What LLM speed looks like when generating output
LLM speed is commonly expressed as tokens per second, which is kind of… Tags: Large Language Model, speed, token
TechDesign
FlowingData.
Nathan Yau exploring how statisticians, designers, and data scientists use data to understand the world.
Recent essays
30 of 186Comparing SpaceX IPO against past offerings
For Bloomberg, Demetrios Pogkas, Jennah Haque, and Kiel Porter show the projected scale… Tags: Bloomberg, investments, IPO, SpaceX
✚ Visualization is not the goal
This week, we look past the chart and ponder its true purpose. Tags: analysis, template
Arguing for the billionaire wealth tax
For NYT Opinion, Emmanuel Saez and Gabriel Zucman make a case for a… Tags: billionaires, New York Times, taxes, wealth
Ebola outbreak trajectories
For NBC News, Jane Weaver, Jiachuan Wu, and Javier Zarracina report on the… Tags: ebola, NBC News, outbreak
Rise in remote work a factor in young worker unemployment
Higher unemployment among young workers has been commonly attributed to generative AI. In… Tags: remote, unemployment, work, young
K-Pop growth before the global phenomenon
For the Pudding, Minji Kim and Eunice Lee wrote about the growth of… Tags: Eunice Lee, K-pop, Minji Kim, Pudding
Population in Japan continues decline
Japan has been aging and having fewer children, which led to a decline… Tags: Japan, New York Times, population
U.S. names with the oldest population
Erin Davis calculated the average age of people with a given name to… Tags: age, Erin Davis, names
Names from Census data
The U.S. Census Bureau released a names dataset for first names and surnames.… Tags: Census Bureau, names
Voters shifting away from the two-party system
U.S. voters have historically stuck with two political parties, but that’s changing in… Tags: multiparty, USAFacts, voting
Selling a house with AI
Stuart A. Thompson, a New York Times technology journalist, used Google’s Gemini chatbot… Tags: chatbot, house, New York Times, sales, Stuart A. Thompson
More difficult for recent graduates to find jobs
For the Washington Post, Federica Cocco and Taylor Telford report on the increasing… Tags: unemployment, Washington Post, work
✚ Visualization tools, resources, and data, May 2026 roundup
Every month I collect tools, data, and resources to make better charts. Here's what happened in May. Tags: roundup
Sports gambling ads everywhere
For the Washington Post, Jeremy B. Merrill, Jonathan O’Connell, and Luke Connors built… Tags: advertising, gambling, Washington Post
Comparison of Trump and Putin visits to China
Trump visited China, and then Putin visited a week later. Reuters compared the… Tags: China, difference, Reuters
Magnifica Humanitas from Pope Leo
Pope Leo XIV presented his first encyclical Magnifica Humanitas, which translates to Magnificent… Tags: encyclical, humanity, Pope Leo XIV
Declining birth rates globally
Birth rates are falling nearly everywhere. For Financial Times, John Burn-Murdoch explores why… Tags: birth rate, Financial Times, John Burn-Murdoch, relationships
Daily schedule of seniors caring for seniors
An aging population means more seniors 65 years and older are taking care… Tags: age, schedule, senior, Straits Times
Inflation cherrypicking
U.S. inflation is high, and the prices of almost everything are rising fast… Tags: cherrypicking, dishonest, inflation
Stacking home prices against income
As a ratio of home prices to household income, the cost of buying… Tags: cost, house, income, New York Times
✚ Weakness of a bar chart
This week, we talk limitations of the defaultiest of defaultiest chart types. Tags: options, precision, variation
ArXiv will ban researchers for a year if generative AI not kept in check
Speaking of careless AI usage, the open-access archive for research papers, ArXiv, is… Tags: ArXiv, ban, research, slop
FiveThirtyEight scrubbed from the internet
Disney shutdown FiveThirtyEight last year, but the archive stayed online. Well, they got… Tags: ABC News, Disney, FiveThirtyEight, Nate Silver, shutdown
Book about future of truth contains generated quotes
Steven Rosenbaum wrote The Future of Truth, a book about AI and reality… Tags: New York Times, quote, Steven Rosenbaum, truth, writing
Analysis of similes in literature
For the Pudding, Russell Samora, with design and illustration by Shelly Tan, analyzed… Tags: fiction, Pudding, Russell Samora, simile, words
Atlas of Global Development
World Bank, which releases an atlas every few years, published an Atlas of… Tags: atlas, world, World Bank
History of Eurovision song themes and lyrics
The Eurovision Song Contest is in its 70th year. Every year, each country… Tags: Eurovision, Giuseppe Sollazzo, lyrics, songs
Field guide for federal data
Denice W. Ross and Christopher Steven Marcum, from the University of California at… Tags: field guide, government
More people losing money in prediction markets
For the Washington Post, Jeremy B. Merrill and Leslie Shapiro visualized users who… Tags: loss, money, Polymarket, prediction market, Washington Post