I’m a bit hungry right now and the weather is pretty mediocre here in Michigan so I’m thinking about soup. I’m also thinking about nodes as containers so you’re going to get a mixed bag of soup and container metaphors. My apologies in advance. When it gets nice out I’m sure my […]

I’m a bit hungry right now and the weather is pretty mediocre here in Michigan so I’m thinking about soup. I’m also thinking about nodes as containers so you’re going to get a mixed bag of soup and container metaphors. My apologies in advance. When it gets nice out I’m sure my posts will have more to do with beaches and chilled beverages, but for now, you’re stuck with the rainy, cold day metaphors.

When I’m brainstorming or collaborating with people, I often times want to add extra information about a topic in the form of links, attachments, tags, and the like. Most of the time I will have several links, attachments, and tags for each topic. Very rarely do I have just one link, one attachment, and one tag for each topic. Beware, soup metaphor imminent.

If someone said you could only put one mushroom or one onion into a pot of soup, you would probably say a big fat “hell no” to that right? So then why would you want to be restricted as to how many links, tags, or attachments you could put into a node?! It’s just silly, especially when you can fit a ton of fat shrooms and other veggies into the pot to improve the taste.

I like to have creative freedom to be able to associate many things with a topic. As a guitar player, I’m very interested in the new Mesa Boogie Mark V amplifier. I build a map and share it with my friend Duane who also plays guitar. Along with the “Amp Settings” node, I want to upload a specification pdf (mmm add a quarter cup of onion), some common settings (dash of spices), several sound clips (half cup of chopped celery), and an instructional video on how to dial in certain tones (add some chicken chunks). Seems reasonable right? Yup, to me too. That’s why we view the node as a container, pot, bowl, bucket…put as much in that sucker as you want. I can taste it already.

Now some people may prefer to create a new node for each link, attachment, etc. (i.e. you just like broth! :)) That’s ok, we give you that option. But for those of us with a sophisticated palette, we have a solution for you too.

That’s it for now…soup’s on!

What are you thinking?
So, you’re new to mindmapping, eh? For those who aren’t familiar with the term, mindmapping is basically a visual way to organize your thoughts. The idea is, that when you actually SEE your ideas and how they relate to each other, the larger picture of what you’re trying to accomplish becomes much […]

What are you thinking?

So, you’re new to mindmapping, eh? For those who aren’t familiar with the term, mindmapping is basically a visual way to organize your thoughts. The idea is, that when you actually SEE your ideas and how they relate to each other, the larger picture of what you’re trying to accomplish becomes much clearer. The end result? Improved expression of ideas and better decision making, not to mention some pretty cool visual impact in most cases.

Everything, indeed…

It’s common for people to look at a tool and try to label it or categorize it as being specifically and directly suited for one specific application. However, when you consider mindmapping as a tool, this becomes a little more difficult. Each of us has a mind of our own, right? In turn, we all have thoughts. Our thoughts are not limited to just school, work, reading, travel, cooking, planning the next corporate event, etc… So, it stands to reason that every one of us has something (likely, many things) to map. And the topics and intended results are as varied as the proverbial “grains of sand on the beach” analogy.

The Ultimate Tool

Now that we’ve discussed mindmapping as a tool, let’s discuss possible tools for mindmapping. The ultimate tool would allow you not only to map out your thoughts and ideas, but would also give you the ability to research and import new concepts, as well as find answers and add them to your map. Why stop there? You should also be able to invite others to add their two cents into your analysis for more robust solutions, decision making and planning. It would also be really cool if the tool allowed you to plug into information that would otherwise require manual search, retrieval and entry.

Don’t you think?

by Duane Harlick, PMP
Business Development Manager