, June 16, 2009, 6:48 am
Oh good grief. (And that applies to the comment currently preceding this one, too!)
OK. The “Original Chart Doctor”, who admits to having copied his idea, and whose page is, frankly, awful (although the chart reworkings seem sensible), asks his readers for advice – and doesn’t provide any obvious way for them to give it!
I love the “help me keep my good name” thing. Hyper-sensitive or what?
The site is, however, a great example of a Web 1.0 layout (obvious tables with visible borders? Meh) and should be preserved and celebrated.
The only thing you guys may have done “wrong” is to fail to check for “prior art” in the use of the “Chart Doctor” label, even if the guy hasn’t bothered to post anything in over a year. I don’t see that there’s any reason other than politeness to refrain, but we all try to get along. Most of us, anyway. Well, some.
Five modest alternatives (feel free to wait for better ones!):
Charts Refactored
New Charts for Old
At The ChartWash (70s disco, anyone?)
Pimp My Chart
The Chart Masters (no place for false modesty)
Comment from Rob
Time: Tuesday, June 16, 2009, 7:19 am
Chart ER
Comment from Michael W Cristiani
Time: Tuesday, June 16, 2009, 7:43 am
Hello, Jon.
This statement:
“In Excel, you often have to stand on your head, kicking and screaming to make Excel do what you want. But for all of its frustrations, it’s Excel. Everyone has it, and most users think they’re experts. People are used to the effort required to do what should be easy, and they are even somewhat proud of the workarounds they have developed.”
is priceless, and you should frame it and sell it, so Excel “experts” can hang it over their desks next to their “ATTITUDE” posters.
As for pride, I was taught that pride can become a sin that blinds us to our own limitations and behavior that wounds countless innocent others. Applied to Excel, this might stand some reflection. Simple introspection and reading blogs like yours and Kelly’s reveals that lots of smarties have turned this amazing and amazingly frustrating tool so much more than its makers envisioned at the outset, and that, indeed, honestly, most users are not experts by any stretch.
On the other hand, we have found that Excel users can appropriate the knowledge and best visual analytics practices you and others share, and use it very rapidly and productively with other tools, like Tableau (http:www.tableausoftware.com), etc. Tableau 5.0 includes the nifty feature that permits Excel data sources to remain open so that you can do modeling there, then have the visual analytics update in “real time,” for example.
In any event,
MANY BLESSINGS!
Peace and All Good!
Michael W Cristiani
Comment from Mike Alexander
Time: Tuesday, June 16, 2009, 8:41 am
Only someone who doesn’t know Jon would accuse him of plagiarism. Jon not only has enough ideas to fill up 6 months worth of blog posts, but he also has the intellectual integrity to give credit where due. The reality is that we all work within the scope of Excel. Like it or not, it’s basically one application that has finite boundaries. There will be overlapping ideas and techniques.
If every long-standing Excel MVP took Kelly O’Days stance, there would be hundreds of lawsuits to go around. A vast majority of the Excel “Tips and Tricks” were discovered and written about a long time ago by one Excel MVP or another.
So let’s take all our collective panties and un-bunch.
Comment from John
Time: Tuesday, June 16, 2009, 9:02 am
What Rob said.
Personally, “The Chart Doctors” would seem an adequate compromise. To claim some sort of web brand with a generic name when you haven’t updated your site for a year is pretty weak.
From a quick Google, I’d also guess that Kelly O’Day’s claim to the appellation “Original” is probably specious.
Besides, his “blog” is titled “Excel Chart Doctor”, which alone may invalidate his claim.
Plus, anyone who whines first, and thinks he has some sort of monopoly on obvious ideas, deserves only minimal compromise.
Without checking, “Chart Clinic”, “Chart Aid”, “The New Chart Doctor”…
Comment from Liu ’s chart blog
Time: Tuesday, June 16, 2009, 9:19 am
是个麻烦事。不知道这个名字是否涉及到商业利益？可以再想个名字
Comment from Chris P
Time: Tuesday, June 16, 2009, 9:23 am
I like Chart Therapy and Reforging the Chart as new names.
Chart Grand Rounds would be another more medical term. The idea being is that a chart is presented and then commentary or questions are poked at the case presentation until people are satisfied with the diagnosis and treatment, or the patient is dead.
Comment from Michael Pierce
Time: Tuesday, June 16, 2009, 10:37 am
With the popularity of TV shows Celebrity Rehab and Intervention…I’d say maybe something like Chart Rehab or Chart Intervention.
Or combine charts and aptitude and you get Chartitude. Hmm. Maybe that’s what you have after you’ve overhauled someone’s bad chart into something far superior. :)
Comment from Michael Pierce
Time: Tuesday, June 16, 2009, 10:43 am
Funny thing…if you do Google “Chart Doctor” the top link is for flight planning software. And a few others around musical scores. I guess there are other kinds of charts out there besides Excel and R…and there’s a need for experts to help others diagnose issues in those realms as well. :)
Comment from Bob
Time: Tuesday, June 16, 2009, 11:27 am
FWIW,
What about chart clinic?
