Here is the archive of open visual thinkery in chronological order.
Let there be light! And there was light, and it created a really interesting shadow… The skill of noticing detail’s. Like any embedded skill, it takes a lot of practise. It’s like a teacher and a badly placed apostrophe (hee hee!) – it jumps out of the text and hits you on the head –…
Listen… aha! There’s one! But what does it look like? Why are they saying that? Just start drawing – let’s see what shapes my pen creates, and go with it… Some of my earliest visual thoughts come from keynotes at education-related conferences. I would try to zone in and capture just one thought the speaker…
Fixed mindsets. In my experience, these are easier to spot in others when you rub up against them (the mindsets that is…) but a lot more difficult to spot in your own self.
A few years ago, I completed a MOOC (massive open online course) on the Science of Everyday Thinking. I really enjoyed it. I tried to put my finger on what it was that helped me stay the distance. I liked the bite-sized nature of it. The videos were punchy and conversational. The edX platform was…
The idea of the “reading circuit” really helped me understand dyslexia a bit better. Fluency takes effort. I’ve always been a slow reader. I didn’t really ever enjoy it. Turns out it’s not the actual material, as in the last decade, I’ve listened to a grillion (not quite as much as a bijillion but more…
My wife is my signpost – for some things, anyway. She reads faster than me and tells me of books that I might like. I have but one requirement: at the end of the book, I want to be able to say “I’ve never read anything like that before”. As a result, I’ve been enjoying…
As a kid in a classroom, I didn’t question it. I took what was laid before me, in the environment in which it was given. I was taught. I found it difficult to ask questions, as it revealed a lack of knowledge or understanding. The game was one of “how much do you know?“, maintaining…
The lecture. At home, at school, and at church. I’ve had so many, but can recall very few… The group. At home, at school, and at church. Articulating something half-baked, in order to put it back in the oven and turn up the heat…
In the olden days, knowledge existed hidden away in pockets, which was fine if you knew which pocket and had the means to access it. However, one must not treat an encyclopaedia like wikipedia, for they offer two subtly different entry-points to learning: interest-led vs prescribed.
When I was at University, the word “engineer” had some odd connotations in my head. Geeky, sterile, boring. It seemed so theoretical, so mathematical. I thought that engineers became engineers by doing an engineering degree at University.
So I stare at a blank page and draw a brightly coloured cube. BUILD SOMETHING WITH ME it says, sitting there in it’s bold primary colours. TESSELLATE ME. I wonder about the light, and were the shadows might be. If the shadows were irregular, how would that feel? It feels to me like pixels on…
George Orwell was a smooth man like myself, so this is obviously what he was getting at when he uttered this utterance. Personally, I have nothing against beards, apart from not being able to grow one. So it’s a bit off when they are stylish all of a sudden in Hipster-ville. When will extra-tall be…