🤔 INTERESTING
Information → Data
Knowledge → Connected data
Story → Selected and connected data to make meaning
This issue is brought to you by Morning Brew:
Stay curious.
Morning Brew unpacks the biggest stories in business, finance, and tech every morning.
Explained clearly. Read quickly. And a little fun too.
Try it yourself and join 4 million+ professionals reading daily.
📐 DESIGN
The bell curve (named because it looks like a literal bell) has two superpowers.
1) Show the majority (emphasize middle)
Majority of a distribution is in the middle (the normal average)
Highlights the polarized extremes are the minority
For example, the Yerkes-Dodson Law is a concept that shows how stress impacts performance.
You don’t want too little stress (boredom) or too much stress (anxiety). You want your stress levels to be in the goldilocks middle for peak performance.
2) Show the irony of expertise (emphasize edges)
My favorite example is the famous IQ bell curve meme, remixed thousands of times by creators.
The key elements for the IQ Bell Curve Meme:
Beginner on one edge and expert on the other come to the same conclusion
Middle majority overcomplicates everything (usually with a long trail of actions)
Usually this middle-bit echoes the “common advice” you might see around this topic
For example:
The bell curve is useful if you're trying to challenge common wisdom.
Draw one and ask yourself: is my insight about the middle or the edges? If you try this, snap a pic and send it my way! I can’t reply to everyone, but I read all of them 😊
By the way if you like stuff like this, Cohort 16 of Thinking in Visual Metaphors starts in late June. Sign up for the waitlist here.
🔮 ENCHANTING
Grief is nonlinear.
Last week marked the 2 year anniversary of my dad's passing and it still feels surreal.
I've been trying to reflect if I've learned any wisdom in these 2 years to offer someone navigating or anticipating loss, but grief is so different for everyone.
I guess maybe that's what I've learned.
That there's no right way to grieve.
There's no end place to arrive.
There's just a living with.
Sometimes that means stepping forward with it.
And sometimes it means standing in it.
In either case, be gentler with yourself,
because we're all doing the best we can.
Be just a little bit kinder on the hard days.
And hold the ones you love a little tighter.
🤓 WHAT I’M READING NOW
When I posted the visual on the 5 stages of Grief earlier this month, more than a couple folks recommended “Option B” by Sheryl Sandberg and Adam Grant. And as I was grabbing some “Big Nate” books on hold for my son in the library, it surfaced into my line of sight! And wow. I can’t say it’s an easy read, but it touches on things that no one ever teaches you about loss and support.
There’re so many takeaways, but one of my favorites is from psychologist Susan Silk on the “ring theory.”
Write the names of the people closest to the tragedy in the center of the circle
Draw a bigger circle around it and write the names of the people who are next most impacted
And so on in order of proximity to the crisis.
The theory goes you give help inward and seek help outward.
Rate this week's newsletter:
If you’ve come this far, here's my question for you this week:
What advice would you give someone navigating loss
you wish someone told you?
Reply and let me know. I read them all, even if I can't respond to everyone.
If you'd like to join the 27,000+ subscribers getting Visual IDEAs straight into their inbox, subscribe below:
Thanks for reading! Reply any time with feedback or questions.
I made this newsletter with beehiiv, my favorite tool for easily creating and growing a newsletter.
When you’re ready, I’ve built a course to teach Thinking in Visual Metaphors: Join the Waiting List