Comment from Jeff Koenig
Time: Tuesday, June 16, 2009, 2:52 pm
Feature name idea: Chart Rx
Comment from Chandoo
Time: Tuesday, June 16, 2009, 3:30 pm
Thanks Jon for the post and clarifying our position. I have tried to do the same through comments on Kelly’s post and my post. I have seen a comment from Kelly saying the issue is over. I am very happy it is done and we can now focus our energies on what we love.
I like the idea of asking readers to recommend a series name. Few more ideas that come to my mind are,
chart plumbers
Rx charts
Bad Chart Cops (tag line: we dont eat donuts or pies)
Comment from jeff weir
Time: Tuesday, June 16, 2009, 4:06 pm
How about a competition to rename it?
I submit ‘Charticus’. It’s a takeoff of ‘Sparticus’ a classic 1960 film about a slave rebellion, in which many slaves captured by Romans claim to be the leader of the rebellion, in order to save the real leader from being crucified by the Roman General Crassius.
Charticus 1: I am Charticus.
Charticus2: No, I am Charticus.
Nasty Roman General: Unless you own up who is the real Charticus, you will Chartdoctor each other to the death, and the winner will be crucified.
Charticus2: Okay, I admit it. He’s the real Charticus.
Charticus1: Bugger!
Comment from Jon Peltier
Time: Tuesday, June 16, 2009, 4:09 pm
Wow, lots of comments today.
Regarding the new name of the feature, a contest might be interesting, but I’m somewhat partial to “Chart Busters”, which is a tribute to the cable television show “Myth Busters”. I just need to convince my partner in crime.
Comment from Chandoo
Time: Tuesday, June 16, 2009, 4:18 pm
Jon… as long as we choose to stay on the busting theme, why not the “give your charts a boobjob” :P ?
but seriously, I like the chart busters idea. But I also see some pretty good names in the list of comments above.
Comment from jeff weir
Time: Tuesday, June 16, 2009, 4:21 pm
But do you think there’s any chance that Jamie Hyneman (of Mythbusters) will think you’re copying his facial hair?
Comment from Jon Peltier
Time: Tuesday, June 16, 2009, 5:02 pm
Jeff -
I’m not shaving for this thing, that’s for sure. I’ve had this stuff on my chin for over a decade, and my wife’s never seen me sans mustache.
Comment from Bob
Time: Tuesday, June 16, 2009, 5:30 pm
Who you gonna call? Chart Busters!
Comment from Jon Peltier
Time: Tuesday, June 16, 2009, 6:18 pm
Bob – Now I like that name even more!
Comment from Oliver Montero
Time: Tuesday, June 16, 2009, 6:32 pm
One more vote for Chart Busters :D
Comment from jeff weir
Time: Tuesday, June 16, 2009, 6:41 pm
Jon – If this doesn’t put you off, then I guess it’s official:
If there’s something strange / in your X Y series
Who you gonna call? Chartbusters!
If there’s something weird / With your SQL queries
Who you gonna call? Chartbusters!
I ain’t afraid of no chart
I ain’t afraid of no chart
If you’re not seein trends / clearly in your data
Who can you call? Charttusters!
These invisible friends / willl help you visualize harder
Who you gonna call? Chartbusters!
I ain’t afraid of no chart
I ain’t afraid of no chart
If you’ve got waylaid / just aligning your charts
Who you gonna call? Chartbusters!
Use some VBA / from Walkenbach
Who you gonna call? Chartbusters!
Comment from Robert Kosara
Time: Tuesday, June 16, 2009, 6:44 pm
“Chart Busters” is the perfect name! I think I’m going to break into song …
If there’s something weird in your Excel sheet
Who you gonna call?
Chart Busters!
An ugly chart sitting on your slide
Who can you call?
Chart Busters!
I ain’t afraid of no chart
I ain’t afraid of no chart
Yeah yeah yeah yeah
…
Comment from cybpsych
Time: Tuesday, June 16, 2009, 6:46 pm
suggestion: Chart Reform?
Comment from AlexJ
Time: Tuesday, June 16, 2009, 9:30 pm
I kinda liked Chart Rx but Jeff got there first. Or maybe Dick will let you borrow “Daily Dose of Charts”? How about “Did somebody just Chart?”
Comment from Chandoo
Time: Wednesday, June 17, 2009, 12:00 am
with the ghost busters reference, we are at double the risk of being called copydocs once more. :P what with both and Jon and I with these facial hair, it is just way too coincidental now..
Comment from Jon Peltier
Time: Wednesday, June 17, 2009, 6:01 am
Jeff & Robert – You guys have mp3’s?
Comment from jeff weir
Time: Wednesday, June 17, 2009, 6:09 am
‘Did somebody just chart’ – now THAT would have to have a great theme song.
CHORUS:
Did somebody just chart?
Who charted? Who charted?
