[david_eads]

> I recently started a project that I got to write from the ground up by myself. I was happy with the processing side of things. I was very sad with the data I was getting in and putting out. There's some impedance mismatch that doesn't need to exist.

Impedance mismatch is a great way to put it. For me, if I can deal with that mismatch so that newbies/journalism colleagues don't have to, I'll do it.

> Sadly in my field matplotlib is the professional tool (hah!). The end goal is the matplotlib plots. I'd be all fine for tweaking things in a designing program and putting it up by I'd be upset with myself.

I used to work in science and have found journalism to have better solved many of these issues (at the expense, of course, of specialization and depth -- even a yearlong project isn't quite the same as decades of experience working in a single area). The solutions aren't pure or pretty -- they're more about workflow and held together with duct tape and baling wire. But the competitive pressure to deliver data that has a good user experience on deadline is very powerful and has led to some effective practices.