Sketchplanations

Explaining one thing a week in a sketch

A little bit of slope makes up for a lot of Y-intercept illustration: on a line graph, a red line starts well below the blue line, but over time, it overtakes and surpasses the blue line because it has slightly more gradient to it.

A little bit of slope makes up for a lot of y-intercept.

— John Ousterhout

I like this simple idea that evidently illustrates that anything that is able to improve, learn, and grow at a faster rate than something else stands a decent chance of making up lost ground pretty quickly. Consider this when you’re hiring, or when you’re worried that some other person or company has got a headstart on knowledge. Position yourself always as the fastest and most persistent ‘improver’ and you’ll stand a chance whatever you’re doing.

Read the full story of Stanford Professor John Ousterhout’s thought for the weekend: a little bit of slope.

Keep exploring

Hump-Back Stations illustration: an above and below ground cross-section of an urban environment is shown, displaying the rise and fall of an underground transit tunnel as it approaches and departs a station platform - allowing gravity to play its part in slowing the train down, uphill as it comes into a station and accelerating it away, downhill on departure.
Stock, Broth, Jus illustration: a large cooking pot of water has bones thrown in to make Stock. A second pot has meat added to water to make Broth. The cooking tray used to roast a chicken is tipped up to pour out the Jus, made from pan drippings.
The XY Problem (or X-Y Problem): a child tries to reach a balloon by precariously stacking chairsand asks how they can stick them together to someone outside of the room who, eventually, wonders what for?
The phonetic alphabet helping two pilots correctly identify Y I V B D T which is easily misheard
The steeper the slope the greater the lean forward - Sketchplanations
Core components of risk - Sketchplanations
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