How One Man Used Data Visualization to Help Us Better Understand Our World
The legacy of Hans Rosling
If I told you that this was going to be an interesting article on statistics, you’d probably do a double-take, start laugh hysterically, ask me if I was feeling alright and then slowly walk away. I get it.
But I’m serious! Let me explain …
In 1982 I attended a small university in eastern Canada to pursue a degree in Business Administration. It was a four-year program that required me to complete courses in accounting, marketing, finance, policy and of course — Statistics.
I had heard a number of business students complain about the difficulty of the statistics course but, I wasn’t too concerned because at its core, it was essentially mathematics and I was good with numbers … Or so I thought.
The statistics course was considered by the faculty as an integral part of the program for a number of reasons, i.e. establishing sales and marketing trends, identifying demographic shifts, determining the allocation of government funding for various programs, etc. It was one of those Medici-like courses that seemed to intersect with all the others.
Little did I realize that it would be the bane of my existence for one full academic semester.
