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Simplifying complex ideas through fun and insightful sketches. Explore topics from science, creativity, psychology, and more explained in pictures.

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Recent sketches

Short speeches

Supposedly when asked how long it took to prepare his speeches, President Woodrow Wilson said: “That depends on the length of the speech. If it is a 10-minute speech, it takes me all of two weeks to prepare it. If it is a half hour speech, it takes me a week. If I can talk as long as I want to, it requires no preparation at all. I am ready now.” It's rather like the saying: "If I had more time, I would have written a shorter letter." It's easy to think that a longer document, report, or talk would be more difficult. So it's a nice thought that it can actually be harder to do something short and well than it is do to something long. It's rather like Edward De Bono's observation that things get more complex before they get simple. If you want to make something simple, you have to do the work. QI has good articles on shorter speeches and letters.…Supposedly when asked how long it took to prepare his speeches, President Woodrow Wilson said: “That depends on the length of the speech. If it is a 10-minute speech, it takes me all of two weeks to prepare it. If it is a half hour speech, it takes me a week. If I can talk as long as I want to, it requires no preparation at all. I am ready now.” It's rather like the saying: "If I had more time, I would have written a shorter letter." It's easy to think that a longer document, report, or talk would be more difficult. So it's a nice thought that it can actually be harder to do something short and well than it is do to something long. It's rather like Edward De Bono's observation that things get more complex before they get simple. If you want to make something simple, you have to do the work. QI has good articles on shorter speeches and letters.

20 Feb 2022

Physics Envy

Physics envy refers to the wish that a field of study would turn out to be as precise, as predictable, as repeatable, and as amenable to modeling and theory that replicates practice as physics is. As it turns out, most fields that involve people — such as economics and the social sciences — are rarely so tidy and orderly and neatly mathematically modeled. They are instead usually messy, uncertain, and filled with context, nuance, history and confounding factors such that making sense of them in broadly applicable ways is rather difficult. And while we do our best to quantify and identify effects, or cleanly isolate our cognitive biases or our quirks of behavioural psychology, rarely are they able to live up to the purest standards of physics. It's enough to turn one green with envy. It reminded me of the best laid plans of our Saturday sports coaches turning for their substitutes to execute their plans, only to find the players climbing trees in the adjacent field.…Physics envy refers to the wish that a field of study would turn out to be as precise, as predictable, as repeatable, and as amenable to modeling and theory that replicates practice as physics is. As it turns out, most fields that involve people — such as economics and the social sciences — are rarely so tidy and orderly and neatly mathematically modeled. They are instead usually messy, uncertain, and filled with context, nuance, history and confounding factors such that making sense of them in broadly applicable ways is rather difficult. And while we do our best to quantify and identify effects, or cleanly isolate our cognitive biases or our quirks of behavioural psychology, rarely are they able to live up to the purest standards of physics. It's enough to turn one green with envy. It reminded me of the best laid plans of our Saturday sports coaches turning for their substitutes to execute their plans, only to find the players climbing trees in the adjacent field.

13 Feb 2022

Features are like pets

When adding features to a software product it's easy to underestimate the overall time and cost they may take up. To keep the full impact in mind it can be helpful to think of Features As Pets. When I think of Features As Pets it helps me look past the initial cost of designing and developing a feature and consider its full lifecycle. For example: you're going to want to tell your users about it you'll want to check it's being used as intended you'll need to support it and check that it works in all different places and fix it when it breaks you may need to work hard to make sure it's compatible with new features you add you may have to return to the code and refactor it to improve performance you may need to upgrade libraries and maintain security patches finally you'll have to decommission it gracefully when it's no longer needed including dealing with data you may have stored New features are probably one of the key differentiators of your offering compared to others, but it bears a little consideration before adding something — a feature is not just for Christmas. Features Are Like Pets is from the excellent Intercom on Product Management podcast (Apple, Spotify, ebook).…When adding features to a software product it's easy to underestimate the overall time and cost they may take up. To keep the full impact in mind it can be helpful to think of Features As Pets. When I think of Features As Pets it helps me look past the initial cost of designing and developing a feature and consider its full lifecycle. For example: you're going to want to tell your users about it you'll want to check it's being used as intended you'll need to support it and check that it works in all different places and fix it when it breaks you may need to work hard to make sure it's compatible with new features you add you may have to return to the code and refactor it to improve performance you may need to upgrade libraries and maintain security patches finally you'll have to decommission it gracefully when it's no longer needed including dealing with data you may have stored New features are probably one of the key differentiators of your offering compared to others, but it bears a little consideration before adding something — a feature is not just for Christmas. Features Are Like Pets is from the excellent Intercom on Product Management podcast (Apple, Spotify, ebook).

