Comments 3
Great post!
Pictures are great for that since they can be visually memorized easier and may be used later as an entry point for details in recalling process. So colorful catchy pictures fit serious engineers’ work very well.
Counter-arguments (in Russian)
Thank you! The link agrees in what I say about catchiness of pics: "картинка ... быстрее схватывается и переводится в пространство смыслов, быстрее оценивается. И интуитивно ясно, есть за ней концепт, стоит разбираться дальше и читать поясняющий текст, или можно его пролистать и вообще закрыть книгу." So one may use it as an an anchor in mind map.
Yes, it is just an element in intellectual work, and complex cases require thinking without visual metaphors in certain aspects. Linguistic metaphors in this regard are more powerful, since one or two words may instantly create an image of a complex system in its essence, using symbolic links, while visual properties of pics may limit understanding or confuse receivers.
Maybe relation between linguistic and visual metaphors is like a relation between an idea and its implementation. Implementation always narrows an idea and infects it with unrelated noise.
Introduction to Engineering