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Comments by Timo Elliott Subscribe 
On The Use and Abuse of Big Data
You're the one that proposed just "contemplating!" :-)
The missing conclusion: people need to be "saved from themselves", saved from giving away too much data for convenience. This is what government is for. It's just like consumer protection law or even car seat belts... Strong privacy laws are needed, Europe is much further ahead on this that the US.
On The Use and Abuse of Big Data
The Economist said many years ago "privacy is dead," remarking that the only reason we didn't yet feel the effects was because of data quality and integration problems...
On Analytics: Not About Saving Time
Completely agree. Extra speed is only really important when you cross a threshold that can change the way you do things (e.g. provide cancer analysis to a patient before they leave the appointment). I believe the only useful definition of "real time" is "fast enough to make a difference to the business"... timoelliott.com
On Brain Scans Show No Difference Between Pie Chart and Bar Chart Perception?
Stephen,
It is indeed very hard to be civil when one is attacked!
In the post, I tried to be very careful not to make any claims myself, knowing that discussions of data visualization tend towards the tendentious. Instead, I tried to summarize the format of the experiment, and then quoted the paper's results. Maybe I should indeed have stopped after the abstract:
"In this paper, we use the classic comparison of bar graphs and pie charts to test the viability of fNIRS for measuring the impact of a visual design on the brain. Our results demonstrate that we can indeed measure this impact, and furthermore measurements indicate that there are not universal differences in bar graphs and pie charts."
I further reiterate the advice I gave to readers: "I would encourage you to spend as much time understanding what’s interesting about the study as you spend trying to figure out why you can disagree with it"
Next: my attempt to "discredit you" and "undermine your credibility". You seem to be including this post as an example, which I find very strange, since I call you an expert, quote your book, and call your example "compelling" -- and there is no trace of irony.