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A Return to Fun

I disappeared off the face of the earth, no notice, no goodbye. I was in the middle of weekly chronicles, a series on D3.js - and suddenly I was just…

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March 2025

The slow cartography movement and a bearded cajun grandma

What a stubborn map projection, a handcrafted org chart study, and a bearded Cajun grandma's dinner table have in common: the quiet power of going…

Mar 2, 2025 • Mattias Petter Johansson (MPJ)

February 2025

Datavis spoken word and how to build a developer AI

What if a budget meeting could be spellbinding? MPJ turns data visualization into spoken word poetry, then walks through building a developer AI.

Feb 23, 2025 • Mattias Petter Johansson (MPJ)

7 wonderful things MPJ ran across this week

From dishonest data viz to crypto private eyes and the Pirate Bay of books — seven genuinely interesting things worth your Monday morning attention.

Feb 16, 2025 • Mattias Petter Johansson (MPJ)

The Peculiar Triangle of Positivity, Negativity, and Optimism

Most self-described optimists are actually sunshine pushers. True optimism holds slim odds and still commits. Here is the triangle nobody talks about.

Feb 9, 2025 • Mattias Petter Johansson (MPJ)

Sleep, Graphs and Gut Feelings

We trust accelerometers on our wrists more than our own bodies. A case for using sleep data without letting it replace the signals you already have.

Feb 2, 2025 • Mattias Petter Johansson (MPJ)

January 2025

MPJs list of 14 best data visualization inspiration resources

MPJ rounded up 14 go-to data viz inspiration sites — The Pudding, NYT Upshot, Reuters Graphics and more — with a public GitHub repo to keep adding to…

Jan 26, 2025 • Mattias Petter Johansson (MPJ)

Data physicality, materialization and Four-Byte Burger

Why a paper habit tracker with stickers beats any app: data physicalization, tactile design, and the trap of infinite configuration.

Jan 19, 2025 • Mattias Petter Johansson (MPJ)

Dirty D3: Making 2025 about embracing mess

If you want real, interactive dataviz on the web, there is no shortcut around D3.js. Here is why, and what a messy video format has to do with it.

Jan 12, 2025 • Mattias Petter Johansson (MPJ)

December 2024

California is finally beheading the duck

The duck curve is one of the great mnemonic charts. In 2024, California batteries finally beheaded it — a story about solar, grids, and memorable plots.

Dec 22, 2024 • Mattias Petter Johansson (MPJ)

If you are born in 1983, you viscerally understand GPU Heat

Microsoft loses $20 per $10 Copilot user. OpenAI has a free tier. Anyone who built a PC in the 90s knows something here doesn't add up.

Dec 15, 2024 • Mattias Petter Johansson (MPJ)

Let darkness take you: Hygge, Superpoetry & The Causality of Unwantedness

From a Stockholm café in the dark of winter: cozy philosophy, books on rest and procrastination, and why three hours of work beats eight.

Dec 8, 2024 • Mattias Petter Johansson (MPJ)