Why Don’t People Sketch More?
It blows my mind that some people can admit they’ve never sketched anything out before. Sketching, in my opinion, is the basis for learning and comprehending knowledge. It’s as though people who don’t sketch are handicapping themselves without even knowing it. I understand that people learn in different ways, but learning through doing or through visualization have both been staples in the learning process for who knows how many years.
Now when I say sketch, I don’t just mean picking up a pencil and paper to drawing a portrait or landscape. Sketching can be used for anything, and by definition means:
“To make a rough drawing of”
Now whether its drawing out an idea you have in your head, or that really intense building you are staring out your window at, that’s up to you, but I’m going to continue with the idea of sketching out things for understanding.
The other day I had a coworker walk into my office and ask how our data center infrastructure worked. At first I started going on about how we have a stack of servers that are linked and they host other servers, but then I stopped because I could tell I had lost her. Complex information especially when it relates to how objects, or features, or in my case servers connect and relate to each other in a systems design environment are often times too much for someone to take in without any way to visualize how they connect.
So back to my coworker; I could see she was confused, so when I stopped I asked if she’d like me to sketch it out for her. I got an immediate yes and went up to a white board I keep hanging in my office for just this type of situation. Several minutes later, after walking her through the process as I sketched it out, she understood how it functioned and left happily. Now as you can see this wasn’t a very intricate drawing, but it also wasn’t intended to be. It served its purpose in aiding the learning process and helped me get my point across in a clear concise manner. The thing to remember is that sketches come in all shapes and sizes and can be used for any number of purposes. Use sketches to your advantage and I promise ideas and concepts will come to life not only quicker, but in a more organized and clear way.
This is just one situation of how sketching can simplify the learning process and I have countless more examples, but I’ll refrain for the sake of your sanity. How do you learn best? Do you sketch often? Write me below in the comments.
