The good, the bad, and the hard to decipher

NYT usually does a good job with their infographics, but this one is an absurdity. The chart comapres mall retailers' quarterly revenue between 2008 and 2009.Using a mall visual to dress up the data adds nothing but confusion. It is hard to find the stores you want to look up (just like in the mall, but the mall designers want it that way - unlike designers of this graphic). And once you have found the store, you have to scroll all the way down and find the corresponding metric for the current year. In this case, a simple bargraph might have sufficed - the polygons and color coding add very little value.

Insurgent Strategy

Insurgents need to be socially disruptive - not play by the rules or at least not play how the game is "supposed" to be played. Do things that incumbents do not expect, and hit them where they least expect it. The insights are not jaw dropping, but the examples are fabulous coming from basketball, TE Lawrence, and war simulations - another vintage Gladwell piece: David vs Goliath.