I spent 30 years thinking music was my side project. My LinkedIn data disagrees.
After losing my job at Yahoo Finance last fall, a friend told me to build things. Personal projects. Stuff that’s mine.
The idea had been sitting there for months — a visualization of my parallel lives in graphics and music. No structure, no data source, no clear path in. Just an instinct that there was something worth mapping.
Then I asked Claude how easy it would be to pull my LinkedIn connections data and do something visual with it.
Several weeks of manual tagging, D3 force simulations, scrollytelling code and midnight debugging sessions later… here’s what the data actually showed:
My music world and my job world are essentially tied. 519 music connections vs 535 job connections.
The full behind-the-scenes on how it got made — including an honest look at what AI collaboration actually looks like in practice — is in this week’s Chartwork.
Curious what patterns you’d find in your own network…
Links in bio
#dataviz #datavisualization #journalism #music #AIcollaboration
"I Feel You" — a pandemic-era title that got a second life. Producer/drummer Tommy DeVito's original drum track survived the drawer. I retracked my 12-string to lock to it, added rhythm electric and slide. Bassist Russ Alderson tracked a new bass part. The original lyric was something else entirely — this version is what the song actually needed to say.
#newmusic #singersongwriter #acousticrock #pandemicsongs #originalmusic
"Bike" (Pink Floyd cover) @bubbledavefoster on acoustic gtr/vocal, @rodhohl electric guitar/bandleader, @drsnitch on drums, Rob Jost on bass and @drewsherm on keys for the SpongeBobDylan show on 5-1-26 at @youngethels Yes we did this and SO much more (will be sharing another great one soon)! Come for the psychedelic pop on this one...stay for the avant freakout at the end
#pinkfloyd #sydbarrett #spongebobdylan #psychedelic
Tonight it’s the @fbomb_nyc tribute to @the_clash with a backing band featuring myself and @sknoof on guitars (we’ll also be singing), @aldertone on bass (also singing), @bartman310 on keys (also singing), @granderocks on bvs and @vicpullen on drums! A cavalcade of FBombers will be joining us to sing. This set of tunes maybe some of my faves too! Come early for NY Rats, The Spiky Tops and the Fear tribute…stay for us! #theclash #joestrummer #mickjones #punkrock #whiteriot
30 years. 2,236 connections. One animated network.
I mapped every person I’ve connected with on LinkedIn — colored by how I know them, animated in the order we met. Two careers running in parallel: journalism/dataviz in blue, music in purple. Watch the 2011 explosion.
Link in bio → viz.davidfostergraphics.com/linkedin-network
#dataviz #networkviz #d3js #careerstory #linkedindata
The working and middle class share of national wealth just hit a record low.
Two charts. One story. The gap between the top and everyone else has been widening for 35 years – through Democratic and Republican administrations alike – and it’s not slowing down.
Full analysis from Rick Newman at The Pinpoint Press – link in bio.
Chartwork by David Foster Graphics
#WealthInequality #DataViz #Economics #Chartwork #ProsperityGap
Monday Song Drop 🎵 "Not intertwined but so attached" — some feelings don't have a clean ending. Neither did this song, until now. Can't Let Go — out now. 🎸
Drums/percussion/production: Tommy DeVito | Bass: Russell Alderson
#MondaySongDrop #NewMusic #SingerSongwriter #OriginalSong #CantLetGo
Super fun night at @thetallpines revue show tonight with @vickiandjohnmusic ! And the hang in the lobby after was equally fun! Photographic evidence! And a bit of video of the final encore!
"I Won't Back Down" (Tom Petty cover) featuring meeself on vocal/guitar, @joemcginty7 on keys (and the entire room on bv's) from last night's AMAZING "I Want My MTV" singalong at @sidgolds ! Huge thanks to @paigesogogo and @alex_petrullo for organizing another super fun and tuneful night of crowd pleasers and to the incredible cast of Losers Lounge singers who had the whole room singing their lungs and hearts out. This happens once a month at Sid Gold's and you do NOT want to miss it! thanks for the 🎥 @tom_hall and @amandacrossmusic ! #tompetty #mtv #singalong #pianokaraoke
New York has a worst pizza problem. Except… it kind of doesn’t? 🍕
I spent the last few months turning a scraped dataset of NYC pizzeria Google ratings into a scrollytelling data viz — and the data completely flipped the premise I started with.
The city’s pizza ecosystem is overwhelmingly independent, and those independents are overwhelmingly well-reviewed. Bad pizza in NYC is genuinely hard to find. The low-rated outliers? Disproportionately chains.
The new Chartwork post is the full behind-the-scenes: how the data was built, where AI helped (and where it wasted my time), how a Flourish associate used Claude to critique a chart, and how working without a collaborator for the first time forced me to let the data do the talking.
Link in bio 👆
This project started with a conversation with @annekadet — her original gonzo investigation of NYC’s worst pizza is linked in the post and very much worth reading.
#dataviz #datavisualization #NYCpizza #NYC #infographic
Are you better off than you were one year ago?
If you own stocks…yes. If you don’t…swipe and see for yourself.
The Pinpoint Press Better-Off Index tracks jobs, real income, home affordability, and stock values – and the gap between those two lines is the whole story.
Full interactive version and Rick Newman’s analysis in bio links.
Chartwork by David Foster Graphics / The Pinpoint Press
#BetterOffIndex #Economy #DataViz #Stocks #PersonalFinance
