The Art of Insight

Chapter 3The Eternal Wanderer

with Jaime Serra

Figure 3.1: “Eccentrics”

https://www.archivosjaimeserra.com/archivos/excentricos

The word [normal] uses a power as old as Aristotle to bridge the fact/value distinction,whispering in your ear that what is normal is also right.

—Ian Hacking

Whenever I think about rules, norms, conventions, or leaders in information design and visualization—about their influence or their evolution—I return to a diagram designed by Jaime Serra titled “Excéntricos,” (“Eccentrics”). It has a static (Figure 3.1) and an animated version.

Jaime's graphic depicts how orthodoxy and heterodoxy interact in any human realm: society, culture, the arts, or the sciences. In the first step of his graphic, all individuals, represented by dots, orbit around a central black circle that corresponds to a norm or an influential thinker. Some dots are closer to the circle—those are the individuals who try to stick to the norm strictly—while others are far from it.

Some individuals, the eccentrics—the big red circles in the graphic—don't orbit around the common norm. They fly away from it. If the gravitational force of an eccentric is strong enough, it may make the orbit around the common norm bulge in its direction (Figure 3.2). Some individuals around the norm will approach the eccentric with curiosity; others will be reluctant.

Sometimes, the gravitational pull ...