Originally published at: Chart of life expectancy in the United States
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As an example of information design this chart is a major fail.
First, including “current age” in the stacked-bar-graph itself instead of just using it as part of the X-axis creates the impression that the number of remaining years goes up with age instead of down.
Second, using “blue for men and pink for women” in this format makes it look like men have a much larger number of remaining years than women because there’s so much more blue on the graph than pink.
Third, a stacked-bar-graph is really the wrong format entirely anyway. A simpler and better solution would be a line graph showing a diminishing blue line for men and a diminishing pink line for women. Or side-by-side bars for men and women corresponding to each age. But not this.
Bad information graphic designer! No biscuit!
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Sheesh, talk about spoilers.
Personally, I have no interest in knowing how long I’ve got le
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The headline reminded me of this book I read a few years ago (when I had longer left to live, but a shorter life expectancy 
)
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Oh, good, the amount still varies with age. From how things have been going I thought maybe they would have one number for all of us now.
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If I actually knew how long I had left, I could time my retirement just right. As it is, (apart from social security) I can afford to live in retirement for about 5 years, so it would be super handy to know when I can start doing that.
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Time to schedule my mid-life crisis.
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I’d like to know the exact date. I mean, if I knew it would be June 1 2024, I’d quit my job and do something other than work for the next 6 months.
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But how far in advance would you want to know?
In the book I mentioned, they find out as kids and it effects their lives in ways I wouldn’t want.
But I guess after say 45 or 50 or so, I wouldn’t mind knowing…hard to say.
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The reminds me of the time that Homer found out that he was halfway to the average life expectancy.
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Well, I’m planning a week long trip in June, so it would be nice to know if I should ask for my deposit on the camper back now. I’d likely also not bother showing up for work the rest of the month.
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I’m midlife crisising right now 
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Before modern medicine, “life expectancy” (mean, median) was low, but that was 'cause of the prevalence of infant and child mortality. If you made it to adulthood your ongoing life expectancy was honestly pretty good if not necessarily up to modern standards.
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I think I would want a 1 day to 1 year warning. Because if it were something like “you have maybe 5 years to live” … to me, that’s vague and would cause too much anxiety for too many years.
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Well played.
Though I realize these kudos are posthumous…
RIP.
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As a person who has lived a very wonderful life …
My over 50 personal mantra -
I am closer to the end than the beginning.
with an added corollary:
Enjoy all of it … even the bumps in the road
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