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Explaining the world one sketch at a time
Site URL: sketchplanations.com/
Feed URL: sketchplanations.com/rss
Posts: 11
Followers: 3
Moravec's Paradox
https://sketchplanations.com/moravecs-paradox
Published: April 19, 2026 11:00
On the capabilities of machines and peopleIn his 1988 book Mind Children, Austrian robotics researcher Hans Moravec, wrote:“…as the number of demonstrations has mounted, it has become clear that it is comparatively easy to make computers exhibit…
So Nothing Rhymes with Orange?
https://sketchplanations.com/rhyme-with-orange
Published: April 12, 2026 11:00
Maybe you, like me, heard that there are no words that rhyme with orange or chimney. From time to time, I've wondered at this. For orange, I got as far as lozenge, which I don't think is bad, but beyond that, it's not clear to me what works.In a short…
The McNamara Fallacy
https://sketchplanations.com/the-mcnamara-fallacy
Published: April 5, 2026 11:00
The McNamara Fallacy is a belief in easy-to-measure quantitative metrics at the expense of ignoring hard-to-measure qualitative factors.Robert McNamara was president of Ford Motor Company and later the Secretary of Defense for the USA during the war in…
All models are wrong, but some are useful — George Box quote
https://sketchplanations.com/all-models-are-wrong-but-some-are-useful
Published: March 29, 2026 11:00
One of my favourite statisticians’ quotes is British statistician George Box’s point that:“All models are wrong, but some are useful.”— George BoxHis point, as I understand it, is simply that any model is inherently a simplification and approximation of…
The Iceberg Model
https://sketchplanations.com/the-iceberg-model
Published: March 22, 2026 12:00
Icebergs make powerful metaphors because much of what matters is hidden.Despite knowing the maths, it’s still genuinely surprising and sometimes hard to believe that 90% of an iceberg is beneath the surface.Icebergs are, therefore, a super metaphor for…
Uitwaaien: The Dutch Word for Walking in the Wind
https://sketchplanations.com/uitwaaien
Published: March 15, 2026 12:00
Have you ever found something rather wonderful about a walk in a strong wind? You might appreciate the Dutch concept of Uitwaaien.What does “uitwaaien” mean?Uitwaaien is a Dutch word meaning to go out into the wind, often for a walk or bike ride, to clear…
Coffee: The Glorious Solution to The Coffee–Sleep Cycle
https://sketchplanations.com/coffee-the-glorious-solution
Published: March 8, 2026 12:00
The genius of coffee: it’s the solution to a problem of its own making.Too much coffee leads to poor sleep, which leads to waking up tired, which leads to craving that glorious coffee fix to make the tired go away. An ingenious self-reinforcing cycle.Few…
Pyrrhic Saving: "Saving" money by spending more
https://sketchplanations.com/pyrrhic-saving
Published: March 1, 2026 10:01
Perhaps you've heard of a Pyrrhic victory: a victory so costly that it feels almost like a defeat.The name comes from the tale of King Pyrrhus of Epirus in 279 BCE. On defeating the Romans, yet seeing the loss of so many of his best warriors, he declared,…
The Volcanic Explosivity Index (VEI): Comparing Eruptions
https://sketchplanations.com/volcanic-explosivity-index
Published: February 22, 2026 12:00
Volcanoes are big, so eruptions are big. But how big? And how would you compare one eruption with another? Well, like the Richter Scale for earthquakes, there’s a scale for eruptions. It’s called the Volcanic Explosivity Index.What Is the Volcanic…
Mathematics in Everyday Life
https://sketchplanations.com/mathematics-in-everyday-life
Published: February 15, 2026 12:00
At school, it’s easy to think that mathematics is a somewhat arcane and abstract subject and that we don’t need to learn it. But I was surprised when I thought about all the times that knowing maths helps us in our everyday lives.Examples of everyday…
When there's a gold rush, sell shovels
https://sketchplanations.com/gold-rush-sell-shovels
Published: February 8, 2026 12:00
I love this age-old wisdom. It may be about the gold rush, but I see it everywhere to this day.When everyone is trying to get rich in the sensational way, the people who reliably do well are those who sell to the people trying to get rich.In the gold rush,…