57 lines
3.7 KiB
Org Mode
57 lines
3.7 KiB
Org Mode
#+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 Sun, and to do that, I've been playing
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around with just taking a moment to appreciate some of the simple things I love about living on this little blue dot we
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call Earth, and the first of these things that I'd like to talk about is simple.
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Whiteboards. The ultimate human tool for problem solving. Big, small, but seemingly infinite possibilities for breaking
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down a problem into diagrams, 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 chalkboard, the artist's sketchbook, a
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writer's notebook. A whiteboard presents 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 few other tools can replicate. Simple
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lines of red, blue, black, and green, or 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, reformulated, cleanly, simply, with just
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a wipe.
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Once an idea is fully formed, you can transcribe it into a permanent form, the ink on the whiteboard is inherently
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temporary. This is not a downside, but a 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 good-quality chalkboard and chalk. There's
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stories of mathematicians hoarding a specific brand of chalk, and for good reason, as if you're not careful, you end up
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with a stick that crumbles into powder before so much as leaving a mark! Not the case with a whiteboard! Buy yourself a
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marker and some wipes, and you're off to the races!
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Plus, there's the benefit of often creating much clearer lines than chalk, in a way that's more displayable than
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something like a notebook or sketchpad, which 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 collaborate. A picture tells a thousand
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words, even a crudely drawn one in temporary ink. Nothing is easier than passing the marker to the next person to think
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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 one isn't available. This can range from
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tabletop surfaces after an exploratory 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 "proper" job, in a food production
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factory, where I often stood in an alcove off to the side of the production floor, inscribing a spreadsheet to calculate
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the optimal onion count for each day's needs, causing my manager to stop and ask if I were having a stroke. I was not. I
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was *problem-solving*, and yes, it made me much faster.
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However, the poor whiteboards' name has been marred, thanks to the whiteboard interview, a parlor trick for prospective
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programmers to prance before possible 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 seem to have enough to hand. And the fact
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that whiteboard paint is more 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 need a gift idea for that nerd in your
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life: get them a whiteboard.
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