{"id":64,"date":"2010-09-29T22:10:30","date_gmt":"2010-09-30T06:10:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/dbrer\/?p=64"},"modified":"2010-09-29T22:10:30","modified_gmt":"2010-09-30T06:10:30","slug":"the-back-of-the-napkin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/dbrer\/2010\/09\/29\/the-back-of-the-napkin\/","title":{"rendered":"The Back of the Napkin"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Back-Napkin-Expanded-Problems-Pictures\/dp\/1591843065\/ref=sr_1_1?s=gateway&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1285741847&amp;sr=8-1\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-70 alignnone\" title=\"back_of_napkin_book\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/dbrer\/files\/2010\/09\/back_of_napkin_book.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"464\" height=\"387\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/dbrer\/files\/2010\/09\/back_of_napkin_book.jpg 464w, https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/dbrer\/files\/2010\/09\/back_of_napkin_book-300x250.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 464px) 100vw, 464px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Premise<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Problems are complex, pictures are clear. You can use a picture, or series of pictures, to help understand or solve any problem.<\/p>\n<p>Our brains can recognize patterns, and other precognitive visual attributes, in images instantaneously. This allows for a more comprehensive understanding of the data and relationships than any equally detailed written description. Since our &#8220;low level&#8221; mental capacity takes care of the basic relationships right away, our &#8220;upper level&#8221; mental capacity is reserved for &#8220;seeing&#8221; things that are not present in the picture &#8211; solutions or ideas.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Sound simple?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Don&#8217;t be fooled &#8211; it&#8217;s not. Once you start reading you&#8217;ll see it is difficult to do effectively.<\/p>\n<p>This book shows you exactly which pictures to draw, in almost every  circumstance. It goes far beyond simple bar charts, into portraits,  maps, flowcharts and multi-variable plots. And it includes the SQVID, a visual thinking exercise guaranteed to turn any problem you have on its head &#8211; 10 different ways.<\/p>\n<p>Highly recommended for anyone interested in visual thinking. To those who are not so convinced about this approach to problem solving, you&#8217;ll be satisfied to know there is a great deal of analysis you must go through before you actually start drawing. And it is designed to be read in one sitting!<\/p>\n<p>Available in the David Lam Library.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Memorable quote:<\/strong><\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Drawing our pictures is going to be harder than expected for the artistically gifted \u2026 and it&#8217;s going to be easier than expected for the &#8220;I&#8217;m not visual&#8221; crowd.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><strong>What is it helpful for? <\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Case studies, analysis, presentations, decision making.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Further reading<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Unfolding-Napkin-Hands-Problems-Pictures\/dp\/1591843197\/ref=pd_bxgy_b_img_b\" target=\"_blank\">Unfolding the Napkin<\/a> by Dan Roam<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Now-You-See-Visualization-Quantitative\/dp\/0970601980\/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1285826053&amp;sr=1-1\" target=\"_blank\">Now You See It<\/a> by Stephen Few<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/thebackofthenapkin.com\/\">TheBackoftheNapkin.com<\/a><em><br \/>\n<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Premise Problems are complex, pictures are clear. You can use a picture, or series of pictures, to help understand or solve any problem. Our brains can recognize patterns, and other precognitive visual attributes, in images instantaneously. This allows for a more comprehensive understanding of the data and relationships than any equally detailed written description. Since [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3100,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[68238],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-64","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-dee-studio"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/dbrer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/dbrer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/dbrer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/dbrer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3100"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/dbrer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=64"}],"version-history":[{"count":25,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/dbrer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":97,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/dbrer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64\/revisions\/97"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/dbrer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=64"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/dbrer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=64"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/dbrer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=64"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}