Screen Sense

Borne in 1942, Tufte has largely retired from academia. He does most of his writing in his rural Connecticut home, a light-filled house packed with art, a family of friendly retriever dogs, and an enviable collection of rare books from which Tufte draws many of the historical examples he cites in his books. In his study, Tufte's writing computer is not attached to the Internet so as to minimize distraction. Not that he isn't a heavy Web user: Some nearby Apple (AAPL) computers are linked to cyberspace. In all cases, the bigger the screen, the better: "It's all about displays," he says.