Day two was…… tricky……
Today’s mission was to access the data on the ATUS (American Time Use Survey) and present some interesting findings. Well to start with, actually getting the data in Alteryx was the single most difficult and confusing thing I have ever done… and I’ve read War & Peace twice!!!
Once the data is in Alteryx, I’m all over it, but trying to understand the endless binary values and 10 digit variations that stand for “full time employed” or “divorced” or “spent so long trying to understand the task that he now needs to explain to his boss why the visualisation isn’t done in time” proved to be a nightmare!
So much so, that I am actually writing this blog whilst waiting for my Alteryx workflow to run (so far we are up to 1 hour 2 minutes). Fortunately I also spent some of this time planning out my dashboards and finding comparative pieces of data online, so when the workflow finishes it shouldn’t take too long to throw the end result together.
It turns out that the rate of unemployment in America has fallen quite steadily for the past decade, and the stereotype of American’s being hard working is somewhat true (they spend on average __ hours per week at work). I also suspect that they play hard too, but I will have to finish my workflow before finding that one out (I will update this blog if, and when, I get that information).
Anyway, one sore head later, I cannot help but feel that I am going to sleep like a log tonight!
Update: Its currently 9.15 pm and I have decided (albeit a little too late) to admit defeat with the Alteryx workflow. However, my most gracious colleague @Alex Fridriksson kindly let me use his data so I was able to quickly throw something together before falling asleep at my desk!
https://public.tableau.com/profile/alex.h.w.#!/vizhome/ATUS/Title