All Videos. Behavioural Dynamics Institute. Cognitive Media | Supercharge yourself. Think, talk and work more creatively. WHO does it? - Cognitive Media. Dave Gray » info. Dan Roam's The Back of the Napkin. Clive Thompson on the Power of Visual Thinking | Magazine. Illustration: Posttypography When I went online to shop for a laptop this summer, I faced a blizzard of choices. Was an ultralight worth the price, or would a heavier model do? Did I need a big screen, or would it make the computer a pain to lug around? As I flipped from page to page reading screenfuls of specs, the options baffled me.
So I picked up a different thinking tool: a crayon. Using one of my son’s Crayolas, I drew doodles of all the laptops and covered them with little icons depicting the pros, cons, and cost of each. When I stood back and looked at the pictures, the answer leaped out. In essence, I used “visual thinking”—drawing pictures to solve a problem. My crayon experiment was inspired by Dan Roam, a visual-thinking guru and author of The Back of the Napkin.
But dynamic, complicated problems—like global warming and economic reform—often can’t be boiled down to simple narratives. Email clive@clivethompson.net. XPLANE | Better business, designed. Pétillant® : Le site expert de la carte heuristique (Mind Mapping) The Art of Insight and Action.