Occult Knowledge

This is a true story:  A few weeks ago god cooked me dinner! (Please note the small “g” – I don’t wish to offend).  It was the last evening of my 39^th year, and the charter yacht was secure on a swinging mooring off the coast of Croatia.  The crew (my fiancee) and I were relaxing at the end of a breezy day of sailing when we noticed a small motor boat pulling into a jetty in the bay.  On board this fishing boat there was a crew of three, including one man – clearly in charge - with long grey hair, a long grey beard, skin brown as a berry, and wearing just silver swimming trunks.  My crew looked at me, and as if reading my mind, said: “Hey, there goes god!”

It turned out that “god” was also the proprietor (supplier, chef, sous-chef and waiting staff) of a restaurant that was hidden at the end of the bay.  (43*54’32.1”N 15*09’54.7”E)  The establishment had no signs; it did nothing at all to draw attention to itself.  You could only tell it was there because, every so often, a dinghy would motor across the bay from a yacht to the jetty, the occupants would dis-embark and disappear up a path.

I’m sure you can imagine that curiosity changed our cooking plans that evening, and my crew and I had a wonderful romantic dinner, of two barbecued sea bass of a quality and freshness for which superlative words should be reserved.

I’m also sure you now think I’m going to suggest that this guy had life sorted out – spending his days fishing in the sunshine, and his evenings selling his catch to the right end of the value chain – but I’m not.  It was later, sitting back in the cockpit under an inky black, starry sky, I had the most peculiar thought:  Some of that stuff they taught us at school was actually quite mystical!  Your probably think I’m referring to my theology classes, but I’m not:  I’m referring my chemistry classes – and in particular to the Periodic Table (notice the capital letters here). 

To me, the Periodic Table is mystical because it shows how the physical properties of elements recur as the atomic weight increases, in a regular rotating fashion. Although the fact that this happened was pointed out to  at school, none of my teachers ever seemed even faintly surprised that this was the case!

Why did this occur to me today?  I was introduced to a “Periodic Table of Visualization Methods” from Visual-literacy.org.  If 80% of executives have a visual preference to receiving information, and if a picture is worth a thousand words, then the choice of which picture you paint is extremely important.  The Periodic Table of Visualization Methods categorizes and classes 126 visualization approaches to help you choose your approach. 

While I could debate the choice of the periodic table metaphor (after all, where is the periodicity element in this table?), I have to accept that this is a clever approach; it got my attention.  Go ahead, click on the link and wave your mouse over the page to see the examples – make sure you spend a little time understanding the keys and symbolic grammar.

— Random musing by Philip Greenwood

Tags:  Periodic+Table, Visualisation, Croatia, Best+restaurant+in+the+world