Explaining the world one sketch at a time

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

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Altruism and ambition

The twin engines of altruism and ambition are a powerful force for positive change in the world. They need to be balanced. Ambition without altruism and change may not be positive and altruism without ambition may be nice without impact. But put the two together, for example with a mission-driven business like B-corps, and it can be a recipe for wonderful, positive, and meaningful change — and probably what we need to deal with the challenges of our times. This lovely concept is from Richard Reed, co-founder of Innocent Drinks, and I learned it from Holly Tucker's Conversations of Inspiration podcast. Also see: overnight success, building a plane on the way down…The twin engines of altruism and ambition are a powerful force for positive change in the world. They need to be balanced. Ambition without altruism and change may not be positive and altruism without ambition may be nice without impact. But put the two together, for example with a mission-driven business like B-corps, and it can be a recipe for wonderful, positive, and meaningful change — and probably what we need to deal with the challenges of our times. This lovely concept is from Richard Reed, co-founder of Innocent Drinks, and I learned it from Holly Tucker's Conversations of Inspiration podcast. Also see: overnight success, building a plane on the way down

5 Sep 2021

Bloom's Taxonomy

Bloom's taxonomy has 6 levels of increasingly sophisticated thinking skills. It was originally developed in a slightly different form to here for classifying educational objectives and with additional variations, dimensions and sub-levels in the full models, it is useful for informing teaching and learning. The hierarchy reflects, among other things, that a strong foundation for learning is knowledge. The Six Levels in Bloom's Taxonomy The 6 levels in the revised Bloom's Taxonomy for learning are: Remember Understand Apply Analyze Evaluate Create Also see: the learning pit the third teacher zone of proximal development…Bloom's taxonomy has 6 levels of increasingly sophisticated thinking skills. It was originally developed in a slightly different form to here for classifying educational objectives and with additional variations, dimensions and sub-levels in the full models, it is useful for informing teaching and learning. The hierarchy reflects, among other things, that a strong foundation for learning is knowledge. The Six Levels in Bloom's Taxonomy The 6 levels in the revised Bloom's Taxonomy for learning are: Remember Understand Apply Analyze Evaluate Create Also see: the learning pit the third teacher zone of proximal development

29 Aug 2021

BODMAS

School mathematics refresher: when faced with a calculation that looks like it could be tackled multiple ways, use BODMAS to help clear it up (See PEMDAS at the end). BODMAS is an acronym (as opposed to an initialism) that tells you the order of operations to tackle in a calculation. BODMAS stands for Brackets, Order/Indices, Division, Multiplication, Addition, and Subtraction. So in 2 + 4 x 2 you don't end up with 6 x 2 = 12 but instead, 2 + 8 = 10 BODMAS is generally built into calculators (you can search 2 + 4 x 2 in Google to see). If you need additions or subtractions to be carried out first you can surround them in brackets eg (2 + 4) x 2 I always learned it as BODMAS, but many people told me they learned this as PEMDAS. The idea is the same just the words are different, and the ordering of Division and Multiplication, which are interchangeable: PEMDAS: Parentheses, Exponents, Multiplication, Division, Addition, and Subtraction…School mathematics refresher: when faced with a calculation that looks like it could be tackled multiple ways, use BODMAS to help clear it up (See PEMDAS at the end). BODMAS is an acronym (as opposed to an initialism) that tells you the order of operations to tackle in a calculation. BODMAS stands for Brackets, Order/Indices, Division, Multiplication, Addition, and Subtraction. So in 2 + 4 x 2 you don't end up with 6 x 2 = 12 but instead, 2 + 8 = 10 BODMAS is generally built into calculators (you can search 2 + 4 x 2 in Google to see). If you need additions or subtractions to be carried out first you can surround them in brackets eg (2 + 4) x 2 I always learned it as BODMAS, but many people told me they learned this as PEMDAS. The idea is the same just the words are different, and the ordering of Division and Multiplication, which are interchangeable: PEMDAS: Parentheses, Exponents, Multiplication, Division, Addition, and Subtraction

