Well played

I like LLMs but sometimes they take you off on the deep end and you end up spending hours analysing something for very little outcome - and often with large opportunity cost. Sometimes just better to do the analysis yourself.

This history map shows the US bombing in SE Asia during the Vietnam War from 1965 to 1975. Blue dots are 1000 lb bombs or larger. Source: buff.ly/1KXSRrd

Someone has actually done this on Google 😂😂👏

I always grin when I use @anthropic.com Claude Code because it uses ANSI/ASCII art - something I myself used to make back in the early 90s as a kid when I ran a Bulletin Board System!! #dataSky, #dataBS #Claude en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ANSI_art

I thought this post by Ryan Dolley on the 'Four Big Bets Reshaping BI' is very well written and pretty much captures how AI is creating a decision point for all major business intelligence platforms. Very worth reading. #dataBS #DataSky #datafam superdatablog.substack.com/p/the-four-b...

I've been a bit lax on Bluesky recently, but it seems the data community is still here! That's good!

Are my dashboarding days numbered? I've put Claude Design through its paces on visual analytics (@anthropic) - and here's my write up of the experience . thedatavist.substack.com/p/are-my-das... #dataviz #datafam #databs #datasky

Hey @motherduck.com - can you record and publish your excellent webinars! I can't find the latest one on Dives and I really want to watch it. Unfortunately, being in Australia, it's difficult to get up at 2AM to watch them live.

I asked a Claude-powered four AI agent team to debate the future of higher education using the Socratic method. Here's how it works and why it produces sharper strategic insight than a single prompt. thedatavist.substack.com/p/kill-the-l... cc: @anthropic.com #DataSky #DataBS #AI #AIAgents

Did a deep dive on just how good Will Ashcroft is and what he might have to do to be a Top 5 midfielder in the #AFL. roar-metrics.ghost.io/will-ashcrof...

Literally every text message my dad has sent me on a smart phone has been with the SLAM effect. That’s like a decade of SLAMz

A few people are writing about semantic layers recently, and now I've joined the fray with a small piece on 'Onboarding AI: Why Semantic Layers Matter'. You can read here: thedatavist.substack.com/p/onboarding... #databs #datasky #ai #genai

📊 #dataviz #network 🕸️🕸️The first network diagram of this thingy now called the "internet". Tim Berners Lee diagram, March 1989. It shows documents described by hypertext, with hypermedia, authored by people in hierarchical groups, ...

Colour in data visualisation is not purely aesthetic - its strategic as well #databs #datasky #datafam open.substack.com/pub/thedatav...

Some words on how I’ve done reasonably well in #tableau’s Iron Viz competition and some strategies for success when you’re visualising against the clock #dataSky #datafam #dataBS

They've also got one coming out for @duckdb.org #DuckDb

Naughty by Nature back with a reboot of their 1991 hip-hop classic, but for a new ai-driven age. #AI #MCP #dataBS #dataSky #MCPYeahYouKnowMe

@drdemography.com interesting article on divorce rates on the conversation. One pet theory I’ve always had was that people were getting married older and thus had already navigated a number of failed relationships before settling down, hence less divorce.Curious to know if any credence to my theory

In SQL I trust

It's been a while since I last shared my starter pack If you're a stats/data person in or from the Pacific region (not just Australia or Aotearoa) and would like to be included, please let me know! #statssky #episky #databs #rstats #python

Melbourne, the day has finally arrived! The doors to Day 1 of DataEngBytes 2025 are now open. Get ready for a full day of everything data engineering.

