Teaching, Breakdowns, True Wealth, & Insights

Most people confuse teaching with telling. But that's not what teaching is about.

šŸ¤” INTERESTING

The mediocre teacher tells.
The good teacher explains.
The superior teacher demonstrates.
The great teacher inspires.
- William Arthur Ward

This illustration about teaching sums up both my teaching philosophy and my creative philosophy.

Instead of feeding someone what to think, I want to leave space to invite them to participate in the meaning.

Iā€™m conscious that makes my work not for everyoneā€¦but I hope the people who it is for appreciate the space. šŸ˜Š

šŸ“ DESIGN

Once you understand the relationship youā€™re presenting in a metaphor, you open the door for your imagination to create substitutions with the same concept.

For example, the iceberg metaphor is considered the most commonly used visual metaphor with the following relationship:

Standard use-case for an iceberg metaphor

Once we understand the above surface vs below surface relationship, we can present it in a different context like this:

Can you think of a metaphor using this concept?
Shoot me a reply if you do. Iā€™d love to hear it!

And if you wanna learn more about how to create visual metaphors, check out my course, Thinking in Visual Metaphors.

šŸ”® ENCHANTING 

Where breakthroughs often come from.

If I look back at the biggest changes Iā€™ve made in my life, they often took root in times of darkness.

Itā€™s as if you grow more sensitive to the light, because your eyes had to adjust in the dark. Itā€™s unpleasant to be sureā€¦but itā€™s also no fun staying alone in the dark.

šŸ§  ANALOGY

There's more than one way to invest in your future.

I used to think a couple thousand bucks was crazy to pay for some online courseā€¦but then I remembered how much it cost to go to college. šŸ˜†

And investing time in leveling up your skills is one of the best ways to compound both your wealth of knowledge and your earning potential.

šŸ¤Æ Recommendation Zone

Iā€™ve just reread Seeing What Others Don't: The Remarkable Ways We Gain Insights by Gary Klein and itā€™s just chalk full of takeaways that make me feel smarter. šŸ¤“ 

My favorite is his breakdown of the 3 type of insights. He goes into some deep dives in his book, but I created this visual to simplify it down to rememberšŸ‘‡

Connection insights add additional anchors to our understanding of the world.

Contradictions insights notice an inconsistency, something is off, and it draws our attention to a weak anchor we might have.

Corrections throw away the weak anchor completely cause it doesnā€™t work and substitute it for a completely different anchor. 

I think of a visual metaphor (the kind of visuals I create) as a tool to connect, contradict or correct our anchors in reality.

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