Select Stats Do Not A Story Make

Here's the problem with the above GIF, and many infographics out there. They give you stats, and numbers and informational tidbits but they rarely paint the full picture. For instance, the GIF above tracks overall music sales in the U.S. but at point does it clue you into that while the pieces of the pie are changing the way they are, the actual pie they're drawing from (actual revenue from music) is shrinking too.

Nowadays we can make all kinds of pretty images or shocking posters or kee-razy "WTF?!" designs informed by "helpful statistics" but we seem to be growing ever more incapable of actually mining this stuff to see what's going on beyond surface reactions.

We're better than this.