The Love Affair That My Wife Accepts
Plot Spoiler… It’s With An App
I discovered Mind Mapping in Spring 1968 (before it had its name) while studying for my final exams at University in the UK. In early Autumn of that year I met Suzanne. We were both new grad students at the University of Pennsylvania. She an artist in the School of Art and Architecture; me a business student at the Wharton School. In Spring 1970 we were married in New York and left that night for Europe and a life in London.
Suzanne has been the love of my life. Over the years we’ve shared many big highs and some lows.
3 months ago through a personal introduction I met an app. In fact I took it out for a trial ride — a bit like a first date. We got on really well. I felt that it understood me, listened to me and when I needed it, was ready to respond. It was supple and welcoming and deeply creative. And in the time we’ve had this relationship, it still surprises me with nuances.
After a while, it became clear to me that the app had a gender. It felt more feminine than masculine, which is why I now refer to it as she. We hang out together almost every day.
For a couple of weeks, I kept this new relationship secret. I would revisit it daily and take pleasure in our time together. Then I confessed to Suzanne that I was in love. With my new mind mapping app. If she felt OK about it, I would be happy to introduce her.
Now Suzanne learned years ago to tolerate the slightly weird British sense of humour. She even allows herself to listen to my occasional ‘shaggy dog stories’- long semi-humorous rambling tales which often end on an anti-climax. So I was not completely surprised that she entered into the spirit of the occasion.
‘Suzanne, this is Scapple’ I said as I unveiled my beloved app. I proceeded to show off Scapple’s virtuosity and elegance and waxed lyrically about the ways Scapple had helped me. After a few anxious moments, I could see that all was well and that Suzanne would accept Scapple as my personal friend. It was going to be OK for Scapple and I to continue to spend time together.
So you might well now be asking, what’s so great about this mind mapping app and why does it all matter anyway?
1. Why does Mind Mapping matter?
Because it is a simple yet powerful way to enhance your thinking — the same thinking that makes us different from most animals. Mind Mapping helps organise ideas, plans, decisions, projects and any thinking task. It can stimulate new ideas and insights and enable you to do powerful thinking tasks in short amounts of time. (Here’s a way of using Mind Mapping to produce new ideas.)
I’ve taught over a thousand people to mind map and have seen the difference it makes.
2. Why do you need an app?
Mind Mapping can be done using pen or pencil and paper. Indeed that would be my preferred way of teaching it and what I would recommend people do while they develop their skills. My guess is that most people still do it that way.
Mind Mapping software offers something else — the opportunity not to use paper, the ability to save and file mind maps more easily and download into different formats (eg a text document) and the means of collaborating on a single map with people in remote locations.
Since the 1990’s when Mind Mapping software first started appearing, there is now a large range to pick from. Just put the term into a Google search! I’ve used a number of them — including Mind Manager, Xmind, Mind Maple. They all worked fine and varied in look and feel, their integration options and their cost. But I was still an occasional user until I met Scapple.
3. Why I love Scapple?
I find it really easy to use and wonderfully flexible in terms of moving ideas around. You don’t have to connect ideas to add them to the page. You can put them down first and figure out where they link later. And it is not expensive to use. A life time license was £17.00.
Since I discovered Scapple I’m finding that I’m using it for most of my mind mapping. The pen/paper is still there, but less frequently called to work.
However, as you can see from the Mind Map, Scapple is not perfect!
It doesn’t allow images, or collaborating remotely (eg as Coggle does) or any flexibility in how you make the lines or branches.
However, I can live with these imperfections. In all other respects I find that it works for me. Must be the sign of true love.
Peter Redstone and his artist wife live in South Devon, UK in a converted cowshed. Their 4 children all grew up on the farm before spreading their wings. Peter was a management consultant in the 1970’s, an organic dairy farmer and ice cream maker in the 1980’s and 90’s and now delivers science leadership training. He teaches creative thinking and admits to being a mind mapping missionary.
