I love taking a complex subject and distilling it into a simple, brief, elegant form. I have been inspired by the work of Richard Saul Wurman, who produced graphics for the cover of USA Today and a wonderful Guide to Understanding Money and Markets for the Wall Street Journal. I have frequently referred to the latter since it was first published. Edward Tufte is the giant of this art. An outstanding graphic designer in his own right, he has published books on the history of graphic design and its importance to health, engineering, business, as well as art. His one-day course succeeded in its stated purpose of helping me see the world very differently.

Stephen Hawking’s A Brief History of Time and Richard P. Feynman’s QED: The Strange Theory of Light and Matter as well as Carl Sagan’s Cosmos are efforts by renowned scientists to distill difficult subjects down to their inspirational essence. It is unfortunate that scientists who do this are often derided by their colleagues.