Sankey Diagrams are very _pretty_ to look at - but I think they do a bad job of actually communicating anything beyond "ratio of inputs" and "ratio of outputs" - and even then for a fairly limited number of inputs and outputs. Once you have layers in the middle, they become very difficult to actually pull information from. Which is weird because the thing they are _supposed_ to show is something I think is extremely valuable - a ratio of inputs and outputs and how they are linked - along with some potentially insightful groupings in the middle... but they are so frequently abused or over-stuffed in the wild - like this: ![[Pasted image 20240825111041.png]] These don't support [[Decomposition Understanding]]. They definitely aren't saying stuff [[Decomposition Quote|with six or fewer pieces]]. I think a _good_ Sankey is possible, just not often found. It would probably be as simple as not trying to say too much. ```mermaid --- config: sankey: showValues: false --- sankey-beta Pumped heat,"Heating and cooling, ""homes""",193.026 Pumped heat,"Heating and cooling, ""commercial""",70.672 ``` Wow that is impossible to see in dark mode here in Obsidian. **** # More ## Source - Opinions. ## Related - [[Diagram Types (index)]]