The X marks the spot: Mind Maps.

As promised, so delivered.

I should add a disclaimer beforehand, however. I am not a neurologist. The contents of what follows are my personal interpretation of a subject. Feel free to discuss the ideas, and invite me in as well! But please, do understand that I am not writing an academic essay, merely expressing my opinion and understanding of a concept.

With that out of the way, let’s take the road and talk Mind Maps.

So, what in the names of heavens is a Mind Map? Nothing like showing instead of telling.

Self Demonstrating Article.

Now, while that gives a rather decent overview, you should know by now that I won’t leave that as just that. So, let’s delve deeper and deeper, into the realms of madness and charting. Mostly charting, though. True madness will have to wait a while longer.

Getting the obvious out of the way, a map of any kind is a visual cue, a form of representation that relies heavily on images. For a Mind Map, in particular, the visual part can be just about anything. That example above is a fairly simplistic one, and that’s partly the reason I choose it for the sake of explaining.

What it represents, however, is a form of organization and, what I consider to be the most important part of the whole deal, relations between concepts.

As a general guideline, you’ll start with a root node. Then subsequently expand into branches that are in some way related to that first node. Each branch can then have branches of it’s own. Indefinitely. Each point in a larger map can even be a whole map of it’s own.

Far too simple? Perhaps. You’re just drawing trees of ideas, after all. The only rule being that you have to trace a line between each point defining how one thing is related to the other.

But at this point we now have a tool at our hands. What can we use it for? What can it do for us? Why do I regard this concept so highly? Deeper and deeper we go.

I have a definition of knowledge that ties in with the same visual idea of a mind map: Knowledge is like a tree. A leaf on the ground is nothing to the whole, any wind can sweep it away. Loose leaves are bits of information, nodes and points. Unless they are connected, they disappear. Thus, knowledge comes from relating information to other information. Making sure the leaves are securely attached to their branches, to keep the metaphor.

But there’s also the concept of decay, even if a leaf is attached, the connections can be severed and it may fall. To counteract that, in the case of information, we should make sure we have as many connections as we can possibly make.

If there are multiple paths to reach a particular point, the odds of it becoming unreachable are low. But if you only have one bridge you can cross, should that bridge become broken, you no longer have access to the other side at all.

Dragging all of this back to Mind Maps to tuck it in? Suppose you make one single monolithic map to represent all of your knowledge about all things you know. A feasible approach would be making nested maps: One gigantic main map for all the topics you know, each topic being its own map.

The more fields of knowledge you can define, the wider your primary map will be. On the same line, the better you know a particular field, the more layers you’ll have within that field’s map.

Obvious, perhaps, but I tend to value the obvious a little more than most. What can this observation help us with? Say you have a class to study for. Draw a map on the subject and look at it. Is it too shallow? Does it go endlessly but only in one linear path without ever branching and cycling?

Understanding how you see your own knowledge can help direct your focus to where it is needed most. The more intricate are the maps you can make, the better your knowledge is regarding the topics included. So, by looking at the maps you draw, you’re able to find your own blind spots, the implications and points you missed.

As for sharing, I suppose it has its use. But personally, I find that such a map is largely personal. It represents how you, as the cartographer, organize your personal knowledge on the subjects you decide to approach. To the person who made the map, the mere image of it already conveys it’s meaning. you don’t have to go spelunking to understand it: The map is a visual cue of how you already understand things.

For a secondary viewer, however, I find that it is often less practical than linear text. My reasoning being that it’s easier to follow through text than through an arbitrary map. You can pause at line three, word seven, take several minutes to make sure you absorb what was said, and then you go back to where you were. Regardless of where that same information wound up once inside your head, the source you are reading from is easily navigable.

Once you try to read a real Mind Map, the delving becomes substantially more work intensive. Not only you have to navigate in every direction, often at once, but you will inevitably stumble upon issues like not understanding how one node relates to the next. Different people make different associations, and sometimes, one doesn’t have the prior knowledge necessary to understand the leaps of another.

The reverse also happens, of course. You also stumble upon loops and cycles that will make you think why does this charter not go to X or Y?

This is the major reason I believe that the maps, in general, are personal. But they are powerful tools. I can’t emphasize this enough.

The image I used is from FreePlane Wiki. FreePlane is a free and open source computer software that can be used to draw Mind Maps. I’m afraid I can’t provide alternatives. What can I say? I’m lazy. That’s the first one I got and it got the job done without irritating me into looking for something else. Besides, it’s free. Might as well try it first and see what the fuss is all about.

But don’t let me skewer you, there’s no need to use software: Pen and paper are still deliciously amazing. And I’m sure that there are other options out there. I’m also pretty sure I’ve seen some pretty nice looking maps someone made with Microsoft Paint. You know, the thing that comes with Windows? Yup.

But, since I used content not created by myself, it’s the least I can do to give it the proper credit.

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