I think my underpants are data’d
Comment from jeff weir
Time: Wednesday, June 17, 2009, 6:30 am
I got it! I got it! Check it out:
“Getting Tufte with Charts”
Comment from Robert Kosara
Time: Wednesday, June 17, 2009, 6:35 am
You mean of me singing the Chart Busters Song? I don’t think you really want that ;)
You two should do that – in your first Official Chart Busters Video Podcast!
Comment from jeff weir
Time: Wednesday, June 17, 2009, 6:37 am
Speaking of MP3s, I’m planning an all chart tribute album. Taking orders now. Songs include:
- Shot through the Chart / and your to blame ( baby you give charts a bad name)
- What became of the broken charted
- Chart for Chart’s sake
- Chart me up (if you chart me up I’ll never stop)
Granted I’m not much of a singer. But I recently worked out how to turn on Excel’s ‘Speak on enter’ functionality. Now all I have to do is type to the beat, unless anyone can help me out with a macro…
Comment from Mike Woodhouse
Time: Wednesday, June 17, 2009, 7:41 am
I just thought of Chart Attack. But I like Chart Busters more.
Comment from Chandoo
Time: Wednesday, June 17, 2009, 8:25 am
ROFL… The chart buster song is totally worth it. Lets call it chartbusters Jon…
Comment from Chandoo
Time: Wednesday, June 17, 2009, 9:07 am
Okay.. here is the official chartbusters logo.. :P, not really official until Jon accepts it, but I guess he should…
Comment from TheQ47
Time: Wednesday, June 17, 2009, 9:37 am
Just before you get into any difficulties, to let you know, “Chartbusters” is the name of an Irish DVD rental chain (web site: http://www.chartbusters.ie; Twitter: http://twitter.com/chartbusters), so be careful!!! :p
Comment from Jon Peltier
Time: Wednesday, June 17, 2009, 9:42 am
My lawyer has advised me not to comment.
Comment from Mike Alexander
Time: Wednesday, June 17, 2009, 9:53 am
I was going to suggest
Extreme Makeover – Chart Edition
But then I foundthis:
http://8020world.com/jcmendez/2008/07/business/extreme-makeover-chart-edition-july-19/
Dang!
Comment from laguerriere
Time: Wednesday, June 17, 2009, 1:06 pm
it’s strange, but all the links you posted to the process trends page, don’t work anymore. and the main page says:
Closed 6/16/09.
You may contact me at koday@processtrends.com
?????????????????????????????????????????????
what about Chartician (Chart + Physician) or Charterologist….
best,
La Guerrière
Comment from Michael
Time: Wednesday, June 17, 2009, 2:27 pm
Hi Jon -
You Kelly O’Day link at the top now points to this:
Charts & Graphs Closed 6/16/09
and this:
Easy, tiger. This is a 404 page.
…mrt
Comment from jeff weir
Time: Wednesday, June 17, 2009, 2:34 pm
Hard Graphed?
Comment from jeff weir
Time: Wednesday, June 17, 2009, 2:36 pm
Axis of evil?
Comment from jeff weir
Time: Wednesday, June 17, 2009, 2:41 pm
Lost the plot?
Bye pie chart. Bye pie crappiness. Hell, no pie like this. Bye bye pie chart, bye bye. (Simon and Chartjunkle)
Comment from Jon Peltier
Time: Wednesday, June 17, 2009, 4:48 pm
I noticed that Kelly O’Day has closed down his Process Trends web site and related blog. I thought he had indicated that the issue was closed. I have not heard from him.
Comment from Andy Pope
Time: Thursday, June 18, 2009, 2:43 am
Can’t get more closed than that!
Comment from Colin Banfield
Time: Thursday, June 18, 2009, 7:36 am
“Can’t get more closed than that!”
ROFL! I was thinking the same thing. The “Chart Busters” name is worth investigating…That’s a great logo from Chandoo.
Of course we shouldn’t forget Stephen’s page http://www.perceptualedge.com/examples.php, although his makeovers aren’t targeted to any specific software.
Comment from Doug Glancy
Time: Thursday, June 18, 2009, 9:18 am
Charter School?
Or if you’re going to get accused of plagiarizing, why not go big with “Chart Wizards?”
Comment from Jon Peltier
Time: Thursday, June 18, 2009, 10:54 am
Doug: Is it plagiarizing, or is it a tribute to a popular technology which was obsoleted for no good reason?
Comment from Doug Glancy
Time: Thursday, June 18, 2009, 11:05 am
You make an excellent point, Mr. LonelyCharts (graphic advice for the broken-charted).
Comment from Rod McInnis
Time: Monday, June 22, 2009, 11:58 am
“Chart Colonoscopy”
I might rush out and reserve ChartColonoscopy.org before you get your hands on it.
Comment from Jon Peltier
Time: Monday, June 22, 2009, 2:34 pm
Rod – You’re welcome to it.
Comment from _Bryony_
Time: Tuesday, June 23, 2009, 4:22 am
This is possibly the funniest thread of comments following a blog post I have ever read.
Comment from JP
Time: Tuesday, June 23, 2009, 6:26 am
It’s too bad you already decided on a name, would have made a good contest :)
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