fourworlds

“There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics.” Original author uncertain. Popularized by Mark Twain

Tom Wujec’s “Making Meaning: Why Visualizations Work” presentation knocked my socks off this afternoon. It was an exhilarating bullet-train ride through the system of neurological processes that transform sensory input into our mental models of the world. Although the concepts presented weren’t new to me, they were a wake-up call that Visual Thinking is as truth-neutral as any other communication modality.

When wielded in the pursuit of enlightenment, the process of Visual Thinking is a powerful tool to analyze, clarify and extend the mental maps that form our experience of reality. When used to persuade, VizThink is meme jujitsu that leverages our neurology to “make sense” of the ideas presented.

Our point of view is not shifted by VizThink because it opens our eyes to meaning that resides in external objective reality. No such meaning exists. Instead, it takes a string of facts and integrates them into our subconscious lexicon of meaning. In essence, it is a reality-creating device.

My enthusiasm for VizThink is not diminished by this insight, but I am setting aside a somewhat naive enthusiasm and replacing it with healthy respect.