Day 2 of #DataEngBytes has started strong. I’m quite enjoying @olenakutsenko.bsky.social talk about ‘Bringing Stories To Life with AU’, which is both fascinating and fun. #dataBS #datasky

Really great to be back in Melbourne for the #dataengbytes conference. Not sure how I feel about the conference venue literally being the Collingwood Magpies training facility, but at least the food is great #databs #datasky

I was fortunate to be on the @dubdubdata.bsky.social podcast (unDUBBED) recently to talk about Model Context Protocol (#MCP) and #tableau, and more widely on the topic of AI & business intelligence. Listen in or watch the 'live' demo here www.youtube.com/watch?v=N1qP... #dataBS #dataSky #AI #dataviz

#Tableau Ambassador nominations are open until July 25th, and I asked #Suno to generate a song to encourage the #datafam to get involved. So here is: #AmbassItOn ! suno.com/s/pi6v9tG8rG...

Cool to see some more folk playing with #tableau’s MCP server! Great write up by Sekou! medium.com/@sqlsekou/co... #dataBS #dataSky

It seems #tableau has released an MCP server! I did a bit of a deep dive, connecting Tableau to Claude and running a few queries. You can read about it here! thedatavist.netlify.app/posts/2025-0... #Claude #AI #MCP #DataBS #DataSky #datafam

This post from Seattle Data Guy on early data career is 100% gold. My one regret from my career was this point in particular. I missed out a lot because I was the only data guy #dataBs #datasky open.substack.com/pub/seattled...

Total Recall.

A great post from Dr Marco Motta on the pursuit of objectivity in data storytelling #dataviz #dataBS. Marco is both an expert in data viz and has a PhD in philosophy - so he has some unique perspectives that are worth engaging with www.linkedin.com/pulse/from-d...

Argh this hit hard !

This week on Counting Stuff, I had opportunity to vibe code a pdf extraction task for home, it went fine until things got really annoying. I still don't like it and am annoyed I can't write it off wholesale #dataBS www.counting-stuff.com/vibe-coding-...

Spent last few days diving into Model Context Protocol and honestly, it's got me thinking deeply about its impact on traditional business intelligence 🤔 . Keen to hear the thoughts of other AI/BI/data folks! Here's my post open.substack.com/pub/thedatav... #dataBS #dataSky #AI #MCP #dataviz

Recently have switched to using Obsidian for notes. Man, it's a beautiful application - particularly on the Mac.

Fairly damning!

A bit late to the party, but he's my game rating led match review of @brisbanelions.bsky.social v Essendon from last thursday (I've been sick!). Have a read if you're interested :) #AFL #AFLLionsBombers #footy roar-metrics.ghost.io/essendon-sca...

US politics seems completely confusing to me. The ability for the leader to just pardon folks on a whim seems completely open to abuse and undermines the integrity of the judicial system. Why is that permitted?

My newsletter is back! I discuss the rather pointless debate over which popular business intelligence tool is ‘better’, rather saying other factors usually decide which tool is adapted to by practitioners and organisations. #dataBS #datasky #tableau #powerbi substack.com/home/post/p-...

It sometimes blows my mind that many of the real-life settings in Bluey are in the park just down the road from me. #bluey

Latest bit of Roar Metrics analysis - though a bit of 'non-analysis' as I didn't watch the full Brisbane Lions game. roar-metrics.ghost.io/2025-round-1...

In Africa, 25% of the electricity is generated from low-carbon sources. Hydropower is the main source of low-carbon electricity, generating 17% of the continent’s electricity. theoutlier.co.za/charts/chart...

Player ratings for the @brisbanelions.bsky.social v the Hawks. #AFL #AFLHawksLions

🤣 #dataBs

I've been using Discord a bit for various data and analytics communities, and man, it SMASHES both Slack and Teams.

Picture of a man who has no shame in ordering bubble gum flavoured ice cream

We have a "never use yellow if you can help it" rule for our charts. We couldn't help it on this one www.economist.com/united-state...

Things that annoy me: the flagrant overuse of emojis in every single LinkedIn post nowadays.

It's crazy that the Suns are now a good team. If they'd played that game in hand at home against the Bombers, and assuming they'd won (which is not beyond the realm of possibility), they'd be #1 on the AFL ladder.