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datarocksnz.bsky.social
T. from Data Rocks
@datarocksnz.bsky.social
2.4K followers 2.4K following 920 posts
Dataviz | Information Design

The person behind The Dataviz Bookshelf, The Data Design Manifesto & The Design Matters newsletter series.

I don't use autocorrect. I own all of my typos.

https://www.datarocks.co.nz
Posts Replies Media Videos
Reposted by T. from Data Rocks
nrennie.bsky.social
Here's a little round up of my 2025 year in #DataViz featuring

💜 Some of my favourite #RStats charts
💜 A look back at 5 years of #TidyTuesday
💜 Links to cool #QuartoPub and visualisation things I've seen this year

Link: nrennie.rbind.io/blog/year-in...
My year in data visualisation – Nicola Rennie
A round up of my projects this year, highlighting some of my favourite charts from 2025, and looking back on five years of TidyTuesday contributions.
nrennie.rbind.io
December 10, 2025 at 1:41 PM
Reposted by T. from Data Rocks
datarevelations.com
Come join me, @abmakulec.bsky.social, @acotgreave.bsky.social, and Jeffrey Shaffer as we explore some of the highlights (and lowlights) of data visualization in 2025.

Like the BBC News, our goal is to inform, educate, and entertain.

(But without any scandals).

buytickets.at/datarevelati...
December 4, 2025 at 6:25 PM
Reposted by T. from Data Rocks
datarevelations.com
You can now get LIFETIME access to my *updated* Visualizing Survey Data Using Tableau On-Demand course.

Learn more at bigpic.me/course

#surveydata
December 4, 2025 at 6:31 PM
datarocksnz.bsky.social
Good stuff
andrew.heiss.phd Andrew Heiss @andrew.heiss.phd · 2d
Some closing thoughts for my students this semester on LLMs and learning #rstats datavizf25.classes.andrewheiss.com/news/2025-12...
Will you incorporate LLMs and AI prompting into the course in the future? No. Why won’t you incorporate LLMs and AI prompting into the course? These tools are useful for coding (see this for my personal take on this). However, they’re only useful if you know what you’re doing first. If you skip the learning-the-process-of-writing-code step and just copy/paste output from ChatGPT, you will not learn. You cannot learn. You cannot improve. You will not understand the code. In that post, it warns that you cannot use it as a beginner: …to use Databot effectively and safely, you still need the skills of a data scientist: background and domain knowledge, data analysis expertise, and coding ability. There is no LLM-based shortcut to those skills. You cannot LLM your way into domain knowledge, data analysis expertise, or coding ability. The only way to gain domain knowledge, data analysis expertise, and coding ability is to struggle. To get errors. To google those errors. To look over the documentation. To copy/paste your own code and adapt it for different purposes. To explore messy datasets. To struggle to clean those datasets. To spend an hour looking for a missing comma. This isn’t a form of programming hazing, like “I had to walk to school uphill both ways in the snow and now you must too.” It’s the actual process of learning and growing and developing and improving. You’ve gotta struggle. This Tumblr post puts it well (it’s about art specifically, but it applies to coding and data analysis too): Contrary to popular belief the biggest beginner’s roadblock to art isn’t even technical skill it’s frustration tolerance, especially in the age of social media. It hurts and the frustration is endless but you must build the frustration tolerance equivalent to a roach’s capacity to survive a nuclear explosion. That’s how you build on the technical skill. Throw that “won’t even start because I’m afraid it won’t be perfect” shit out the window. Just do it. Just start. Good luck. (The original post has disappeared, but here’s a reblog.) It’s hard, but struggling is the only way to learn anything. You might not enjoy code as much as Williams does (or I do), but there’s still value in maintaining codings skills as you improve and learn more. You don’t want your skills to atrophy. As I discuss here, when I do use LLMs for coding-related tasks, I purposely throw as much friction into the process as possible: To avoid falling into over-reliance on LLM-assisted code help, I add as much friction into my workflow as possible. I only use GitHub Copilot and Claude in the browser, not through the chat sidebar in Positron or Visual Studio Code. I treat the code it generates like random answers from StackOverflow or blog posts and generally rewrite it completely. I disable the inline LLM-based auto complete in text editors. For routine tasks like generating {roxygen2} documentation scaffolding for functions, I use the {chores} package, which requires a bunch of pointing and clicking to use. Even though I use Positron, I purposely do not use either Positron Assistant or Databot. I have them disabled. So in the end, for pedagogical reasons, I don’t foresee me incorporating LLMs into this class. I’m pedagogically opposed to it. I’m facing all sorts of external pressure to do it, but I’m resisting. You’ve got to learn first.
December 10, 2025 at 12:05 AM
datarocksnz.bsky.social
🎄
wisevis.eu wisevis @wisevis.eu · 8d
Made a #datavis Christmas tree :)
December 3, 2025 at 11:06 PM
Reposted by T. from Data Rocks
visualisingdata.com
This is an account that warrants more following: @tksajeev.bsky.social through the website Newspaper Design has been publishing some really nice interviews/articles with graphics professionals around the world
November 28, 2025 at 8:59 AM
Reposted by T. from Data Rocks
albertocairo.com
Happy Thanksgiving! New pod episode: Launching the Trans News Initiative creators.spotify.com/pod/profile/... with @petrinkae.bsky.social & @puddingviz.bsky.social

