Look at this Graph
Cool Charts I Liked This Month
My fiancé is getting tired of me quoting Nickleback all the time, so I thought I’d tell you all to look at these graphs. Here’s a roundup of the coolest visualizations I saw around the internet last month.
Shooter Salary by Location
Thank you to my friend Toby for sending this my way. This creative shot chart by Todd Whitehead illustrates how the midrange is not dead, it’s just reserved for the best players in the league (and DeMar DeRozan). After DeRozan, the midrange leaders include high-paid stars like Shai, Kevin Durant, Devin Booker, Paolo Banchero, Giannis, and Jamal Murray.
Also, you don’t get paid a lot for corner threes (relatively of course - you can still make $150,000,000 for being able to shoot a basketball good).
MLB Trade Partners
Owen Phillips sent this my way after my stories on trades in the NBA and WNBA. While I went with the network graph and table approaches to visualizing links between teams, the Athletic tried something new by essentially rotating a table 45°. It removes the duplication, but I find it very difficult to read. Tell me which two teams that bright green diamond in the middle corresponds to, because I have no idea.
Taylor Swift Swear Words
I’ve dug into Taylor Swift’s lyrics on Chris Dalla Riva’s Substack, and am disappointed I didn’t think to chart this. Especially with such a clear trend and takeaway. A+ work from Reddit.
While we’re here, listening to The Life of a Showgirl on repeat, check out the piece I did last month sorting NBA players into their Taylor Swift eras for hard-hitting analysis like this:
If Russell Westbrook isn’t the most tortured genius on the court, I don’t know who is. He is one of the most talented, dynamic, physically gifted athletes in basketball history, and has accomplished a lot in his 17-year career. He’s known as a guy who can do it all, becoming the first player in over 50 years to average a triple-double for a full season.
And yet. And yet. With his genius comes chaos. Russ will make a ridiculous pass no one else would even see, let alone attempt, and then he’ll throw the ball right away. He’ll miss a lay up instead of dribbling out the game then foul a three point shooter as the clock expires in one game, then gamble and come up with a crazy athletic, game-securing steal in another. That’s the full Russell Westbrook experience.
Tortured Poet’s Department: The Anthology also has a lot going on. At 31 songs, it’s trying to do it all, and can be chaotic at times. It has a lot of forgettable songs, alongside instant favorites like “Fortnight”. You’re not sure where it’s going, or how it’s going to get there, but that’s what makes it exciting. You sometimes want it to do less, but no you don’t. Not really.
Biography Islands
I read a lot of biographies (I’m currently about halfway through reading one on every US president in chronological order)1, so this piqued my interest. It shows (warning this gets real nerdy) how books are sorted according to two prevalent library sorting systems - Dewey Decimal and Library of Congress - on the x- and y-axes (I warned you).
But really it illustrates how we think of groupings of famous people. The bottom half of the long chain in the upper right is where you’ll find the US presidents, mixed in with some other figures from American history like Columbus and Sacagawea, below African leaders like Nelson Mandela, who are in turn below famous figures from Asia and Europe.
Athlete island (Cancun I suppose?) is the one right in the middle, featuring Muhammad Ali, Pelé, Ian Thorpe, and more.
Anyway, I’ll leave you to explore. It’s worth it for a couple minutes for a “huh”.
Uber Trips
This is actually just a basic bar chart, but it’s a good way to tell you - I got a new job! I’ll started at Uber this week, as a Strategy and Operations Manager focused on driver growth.
It will probably take up a bit more of my time than surfing has the last few months, but I will continue to publish regularly on here each week, and I hope you’ll keep following along.
French Flag
This just made me laugh.
Can’t say I’d recommend.