22 Aug 2021

Prints and performances

"This negative is the score. The print is the performance." This memorable analogy is from Ansel Adams, one of the foremost American photographers. From the negative captured by the camera, Ansel would experiment with cropping, dodging and burning (lightening and darkening) to create the final print. We have a large print of moon and half dome in our hallway. It reminds me that what the camera captured directly isn't the final piece. You still have the performance to perform. The analogy works beyond photographs. A recipe, a script, a joke, or a business idea all still need the right performance.…"This negative is the score. The print is the performance." This memorable analogy is from Ansel Adams, one of the foremost American photographers. From the negative captured by the camera, Ansel would experiment with cropping, dodging and burning (lightening and darkening) to create the final print. We have a large print of moon and half dome in our hallway. It reminds me that what the camera captured directly isn't the final piece. You still have the performance to perform. The analogy works beyond photographs. A recipe, a script, a joke, or a business idea all still need the right performance.

15 Aug 2021

Gini Coefficient illustration: a scale of wealth distribution is depicted where green squares represent the wealth of an individual within a population. On the left, every individual has a green square - equal wealth distribution. In the middle, the wealth sits with only half the population. On the right, all the wealth sits with only one person - they have a shiny crown and gold chain to display that wealth!

The Gini coefficient

The Gini coefficient, or Gini index, is a common way to gauge income or wealth inequality within a population. The coefficient gives a single number showing how equal a distribution is. For example, in a population where everyone earns the same amount the Gini coefficient would be 0 — total equality — and in a population where one person earned all of the population's money, the Gini coefficient would be 1 (sometimes expressed as 100%) — maximum inequality. In practice all countries' Gini coefficients are somewhere in between, at around 0.25 to 0.5 after taxes. Like any simple measure the Gini has its difficulties, like being easily misinterpreted when compared, but is still widely used. The BBC has a short piece on its history and an alternative measure called the Palma ratio. Of course, we have some high profile zillionaires at the moment. You might like this old sketch of wealth inequality in America. Order print…The Gini coefficient, or Gini index, is a common way to gauge income or wealth inequality within a population. The coefficient gives a single number showing how equal a distribution is. For example, in a population where everyone earns the same amount the Gini coefficient would be 0 — total equality — and in a population where one person earned all of the population's money, the Gini coefficient would be 1 (sometimes expressed as 100%) — maximum inequality. In practice all countries' Gini coefficients are somewhere in between, at around 0.25 to 0.5 after taxes. Like any simple measure the Gini has its difficulties, like being easily misinterpreted when compared, but is still widely used. The BBC has a short piece on its history and an alternative measure called the Palma ratio. Of course, we have some high profile zillionaires at the moment. You might like this old sketch of wealth inequality in America. Order print

8 Aug 2021

Ablaut reduplication

For some obscure reason English speakers will almost always find a flip-flop to be more natural than a flop-flip, or a pitter patter of tiny feet to a patter pitter, or a tick tock to a tock tick. When the vowel changes in a reduplicative term — such as wishy washy or hip hop — it's known as ablaut reduplication and the vowels almost always follow the order I-A-O. If you say them in any other way they almost always sound weird. It's quite fun to think of examples. I learned this neat thing from Mark Forsyth when learning about the even more surprising English grammar convention about ordering adjectives — he was explaining why we say the Big Bad Wolf (thanks ablaut reduplication) and not the Bad Big Wolf as our other grammar convention would dictate. A possible explanation is that in making the sounds we start at the front of the mouth and move to the back and that feels slightly easier or more natural as we make the sounds. Try it!…For some obscure reason English speakers will almost always find a flip-flop to be more natural than a flop-flip, or a pitter patter of tiny feet to a patter pitter, or a tick tock to a tock tick. When the vowel changes in a reduplicative term — such as wishy washy or hip hop — it's known as ablaut reduplication and the vowels almost always follow the order I-A-O. If you say them in any other way they almost always sound weird. It's quite fun to think of examples. I learned this neat thing from Mark Forsyth when learning about the even more surprising English grammar convention about ordering adjectives — he was explaining why we say the Big Bad Wolf (thanks ablaut reduplication) and not the Bad Big Wolf as our other grammar convention would dictate. A possible explanation is that in making the sounds we start at the front of the mouth and move to the back and that feels slightly easier or more natural as we make the sounds. Try it!

1 Aug 2021

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