Are we, outliners fans, just a bunch of outlined mind maniacs?

Posted by Cassius
Jun 7, 2013 at 11:32 PM

First - Outlining with pencil and paper:
I believe the real/original reason for encouraging outlining with pencil and paper was to help/encourage/pressure students to learn to think in an organized, logical manner. Of course, there probably were some teachers who didn’t realize this. I can remember that in high school, some teachers would read essays, etc. that students had written. Some were far worse than stream-of-consciousness, they indicated that the author had a totally chaotic thought process.

(There seems to be a fair bit of stream of consciousness in Taleb’s “Antifragile.” He admits as much! He also displays his erudition to the extent that the book is at least three times long as it need be.)

Second - Mind Mapping and brainstorming:
About the only diagrams I ever created for myself were Venn Diagrams, org. charts, and the layout created by Cantor for demonstrating that the cardinality (infinity value of Aleph-0) of the set of rational numbers is the same as that of the natural numbers. (I.e., the sets are of the same infinite size.)

However, I have created diagrams for others, as it seems that most people think visually when dealing with a process.

I don’t know if the way I think is the result of “nature or nurture,” no doubt both. As a young boy, my mother drilled into me, “Think for yourself, don’t just go along with the others.” As a result, I take very few things for granted and tend to look for alternatives to the “accepted.” Perhaps this is a form of internalized brainstorming. It has stood me in good stead.
Thanks Mom!!!

-c