Data is not useful until it becomes information, and that's
because data is hard for human beings to digest.
This is even more true if its news that contradicts what
we've already decided to believe. Can you imagine the incredible mind shift
that Mercator's map of the world caused in the people who saw it? One day you
believed something, and then a few minutes later, something else.
We repeatedly underestimate how important a story is to help
us make sense of the world.
Jess Bachman wants to help you turn the data about the US
budget (the largest measured expenditure in the history of mankind) into
information that actually changes the way you think.
It is not possible to spend less than ten minutes looking at
this, and more probably, you'll be engaged for much longer. And it's definitely
not possible to walk away from it unchanged. That's a lot to ask for a single
sheet of paper, but that's the power of visualising data and turning it into
information.
