Re: MaxThink

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Note: This message is from the outliners.com archive kindly provided by Dave Winer.

Outliners.com Message ID: 754

Posted by jsmith
2000-09-25 06:17:31

MaxThink also works very well for lecture/speech outlines. There is a widely-accepted rule of thumb for thinking that suggests that a person’s brain can only handle 7 +/- 2 “pieces” of information before things become confused and unwieldy. The brain can store an infinite amount, but if you are presenting new information to someone, rattling it off in sequential fashion becomes unwieldy after you hit the 5th to 7th item. In lecturing to college students, I have found five to be a good stopping point where closure or subgrouping is benenficial. Thus, if you are discussing the “14 funtions” of something or other, it is much easier to handle if the 14 things can be subgrouped into 3 major areas, each of which has 5-7 items. MaxThink is wonderful for this, as it allows rearragement to several subgroups in just a few keystrokes.

For more on the “Magical Number Seven Plus or Minus Two”, refer to the work of George A. Miller (psychologist), go to ask.com and simply search for George Miller.

Jeff

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