Sketchplanations

Explaining the world one sketch at a time

Sell painkillers, not vitamins illustration: showing two stores, one for vitamins with just one customer and vague future benefits, next to a busy store selling painkillers with a queue of people seeking "relief now!"

Painkillers and vitamins

Sell painkillers, not vitamins, the classic business advice goes. The vitamin seller aims to help you stay healthy in the long run— to help you avoid future pain and trial by keeping you clear of sickness. However, the painkiller seller has some advantages. If you're experiencing pain right now, a painkiller offers immediate relief. The benefit is instant and tangible. Unlike the vague and uncertain nature of future illnesses, pain is immediate and unmistakable. Knowing if a painkiller worked is easy, as the pain will disappear. It's hard to tell if a vitamin worked. If I don't get sick, was it the vitamins, my sleep, exercise, or, well, anything else that did it? This dynamic can lead to unfortunate consequences. We may prioritise our current needs over future well-being, such as fixing a broken car when it breaks rather than maintaining it. We need help saving money for the future. We tackle the "urgent" and neglect the "important-not urgent."  We might overestimate the likelihood of making good choices in the future. In essence, it's easy to downplay future challenges compared to our current predicament. Some examples: implementing security measures vs. fixing bugs looking after your car vs. fixing your car when it breaks down doing daily exercises vs. going to the doctor when you're sick shopping and preparing food vs. ordering takeaway now making a product easier to use vs. making the product compliant preparing fruit to eat later vs. grabbing a cookie now insulating your house vs. putting the heating on now Some see business as selling candy, vitamins, and painkillers. Candy is a treat, but it's easy to live without. Vitamins promise to make life better, but you can do without them. Painkillers are must-haves as they solve an immediate, tangible need. Also see: present bias, tragedy of the commons, the dilution effect, the Shirky principle.
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There is no away illustration: A 4 panel cartoon has a child asking a parent what to do with some trash or rubbish. The Dad says just throw it away. After some confusion the child chucks it off planet earth. The final panel reads: Oh wait. There is no "away"

There is no "away"

It's a phrase I always grew up with: you throw rubbish and trash "away" and take what you don't need to "the dump" or "the tip." However, a comment in a nature documentary made me reevaluate: "You can't throw anything away. There is no 'away'." Unless we're throwing a leaf or some grass cuttings back on the lawn, it matters where what we've used ends up. It doesn't go away—it goes somewhere, and eventually, that somewhere will catch up with us. This is why I think "the garbage dump" is better as "the Recycling centre." And we should try to only buy things that we make good use of. And we should try and repair when we can and, if possible, find another home for what we no longer need rather than "dump" it. And why we try to buy recycled products to give a market for those making them. It can be hard work. It's easier and more fun to bring new, shiny things into my life than to find homes for older, less shiny things. But there is no "away." The effort will pay us back in the long run. (I don't mean to get preachy about it, it's just the comment has stuck with me from the moment I heard it) Also see: think cradle to cradle
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The upward spiral from Stephen Covey illustration: showing a spiral growing from the bottom with Learn Commit Do repeating as it rises and someone reading a map, packing their gear and heading off determinedly on a trip illustrating each step

The Upward Spiral

The upward spiral is Stephen R. Covey's simple model of personal growth and change, which repeats the three steps: Learn, Commit, and Do. Of course, we are all doing all of the time. The difference is taking the time and effort to learn from our doing, and deciding to commit to how we want to grow, and deliberately putting it into action. Getting better is in our control. Though it didn't seem like it would take any effort, I've found the commit step to be surprisingly important. Repeating each of the three steps again and again is a simple and guaranteed path to improving at anything we try. Stephen Covey discusses the upward spiral as part of sharpening the saw—renewing, refreshing and recharging ourselves to be the best we can be: "Renewal is the principle—and the process—that empowers us to move on an upward spiral of growth and change, of continuous improvement." — Dr Stephen R. Covey Also see: sharpen the saw, the express-test cycle
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Impossible staircase illustration (also Penrose staircase, impossible stairs) with some people visiting MC Escher's house and being pointed to the bathroom at the top of the never-ending stairs

Impossible staircase

The impossible staircase, also known as the Penrose stairs, is an optical illusion of never-ending stairs. Named after its inventor, the mathematician Roger Penrose, who first introduced this concept in the 1950s, the illusion uses multiple, conflicting lines of perspective to trick your eye into seeing the stairs continually rise. I imagined this is what would happen if you visited M.C. Escher's house. Escher made the staircase famous in his drawings Ascending Descending, and Waterfall, after being introduced to it by Roger Penrose, who Escher had inspired to create some impossible shapes. The mindbending Penrose steps also appear in the movie Inception. It took quite a long time to get the perspective right. Ultimately, I used the handy tutorial on drawing the Penrose staircase from the excellent Circle Line Art School. Also see: the ring-segment illusion, the frequency illusion, the moon illusion, and the Hermann Grid, necker cube, and blivet
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The Fundamental Attribution Error illustration: a driver assuming someone is rude when they swerved in front of them rather than considering that they may have been running late and it been an accident - attributing character over context

