US Budget Visualization Using d3 • Hacker News Board

Re: US Budget Visualization Using d3

#51

Post by mdkess » Mon, Sep 09, 2013, 10:25 PM UTC

bargl wrote: post #44

mdkess wrote: post #24

This is not a very good visualization. It makes it impossible to compare values in any meaningful sense - either in a relative growth, or the size of the budget as a whole. The animation serves no purpose, other than to make the user wait a few seconds between switching years.

I took a stab at rewriting your comment so that it still got the point across but lost some of the tone that I felt was overly rude. --------- This visualization, while technically impressive, could use a little work. Comparing values is difficult because I can't see the relative growth between the boxes from year to year, or size of the budget as a whole. I don't quite see how the animation benefits the user, so you…

My intent was to be terse, not rude, and to give actionable feedback - not hidden in language and subtext. And anyway, language is supposed to have edge! I didn't want to say "this is sort of kind of less than optimal." I wanted to say "This is not good! You can do better! Here is how it can be improved!". If everyone just thought "meh" and said "well, that's pretty good. A+ for effort" - or worse, said nothing - people wouldn't improve. Non-actionable positive feedback is as harmful as non-actionable negative feedback.

Your correction (which I don't mind in and of itself) adds complexity and obscures the meaning of my statements. It says in 85 words what I said more clearly (and sharply) in 51. You add a white lie - "technically impressive" - to mask the true meaning of the point that is being made. And the tone is changed to reads as though you're talking to a child.

And - would a person whose second or third language was English more clearly understand your version or mine?

I agree that the community can be overly critical, but I don't think that this sort of criticism is the problem. The kind of criticism that is a problem is non-actionable criticism - insults to the person, or just "X already did this" or "nobody wants this".

I want terse, actionable feedback.

Also - "yeah I know I haven't had my account here long" are defense mechanisms, don't use them. You're a member of the community now, you get a voice like everyone else.

Re: US Budget Visualization Using d3

#52

Post by bargl » Tue, Sep 10, 2013, 12:25 AM UTC

mdkess wrote: post #51

bargl wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I took a stab at rewriting your comment so that it still got the point across but lost some of the tone that I felt was overly rude. --------- This visualization, while technically impressive, could use a little work. Comparing values is difficult because I can't see the relative growth between the boxes from year to year, or size of the budget as a whole. I don't quite see how the animation benefits the user, so you…

My intent was to be terse, not rude, and to give actionable feedback - not hidden in language and subtext. And anyway, language is supposed to have edge! I didn't want to say "this is sort of kind of less than optimal." I wanted to say "This is not good! You can do better! Here is how it can be improved!". If everyone just thought "meh" and said "well, that's pretty good. A+ for effort" - or worse, said nothing - peo…

I agree that not everyone deserves a gold star but I tend to try the carrot over the stick in most instances. I do beat around the bush more than I should, and that's something I personally need to work on.

I realize that a lot of times terse can be better, and you modified your own comment better than I ever could. >"You can do better! Here is how it can be improved!"

That little bit of encouragement could be the support that changes the recipients reaction from "F-U man you don't know me" to "Wow, thanks for that criticism, I'll get on that." And you've only added 11 words.

High ranking HN comments tend to be negative, which leads me to feel like HN is not very supportive. This isn't the only metric, but having a good ratio of positive to negative feedback (assuming everything is equally actionable) is important. http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2013/03/the_ideal_praise-to-criticis...

>Also - "yeah I know I haven't had my account here long" are defense mechanisms, don't use them. You're a member of the community now, you get a voice like everyone else. Thank you, https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5636314 this kind of thing has made me hesitant to use terms like "our community".

Re: US Budget Visualization Using d3

#53

Post by duiker101 » Wed, Sep 11, 2013, 8:14 AM UTC

SIK wrote: post #3

duiker101 wrote: post #2

This visualized well enough the difference in sectors for the same year but not the difference between years. Might be nice that selecting one section will show a line graph indicating the change over the years for that sector.

this is exactly how the visualization works! If you click on any cell, it shows you how that has changed over time. If you double click, you can see more details about whatever you clicked on. For example, if you double click on the department of Justice, you can see it is made up of X billion of the FBI, X billion of the department of prisons, etc...

I totally missed that I am truly sorry! well done!