71 lines
3.7 KiB
Org Mode
71 lines
3.7 KiB
Org Mode
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#+TITLE: Why I Love: Whiteboards
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#+DATE: <2024-01-23 Tue>
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#+DESCRIPTION: Whiteboards. They're pretty great.
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Whiteboards. They're pretty great.
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It's my New Year's resolution to be a bit more positive this time around the
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Sun, and to do that, I've been playing around with just taking a moment to
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appreciate some of the simple things I love about living on this little blue dot
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we call Earth, and the first of these things that I'd like to talk about is
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simple.
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Whiteboards. The ultimate human tool for problem solving. Big, small, but
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seemingly infinite possibilities for breaking down a problem into diagrams,
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equations, bullet points. Dramatic statement, I know! Yet, it's true.
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For me, the whiteboard is the engineer's counterpart to the mathematician's
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chalkboard, the artist's sketchbook, a writer's notebook. A whiteboard presents
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the opportunity to begin the problem solving process in a visual, communicable
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form.
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A whiteboard represents an idea that is being *actively* worked on, in a form that
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few other tools can replicate. Simple lines of red, blue, black, and green, or
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occasionally other colours if you're the fancy type that doesn't purchase the
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first 4 pack of markers you see. In an instant, ideas can be reworded, redrawn,
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reformulated, cleanly, simply, with just a wipe.
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Once an idea is fully formed, you can transcribe it into a permanent form, the
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ink on the whiteboard is inherently temporary. This is not a downside, but a
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major advantage. Until an idea is finished, completed, made into a permanent
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form, it's able to be reworked with no effort, no loss.
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But why not a chalkboard? Well, for starters, it's a lot more rare to find a
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good-quality chalkboard and chalk. There's stories of mathematicians hoarding a
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specific brand of chalk, and for good reason, as if you're not careful, you end
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up with a stick that crumbles into powder before so much as leaving a mark! Not
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the case with a whiteboard! Buy yourself a marker and some wipes, and you're off
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to the races!
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Plus, there's the benefit of often creating much clearer lines than chalk, in a
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way that's more displayable than something like a notebook or sketchpad, which
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is often more intended for the view of a single person.
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What makes whiteboards the ultimate tool, however, is how they can be used to
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collaborate. A picture tells a thousand words, even a crudely drawn one in
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temporary ink. Nothing is easier than passing the marker to the next person to
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think of something, or to change a detail with a simple wipe.
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In fact, I love whiteboards so much that I often have to find alternatives when
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one isn't available. This can range from tabletop surfaces after an exploratory
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poke and wipe to make sure the ink comes off, battle mats from tabletop RPGs,
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mirrors, and windows!
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My alternatives have even stemmed to the aluminium clad walls during my first
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"proper" job, in a food production factory, where I often stood in an alcove off
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to the side of the production floor, inscribing a spreadsheet to calculate the
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optimal onion count for each day's needs, causing my manager to stop and ask if
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I were having a stroke. I was not. I was *problem-solving*, and yes, it made me
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much faster.
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However, the poor whiteboards' name has been marred, thanks to the whiteboard
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interview, a parlor trick for prospective programmers to prance before possible
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professions. Often misused, but beyond the scope of the positivity of this
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article.
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Although, if you ask me, the only real problem with whiteboards is you never
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seem to have enough to hand. And the fact that whiteboard paint is more
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expensive than chalkboard paint, hence my bedroom chalkboard wall.
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So in short, if you want to increase your engineering team's productivity, or
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need a gift idea for that nerd in your life: get them a whiteboard.
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