Thinking on Paper - Mindmaps and Other Techniques

Thinking on paper is using the page as extra working memory, so that relations between ideas can be seen and moved. It is not a record of what was read. The intermediate thoughts sit on the page, so the few things a head can hold at once stay free for the relations. Notes made this way show the thinking that was done. They are not a transcript of the source.

Core takeaways

• Thinking on paper means putting intermediate thoughts outside the head so working memory can stay on the relations between ideas.
• A head holds about four chunks at once. That figure is why moving the intermediate thoughts onto a page is worth doing.
• Once thoughts are on the page they can be inspected. Structure, gaps, and overload all become visible.
• The work is going well when the writing changes the thought. It is dumping when words accumulate and the decision, the structure, or the question does not move.
• Writing everything down, copying a transcript, highlighting without evaluation, and aiming for a large quantity of notes are not thinking on paper.
• Maps, analogies, and a compressed summary are all acceptable forms, and the page does not have to look neat.

What it looks like while it is being used

On a page doing this work, concepts are written down as nodes, relationships between them are drawn, dependencies are put outside the head, and a messy structure is rewritten into a cleaner one. The intermediate thoughts stay on the page so working memory, which holds only a few things at once, can stay on the relations. Memory Handling covers that window of working memory. Thinking on paper only uses it. Maps, analogies, and a compressed summary are all acceptable forms. A concept becomes clearer when it is stated, elaborated, given an example, and given an analogy where an analogy helps.

The page does not have to look neat. A first pass that is meant to come out finished often does not get started.

What thinking on paper is not

• Writing everything down.
• Capturing a perfect transcript.
• Highlighting or copying without evaluation.
• Optimising for quantity of notes.

Those four are the cheap moves that The Shortcut Problem refuses.

Inspecting the thoughts once they are outside the head

Once the thoughts are outside the head, they can be inspected. The structure becomes visible. Gaps show. Overload shows. Whether the work is connecting ideas or only collecting them can be seen instead of guessed. Inspecting the work is a control move, so this technique sits under Metacognition: The Control Layer rather than under a preference for a note style. The aim is to make thinking inspectable. The page holds more relationships than working memory can manage on its own.

Signs it is working

Vague thoughts become objects that can be moved and tested. Contradictions become visible. The next question comes from the page. The writing changes the thought instead of only recording it.

Dumping, and when to stop

Dumping is the failure. The page accumulates words, and the decision, the structure, and the question do not improve. It happens most often in a lecture that is only being captured. The hour is stored and the thought is not.

A phone-sized surface causes a different problem, the one The Screen Inferiority Effect names. The surface is too small to hold relations in a place where they can be moved. That is a fact about the surface. It is not a ban on devices.

The page has to be used, not filed. The modern count of what a head can hold at once is about four chunks. That figure is why the offload is worth the paper. It is a fact about working memory, not a finding about this technique. The signal of being stuck or overloaded, which says to offload, is covered on Cognitive Load & What Mental Effort Is Trying to Cue.

The signal to quit is the same as the diagnostic for dumping. Words accumulate, and the decision, the structure, and the question do not move. After a session, check whether a contradiction or a next question is visible on the page that was not visible in the head.

A session worked if the writing changed the thought. A session that only stored the hour did not work.

How to practice this

1. Write each concept you are working with as its own node on the page. Draw the relationships between those nodes. Notice which relations you could not hold in your head at once.
2. Put the dependencies you are tracking out of your head and onto the page. Notice whether the relations between them get easier to work on afterwards.
3. Take one concept and state it, elaborate it, and give an example. Add an analogy where an analogy helps. Notice whether the concept is clearer after those passes.
4. Rewrite a messy part of the page into a cleaner structure. Notice the gaps and the contradictions that show up while you rewrite.
5. Let the first pass be ugly and start it anyway. Notice whether waiting for a finished page had been stopping you from starting.
6. After a session, check the page for a contradiction or a next question you did not have before. If words accumulated and the decision, the structure, and the question did not move, stop.

Related pages

• Deep Processing: the parent hub: encoding that builds relations, not copies.
• Self-Regulation: the parent hub for the control layer that inspectability serves.

Open questions

When a messy thinking note should be promoted into a clean page.

Sources

• Kirsh, D. (1995). The intelligent use of space. Artificial Intelligence, 73(1–2), 31–68. Complementary strategies: the world as external memory and scaffold.
• Cowan, N. (2001). The magical number 4 in short-term memory: A reconsideration of mental storage capacity. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 24(1), 87–114. The focus of attention is about four chunks — the reason the offload is worth doing.
• Risko, E. F., & Gilbert, S. J. (2016). Cognitive offloading. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 20(9), 676–688. Review of putting intermediate products into the world so a limited focus can handle more structure.
• Tversky, B. (2011). Visualizing thought. Topics in Cognitive Science, 3(3), 499–535. Sketches change what can be noticed next; they reveal structure the sketcher did not see in the head.
• Schön, D. A. (1983). The Reflective Practitioner: How Professionals Think in Action. Basic Books. Reflection-in-action: a conversation with the marks already on the page.
• How to Think So Clearly People Assume You’re A Genius. Public video. The workbench contrast, and the unlock that the page is allowed to be ugly.
• If You Have A Bad Memory, I’ll Help You Fix It In 28 Minutes. Public video. Offload as the move when the window is full.
• How To Learn So Fast That AI Can Never Replace You. Public video. Notes as processing rather than as a transcript of the hour.