Mapping time, Zoom Paradox, Genius of Simplicity

Hello intersectional thinkers 👋

Greetings from Vancouver where I’m celebrating Lunar New Year with family. Happy year of the Water Tiger! A year to be courageous and prosperous 🐅

In the spirit of courage, I’m testing a new format for this newsletter:

1 unexpected intersection

1 paradox

1 visual Zettelkasten

Inspiration: James Clear’s impactful 3-2-1 Thursday.

Read on and let me know what you think!

1 unexpected intersection:

Mapping time

History is boring because it feels like “this happened, then that happened” on repeat. But many toiled away at making history visual – enter Cartographies of Time.

Discus chronologicus by German engraver Christoph Weigel (1720s) - history visualized by century

The Histomap by John Sparks (1931) - history mapped by people, their power, overtime

Carte figurative by French engineer Charles Joseph Minard (1869) - Napoleonic & Hannibalian war statistics visualized with weather

“Visualization gives you answers to questions you didn’t know you had.” – Ben Schneiderman

1 paradox

The Zoom Paradox

You cannot make eye contact on Zoom.

If you look at the person on your screen while you talk, they will see you looking somewhere else on the screen.

If you look at the camera, which others will see as you making eye contact with them, you can’t look at their actual face on the screen.

Designers - how do we fix this?

1 visual Zettelkasten

My most popular visual Zettelkasten in January:

vicky zhao 🚢 @beeamp_vicky

Visual Zettelkasten Day 9: How geniuses prosper “Most geniuses - especially those who lead others - prosper not by deconstructing intricate complexities but by exploiting unrecognized simplicities.” Keep it simple stupid. Source: Sports writer Andy Benoit #ship30for30

Connecting the seemingly unrelated words “genius” and “simplicity” seems to resonate.

What other connections do you see between the seemingly unrelated? Let me know!

Have a great week and a great year of the Water Tiger!

Vicky

P.S. Check out what the Tiger year brings for your Zodiac. Apparently, I can look forward to seeing good results in my investments :)