6 Feb 2022

Don't ask the barber if you need a haircut

Don't ask the barber if you need a haircut — a simple reminder that asking someone with a vested interest in the outcome isn't likely to give you an impartial answer. Except that while we might reasonably make decisions about our hair with few consequences to anyone but ourselves, when we work with professionals they may well see or hear what we don't. It might be that asking a professional to review what you're doing is exactly what you need to tell you what you didn't and couldn't think to ask. The phrase has been famously shared by Warren Buffet though it appears in several similar earlier forms.…Don't ask the barber if you need a haircut — a simple reminder that asking someone with a vested interest in the outcome isn't likely to give you an impartial answer. Except that while we might reasonably make decisions about our hair with few consequences to anyone but ourselves, when we work with professionals they may well see or hear what we don't. It might be that asking a professional to review what you're doing is exactly what you need to tell you what you didn't and couldn't think to ask. The phrase has been famously shared by Warren Buffet though it appears in several similar earlier forms.

30 Jan 2022

Sankey diagram

Sankey diagrams are handy ways to visualise material or energy flows through usage and time. They are excellent for displaying energy source and usage, for example the UK government publishes a Sankey diagram of UK energy each year (pdf). Perhaps the most famous example is Charles Joseph Minard's remarkable visual showing Napoleon's invasion of and retreat from Russia in the Winter of 1812–13. In that chilling example the thickness of the lines represent the remaining size of Napoleon's army. I learned about Sankey diagrams from Edward Tufte but perhaps people see them most commonly today in Google Analytics showing the different paths visitors take on a website before leaving.…Sankey diagrams are handy ways to visualise material or energy flows through usage and time. They are excellent for displaying energy source and usage, for example the UK government publishes a Sankey diagram of UK energy each year (pdf). Perhaps the most famous example is Charles Joseph Minard's remarkable visual showing Napoleon's invasion of and retreat from Russia in the Winter of 1812–13. In that chilling example the thickness of the lines represent the remaining size of Napoleon's army. I learned about Sankey diagrams from Edward Tufte but perhaps people see them most commonly today in Google Analytics showing the different paths visitors take on a website before leaving.

23 Jan 2022

The Rhyme As Reason Effect

The Rhyme As Reason Effect suggests that we're more likely to consider something as accurate or truthful when it rhymes. In a lovely study that asked people to consider the accuracy of both rhyming and non-rhyming aphorisms, "Woes unite foes," or "What sobriety conceals, alcohol reveals," for example, were considered more accurate than "Woes unite enemies," or "What sobriety conceals, alcohol unmasks." A classic example outside of old sayings is OJ Simpson's trial where the defense attorney memorably noted "If the gloves don't fit, you must acquit!" You can read the study in the delightfully titled paper, Birds of a feather flock conjointly: Rhyme as Reason in Aphorisms (pdf), by Matthew McGlone and Jessica Tofighbakhsh. In a related note I was always curious how "Beer before wine, you'll feel fine," tallied up with what I heard in the US: "Beer before liquor, never been sicker," or even "Grape or grain but never the twain." It turns out from a neat 2019 study that, whichever way round you rhyme them, they have no effect on your hangover despite how persuasive the Rhyme As Reason effect may be — even after a few beers.…The Rhyme As Reason Effect suggests that we're more likely to consider something as accurate or truthful when it rhymes. In a lovely study that asked people to consider the accuracy of both rhyming and non-rhyming aphorisms, "Woes unite foes," or "What sobriety conceals, alcohol reveals," for example, were considered more accurate than "Woes unite enemies," or "What sobriety conceals, alcohol unmasks." A classic example outside of old sayings is OJ Simpson's trial where the defense attorney memorably noted "If the gloves don't fit, you must acquit!" You can read the study in the delightfully titled paper, Birds of a feather flock conjointly: Rhyme as Reason in Aphorisms (pdf), by Matthew McGlone and Jessica Tofighbakhsh. In a related note I was always curious how "Beer before wine, you'll feel fine," tallied up with what I heard in the US: "Beer before liquor, never been sicker," or even "Grape or grain but never the twain." It turns out from a neat 2019 study that, whichever way round you rhyme them, they have no effect on your hangover despite how persuasive the Rhyme As Reason effect may be — even after a few beers.

16 Jan 2022

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