Bill Nee
People utilize different approaches to learn information. My wife loves to read, and she is primarily a visual learner. I am more of an auditory learner. This month’s TED Talk excels in visual understanding of global development.
Although Hans Rosling, a Swedish world-health researcher, produced the talk in 2006, it still features timeless data over decades, even centuries, to display individual nations’ social and economic changes, compared to the rest of the world.
The adage, “A picture is worth a thousand words,” means that complex ideas can be conveyed by a single, still image, which conveys its meaning or essence more effectively than a mere verbal description. In this TED presentation, Rosling shows changing characteristics through moving snapshots of time, linking data and design together in a humorous, eye-opening depiction of the world.
Rosling’s foundation fights devastating misconceptions and promotes a fact-based worldview everyone can understand. At the foundation’s website, Gapminder.org, you can view computer-generated displays of current statistics of those shown in this TED Talk and beyond.
This 20-minute TED Talk has been viewed almost 16 million times. To add to that number, go to TED.com, click “watch” in the header, then “TED Talks,” then in “Search talks” input “The best stats you’ve ever seen,” scroll a little lower, and click on the talk you selected.
Go learn more about the world you live in, through this visual blend of data and design.