We’ve all been there. You’re sitting in a discussion where someone is trying to explain a complex problem or concept, but they’re not doing such a good job and the audience is full of blank stares. Then someone else – or maybe the person originally explaining – grabs a marker and starts drawing a diagram on the white board. As they lay out the concept at a high level, something about the simplicity and being able to see the concept visually allows your mind to easily grab the info. Then as the person moves on to more complex parts of the concept, you can move with them knowing that the diagram remains as a fallback position. In other words, the diagram helps to “abstract away” part of the system and let you dig into another piece. For a deep-dive, read more about how diagramming helps people understand complex concepts.
People that can make complex concepts simple are genius. I have spoken to countless people who can do the reverse, and turn a simple programming idea into a jumble of non-linear, unnecessarily technical rambles. Occasionally, I meet someone who can take something that I had previously been confounded by and turn it into something attainable – even simple. Very often these people use either (1) stories (or examples) and (2) pictures and diagrams. Ok, so there are probably some others, but these are the most common.
As part of my attempt to get better at making the complex simple, I have started diagramming more often. At work, I find myself drawing out everything (and I really think it helps, even if people find it self-indulgent). A colleague of mine is fond of mind mapping, and his mindmaps have come in handy on several occasions. Recently, I found a use for some personal mind mapping and came across a great startup called bubbl.us. At this point, bubbl.us doesn’t yet allow you to save your diagrams as an image file, but they almost certainly will add this feature soon. As a bonus, bubbl.us also offers a WordPress widget.
Go diagram!
