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Sketchplanations @sketchplanations.bsky.social · 1d

It is not impermanence that makes us suffer.

What makes us suffer is wanting things to be permanent when they are not.

— Thich Nhat Hanh

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Sketchplanations @sketchplanations.bsky.social · 4d

In the most recent podcast episode, we had the pleasure of speaking with @grantdraws.bsky.social

We started with Apricity and quickly got into all sorts of fun words and how and why to draw them.

Have a listen.
podcast.sketchplanations.com/words-of-won...

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Sketchplanations @sketchplanations.bsky.social · 5d

1. Cats always land on their feet
2. Falling toast always lands butter side down

So what will happen if you strap buttered toast to the back of a falling cat?

Presumably, the cat righting reflex will fight against the pull of the buttered toast.

Please don't drop cats.

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Sketchplanations @sketchplanations.bsky.social · 12d

In The Clock of the Long Now, Brand describes a coniferous forest:

The needle changes within a year.
The tree crown over several years.
The patch over many decades.
The stand over a couple of centuries.
The forest over a thousand years.
The biome over ten thousand years.

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Sketchplanations @sketchplanations.bsky.social · 12d

Fast-moving layers bring novelty and experimentation, while slower layers provide stability and memory. Together, the layers support, reinforce, and challenge each other—creating robust, adaptable societies.

"Fast gets all our attention, slow has all the power." — Stewart Brand

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Sketchplanations @sketchplanations.bsky.social · 16d

From Patrick Hamilton's play Gas Light where a husband tries to convince his wife, played by Ingrid Bergman in a 1944 film adaptation, that she imagined the dimming of gas lights in their house, which was due to him searching for jewels in the floor above. It's creepy!
www.imdb.com/title/tt0036...

Gaslight (1944) ⭐ 7.8 | Crime, Drama, Mystery

1h 54m | Approved

www.imdb.com

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Sketchplanations @sketchplanations.bsky.social · 16d

Been thinking about this one a lot this year.

Gaslighting is manipulating someone psychologically such that they start to doubt their own sanity.

Lying or deceiving persistently plants seeds of self-doubt in others' minds. If it continues people can start to question their own reality.

Gaslighting illustration: an individual making a speech at their lectern tells lie after lie after lie. As the lies keep coming an audience member starts to question their own, previously firm, understanding.

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Sketchplanations @sketchplanations.bsky.social · 19d

Here's a simple illusion for you.

Our minds love taking mental shortcuts.

The psychology of what we actually do when we read is much more complex and fascinating than I first realised—as I find so often the case with things.

PS
Did you catch the repeated 'are', too?

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Sketchplanations @sketchplanations.bsky.social · 23d

Rarely have I heard someone so clearly articulate what it usually takes to do well at something and how commonly we misrepresent the path to success.

Sketching an iceberg in which about 90% of the iceberg is unseen under the surface seemed like an appropriate approach.

Sketchplanations @sketchplanations.bsky.social · 23d

Twitter co-founder Biz Stone is fond of saying:

"Timing, perseverance and ten years of trying will eventually make you seem like an overnight success."

Biz Stone quote: Timing, perseverance and 10 years of trying will eventually make you seem like an overnight success — illustrated by someone on the tip of an iceberg with a whole lot of it underwater

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Sketchplanations @sketchplanations.bsky.social · 26d

Adam Savage, Mythbusters host, shared:

"Remember kids, the only difference between screwing around and science is writing it down."

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Sketchplanations @sketchplanations.bsky.social · 26d

"I don't believe in Computer Science. To me, science is the study of the behavior of nature...You need to know how Nature works in order to make the things, and so you use science in engineering, but you're doing it for a human purpose."
— Richard Feynman

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Sketchplanations @sketchplanations.bsky.social · 26d

Bell Labs engineer Richard Hamming:

"In science if you know what you are doing you should not be doing it.
In engineering if you do not know what you are doing you should not be doing it."
— Richard Hamming

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Sketchplanations @sketchplanations.bsky.social · 26d

What makes science science and engineering engineering?

Aerospace engineer Theodore Von Kármán on Scientists and Engineers:
Scientists discover the world that exists; Engineers create the world that never was.
— Theodore Von Kármán

The difference between Science and Engineering: quote by Theodore von Kármán "Scientists discover the world that exists; Engineers create the world that never was."

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Sketchplanations @sketchplanations.bsky.social · Sep 11

How to instantly feel better?

Let's talk about it on the podcast!

sketchplanations.com/podcast or on Spotify and Apple podcasts

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Sketchplanations @sketchplanations.bsky.social · Sep 10

In practice, as Dan Pink shared in his book When: The Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing, these are, therefore, the times when we’re more likely to do something extreme like running a marathon for the first time and, sadly, also committing suicide.

Take care out there.

Sketchplanations @sketchplanations.bsky.social · Sep 10

And in the years just before the end of a decade, if we may have fallen short or feel there’s something else we want to accomplish, we’re much more likely to do it then than in any other year of a decade.

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Sketchplanations @sketchplanations.bsky.social · Sep 10

9-Enders (nine-enders)

Nine-enders are people in the last year of a decade, say, 29, 39, 49, 59. Adam Alter and Hal Hershfield, who introduced the term, propose that as we approach the end of a decade we are more likely to do a kind of "meaning audit" of our lives.

9-enders (nine-enders) explanation: people approaching their 30s, 40s and 50s, examining their lives for meaning and setting off skydiving, running marathons and climbing Everest

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Sketchplanations @sketchplanations.bsky.social · Sep 7

When a figure skater pulls into one of those incredible spins, they provide one of the clearest examples of the conservation of angular momentum.

More: sketchplanations.com/the-figure-s...

The Figure Skater's Spin and Conservation of Angular Momentum Illustrated with equations

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Sketchplanations @sketchplanations.bsky.social · Sep 4

There are natural parallels to other models like the stages of competence, Lev Vygotsky's zone of proximal development, or Carol Dweck's growth mindset.

Sketchplanations @sketchplanations.bsky.social · Sep 4

learning journey of approaching a new concept, uncovering conflicts or contradictions with your knowledge, confusion, beginning to put new ideas together and finally the clarity of a new concept mastered.

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Sketchplanations @sketchplanations.bsky.social · Sep 4

The Learning Pit

James Nottingham's metaphor of The Learning Pit illustrates the struggle before "getting it."

The Learning Pit illustration: a journey from left to right; an individual faces a learning challenge represented by a large pit they need to reach the other side of. Having fallen down into the pit, the challenge seems more difficult than first anticipated. As the picture becomes clearer they discover what they need to climb up the other side to a point where they can look back down at the pit having mastered the challenge.

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Sketchplanations @sketchplanations.bsky.social · Aug 31

Chiasmus: arranging words, phrases, or ideas in the structure A-B-B-A

The symmetry of thought of this rhetorical technique makes language more memorable, striking, and often more persuasive.

Chiasmus can involve just ideas or the exact repetition of words, called antimetabole.

What is chiasmus? Illustration showing JFK's quote "Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country" arranged as A-B-B-A symmetry of thoughts.

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Sketchplanations @sketchplanations.bsky.social · Aug 27

This sketch, along with plenty of others in the "Starry-Eyed Surprises" section, features in my book Big Ideas Little Pictures.

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Sketchplanations @sketchplanations.bsky.social · Aug 27

The Goldilocks Zone is the range around a star that’s not too hot or too cold to support liquid water. Liquid water is vital to sustaining life like we have on Earth, so fortunately for us, Earth sits in the Goldilocks Zone.

What is the Goldilocks Zone: the range that supports life and distance from a star which supports liquid water

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