Making invisible patterns , visible

I have long believed in equality and fairness - so any policies that  hint of discrimination and protection of privilege raises my hackles. What muddies the waters for me -in discussions about the subject - is that I often hear arguments spouting the benefits of capitalism - "survival of the fittest , handouts promote laziness " blah blah - from the mouths of people born into privileged classes and inherited wealth. The messengers  are polluting the message for me.  On the other hand -as an engineer - facts do matter to me. The  collapse of the wellbeing of peoples under "socialism" in various countries like Cuba, Venezuela , the old Soviet Union is undeniable. This has got me  re-examining the underlying assumptions and drivers of economic well being. It has raised the following questions in my mind: Does "equality of opportunity" really drive economic growth and prosperity? If not - then are the policies proposed by the Democrats and egalit

I was reading a book called 'Thinking - the latest research findings on how we really think, learn and make decisions'. The latest research provides interesting clues to why diagramming and idea / concept mapping helps you think better. Why it is better at helping you clarify your thoughts and grasping issues and concepts more quickly. Here are some important research nuggets I found in the book that are relevant to diagrams for thinking: 1. The brain likes to 'Chunk' things. It needs to break things up and group them in digestible pieces. That is why our eyes glaze over when presented with long blocks of text in a paragraph or lists that are longer than 5 -7 items long. Tree or concept-map layouts help you do that. Tree nodes provide 'grouping' hooks. So does highlighting and annotation. It is also the reason newspaper use columns. 2. The brain likes to connect and chain the 'chunks'. The brain seems to be very good at recognizing and remembe