MAKING MAPS
Inside The Mind Of The Map Maker
This quote caught my eye.
It fires up my frustration with education generally. I can get violent that we get told drawing is for fun and not valuable in life - utter rubbish.
HERE’S THAT QUOTE:
“Without geography—or any teaching that emphasizes spatial thinking—the focus remains on the data, and that’s a mistake. Yes, data are undeniably important but they are not holy. Data are middlemen. Even the term “data visualization” overemphasizes the role of the middleman, and mischaracterizes the objective of the activity. Nobody wants to see data - nobody learns from that. The best visualizations never celebrate the data; instead, they make us learn about worldly phenomena and forget about the data. After all, who looks at the Mona Lisa to think about the paints?” - Kirk Goldsberry
Having a visual mindset and being spatially aware is a critical skill.
It allows not only for the framing of important elements but the creation of that frame in the first place. rather like the best maps, they are able to tell the story, help people navigate, show the progress to a destination and show everyone where each other is.
With that in place - all else is calculable.
“There’s so much great stuff out there - experts generating fabulous dots. The concern now is the scarcity of people or systems who can connect them. The exponential value of integrated thinking across them.” - Vikram Mansharamani
Why did some of the major educational institutions stop teaching geography?
“In its 375 years, Harvard has only ever eliminated one entire academic program. If you had to guess, what program do you think that was and when was it killed off? The answer: Harvard eradicated its Geography Department in the 1940s, and many universities followed suit.” - Kirk Goldsberry
I’ve always been drawn to the power of structures to stimulate thinking. Such a simple idea - so overlooked by so many.
THE POWER OF MAPS
