Lost in the Clouds

27 January 2011, 1959 EST

Drew Conway discusses the evils of word clouds. He doesn’t go far enough: the meaning of speeches and texts depends on the order and proximity of words, not the frequency of their appearance.

Consider the two wordles below of famous addresses.


Wordle: Ihazdream

Wordle: Ihazbloodswettears


They’re both meaningless hash. They tell us virtually nothing of any importance about the two speeches.