The project: transnewsinitiative.org

#dataViz #dataJournalism #dataVisualization
Launching the Trans News Initiative by The Data Journalism Podcast
The Trans News Initiative is a new project that tracks and analyzes news coverage of trans communities in the U.S. Our very own Alberto Cairo helped create it, and this week we're joined by three othe...
creators.spotify.com
November 27, 2025 at 3:37 PM
Reposted by T. from Data Rocks
ashendruk.com
I think we could all use a little bit more data in our lives. So, I launched Not-Ship: a newsletter that uses data to understand our messy world.

If you agree, help me keep this going for as long as we can. 💙

First step: Sign up to get it in your inbox each week #dataviz

www.not-ship.com
Not-Ship
A newsletter charting the age of uncertainty
www.not-ship.com
November 26, 2025 at 11:59 AM
Reposted by T. from Data Rocks
albertocairo.com
In the newsletter: Friends of the Open Visualization Academy, first episode of a new series, a conversation with Nina Krug: openvisualizationacademy.beehiiv.com/p/friends-of... #dataViz #dataJournalism #dataVisualization
Friends of the Open Visualization Academy: Nina Krug
A new series of video conversations with data designers, artists, and journalists
openvisualizationacademy.beehiiv.com
November 20, 2025 at 1:30 PM
Reposted by T. from Data Rocks
booksofm.com
If you use GMail, AI (Gemini) was turned on yesterday by default and now scans all of your content for machine learning. To turn off, go to Settings>General and scroll down. Uncheck the box for "Smart features."

There's other "Smart" add-ons as well, but that's the one that reads your content.
November 20, 2025 at 5:32 PM
datarocksnz.bsky.social
Painfully accurate
A modified version of the classic xkcd diagram about the the modern digital infrastructure. It shows a tower of scrappy random blocks balanced in ever more flimsy blocks. From top to bottom: lots of little random blocks poorly balanced with the note "something happening in the web", then a tiny block at one leg of the tower called Cloudfare. Another one a little below it called AWS. A tiny itsy little load-bearing block called Unpaid Opensource Developers. The Linux foundation is a thin base of the Tower. A tiny balancing block with a picture of the shark that ate the underwater internet cables is holding the entire tower together. For extra comic effect, there is a hinge forcefully streching half the tower upwards called AI. And an angry bird is being thrown at the entire thing with the note "whatever Microsoft is doing.
November 20, 2025 at 9:09 PM
Reposted by T. from Data Rocks
wisevis.eu
I just want to tell you that a good pie is better than a... less good Sankey. #datavis

www.wisevis.eu/uma-pergunta...
Uma pergunta com barbas
A pergunta "qual o gráfico mais adequado para representar x?" é a pergunta que mais me fazem nos cursos de visualização de dados, e aquela de mais fácil e de mais difícil resposta.
www.wisevis.eu
November 17, 2025 at 4:55 PM
datarocksnz.bsky.social
One of the most beautiful pieces of work I have ever seen!
jerthorp.bsky.social Jer Thorp @jerthorp.bsky.social · Nov 4
It took me about three months to get here but...

Here's a 🪶 for (nearly) every species of bird, with colors extracted from wikipedia descriptions.

10,151 species.

#dataviz #birds #data
A wheel-like visualization of bird feathers colored from wikipedia descriptions
November 5, 2025 at 6:44 AM
datarocksnz.bsky.social
Silly thing, but I'm very happy with my new socks.
Picture of feet wearing a pair of socks with artwork inspired by Wassily Kandinsky.
November 4, 2025 at 7:50 PM
datarocksnz.bsky.social
Linux is pretty good, actually.