The Fundamental Attribution Error

The fundamental attribution error is the attribution of the source of behaviour to the character and personality of a person above the consideration of context. It's sometimes described as over-attributing causes to disposition over situation. In a classic example, if a driver swerves in front of you suddenly, it's easy to attribute the cause of the behaviour to the driver being a jerk, i.e. to their character. What we may not see is that the driver is late to pick up their kids, was distracted by a challenging conversation they just had at work, and they're worried they've gone the wrong way and are driving an unfamiliar car. If a colleague is late to meet us, we might infer that the person is lazy or disrespectful when, in fact, they may have been held up by a traffic accident, been on the phone with a sick relative, and have had trouble sleeping lately. If we are late for a meeting, well, then it's probably for all sorts of good reasons outside our control. Like confirmation bias, the fundamental attribution error is a big one that can easily colour our interactions with others without us being aware of it. Some ways to minimise it include: Remember that what we see is just a tiny fraction of any other person's life and that we don't see the complete picture. Minimise judgment, particularly around character and personality. Avoid jumping to conclusions. Where appropriate, ask if anything is bothering others. Build empathy for others as you would for yourself. Reflect on the positive things others do. Also see: self-serving bias, attribution bias
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RAS Syndrome illustration: Redundant Acronym Syndrome shown with a person using their PIN Number in an ATM Machine

RAS Syndrome

RAS Syndrome is Redundant Acronym Syndrome Syndrome. It's when an acronym is followed by a word that's also part of the acronym. Some examples you may come across: ATM machine - Automated Teller Machine PIN number - Personal Identification Number ISBN number - International Standard Book Number PDF format - Portable Document Format LCD display - Liquid Crystal Display HIV virus - Human Immunodeficiency Virus DC Comics - Detective Comics RSVP please - Répondez S'il Vous Plaît — Reply please MLS soccer - Major League Soccer PAT testing - Portable Appliance Testing While, in principle, the following word is redundant were we to spell out the acronym, that we tend to include it in everyday speech means it's usually serving a helpful function. Quite often, it's clarifying what you're talking about given many people won't know what the acronym actually stands for (see TLAs). By the way, ATM is technically an initialism, while PIN is an acronym. I'd guess you've probably come across RAS Syndrome, too. However, I didn't realise there was a name for it until recently, even though it was coined in New Scientist magazine back in 2001. Also see acronym or initialism, TLAs, Capitonym, pleonasm
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The Wheel of Death illustration: a pie chart of last week's support issues from large categories of login problems, and payment issues to smaller ones at the end in shades of blue. A tool to help review and prioritise issues.

The Wheel of Death

The Wheel of Death is a handy and simple tool to help prioritise issues and where to spend time fixing things. I learned it from the domain of customer service. It's used something like this: Keep track of customer issues that you encounter each week by tagging them. At the end of the week, tally up the responses and produce the Wheel of Death to see the highest volume of questions or issues taking up the team's time. Use the Wheel as part of a conversation about where the company should focus to improve the experience and save time for the team and customers. The proportion of issues is only part of the story, and other factors like how critical the issue is, how much time it takes to resolve it, and how much work it is to make it go away will all be part of the decision. I learned it from working with a talented head of customer experience as we worked on fixing support issues, though don't confine its use to that. I find "the Wheel of Death" a name that sticks with me, but it could also be called the Wheel of Fortune. If you focus on the Wheel for a spell, it's hard for things not to improve. Worth bearing in mind that in its form as a pie chart, you'll need to combine it with volume or time metrics, or it can look like you're not making progress. I revised this sketch slightly from the original
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Chickens and pigs illustration: also known as the bacon and eggs principle, shows a bacon and fried egg breakfast with an egg for the chicken's involvement and a cleaver for the pig's

Chickens and pigs

Chickens and pigs is a metaphor for who's got skin in the game. Or to leave metaphors behind, who's involved in a project vs who is fully committed. Also known as the bacon and eggs principle, it's from the old joke (sometimes told as a short story), "In a bacon and eggs breakfast, the chicken is involved, but the pig is committed." Many people may be interested in and share their opinions on a project or decision. But only some will be responsible for delivering the project and directly accountable for its success. Everyone may be interested in a bet, but only some players have money to lose. The chickens and pigs metaphor used to be part of the scrum guide for developing software but was removed. While it memorably distinguishes accountability in a project, there's a danger that it alienates or diminishes valuable input that might make a project successful. For a more conventional grouping of stakeholders in a project, see RACI
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