1749 Doodle

Read an interesting article about the power of doodling. Seems it's a good thing after all. It's now being embraced as a key to corporate creativity, according to Rachel Emma Silverman in the Wall Street Journal.

And maybe too much so according to me.
Yeah yeah, it's the next big thing. Some experts are saying that sketches, cartoons, and of course, diagrams do a better job of communicating than text does.
Well, duh, that's like that saying, um, a picture is worth a thousand words. I always wondered, why didn't they paint a picture to tell me that? Because sometimes you need words too.
Truth is, our brains perceive things in many ways. And pictures, diagrams, and doodles are just some of them. But not the only ones.
Demonstrating the truth of her enthusiastic assertion, the author of the article went on to tell the story of a guy who presented a series of sketches in a board meeting instead of a PowerPoint and ended up getting the sale.
Good for him. I believe they call that storyboarding. And I believe it's been part of ad agency presentations since the dawn of charcoal and cave walls.
So yes, use sketches. And by all means doodle to sort your thoughts. Digital culture is not the only or even the best way to communicate. Actually using your fingers to do something other than press keys can really help formulate and shape ideas.
But let's not glorify one thing to the exclusion of all else. If only because one drawback is some people can't draw. You may notice the term doodle is also used to describe something that periodically doodles from a poodle.
One reason why even a picture that paints a thousand words can still stink.
America, ya gotta love it.