Also, big opportunity for companies to start making their official Linux versions of popular software, if they don't have it already.
October 16, 2025 at 5:34 PM
Reposted by T. from Data Rocks
wisevis.eu
Refiz estas pirâmides etárias dando-lhes alguma interatividade e explorando outra paleta de cores. Experimentem brincar com os países e os anos, é giro. #datavis
www.wisevis.eu/piramides-et...
Pirâmides etárias 1950-2100
Pirâmides etárias interativas onde pode observar a evolução demográfica dos países numa forma eficaz e esteticamente apelativa.
www.wisevis.eu
October 15, 2025 at 1:25 PM
Reposted by T. from Data Rocks
simongerman600.bsky.social
The Australian Bureau of Statistics is to be commended for their bad statistic jokes. Well done!
October 14, 2025 at 1:19 AM
Reposted by T. from Data Rocks
annaecook.com
Alright, here we go, this should hopefully capture what I'm looking to do and how I'm planning to go about it.

annaecook.com/writing/2025...
October 13, 2025 at 6:14 PM
datarocksnz.bsky.social
😍
anlugonz.bsky.social Ana Lucía González @anlugonz.bsky.social · Oct 10
This dataviz love letter by Giorgia Lupi and @pentagramdesign.bsky.social using open data from NY transport and "assigning behaviors, movements, and idiosyncrasies to each MTA train" has just brightened my day
www.pentagram.com/work/a-data-...
Animation
www.instagram.com/reel/DPkAziW...
‘A Data Love Letter to the Subway’
A data-driven animation for Fulton Center commissioned by MTA Arts & Design for its 40th anniversary.
www.pentagram.com
October 11, 2025 at 6:57 AM
datarocksnz.bsky.social
Weekend
Photo of Spot, Data Rocks' Executive Director of Toy Chasing Operations enjoying the weekend. A Calico kitten's face closeup. The kitten has her eyes closed and her tongue out, looking like the emoji 😝 She just had a big play session and is grooming. Her human is hugging her gently, wearing a pink hoodie in the background.
October 11, 2025 at 6:46 AM
datarocksnz.bsky.social
Brilliant.
This, alongside the webdesign one, will probably be my most forwarded Oatmeal links forever.
October 7, 2025 at 7:00 PM
datarocksnz.bsky.social
6 years ago, I decided that I could probably make a living out of this #dataviz design thing. And it worked!

Thanks to everyone who's been part of this journey so far! 💜
Photo of a business card resting on top of a notebook, surrounded by coloured pens and pencils, in shades of purple, pink, orange and yellow, which match Data Rocks logo and brand colours on the business card. The business card is daek purple, with a logo composed of geometric forms that together assemble a puzzle in the shape of a mount, with a negative space shaped like a diamond in the middle. Each geometric form is a different colour: yellow, orange, purple, and pink. Underneath the logo, there is the name Data Rocks in elegant sans serif yellow letters, followed by a yellow like and the name Thabata Romanowski under it.
October 4, 2025 at 10:07 AM
Reposted by T. from Data Rocks
newsroom.co.nz
Week in Review:
Comment from Auckland University: Students starting to learn with AI is the difference between using a calculator after understanding math versus never learning math because calculators exist.
When students' brains go quiet
newsroom.co.nz
October 4, 2025 at 4:02 AM
Reposted by T. from Data Rocks
wisevis.eu
PT: Novo artigo: sobre a criatividade em visualização de dados para, hum... não criativos.
EN: New post (in Portuguese): on creativity in #datavis for, hum... non-creative people.
www.wisevis.eu/criatividade...
Sobre a criatividade em visualização de dados
Onde se argumenta que a criatividade em visualização de dados não se resume a um resultado estético.
www.wisevis.eu
September 29, 2025 at 9:30 AM
datarocksnz.bsky.social
Que aprender visualizacao de dados em Portugues?

👇

#dataviz #dados
wisevis.eu wisevis @wisevis.eu · Sep 23
I pre-launched a #datavis course in Portuguese (pt-pt), covering from curiosity to how-bad-bar-charts-are, and beyond. I'm not aware of more online #datavis courses here, not sure if there is no offer or no demand. If you understand Portuguese, please take a look.

www.wisevis.eu/curso-visual...
[Curso] Visualização de Dados
Curso de Visualização de Dados Bem vindo ao curso de Visualização de Dados da Wisevis. Este curso é destinado a todos os que querem explorar, analisar, e comunicar com dados de forma visual. Ao...
www.wisevis.eu
September 26, 2025 at 7:03 PM