short time memory and outliner software

Posted by Guido
Mar 25, 2008 at 08:30 PM

Hi Alex,

I ’ d like to add one important advantage of Mind-Maps that indeed are more than outlines : they reflect the way we think. We think in a network of pictures, feelings, sounds and information expressed in different manners. Though, a Mind-Map reflects better this network of different bits of information in our brains connected by billions of associations one to another.

That means in terms of outlining that we as human beings do have to communicate linearly, being restricted to a chronological order of presenting our ideas by speach or text. An outline is a good medium for presenting and communicating information. But it is not in terms of thinking, remembering or learning. In an outline, one has to process information in the following way : First 1., than 1.1, than 1.2, than 1.3, than 2, than 2.1 etc. etc. The brain thinks 1 and than at the same level : 1.2, than perhaps 1.1 and than 1.3 - the sequence simply doesn’t matter, what matters is the connection between 1 and its childs. It’s on the connection that a Mind-Map focusses. That’s what Buzan calls “radial thinking” and I invite everyone to make a short break and to contemplate the own thinking process.

If we would think in outlines, we would process and think of a lot of unneccessary information ( nodes in our mental outline ) in a given situation before reaching the essential point. Fortunately, we do not think in this way but jump in a few seconds to the only interesting information node.