What inspires you about mind mapping?
Feb 26th, 2010 | By Chuck Frey | Category: Discussion
Mind mapping is a fascinating area, with many devoted fans around the world. Mind mapping software is enjoying increasing popularity as the ultimate productivity tool for overworked and over-messaged knowledge workers.
People tend to get pretty passionate about it. Several years ago, one of the major software vendors in this niche decided to ask some non-traditional survey questions of its users, to see what people’s emotional connection was with their software. They asked questions like, “How would you feel if product X was suddenly taken away from you, and you couldn’t use it any more?”
They reported that numerous people got upset at the thought of having to work without their favorite planning and brainstorming tool. This story made me smile, but it points to something deeper, a connection between this method of visual thinking and who people are – and who they want to become. In short, mind mapping inspires people. That begs the question:
What, specifically, inspires YOU about mind mapping?
What gets you excited about it?
What kind of a tangible difference has it made in your life?
Could you imagine working and creating without it?
I look forward to your thoughts and insights, which are always thought-provoking. Thanks in advance for contributing to this discussion!
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There are hundreds of ways mind maps inspire me and probably the number one reason is they find answers.
Mind Maps are extremely effective at uncovering solutions. They provide the user with an “aerial photograph” on paper or on screen which allows links and associations to be built and expanded. The challenge then is to convey solutions that can be shared and understood by others and to discover ways to effectively implement solutions.
Mindmapping can change your life in all areas – for me, two highlights are clarifying my thinking and exploring my creativity.
Not sure if “inspire” is the right word for me but I find that mind mapping removes the burden of linearity imposed by other forms of writing when I’m skulling out an unfamiliar or complex concept. Absolutely, most of the time the subconcepts are easily available at a glance (aerial view). No [pagedown] necessary.
What inspires me most about mind mapping is it’s ability to be used in lots of different applications. It’s so versatile and yet incredibly simple to do. Even if you’re only armed with pen and paper, you can produce mind maps that summarize topics, solve problems or suggest ideas.
Mind mapping doesn’t inspire me as such, but as a graphical tool it does indeed enable the user to “tap into” an inspirational state of mind.
There’s one amazing experience that continues to stir me; every time I see a new information mapper use a visual mapping format, they reach that “AHA” moment by realizing the personal Mind map can be an outward expression of the inward self.
This is the Genesis of personal knowledge management that inspires me.
The graphical thinkers of today are the thought leaders of tomorrow.
I love the way solutions unfold or evolve through the mapping process – which is why I don't like doing them on paper anymore. Software allows lots of moving about and bucketing ideas quickly.
Mindmapping at first for me was a tad difficult to adjust to, I was surprised because I am more of a visual thinker, and my mind works similar to how mindmaps are used. But once settling in what has inspired me is the quality of context and understanding that comes from layout and orchestration of a mindmap.
For the past six months I've used mindmaps to curate information, comparing it to how traditional ways of capturing information, the exciting thing is you can have that big picture view and feel confident that you can pin point at any time where something is.