Defining Awesome — 2011 — September
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  • Posts from September 2011

    September 16th 2011

    Why simple visuals will always win

    “If you please–draw me a sheep . . .”
    When a mystery is too overpowering, one dare not disobey. Absurd as it might seem to me, a thousand miles from any human habitation and in danger of death, I took out of my pocket a sheet of paper and my fountain-pen. But then I remembered how my studies had been concentrated on geography, history, arithmetic and grammar, and I told the little chap (a little crossly, too) that I did not know how to draw. He answered me:
    “That doesn’t matter. Draw me a sheep . . .”
    But I had never drawn a sheep. So I drew for him one of the two pictures I had drawn so often. It was that of the boa constrictor from the outside. And I was astounded to hear the little fellow greet it with,
    “No, no, no! I do not want an elephant inside a boa constrictor. A boa constrictor is a very dangerous creature, and an elephant is very cumbersome. Where I live, everything is very small. What I need is a sheep. Draw me a sheep.”
    So then I made a drawing.
    sickly sheepHe looked at it carefully, then he said:
    “No. This sheep is already very sickly. Make me another.”
    So I made another drawing.
    ramMy friend smiled gently and indulgently.
    “You see yourself,” he said, “that this is not a sheep. This is a ram. It has horns.”
    So then I did my drawing over once more.
    old sheepBut it was rejected too, just like the others.
    “This one is too old. I want a sheep that will live a long time.”
    By this time my patience was exhausted, because I was in a hurry to start taking my engine apart. So I tossed off this drawing.
    boxAnd I threw out an explanation with it.
    “This is only his box. The sheep you asked for is inside.”
    I was very surprised to see a light break over the face of my young judge:
    “That is exactly the way I wanted it! Do you think that this sheep will have to have a great deal of grass?”

     

    September 6th 2011

    State of the game – September 2011

    Quick recap of what has been going on in my life:

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