Notes on reading diagrams from a critical point of view. My opinion is you should consider that your brain *wants* to be led astray, so you need to keep it from tricking you.
This page needs more work before it's ready for outside review.
rationale
I think of diagrams as being related to Faults of Omission»; that is, "code not complex enough for the problem." When you abstract, you must leave things out, else the map becomes the territory. But the inevitable result is that the reader becomes:
1. Better at understanding the abstraction than she is at understanding the whole reality.
2. **Worse** at understanding those details of the reality that are omitted from the abstraction.
3. *Less likely* to think critically about what might be missing. "Out of sight, out of mind." I also posit that most people automatically place more credence in diagrams than in text or speech.
Checklists are useful for ensuring that something gets checked. They are, in a way, an abstraction in that you get worse at seeing things not on the checklist. _However_...
If the checklist helps you focus on what's omitted in the diagram, you're better off than if you had nothing to give you hints.
global checklist for readers
* Redraw the diagram yourself
* Solve a _specific_ problem.
other checklists
Reading Edges Critically is probably the most important.
examples𓍯
Critical About Kinship𓍯 has examples of easily-overlooked oversimplifications.
see also
I use funny little glyphs to hint at what a link links to.